ERA OF MINDS

Hi3D open source: is it free, and does it really turn a photo into a 3D model?

By Era of Minds ·

Short answer

The code and weights of Hi3D V1.0 are free to download and you can use them commercially, with a notice rule and limits past 200,000 monthly users or $1M a month. But the open model does not turn a photo into 3D by itself. It refines a rough mesh you already have, guided by one image, and it outputs geometry only, no textures. It needs Linux and an NVIDIA GPU (the top setting was only tested on a 96 GB card). The textured photo-to-3D tool in the demos is Hi3D V3.0 on hi3d.ai, which is closed and runs on credits.

Era of Minds cover: Hi3D open source, is it free? A retyped copy of the viral October 27, 2026 post by @AnatoliKopadze (168K views) above a table of what we checked: code and weights are free on GitHub and Hugging Face, the model refines a coarse mesh instead of turning a photo into 3D on its own, it outputs geometry only with no textures, it needs Linux and an NVIDIA GPU (tested on 96 GB), commercial use is allowed with limits past 200,000 monthly users, and the Try it online Space frames Hi3D's own server.
Figure: the viral post retyped by us (not a screenshot), with facts from the Hi3Dv1.0 README, license, technical report and the X API, checked October 28, 2026.

What is Hi3D V1.0?

Hi3D is an AI 3D model company. Its site, hi3d.ai, is the same platform that used to be called Hitem3D (hitem3d.ai serves the same page, and both footers say Oceano HK Holding Limited). On October 23, 2026 it released the inference code and weights of Hi3D V1.0, which is its older Sparc3D model under a new name. The Python package is still called sparc3d.

Per the README, V1.0 "refines a coarse mesh into high-resolution geometry, conditioned on a reference image of the same object." The team says it was trained on about 2 million curated 3D assets (up from 500,000 for the original Sparc3D paper) and works at three levels: 512, 1024 and 1536 cubed. Training code and the evaluation harness are not included.

Why is Hi3D going viral on X?

On October 27, 2026 at 11:33 UTC (15:33 Dubai), @AnatoliKopadze posted: "RIP to everyone who spent years learning 3D in Blender. Hi3D just released an open-source model that turns any object from a photo into a full 3D model." He added that you can "generate the base from a photo, refine the details with Opus 5.5 and you're done."

When we checked through the X API on the morning of October 28 (Dubai):

  • @AnatoliKopadze: 168,652 views, 2,506 likes, 3,822 bookmarks, 228 reposts and 95 replies. More bookmarks than likes usually means people saved it to try later.
  • Hi3D's own release article on X (October 23): 254,953 views and 788 bookmarks. @kimmonismus covered it on October 26 (18,244 views).
  • Post volume: posts mentioning Hi3D or Sparc3D went from 62 on October 26 to 304 on October 27 (UTC), plus 85 by 06:25 UTC on October 28.
  • GitHub and Hugging Face: the repo had 565 stars and 49 forks, and the Hugging Face model page had 107 likes.

Is Hi3D open source free?

To download, yes. The code is on GitHub and the eight weight files are on Hugging Face with no gate or sign-up. The two transformer files are 3,675,679,280 bytes each (about 3.7 GB), and the VAE is about 377 MB.

It is not a standard open-source license, though. The code and weights are under the Hi3D Open License Agreement 1.0, which:

  • Allows commercial use, hosting it as an API or SaaS, fine-tuning and redistribution, royalty-free.
  • Requires "Powered by Hi3D 1.0" in any commercial product or service that integrates the model, linked to hi3d.ai.
  • Adds a scale rule: if a related product passes 200,000 monthly active users or USD 1,000,000 in monthly revenue, you must notify Hi3D and apply for a separate license within 60 days.
  • Leaves your outputs alone: a generated mesh that contains no Hi3D materials can be sold or shared without the notice or the scale license.

So the honest version is: free to download and fairly generous for a small studio or a solo maker, with strings attached once you build a big product on it.

Does Hi3D turn a single photo into a 3D model?

This is where the viral post and the repo disagree. The open model needs two inputs: an image and a coarse mesh of the same object. The Python example literally loads input.png and coarse.glb. Its job is to add the fine detail, the carvings, gaps and small parts, that a rough mesh misses.

To start from just a photo, the repo's image_to_mesh.py demo first calls Tencent's Hunyuan3D-2 mini to make the coarse mesh. You install that code and its weights yourself, and it has its own license, which says it does not apply in the European Union, the United Kingdom or South Korea. You can swap in any other coarse generator or a mesh you made by hand.

Two more limits from the README and report:

  • Geometry only. "No textures, materials, or vertex colors are generated." The colorful demo renders come from the online V3.0 product, which advertises textures up to 8K.
  • Hidden sides are guesses. Anything the photo can't see is "a plausible completion," and severe errors in the coarse mesh can survive refinement.

As for "refine the details with Opus 5.5": Claude Opus 5.5 is a language model, not a mesh editor. The closest real link is Hi3D MCP, which lets Claude Desktop or Cursor send a generation job to Hi3D's online service. That runs on Hi3D's hosted platform, not the open weights. If you came here from the Opus side of that post, our Opus 5.5 free trial check covers where you can actually get it.

What GPU do you need to run Hi3D V1.0?

A big one. The README and the installation guide list:

  • Linux, Python 3.10, CUDA toolkit 12.0 to 12.5, PyTorch 2.5.0.
  • An NVIDIA GPU with compute capability 8.0 or newer (Ampere or later). "There is no CPU inference path," and flash-attn has no fallback.
  • The full 1536 ladder was only validated on a 96 GB NVIDIA H20. The team says peak memory on smaller cards "has not been established." CPU offload can lower model memory use but doesn't set a minimum.

The README lists Linux only, and there is no PyPI package or prebuilt wheel. A Docker image is provided. If you have a 24 GB gaming card, the 512 and 1024 levels may be worth a try, but nobody has published a tested floor yet, so treat that as an experiment.

We did not run Hi3D V1.0 ourselves; we don't have a GPU of that class on hand. Everything here comes from the repo, the license, the report and Hi3D's pages.

How good is it for 3D printing?

The "90% of its models pass 3D-print slicing" line is real, but it reads better in context. In Hi3D's technical report, each test mesh was scaled to 100 mm and sliced in Bambu Studio for a Bambu Lab A1 with no repair. Results:

  • Hi3D V1.0 (1536): 90% sliced, with the top detail richness score (0.841) and multi-view fidelity (0.75).
  • Other 1536 models: TRELLIS.2 17%, Pixal3D 7%.
  • Lower-resolution models: TripoSG 100%, TRELLIS, Hunyuan3D-2.1 and Hi3DGen 97%, Direct3D-S2 80%.

So V1.0 keeps much more detail than the low-res models while giving up only a little printability, and it beats the other high-res ones by a wide margin. The report also notes that slicing success "does not guarantee physical manufacturability." These are the team's own numbers on its own test set; we haven't seen an independent rerun.

Is Hi3D free online?

The online platform is a separate thing from the open model. On the hi3d.ai pricing page:

  • Free: 100 credits for life. That is up to 10 v2.1 geometry models or up to 3 v3.0 Quality models. Free plan models need attribution.
  • Pro, Max, Ultra: 1,000, 4,000 or 10,000 credits a month. Subscription credits don't roll over.
  • Credit costs: v3.0 Quality geometry is 30 credits, Master 130, textures 10, Split to Print 20.

The release page's "Try it online, no deployment needed" button goes to a Hugging Face Space from June 2025 that runs on a basic CPU and embeds Hi3D's own server (3dserver.hitem3d.ai). It is a window into Hi3D's service, not the open weights running on Hugging Face.

One trap when you search "is Hi3D free": hi3d.pro ranks too. It is a different site. Its about page says it is free with a limit of three models an hour, its homepage says it is "Powered by Hunyuan3D-2", and none of its pages we checked mention Oceano HK Holding. We couldn't confirm who runs it.

Who should try Hi3D V1.0?

If you already make rough meshes (from Blender block-outs, a scan or another image-to-3D model) and have access to a big NVIDIA GPU or a rented cloud one, V1.0 is a free way to add serious detail and keep commercial rights. If you just want to turn a photo of your cat into a printable figure, the online tools are the realistic route, and you'll pay in credits or rate limits. Blender users can relax: the output still needs texturing, cleanup and, for characters, retopology.

This is the same pattern we keep seeing in viral AI posts, from Cindy's "open source and free" agent to the Oxion free-model offer: the headline is half true, and the README has the other half. If you want 3D from an AI agent today without a big GPU, ManimGX is a lighter, code-based route for 3D animation.

Key facts

  • Viral post: @AnatoliKopadze, Oct 27, 2026, 11:33 UTC. 168,652 views / 2,506 likes / 3,822 bookmarks (checked Oct 28).
  • Release: Hi3D V1.0 (formerly Sparc3D), Oct 23, 2026. Code: Hi3Dv1.0 on GitHub (565 stars). Weights: Hugging Face, not gated.
  • Refines a coarse mesh plus one image; up to 1536 cubed. Photo-only demo needs Tencent Hunyuan3D-2 mini first.
  • Geometry only: no textures, materials or vertex colors.
  • Linux, Python 3.10, CUDA 12.0-12.5, NVIDIA compute 8.0+. 1536 level tested only on a 96 GB H20.
  • Hi3D Open License 1.0: commercial use OK, "Powered by Hi3D 1.0" notice, separate license past 200K MAU or $1M a month.
  • Report: 90% slicing success vs 97-100% for lower-res models and 7-17% for other 1536 models.
  • Online: hi3d.ai Free plan = 100 lifetime credits. hi3d.pro is a different site running Hunyuan3D-2.

FAQ

What is Hi3D V1.0?

Hi3D V1.0 is an open-weights 3D geometry model from Hi3D, the AI 3D company formerly called Hitem3D (licensor: Oceano HK Holding Limited). It is the renamed Sparc3D research model, trained on about 2 million curated 3D assets. Its job is refinement: you give it a reference image and a rough 3D mesh of the same object, and it returns a much more detailed mesh at up to 1536 cubed resolution. It was released on GitHub and Hugging Face on October 23, 2026.

Is Hi3D open source free?

Yes, the V1.0 code and the model weights are free to download from the Hi3Dv1.0 repos on GitHub and Hugging Face, and commercial use is allowed under the Hi3D Open License Agreement 1.0. It is not a standard open-source license: commercial products must show Powered by Hi3D 1.0, and products past 200,000 monthly active users or USD 1 million a month in revenue must apply for a separate license within 60 days. Running it is not free in practice, because it needs a large NVIDIA GPU.

Does Hi3D turn a single photo into a 3D model?

Not on its own. The open model refines a coarse mesh using a reference image. To go from a photo to a mesh, the repo's image_to_mesh.py demo first runs Tencent's Hunyuan3D-2 mini to make the coarse mesh, which you install and license separately. The output is geometry only, with no textures or colors. The textured photo-to-3D product is Hi3D V3.0 on hi3d.ai, which is closed and runs on credits.

What GPU do you need to run Hi3D V1.0?

The README asks for Linux, Python 3.10, an NVIDIA GPU with compute capability 8.0 or newer and CUDA 12.0 to 12.5. There is no CPU path. The full 1536 resolution was only validated on a 96 GB NVIDIA H20, and the team says peak memory on smaller cards has not been established. The two transformer weight files are about 3.7 GB each.

Can I use Hi3D models commercially?

Meshes you generate are yours, and the license says an output that contains no Hi3D materials can be sold or shared without the Powered by Hi3D 1.0 notice. Putting the model itself in a commercial product requires the notice and the scale rule for 200,000 monthly users or USD 1 million monthly revenue. If you use the Hunyuan3D-2 mini step, Tencent's license also applies, and it does not cover the European Union, the United Kingdom or South Korea.

Is Hi3D free online?

Partly. hi3d.ai gives new accounts 100 lifetime credits on the Free plan, enough for up to 10 v2.1 geometry models or 3 v3.0 Quality models; paid plans add 1,000, 4,000 or 10,000 credits a month. Free plan models need attribution. The Try it online link on the release page opens a Hugging Face Space that embeds Hi3D's own server rather than running the open weights. hi3d.pro is a separate free site that says it runs Hunyuan3D-2 and does not mention Oceano HK Holding.

Is the 90% 3D printing figure real?

It comes from Hi3D's own technical report: 90% of its test meshes sliced successfully in Bambu Studio with no repair. In the same table, lower-resolution models such as TripoSG, TRELLIS and Hunyuan3D-2.1 scored 97% to 100%, while other 1536-resolution models scored 7% and 17%. So it is strong for its resolution, not the most printable model in the test. We did not reproduce it.

Sources

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