3D Gaussian Splatting as a New Era: A Survey

Abstract

3D Gaussian Splatting (3D-GS) has emerged as a significant advancement in the field of computer graphics and 3D vision, offering explicit scene representation and novel view synthesis without the reliance on neural networks. This technique has found diverse applications in areas such as robotics, urban mapping, autonomous navigation, and virtual reality/augmented reality, just name a few. Given the growing popularity and expanding research in 3D-GS, this paper presents a comprehensive survey of relevant papers from the past year. We organize the survey into taxonomies based on characteristics and applications, providing an introduction to the theoretical underpinnings of 3D-GS. The survey aims to introduce the theoretical foundations of 3D Gaussian Splatting and provide a reference for new researchers while inspiring future research directions.