Meta Quest 3 users will now be able to explore detailed 3D scans of sculptures, rock formations, plant life, and other interesting objects from around the world.
The 3D images, which users can virtually zoom in on or walk around, are part of a new app from Pokémon Go-maker Niantic called Into the Scaniverse. Last year, the company released the latest version of a smartphone Scaniverse app letting users create detailed images of public scenes or objects within their phones, with the ability to add public images to a shared map.
Already, the map includes more than 50,000 3D scenes, including renderings of Stonehenge, ancient ruins in Europe, Japanese temples, and even a shrine to Elvis Presley, all captured with the Scaniverse app or through Niantic games like Ingress and Pokémon Go. With the new Quest app, users will be able to traverse a map of the world from a virtual hot air balloon, spotting and clicking pins on the map to explore in stereo 3D vision the sights that were scanned there.
“Our goal is really to get a large collection of high-quality scans that folks can visit around the world,” says Brian McClendon, senior vice president of engineering at Niantic. “You can walk up to it and look up at it, and you get a sense of scale of these objects that sometimes photos don’t do justice.”
Making the scans, created using a mathematical modeling technique called the Gaussian splat, available through virtual reality will hopefully also incentivize more users to go out and scan and share the world around them, similar to how the rise of Instagram motivated people to take and share photos, he says. The scanning process generally takes only a few minutes, and users can view their own scans on their phones or Quest headsets before deciding whether to share them to the public map.
“This allows you to experiment with locations and try things out, and once you have what you like, you can then choose to publish to the map or not,” says McClendon.
The scan library is currently growing rapidly, with more than 11,000 published since December. Users on Niantic forums and in meetups also share tips on how to capture the best scans. McClendon, who is based in Arizona, has uploaded some scans of cactus and other desert foliage that not everyone sees in person, and he’s hopeful that users continue to increase their coverage of the planet.
Though the scans might be most impressive in virtual reality, it’s not necessary to have a Quest to experience them, with the 3D images also accessible in the Scaniverse iPhone and Android apps or through the web. Scans taken with Niantic’s software and shared publicly are also available for developers to use in Niantic Studio, the company’s tool for building XR and 3D games and experiences. Users also share some of their favorite scans through social media like X, Theads, and Bluesky. But McClendon anticipates that the Quest app’s map view will lead to a new wave of discovery as people explore spots near them or places they’ve visited in the past.
The app can even be used to help plan vacations, with people exploring potential sites before they travel, McClendon suggests. And ideally, when they arrive, they’ll be inspired to contribute more scans to the public collection.
“The real goal is to motivate more people to create more scans,” McClendon says.
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