World Labs opens Atlas, with mesh export for generated scenes

World Labs released Atlas's web tools and developer API on November 12, giving creators a way to build scenes from images, guide their layout with 3D shapes, and convert the results into meshes. For a game developer, that last step provides geometry to bring into an engine and inspect. World Labs lists the release in its November announcements, with the tools available through the Atlas page.

Our September report covered the model's introduction. This release adds access to the workflow: Viewfinder for reconstructing scenes and directing cameras, Chisel for controlling a scene's structure, and tools for mesh conversion and relighting.

A courtyard moves from a drawing and 3D layout through several visual styles and into a scene with mesh geometry. World Labs' original 1080p launch film is an edited demonstration. Its 90-second running time doesn't measure generation speed. Video: World Labs.

Give the scene a layout

Chisel lets a creator supply a simple 3D layout, often called a blockout, and describe the finished scene. Depth from the layout guides where surfaces go. A prompt supplies appearance, such as materials, weather, and light. The Chisel tutorial shows the same chapel layout rendered in warm sunlight and then snow.

That control has limits worth seeing before building around it. In the tutorial, a low solid wall becomes a fence and the model adds windows that weren't modeled. World Labs explicitly says depth guidance doesn't guarantee exact geometry. A doorway's position and a staircase's clearance still need inspection if a player will use them.

What comes out of the export

Atlas reconstructs a set of images with camera positions and depth into an SPZ Gaussian-splat file. You can display that file in a browser with Spark, or follow World Labs' Blender import workflow. The separate mesh task takes that splat scene and reconstructs surfaces from rendered views.

The mesh API exposes useful controls: camera placement, a region to extract, a maximum face count, and a choice of image textures, vertex colors, or untextured geometry. It can also fit upright boxes around the mesh for collision and return them as a separate GLB. Those boxes are a starting point to check against the spaces a character needs to move through.

The same courtyard changes from splats to textured and untextured geometry. This short clip is the publisher's original 720p export demonstration. We haven't independently tested the resulting mesh in a game. Video: World Labs.

The mesh task can only reconstruct surfaces its cameras see. World Labs' splat guidance also documents duplicated objects from inconsistent views, missing thin structures, and unreliable windows or foliage. Walk through the intended play area and inspect it from low angles before treating the export as a finished environment.

Budget for reconstruction and check the output rights

As checked on November 14, the reconstruction guide lists 5,000 credits, or $5, and an estimated 15 to 25 minutes for a splat reconstruction. That's one step in the workflow. Generating the input views and converting the splat into a mesh are separate tasks. The billing documentation says task rates can change and directs users to the platform's current rate card. Account and project spending limits pause new API tasks, while work already running can finish.

For a commercial game, check the access tier used when generating each asset. The terms, sections 2.3 and 9, restrict outputs from free or Standard access to personal, non-commercial use. Eligible paid access includes Pro or higher subscriptions and paid API access, and permits commercial use subject to the agreement. Upgrading later doesn't change the rights attached to earlier outputs.

The same terms provide an account-level training opt-out for content from eligible paid access, applying prospectively. Check that setting before uploading unreleased project material.