Unreal Engine 5 Plugin
3DGS & 4DGS UE5 plugin — Gaussian splatting in Unreal Engine 5
Drop real-capture scenes into Unreal Engine 5 in minutes. Import .ply, .splat and compressed splat formats from Luma AI, Postshot, Polycam or Scaniverse, render millions of Gaussian splats at 60–120 fps, and play 4D dynamic captures as scrubable sequences — no meshing, no photogrammetry cleanup.
4DGS Showcase
Dynamic 4D volumetric video, played like media
Load standard PLY sequences and play 4DGS captures with full timeline control — scrub, loop and blend over 100M Gaussian splats at more than 100 FPS. No baking, no mesh conversion, no video proxies: the actual volumetric data streams at render time.
- Sequencer-driven playback — keyframe and trim like footage
- 100M+ splats at 100+ FPS, CUDA-accelerated
- Loop, ping-pong, play-rate and frame blending
Showcase clip is a captured 4D sequence rendered live in the plugin. Get the plugin to play it in your own project.
Capabilities
Built for Industry-Standard Pipelines
MLSLabsRenderer drops into the pipelines your team already ships with: standard PLY assets, UE5 Sequencer, and OpenXR VR headsets — no bespoke formats, no locked-in workflows.
High-Performance Static 3DGS
Import, parse, and render standard PLY-based 3DGS assets in real time. Achieve over 50 FPS with scenes containing more than 5 million Gaussian splats.
Dynamic 4DGS Playback
Play back dynamic 4DGS volumetric content from standard PLY sequences with timeline control and smooth rendering of 100M+ Gaussian splats at over 100 FPS.
Sequencer Integration
Fully integrated with UE5 Sequencer for keyframe animation, timeline editing, and cinematic production workflows.
VR & Stereo Rendering
Optimized for VR headsets with stereo rendering, delivering immersive 3DGS experiences with high visual fidelity and ultra-low latency.
Renderer
Millions of splats, one component
A simulated viewport: one actor component, one draw path, full editor integration. Scrub, loop and blend 4D captures with the same controls your team already knows from Sequencer.
What it does
3D Gaussian Splatting reconstructs a real location from photos or video into millions of positioned, colored Gaussian primitives — photoreal, and with no mesh to model, retopologize or texture. The plugin makes splats a first-class citizen of Unreal Engine 5: one component renders the splat cloud with GPU sorting, automatic level of detail and frustum culling, and composites it with your scene’s depth buffer, exposure and post-processing.
4D captures — dynamic scenes such as street traffic, crowds, water or a moving camera pass — arrive as splat sequences. Scrub them, loop them, change playback speed or blend between frames, driven from Blueprints or a Sequencer track. The same runtime API can stream splats from Pak files or HTTP, so live-configuration tools and evolving scenes work without a rebuild.
License & pricing optionsKey features
Built like an engine feature, not a hack
Any-capture import
Drag .ply, .splat, .ksplat and compressed splat exports from Luma AI, Postshot, Polycam, Scaniverse or Nerfstudio straight into the Content Browser — meshes, normals and LODs are generated on import.
4DGS sequence playback
Play dynamic captures like media: timeline scrubbing, loop and ping-pong modes, play-rate control and frame blending, all exposed on a Sequencer track.
Performance at scale
GPU radix sort, automatic level of detail, splat budgets and frustum culling keep 2M splats at 120 fps on desktop hardware and inside a 90 fps VR budget.
Runtime loading
Stream splat clouds from Pak files or HTTP at runtime — ideal for live-configuration tools, digital twins and scenes that evolve without a client rebuild.
Composites with your scene
Depth-testing against scene geometry, exposure and tone matching, and collision proxies so gameplay, physics and AI can interact with captured spaces.
Blueprint API
Every feature is exposed as Blueprint nodes — load, play and configure splat scenes from the editor without writing code.
Technical specifications
Engineered numbers, not marketing claims
Hardware-backed performance targets for the 3DGS/4DGS rendering pipeline, measured on reference scenes across the supported engine versions.
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Static 3DGS rendering | 50+ FPS at 5M+ Gaussian splats, LOD & frustum culling |
| Dynamic 4DGS playback | 100+ FPS at 100M+ splats, timeline-controlled |
| Rendering pipeline | Custom low-level CUDA path (non-Niagara) |
| Depth & compositing | Consistent depth alignment + pixel-level scene composition |
| Input formats | Standard PLY assets and PLY frame sequences |
| Engine support | Unreal Engine 5.3–5.6 |
| Editor integration | Sequencer tracks and Blueprint nodes |
| VR & stereo | OpenXR headset rendering, ultra-low latency |
| Platforms | Win64 (DX12/Vulkan), Linux build & CI nodes |
| Licensing | Free with watermark, watermark-free from $19.9 |
Core technology
Four technologies pushing the performance envelope
CUDA-based Gaussian rendering
A custom CUDA renderer draws tens of millions of Gaussian splats per frame, avoiding the CPU-to-GPU marshalling and per-particle overhead of simulation-based pipelines.
Consistent depth computation
CUDA and UE5 depth data are computed on the same scale and aligned, eliminating layering artifacts so splats and mesh geometry occlude each other correctly.
Seamless pixel-level composition
Accurate depth-based compositing with native UE5 scenes preserves lighting, shadows and occlusion — splats feel like part of the level, not a decal on top of it.
Native custom rendering engine
A fully native engine that bypasses Niagara's limitations: maximum rendering throughput, minimal latency, and headroom for next-generation scene sizes.
Use cases
Where captured reality wins
Virtual production
Real locations on the LED wall in minutes: scan the set, drop it into UE5, light and camera-match against a photoreal backdrop instead of a grey stand-in.
Game environments
Fill open worlds with real scanned detail — facades, interiors and hero props that would take weeks to model, with LOD budgets that keep frame time stable.
Automotive & digital twins
Factory floors, showrooms and city blocks as navigable twins; combine runtime import with live IoT data overlays for training and review.
AEC & real estate
Walk clients through as-built spaces long before completion — splats capture glass, foliage and materials that photogrammetry meshes lose.
3DGS vs. traditional pipelines
Why splats instead of meshes
| 3DGS + this plugin | Photogrammetry mesh | NeRF path tracing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capture to usable scene | Minutes | Hours of cleanup | Hours of training |
| Glass, foliage, reflections | Photoreal | Poor reconstruction | Good |
| Import into UE5 | Drag & drop | Retopo + LOD chain | Not native |
| Scene size (2M splats) | ~1.4 GB | 4–8 GB with textures | Large checkpoints |
| Desktop framerate | 120 fps | 144+ fps | Offline rendering |
| Dynamic 4D scenes | Native playback | Not supported | Slow |
Meshes still win raw render speed — splats win the capture-to-scene pipeline and fidelity on hard surfaces. Many teams ship both: meshes for gameplay, splats for captured reality.
Why not Niagara?
Custom low-level pipeline vs. Niagara-based plugins
Niagara is an excellent particle system — but it was not built for photoreal rendering of hundreds of millions of splats. Other UE5 plugins run Gaussian splatting through Niagara's particle simulation; MLSLabsRenderer replaces that layer with a native CUDA pipeline, which is why it keeps high frame rates where simulation-based approaches hit bottlenecks.
| MLSLabsRenderer | Typical Niagara-based plugin | |
|---|---|---|
| Rendering path | Custom low-level CUDA pipeline | GPU particle / Niagara system |
| 5M splats, static scene | 50+ FPS | Simulation overhead caps throughput |
| 100M splats, 4DGS | 100+ FPS playback | Not practical at this scale |
| Splat–mesh occlusion | Depth-aligned, no layering artifacts | Alpha-sorting artifacts |
| Scene compositing | Pixel-level depth composition | Draw-order / depth conflicts |
| Workflow | Native UE5 actor + Sequencer | Custom emitter setup, per-project |
If your scene fits inside Niagara's budget, a particle approach works — the moment you scale past a few million splats, the custom pipeline pulls ahead on frame time and memory.
Compatibility
Runs where your team runs
Licensing
Free with watermark, paid to export clean
Every plan includes the full 3DGS + 4DGS feature set. Upgrade to unlock watermark-free exports — monthly, quarterly or annual.
Custom plans are available for teams and enterprises on the 3DGS/4DGS plugin pricing page
FAQ
Common questions
Which Unreal Engine versions are supported?
Unreal Engine 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6. Each binary ships per engine version, and new engine minors are added within their first public release month.
Can I import captures from Luma AI, Postshot or Polycam?
Yes. The importer reads standard .ply and .splat exports plus .ksplat and compressed formats from Luma AI, Postshot, Polycam, Scaniverse and Nerfstudio.
Does it play 4DGS — dynamic, moving scenes?
Yes. 4D captures load as splat sequences with full playback control: scrub, loop, ping-pong, play-rate and frame blending, drivable from Sequencer.
Can splats load at runtime, in a shipped game?
Yes. The runtime API streams splats from Pak files or HTTP, so configuration tools, evolving worlds and user-generated content all work in packaged builds.
Does it run in VR?
Yes, through OpenXR on DX12 and Vulkan. Adaptive splat budgets hold 90 fps on a RTX 4070-class headroom with 2M splats in view.
How does it compare with photogrammetry meshes?
Meshes still win raw render speed. Splats win capture-to-scene time — minutes instead of hours of cleanup — and fidelity on glass, foliage, reflections and thin geometry that photogrammetry reconstructs badly.
Do splats interact with lighting and physics?
The renderer depth-tests against scene geometry and matches exposure and tone. Collision proxies let gameplay, physics and AI treat the captured space as a volume.
What about consoles and mobile?
Win64 and Linux build nodes ship today; console and mobile targets are on the roadmap and available to business partners first.