1. Installing Volinga Plugin for UE
There are two methods to install the Volinga Plugin for Unreal Engine. The first option is to install it directly in your UE project. To do this, unpack the plugin content into the Plugins folder of your project. Note that if your project doesn't already have a Plugins folder, you'll need to create one manually.
The second option is to install the plugin at the engine level. This can be done by unpacking the plugin content into the Plugins folder of the engine, located in your Unreal Engine installation directory (path: "UE_5.X > Engine > Plugins").
After installation, you'll need to enable the plugin in your project. Launch your project, then navigate to the plugin settings by selecting "Edit > Plugins" from the main menu.
In the plugins window, search for "VolingaRenderer" and enable it by checking the box. You may receive a warning message indicating that this plugin is still in beta.
Once enabled, the Volinga Plugin is ready for use in your project.
2. Using 3DGS on UE
You can start using 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) by importing either NVOL or PLY files through the content browser. The Volinga Plugin will automatically load and convert these files into NVOL assets within Unreal Engine.
Once imported, you can simply drag and drop the NVOL asset into your viewport to add the 3DGS element to your level, where it will be rendered in real-time.
Lowy Concert Hall courtesy of Adam Havkin.
Alternatively, you can add a 3DGS element to your scene by creating a Volinga Radiance Field Actor and then assigning your desired NVOL asset under the Radiance Fields Settings panel.
Radiance Fields actors contain a CropVolume Subcomponent. When enabled, this component will act as a crop box. Using its transform (location, rotation and scale) the cropping volume can be adjusted.
Boxer capture courtesy of Prism AI and Clear Angle Studios.
The plugin supports multiple Radiance Fields actors within the same level, allowing you to populate your scene with various 3DGS objects. These actors fully integrate with Unreal Engine's native features, including cine camera actors, Post Process Volumes, and other scene elements.
3. Additive Lighting and Plugin Settings
The Volinga plugin for UE enables Radiance Field actors to interact with scene lighting. This interaction is known as "additive lighting" because it allows light sources from UE to affect 3DGS assets while preserving the original lighting captured during the 3D asset creation.
By default, additive lighting is disabled. You can enable it by clicking on the Volinga icon in the top bar.
Additionally, several other parameters can be modified using the three dots menu next to that button:
Additionally, several other parameters can be modified using the three dots menu next to that button:
- Normal generation method: We offer 3 different methods. We generally recommend using method 2, as method 1 is still experimental.
- Ambient light: Controls how much of the existing color in the Radiance Fields actor acts as an emissive color. A value of 0 means no emissive color, while 1 means fully emissive color.
- Lower and Upper alpha thresholds: Allow you to filter out gaussians below or above specified limits. These settings are particularly useful for removing black gaussians at the borders of actors, especially in outdoor captures.
These settings can also be accessed through the project settings (Edit > Project Settings). Additionally, this section includes the setting for the Volinga plugin license. More details about how licensing works can be found in .
4. How licensing works
4. How licensing works
The Volinga Plugin for Unreal Engine employs an asset-based licensing system that directly affects watermark visibility. When you import and render NVOL files, the watermark's presence is determined by whether the asset was created with a Volinga Suite license that includes commercial usage permissions.
Starting with version 0.5.0, the plugin expanded its capabilities to support direct rendering of PLY files. Unlike NVOL files, however, PLY files require a separate, dedicated plugin license to render without a watermark. To activate your Plugin License, you must first download it from the License Management section under your Profile on the Volinga web platform.
After downloading, you'll need to specify the License Path in the project settings so the Volinga Plugin can locate and validate your license. Once properly configured, you should be able to render PLY files without the watermark appearing.
Please note that Unreal Engine scenes containing any unlicensed assets—whether in NVOL or PLY format—will display a watermark across the entire viewport. For completely watermark-free rendering, every asset in your scene must be properly licensed according to its specific requirements.
5. Bonus: Using NVOL Collections
The NVOL collections feature provides a powerful way to transfer complex Volinga Suite vscenes into Unreal Engine. To implement this workflow:
First, export your vscene as an NVOL collection from Volinga Suite. Next, import all the resulting NVOL files into the Unreal Engine content browser. For proper scene assembly, select all assets belonging to the NVOL collection and drop them simultaneously into Unreal's viewport. This action preserves the spatial relationships and hierarchy from your original vscene, allowing for seamless integration of complex Volinga Suite compositions into your Unreal Engine project.
Following this procedure ensures that all components of your NVOL collection maintain their relative positions and properties, resulting in an accurate representation of your original vscene within the Unreal Engine environment.
6. Known bugs and limitations.
We are actively working to improve our Unreal Engine plugin, but please be aware that it remains in beta status. Currently, the following limitations exist in the plugin:
- Radiance Fields actors do not cast shadows. Additionally, shadows cast on Radiance Fields actors by other 3D elements in Unreal Engine may display visual artifacts.
- Normals generated on Radiance Fields actors may not be physically accurate in all scenarios and can sometimes display visual anomalies.
- Scaling for Radiance Fields actors is uniform and only applies to the X axis. Any scale adjustments made to other axes will not be applied.
- Viewport selection of Radiance Fields actors is limited to interactions with the editor billboard rather than the visible rendered content.
- VR functionality is currently not supported.
- Using Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) antialiasing results in visual artifacts when rendering Radiance Fields actors.
- Radiance Fields actors do not appear in Movie Render Queue thumbnails.
- The shipping binary configuration is the only build we can fully guarantee for stability and performance.
