3D Gaussian Splatting is a cutting-edge method for digitizing and rendering real-world objects that has recently gained popularity. This technique allows users to easily digitize scenes from a few photos using services like Luma Labs or Polycam. Instead of using polygons and textures, Gaussian Splat Scenes are made up of individual particles called splats. These splats have size, orientation, color, and opacity, with the opacity having a Gaussian falloff from the center to the edge. The PlayCanvas team has been working on supporting the loading and rendering of Gaussian Splat PLY files, and they have introduced a compressed PLY format that significantly reduces file size. This compressed format can be generated using the SuperSplat tool and is roughly 4 times smaller than uncompressed data. The team also has plans for future improvements, including hierarchical storage of splats for optimized rendering, splat LOD testing, and further data compression. Overall, this new technique offers exciting possibilities for real-time applications and offers a more efficient way to render complex scenes.
https://blog.playcanvas.com//compressing-gaussian-splats/