There has been a lot of progress in the capabilities of the 3D map visualization within QGIS. With support for various 3D data formats, QGIS 3D is moving far beyond the simple viewer when it was first released in QGIS 3.0 in 2018.

This talk summarizes the work that has been done in 2025 and 2026 to make QGIS 3D faster, more powerful and easier to use. We will discuss support for ESRI’s scene layers (I3S / SLPK), improvements to 3D Tiles support, significant performance improvements for handling of vector layers and much more!

In 2025, Lutra Consulting and North Road ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to push QGIS into the world of geospatial digital twins. The goal was to transform QGIS 3D from a capable but limited viewer into a credible open-source platform for urban planning, infrastructure management and environmental simulation. With the funded work now delivered across QGIS 4.0 and 4.2, this session reports back on what was built, what it looks like in practice, and what it means for anyone working with 3D geospatial data.