Scaniverse, a mobile application for 3D scanning, has announced the introduction of 3D Gaussian Splatting. The new scanning mode, introduced in Scaniverse 3.0, promises users the ability to capture everything from small objects to large buildings with an higher level of detail, including accurate lighting and reflections.
Gaussian Splatting distinguishes itself from traditional mesh-based scanning by its ability to accurately represent transparency, reflections, and view-dependent lighting, making it possible to capture shiny objects, specular reflections, and subsurface scattering that are challenging to model in textured meshes. The technology relies on learned splat parameters, which adapt to various scene types, scales, materials, and detail levels.
To use Gaussian Splatting in Scaniverse, users can initiate a new scan within the app, select the splat scanning option, and upon completion, process the scan to train the splat parameters. An enhancement feature allows for further detail refinement. Moreover, the app offers the option to create short-form videos of the splats for easy sharing or export to .ply format. Importantly, all splat capture and training processes are conducted locally on the user’s device, ensuring privacy and data security by not requiring cloud uploads unless specifically chosen by the user.
For more details, visit the Scaniverse website.
Is there any support in traditional offline render engines for splats? I remember seeing some support for Houdini but not sure this can be rendered like standard polygon based geometry.
Since the format is not complicated, it could be implemented either as particle or polygon based. But I haven’t seen it yet as well, only implementations in realtime tools…
strangely, postshot has an after effects plugin which renders them – I’m sure I’ve seen them in blender somewhere.
I did ask Tyson about inclusion in TyFlow a while back, but he hadn’t heard of the technique.