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Create Gaussian Splats

Gaussian splatting is a technique for creating photorealistic 3D scenes by using millions of semi-transparent, 3D ellipses (gaussians). See an example scene.

Gaussian Splats of an aerial scene

Gaussian splats are generated by "training" from the images + camera poses + sparse points of a photogrammetry scene exported from WebODM Lightning.

The "training" of gaussian splats can be done via several software packages. Once trained, the splats model can be uploaded and displayed in WebODM Lightning alongside point clouds and textured models.

note

Gaussian splatting requires oblique and/or orbit shots in order to generate good results. You must capture the details of a scene from multiple viewpoints. A nadir-only flight usually yields very poor results.

Software​

GPU required

Gaussian splatting requires additional processing on your own machine and requires a graphics card for good performance. Currently no cloud processing options are available.

The following software options are available for processing gaussian splats.

SoftwareHardware SupportPlatformsNotes
OpenSplatCPU, NVIDIAWindowsSee workflow
BrushWebGPU, NVIDIA, AMD, IntelWeb, Windows, macOS, LinuxAlso works in the browser (Chrome)
Spirula StudioNVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Apple (Vulkan)Windows, macOS, Linux
Lichtfeld StudioNVIDIAWindowsPaid binaries

Steps​

  1. Process a RGB dataset on WebODM Lightning
  2. Click ... next to a task and select Splats to open the Gaussian Splats dialog
  3. Download the training data file (.zip)
  4. Train the splats using one of the software listed below.
  5. Upload the resulting splat model to WebODM.
Accessing the Gaussian Splats dialog

OpenSplat Workflow​

info

Gaussian splatting is new. If you encounter any issues with OpenSplat, please report them or try one of the other software options.

  1. Download OpenSplat and extract the program in a folder
  2. Download the training.zip file from WebODM Lightning
  3. Drag & drop the training.zip file directly onto opensplat.exe. This will start the training process.

Once completed, a splat.ply will be placed in the same folder as the training.zip file.

  1. Upload splat.ply via the Gaussian Splats dialog from the cloud platform