Autodesk releases 3ds Max 2026.2 with editable Gaussian Splats
Autodesk has released 3ds Max 2027.2, the latest version of its 3D modeling and animation software for architectural visualization, motion graphics and VFX.
It’s a sizeable update, adding support for importing and manipulating – and, if you use Autodesk’s Arnold renderer, relighting and rendering – 3D Gaussian Splats.
The 3DGS system is underpinned by a new Points object type and a set of new point modifiers that can also be used for render-time instancing workflows.
New Point Object type and accompanying modifiers manipulating for Point data
Under the hood, the key structural change in 3ds Max 2027.2 is the new Points object type and the modifiers that go with it.
The object type itself just provides a way to represent point data inside 3ds Max, including Editable Points, Point Spheres and Gaussian Splats – about which, more later.
Of the accompanying modifiers, Turn to Point converts standard polygonal meshes into points, with options to generate points based on vertices, surface density, or the volume of the object.
Point Select selects specific sets of points, making it possible to perform “basic kitbashing edits” of the type shown above to point data.
For motion graphics, the existing Array modifier can now use Points as an input or output type.
New Point Instance modifier gives ‘true render-time instancing’
One practical benefit of the new Point Object system is render-time instancing.
A new Point Instance modifier references objects in a 3D scene and uses them as instances that are placed at a point on the object being modified.
The resulting scene remains much more interactive than if it used only unique objects.
Suggested use cases range from motion graphics to dressing environments with 3D vegetation, representing “hundreds, thousands, or even millions of objects” from a single mesh.
The modifier can be applied to polygonal meshes or Point objects – although not to point clouds or particle systems – and can instance both polygonal meshes and Gaussian Splats.
Import, manipulate, relight and render 3D Gaussian Splats
But on that note, the real headline change for the update is that it makes 3ds Max the latest CG application to support 3D Gaussian Splats.
Increasingly being adopted in VFX and virtual production, 3D Gaussian Splatting provides a new way to reconstruct real-world objects from source images or video and render them in 3D.
3DGS data is lighter than conventional polygonal geometry, making it an attractive way for architectural visualization and VFX studios to incorporate assets that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to render – like very large scanned environments – into 3D scenes.
The new 3DGS features in 3ds Max 2027.2 make it possible to import 3DGS data in standard PLY format, Niantic Spatial’s SPZ format, or Xgrids’ LCC format.
It can then be previewed in an ActiveShade window, manipulated using the new Point modifiers or 3ds Max’s existing modifiers, and relit and rendered in Autodesk’s Arnold renderer.
A 3D Gaussian Splat, being relit and rendered inside Arnold.
Support for 3D Gaussian Splatting in Arnold for 3ds Max
Rendering Splats in Arnold is possible because MAXtoA 5.9.3, the new version of 3ds Max’s Arnold integration plugin, supports Arnold 7.5.2.
Released earlier this year, it was a major update to the renderer, not only adding support for 3D Gaussian Splats but updates to toon shading and render denoising.
You can find more detail in our separate story on Arnold 7.5.2 itself.
Updates to Smart Bevel and USD for Maya – and a button to launch Flow Studio
Other new features in 3ds Max 2027.2 itself include performance updates to the new Smart Bevel system introduced in 3ds Max 2027.
According to Autodesk, it now processes results “up to 20x faster with 22x less memory consumption”.
USD for 3ds Max 0.16.2, the new version of 3ds Max’s USD integration plugin, adds new diagnostic features for managing asset paths.
3ds Max also gets a new connection to Flow Studio, Autodesk’s AI-powered online platform for VFX and animation, although it’s literally just a button in the UI that launches it.
Price and system requirements
3ds Max 2026.2 is compatible with Windows 10+. It is rental-only. Subscriptions cost $255/month or $2,010/year.
In many countries, artists earning under $100,000/year and working on projects valued at under $100,000/year qualify for Indie subscriptions, which now cost $330/year.
Read a full list of new features in 3ds Max 2027.2 in the online documentation
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