We envision this project as a testbed to explore and compare various approaches to real-time visualization of 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) [Kerbl2023] and related evolutions. By evaluating various techniques and optimizations, we aim to provide valuable insights into performance, quality, and implementation trade-offs when using the Vulkan API.
This new version of the sample introduces two new pipelines, a ray tracing and a hybrid one in addition to the original rasterization one. Since the documentation is getting more elaborated, we reorganized and split the documentation as described hereafter. For a good general understanding we strongly recommend to read those pages in order.
-
The present readme.md, will get you up and running with the software, point out where to get sample scenes and how to open your first scene. It also centralizes the bibliographic references for all the sub pages.
-
The Vulkan Gaussian Splatting Overview page will drive you through the different elements of the user interface and the functionalities of the software. Some important points are introduced in this page.
We then describe our Vulkan implementation of the three rendering approaches aforementioned:
-
VK3DGSR: 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) [Kerbl2023] using Vulkan Rasterization
-
VK3DGRT: 3D Gaussian Ray Tracing (3DGRT) [Moënne-Loccoz2024] using Vulkan RTX
-
VK3DGHR: 3D Gaussian Hybrid Rendering Using Vulkan RTX and Rasterization
- [2025/08] Add depth of field to raytracing (3DGRT) pipeline.
- [2025/08] Added raytracing (3DGRT) and hybrid rendering (3DGS/3DGRT) pipelines + 3DGRT dataset.
- [2025/08] Added compositing with meshes and project save/load functionality.
- [2025/06] Ported to new NVIDIA DesignWorks nvpro_core2.
- [2025/03] Added new models from 3ds-scan.de. Thanks to Christian Rochner.
- [2025/03] First release with 3DGS rasterization.
- 64-bit Windows or Linux
- Vulkan 1.4 SDK
- CMake 3.22 or higher
- Compiler supporting basic C++20 features
- MSVC 2019 on Windows
- GCC 10.5 or Clang on Linux
- Additional Libraries on Linux
sudo apt install libx11-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcursor-dev libxi-dev libxinerama-dev libxrandr-dev libxxf86vm-dev libtbb-dev
- CUDA v12.6 is optional and can be used to activate NVML GPU monitoring in the sample.
- NVIDIA DesignWorks nvpro_core2 will be automatically downloaded if not found next to the sample directory.
# Clone the repository (use --recursive instead for git verison < 2.13)
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/nvpro-samples/vk_gaussian_splatting
cd vk_gaussian_splatting
# Configure
cmake -S . -B build
# Alternatively, configure as follows to disable the default "bouquet of flowers"
# scene download by CMake and prevent auto-loading in the sample
cmake -S . -B build -DDISABLE_DEFAULT_SCENE=ON
# Build
cmake --build build --config Release
# Run
./_bin/Release/vk_gaussian_splatting.exe [path_to_ply]
By default the application opens a 3DGS model representing a bouquet of flowers unless you disabled it at CMake stage. The sample application supports PLY files in the format introduced by INRIA [Kerbl2023]. PLY files can be opened using any of the following methods:
- Command Line – Provide the file path as last argument when launching the application.
- File Menu – Use File > Open to browse and load a PLY file.
- Drag and Drop – Simply drag the PLY file into the viewport.
Compatibility
- Jawset Postshot and 3DGRUT output ply files are compatible with the INRIA format and can be opened directly.
- Other reconstruction software's ply outputs such as NerfStudio may work but have not been tested.
The INRIA dataset of pre-trained models is available for download from the INRIA server.
- To visualize 3DGS reconstruction output, open PLY files located in the point_cloud subfolders, corresponding to 7,000 or 30,000 iterations.
- Attention: The input.ply files cannot be loaded, as they represent raw point clouds (not 3DGS) generated by Structure From Motion (SfM) during model reconstruction.
Additionally, you can download the 3D gaussian model of a place with a fountain in France and the 3DGS model of fountain Sindelfingen, both by 3ds-scan (Christian Rochner) and licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
The Bouquet of Flowers scene, which is automatically downloaded by CMake, can also be downloaded here. The model is released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
We provide the reconstruction of the MipNerf 360 image set v1, using 3DGRT parametric particles intersections and MCCM/Adam, providing 1M splats for each model. Download (1.5GB).
Note that even if not generated by 3DGRT, the 3DGS bouquet of flowers and the two 3DGS fountain scenes from 3ds-scan will provide acceptable visual results when rendered using 3DGRT.
To properly assess the performance of the pipelines, you should deactivate vertical synchronization (V-Sync). This can be done from the View > V-Sync menu, the Renderer Properties panel, or the Profiler window. If V-Sync is not deactivated, the system does not run at optimal performance, and the reported timings in the Window Top Bar and Profiler window are generally higher (and fps lower) than the achievable performance. The V-Sync option is enabled by default to save energy.
The system also provides a means to run automatic benchmarks, which are detailed in the Performance Results sections of the documentation sub-pages. In Benchmarking mode, V-Sync is automatically disabled.
- Vulkan Gaussian Splatting Overview
- VK3DGSR: 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) [Kerbl2023] using Vulkan Rasterization
- VK3DGRT: 3D Gaussian Ray Tracing (3DGRT) [Moënne-Loccoz2024] using Vulkan RTX
- VK3DGHR: 3D Gaussian Hybrid Rendering Using Vulkan RTX and Rasterization
[Zwicker2002]. EWA Splatting. E., Zwicker, M., Pfister, H., Van Baar, J., Gross, M.H., Zwicker, M., Pfister, H., Van Baar, J., & Gross, M.H. (2002). IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.
[Kerbl2023] 3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering. Kerbl, B., Kopanas, G., Leimkuehler, T., & Drettakis, G. (2023). ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 42, 1 - 14.
[Yu2023] Mip-Splatting: Alias-Free 3D Gaussian Splatting.. Yu, Z., Chen, A., Huang, B., Sattler, T., & Geiger, A. (2023). 2024 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 19447-19456.
[Radl2024] StopThePop: Sorted Gaussian Splatting for View-Consistent Real-time Rendering. Radl, L., Steiner, M., Parger, M., Weinrauch, A., Kerbl, B., & Steinberger, M. (2024). ACM Trans. Graph., 43, 64:1-64:17.
[Moënne-Loccoz2024] 3D Gaussian Ray Tracing: Fast Tracing of Particle Scenes. Moënne-Loccoz, N., Mirzaei, A., Perel, O., Lutio, R.D., Esturo, J.M., State, G., Fidler, S., Sharp, N., & Gojcic, Z. (2024). ACM Trans. Graph., 43, 232:1-232:19.
[Hou2024] Sort-free Gaussian Splatting via Weighted Sum Rendering. Hou, Q., Rauwendaal, R., Li, Z., Le, H., Farhadzadeh, F., Porikli, F.M., Bourd, A., & Said, A. (2024). ArXiv, abs/2410.18931.
[Morgenstern2024] Compact 3D Scene Representation via Self-Organizing Gaussian Grids. Wieland Morgenstern, Florian Barthel, Anna Hilsmann, Peter Eisert. ECCV 2024.
[Wu2024] 3DGUT: Enabling Distorted Cameras and Secondary Rays in Gaussian Splatting. Wu, Q., Esturo, J.M., Mirzaei, A., Moënne-Loccoz, N., & Gojcic, Z. (2024). ArXiv, abs/2412.12507. CVPR 2025.
[3DGRUT] This repository provides the official implementations of 3D Gaussian Ray Tracing (3DGRT)[Moënne-Loccoz2024] and 3D Gaussian Unscented Transform (3DGUT)[Wu2024].
| Library | URL | License |
|---|---|---|
| miniply | https://github.com/vilya/miniply | MIT |
| vrdx | https://github.com/jaesung-cs/vulkan_radix_sort | MIT |
Some parts of the current implementation are strongly inspired by, and in some cases incorporate, source code and comments from the following third-party projects:
| Project | URL | License |
|---|---|---|
| vkgs | https://github.com/jaesung-cs/vkgs | MIT |
| GaussianSplats3D | https://github.com/mkkellogg/GaussianSplats3D | MIT |
Additional 3rd-Party sofwtares are listed in nvpro_core2/third_party.
Merge requests to vk_gaussian_splatting are welcome, and use the Developer Certificate of Origin (https://developercertificate.org included in CONTRIBUTING).
When committing, please certify that your contribution adheres to the DCO and use git commit --sign-off. Thank you!
- For bug reports and feature requests, please use the GitHub Issues page.
- For general questions and discussions, please use the GitHub Discussions page.