Demonstrations show the feature running natively on an iPad.
holy crap! apple just beat google to the punch -- 3d gaussian splatting is coming to apple maps.
these 3d scenes are made from oblique aerial imagery. but unlike blobby photogrammetry -- no more broccoli trees, no more melted powerlines -- ground level detail that actually holds up.
here's hoping google maps/earth follows suite soon -- they have a significantly larger corpus of sensor data to work with. time to splat the world!
Many users are excited about Apple's 3D Gaussian Splatting integration into Maps for hyper-realistic city renders, while others dismiss it as a gimmick or note poor coverage outside major metros.
Apple just released 3D gaussian splatting on Apple Maps 🤯
This is gonna hit the Urbanist community the way crack cocaine hit 1980s New York.
want to go deeper down the 3d capture rabbit hole? i have a whole playlist of videos you can binge: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6qSg2I-7_koa7wdoZ5fHYMv7JYUcJ6da&si=F_MocrSFgk3aZng8
includes a fresh interview with the co-creator of google earth + the president of khronos on exactly this tech
holy crap! apple just beat google to the punch -- 3d gaussian splatting is coming to apple maps.
these 3d scenes are made from oblique aerial imagery. but unlike blobby photogrammetry -- no more broccoli trees, no more melted powerlines -- ground level detail that actually holds up.
here's hoping google maps/earth follows suite soon -- they have a significantly larger corpus of sensor data to work with. time to splat the world!
@PooyaDesigner i actually just made a video on this https://youtu.be/F-S-x0b9TrE
@YIMBYLAND Apple Maps is indisputably better than Google Maps and has been for some time
Apple Beat Google to It! Hyper-Realistic Maps at WWDC 2026 — Gaussian Splats & the ongoing 3D maps land grab to own the substrate that connects the physical and digital world. Hopping on with @RadianceFields to discuss.
https://x.com/i/spaces/1aKbddeQlPjJX
@bilawalsidhu Craig took it personally this time and actually cooked.
@bilawalsidhu how do i use this
Come yap about it in our live space with a bunch of 3d gaussian splatting and 3d mapping nerds
https://x.com/i/spaces/1aKbddeQlPjJX
@YIMBYLAND Oh nooo I’m about to lose a lot of time to that I fear
@bilawalsidhu @grok Wat is gaussing splatting?
@bilawalsidhu my favourite takeaway from the entire event
@gregspero gotchu fam: https://youtu.be/ctraRclNiZA?si=kixVtOyd8akmzkpw
@bilawalsidhu Google’s engineers reading this after all 1,000,000,000s top-tier products they shipped in like few months:
@nielssimons @grok gotchu fam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQcrZHvrEnU
@bilawalsidhu Can someone point out a few use cases that make it necessary to have this feature?
Wow. These tools are all coming a long way. I just watched your linked video below. I have a Leica blk2go laser scanner I use for laser scanning jobs and importing to Autocad for drafting. It’s 3-4 years old. I wonder if these cheaper newer alternatives are better for my needs as the tech has matured??
@bilawalsidhu Bilawal, I’d like to meet you one day. What conferences, meetups are you at? I have a case to make to you: GEO500. I’ve done all the research. Now I need critiques.
@YIMBYLAND Your equivalency is so disgusting.
@bilawalsidhu I was involved in the flyover project during the big Apple Maps redesign of 2019. We had to fix a lot of issues with how the models would be generated with the flyover data… This project sounds awesome!
@JAYCTII @YIMBYLAND better design but google navigation is better
Demonstrations show the feature running natively on an iPad.
holy crap! apple just beat google to the punch -- 3d gaussian splatting is coming to apple maps.
these 3d scenes are made from oblique aerial imagery. but unlike blobby photogrammetry -- no more broccoli trees, no more melted powerlines -- ground level detail that actually holds up.
here's hoping google maps/earth follows suite soon -- they have a significantly larger corpus of sensor data to work with. time to splat the world!
