3D Point Cloud and Mesh Visualizer for VS Code

View, compare and inspect point clouds, meshes, gaussian splats, depth maps and disparity images directly inside VS Code.

Highlights

• Open large point clouds quickly, including files with millions of points
• Compare multiple point clouds in one view and toggle them independently
• Convert depth and disparity images into point clouds
• Render gaussian splat reconstructions as sorted splats or center point clouds
• Inspect meshes as surfaces, wireframes, points and normals
• Use Eye-Dome Lighting and brightness correction for clearer uncolored geometry
• Measure distances and adjust camera, rotation center and view parameters
• Use the same viewer outside VS Code on the static website: https://f-kleinicke.de

Supported formats

Because .bin and .json are generic extensions, neither is opened with the 3D Visualizer by default. For KITTI BIN, use Open With... or right-click and choose Open with 3D Visualizer. For a supported JSON pose, right-click and choose Load JSON as 3D Pose.

Features

Depth and Disparity to Point Cloud

Convert depth or disparity images into point clouds directly from VS Code. Projection settings include fx, fy, cx, cy, camera distortion models, mono depth scale and bias, PNG int16 scale and disparity offset.

Eye-Dome Lighting

Use Eye-Dome Lighting to improve depth perception, especially for uncolored point clouds.

Multiple Point Clouds

Load multiple point clouds into the same view, toggle them independently and switch between them with Shift-click.

Mesh Inspection

Inspect mesh files with controls for surface, wireframe, points and normals. This is useful when checking geometry, topology or exported reconstruction results without leaving the editor.

Gaussian Splatting

Open 3D Gaussian Splatting reconstructions (3DGS PLY, SPZ, SPLAT, KSPLAT, SOG) and render them as real sorted splats via Spark, or as a point cloud of the gaussian centers with colors derived from the spherical-harmonics coefficients. Switch per file with the ✨ Splats button in the Files panel. Measurement and picking keep working on the gaussian centers in splat mode. Oversized background gaussians can be reduced with the logarithmic Max splat size control, while coloring center points by the opacity scalar field in Points mode helps with spotting floaters.

Point Cloud Attributes

Point cloud files can include positions, RGB colors, normals and scalar fields. The viewer uses positions for geometry, original RGB values when available, normals for inspection, and intensity/reflectivity fields for optional scalar coloring. The recognized property names are x/y/z, red/green/blue, nx/ny/nz and intensity/reflectivity/reflectance/remission. Any other numeric per-vertex PLY property (e.g. confidence, error, curvature) also appears in the Color dropdown for Viridis or grayscale colormap coloring. LAS/LAZ attributes such as classification, returns, scan angle and GPS time are exposed through the same scalar-field color controls. E57 containers load each scan as a separate, independently visible entry.

Distance Measurement Tools and Camera Manipulation

Build multiple measurement paths with Shift-double-click. See control settings for options.

Camera Recording

Create smooth camera paths from keyframes and export them as configurable video recordings.

Navigation

Double-click a point to change the rotation center. This allows for easy navigation using a mouse or a trackpad. You can also manually enter the camera position, rotation center and viewing angle.

Performance-Aware Rendering

The viewer shows the current frame rate. When the point cloud is not moving, no more frames are generated, which helps reduce power usage.

NPY file structure options

• As a depth image: [X,Y]
• As a point cloud: [...,3] with the three values X,Y,Z

Quick start

1. Open a supported file in VS Code.
2. Use the default custom editor, or right-click the file and choose Open with 3D Visualizer.
3. For depth and disparity images, use the conversion command for the file type and adjust the camera parameters when prompted.

The extension also adds commands for opening multiple point clouds, playing a point cloud sequence and converting depth files to point clouds.

Feature requests and issues

If you have a workflow that would benefit from new features or file formats, please open an issue on the GitHub repository. Example files are especially helpful when adding support for new formats.

Roadmap

• Add support for more file formats, including FBX
• Improve dataset support with example images from Middlebury stereo and ETH3D
• Use calibration files next to depth images automatically when available (example files needed)
• Accept 3d body pose files (example files needed)