What is Gaussian splatting?
3D Gaussian splatting represents a captured scene as millions of small, soft, semi-transparent coloured blobs (Gaussians) that can be rendered in real time.
Published in 2023, Gaussian splatting quickly became a popular way to capture real places and objects from photos or video. Each "splat" has a position, a size and stretch, an orientation, an opacity and a view-dependent colour. Blended together, millions of them produce photorealistic views at interactive frame rates.
Compared with other methods
| Mesh | NeRF | Gaussian splats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real-time rendering | Yes | Generally slow | Yes |
| Photorealism from photos | Good | Excellent | Excellent |
| Editable, riggable, printable | Yes | No | Limited |
| File size | Small–medium | Small (network weights) | Often large |
When you need a mesh anyway
Game engines, slicers and AR viewers still expect meshes. Splats are wonderful for showing a captured place, but for an asset you'll animate, edit or print, you want a mesh: from photogrammetry, modelling, or a generator like our image to 3D engine.
Written with AI assistance and reviewed by the Renderlyst team. Corrections welcome at alishbakhalid766@gmail.com.