3D Gaussian Splats are being added to the glTF standard
Football stadium Empower Field at Mile High visualized in Esri’s ArcGIS Pro using 3D Gaussian Splats. Esri is working with Khronos Group on 3D Gaussian Splat support in the glTF standard.
Support for 3D Gaussian Splats is being added to the glTF standard for 3D assets.
Standards body Khronos Group is collaborating with the Open Geospatial Consortium and geospatial specialists Niantic Spatial, Cesium and Esri to create a standardized framework for encoding and sharing 3D Gaussian Splats, initially via two experimental new glTF extensions.
An increasingly popular new way to reconstruct and render objects and environments in 3D
3D Gaussian Splatting provides a new way to reconstruct real-world objects from source images or video and render them in 3D.
Like photogrammetry, it begins by generating a point cloud of from a set of source photos, but rather than converting the point cloud to a textured mesh, it converts it to a set of translucent ellipsoids or ‘gaussians’, using machine learning to determine the correct color for each.
The result is a fast-rendering 3D representation of the object or environment being scanned that captures features that are difficult to recreate using traditional photogrammetry workflows, like long thin structures and reflective or semi-transparent materials.
Although it is still a new technology, there are already a range of tools for generating, editing and rendering 3DGS data, and its now beginning to be supported officially in DCC software, including the V-Ray renderer, and most recently, in Houdini.
A new, more streamlined format in which to transfer 3DGS data between software?
Although 3DGS data is usually transferred between applications in PLY format, support for 3D Gaussian Splatting within glTF files is potentially a more streamlined alternative.
Widely used in web and AR applications, the glTF format is designed to minimize the size of 3D assets and the processing required to unpack them.
At the core of the approach from Khronos Group and its partners is the SPZ format, an open-source file format developed by Niantic Spatial, which compresses 3D Gaussian splats by “up to 90%” while “preserving visual fidelity”.
The Khronos 3D Formats Working Group is now developing two new extensions aimed at standardizing the delivery of Gaussian Splats within glTF assets.
One defines the structure for storing 3D Gaussian splats within glTF, while the other enables storage and streaming using the SPZ format.
These extensions are described “forward-looking” and intended to serve as a “foundational pathway” for long-term support of 3D Gaussian splatting in glTF.
Part of wider work to standardize the description of 3DGS data in 3D file formats
Although the initiative is obviously focused on the use of 3DGS data within geospatial rather than entertainment pipelines, it is indicative of wider interest in the technology.
During its session on Houdini 21 – which features experimental support for 3D Gaussian Splats in the Karma XPU renderer – at SIGGRAPH earlier this month, SideFX touched on current work to standardize how Splats are described in other file formats, “particularly in USD”.
Read more about the addition of 3DGS to the glTF standard on Khronos Group’s blog
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