Point Clouds
A Point Cloud object renders a surface or volume as a field of individual 3D points. The position, colour, and size of each point is determined by the cloud’s Input Mode and Render Mode, with optional displacement applied via the Point Cloud Displacement card.
Adding a point cloud
Section titled “Adding a point cloud”- Add a 3D track
- In the Inspector, click Insert 3D Object → choose Point Cloud
- A default point cloud appears in the scene
Input modes
Section titled “Input modes”Each point cloud has an Input Mode that determines where its point positions and colours come from:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| PLY File | Load one or more .ply point-cloud files via a playlist |
| Texture | Sample a live track texture for XYZ positions (mapped via channel pickers) |
| Solid | Generate a uniform grid of points (no external file) |
| Text | Render text as a cloud of points |
Render modes
Section titled “Render modes”The Mode selector controls how each point is drawn:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Points | Classic pixel points with a Size slider |
| Cubes | Volumetric cube sprites |
| Spheres | Raymarched sphere sprites |
| Surface | Triangulated mesh surface |
| Scan Lines | Horizontal or vertical scan-line slices |
Materials & appearance
Section titled “Materials & appearance”Each point cloud has a Material section and optional post-processing:
- Color — base tint applied to all points
- Pixel Mix — blend between the material colour and the source pixel/vertex colour
- HSV Colorizer — spatially remap hue, saturation, and value across the cloud
- Lens Effects — per-cloud depth of field with Focal Distance and Aperture sliders
Performance
Section titled “Performance”For PLY-based clouds, point count is set by the file. Use the Resolution downsample option (Full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8) in the PLY DATA section to reduce draw count. For Solid mode, the Grid size directly controls point count. The GPU can handle millions of points at 60 fps on modern Mac hardware with Metal.