Blender 5.3 released with Gaussian Splat support
The gist
Blender 5.3 is out, adding native Gaussian Splat import and rendering plus Vulkan by default on Linux.
Splat-based 3D scene capture no longer needs external add-ons in the open-source tool.
How it unfolded
- Sep 18, 2026Blender 5.3 is announced to get native 3D Gaussian Splat support, letting users import splats from PLY and SPZ files, with export not yet supported.
- Sep 22, 2026Reports describe splats becoming a native scene-data type with import, Geometry Nodes access and rendering across Workbench, Eevee and Cycles, arriving via PLY, SPZ or USD.
- Nov 10, 2026Blender 5.3 is released as the newest stable release, adding native Gaussian Splatting, enabling Vulkan by default on Linux and improving rendering, animation and video editing.
Key terms
- Gaussian Splat
- A volume rendering technique that directly renders volume data as splats without converting it into surface or line primitives.
- Vulkan
- A cross-platform open-standard API for 3D graphics and parallel computing offering low-overhead, low-level GPU control.
Source: Wikipedia