--- title: The End of Blurry Point Clouds: 3D Gaussian Splatting... description: A principal engineer from Cesium (Bentley Systems) explains 3D Gaussian Splatting, a radiance-field technique that turns photos into photorealistic 3D scenes... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-blurry-point-clouds-3d-gaussian-splatting-explained-tlzyywxcw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The End of Blurry Point Clouds: 3D Gaussian Splatting Explained | daily.dev og:description: A principal engineer from Cesium (Bentley Systems) explains 3D Gaussian Splatting, a radiance-field technique that turns photos into photorealistic 3D scenes... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-blurry-point-clouds-3d-gaussian-splatting-explained-tlzyywxcw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TlzYYwXcw.png og:image:alt: The End of Blurry Point Clouds: 3D Gaussian Splatting Explained og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The End of Blurry Point Clouds: 3D Gaussian Splatting Explained **[Khronos](https://daily.dev/sources/khronos)** · 35 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A principal engineer from Cesium (Bentley Systems) explains 3D Gaussian Splatting, a radiance-field technique that turns photos into photorealistic 3D scenes using translucent ellipsoid 'blobs' rendered via the painter's algorithm, contrasting it with photogrammetry meshes, point clouds, and NeRFs. The discussion covers how splats capture thin structures, reflections, and lighting better than meshes, the precision trade-offs versus point clouds, and ongoing work at Khronos to standardize a 3D Gaussian Splatting extension for glTF, built with input from Cesium, Esri, Huawei, Niantic Spatial, and Nvidia. Compression formats like SPZ, SOG, and LGSC are discussed as critical to managing massive splat file sizes, alongside a look ahead at 4D and HDR splatting. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is 3D Gaussian splatting and how does it differ from photogrammetry meshes and point clouds? 3D Gaussian splatting turns a set of photos into a photorealistic 3D scene called a radiance field, using small translucent ellipsoids (Gaussians) with position, color, size, and opacity instead of triangles. Unlike photogrammetry meshes, it captures thin structures like cables and fences and view-dependent lighting/reflections, and unlike raw point clouds it renders as a smooth, photorealistic image rather than sparse noisy points. _Explore ongoing coverage of radiance-field rendering techniques like Gaussian splatting on daily.dev as the ecosystem evolves._ ### How does 3D Gaussian splatting render faster than neural radiance fields (NeRF)? Gaussian splatting uses small translucent ellipsoids with explicit attributes (position, color, size, opacity) that are splatted onto a 2D plane using the painter's algorithm, blended with spherical harmonics for view-dependent effects, producing novel views similar to NeRF but in much less rendering time, though it typically requires more input photos than NeRF. _Developers comparing radiance-field methods for 3D rendering can track technique trade-offs like this on daily.dev._ ### What extension has Khronos added to glTF to standardize 3D Gaussian Splatting, and who built it? Khronos ratified a 3D Gaussian Splatting extension for glTF, developed collaboratively by Cesium, Esri, Huawei, Niantic Spatial, Nvidia, and roughly 15-16 other contributors, with Alexey Knyazev as spec editor. Ratification required royalty-free terms and at least two working implementations per feature; CesiumJS and JavaGL already support it, alongside Esri and Huawei implementations. _Teams adopting new 3D and geospatial standards like this glTF extension can follow the rollout on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why an Open Standard For Gaussian Splats Changes 3D Modeling](https://daily.dev/posts/why-an-open-standard-for-gaussian-splats-changes-3d-modeling-we7bf6j5c) · Khronos · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [3D Gaussian Splatting in a Weekend](https://daily.dev/posts/3d-gaussian-splatting-in-a-weekend-lexrkdrgi) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Creating 3D Gaussian Splats From Regular 3D Models](https://daily.dev/posts/creating-3d-gaussian-splats-from-regular-3d-models-m6yobubay) · 80 LEVEL · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#3d](https://daily.dev/tags/3d) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-blurry-point-clouds-3d-gaussian-splatting-explained-tlzyywxcw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The End of Blurry Point Clouds: 3D Gaussian Splatting Explained","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-blurry-point-clouds-3d-gaussian-splatting-explained-tlzyywxcw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-blurry-point-clouds-3d-gaussian-splatting-explained-tlzyywxcw"},"datePublished":"2026-08-17T13:34:17.344Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T09:12:57.502Z","description":"A principal engineer from Cesium (Bentley Systems) explains 3D Gaussian Splatting, a radiance-field technique that turns photos into photorealistic 3D scenes...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a7bAUMbMEec/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a7bAUMbMEec/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Khronos","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Khronos","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/792618c65bcf419783f2a62c03d29e1c","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/khronos"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-blurry-point-clouds-3d-gaussian-splatting-explained-tlzyywxcw","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"3d","timeRequired":"PT35M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"The End of Blurry Point Clouds: 3D Gaussian Splatting Explained","description":"A principal engineer from Cesium (Bentley Systems) explains 3D Gaussian Splatting, a radiance-field technique that turns photos into photorealistic 3D scenes...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a7bAUMbMEec/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-17T13:34:17.344Z","duration":"PT35M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/TlzYYwXcw","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/a7bAUMbMEec"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Khronos","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/khronos"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The End of Blurry Point Clouds: 3D Gaussian Splatting Explained"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-end-of-blurry-point-clouds-3d-gaussian-splatting-explained-tlzyywxcw#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is 3D Gaussian splatting and how does it differ from photogrammetry meshes and point clouds?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"3D Gaussian splatting turns a set of photos into a photorealistic 3D scene called a radiance field, using small translucent ellipsoids (Gaussians) with position, color, size, and opacity instead of triangles. 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