Aug 12, 2026Culture
Niantic crowns the first #SplatYourWorld champions
Illustration: Splats Newsroom · Culture
Niantic Spatial announced the winners of its first #SplatYourWorld challenge, which asked people around the world to capture real places as gaussian splats with Scaniverse.
The big picture: A vendor-run competition with winners spanning Bolivia to Transylvania is a sign gaussian splatting has matured into a creative community and hobbyist culture — not just a research technique.
Zoom in:
- Hiroto Otsubo won the grand prize with a capture of the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, made with an Insta360 X5.
- Gabriele Romagnoli took two categories: a drone-captured Sleutel Heat Centre in Leiden (Best Industrial Environment) and the CORPUS Museum in South Holland (Best Urban Infrastructure).
- Razvan Onisca's capture of Detunata Goala in Transylvania won Best Natural Landscape.
- Submissions ran July 1–31 as .SPZ files with video walkthroughs, judged on reconstruction quality, scale and coverage, and real-world impact.
What's next: Niantic is offering 105,000 free Scaniverse processing credits as a promotion through August 31 — a fairly direct invitation to go splat something.
