The OpenUSD Alliance has announced version 26.03 of its standard, marking a milestone for the visual effects industry with the native inclusion of Gaussian Splatting. This technology, which represents 3D scenes using intelligent point clouds similar to pointillism, overcomes the limitations of traditional photogrammetry. Its integration into USD will allow studios to incorporate ultra-realistic scans of locations and complex objects directly into their production pipelines, streamlining workflows and elevating the level of detail in digital environments.
A specific USD schema for splats and new tools 🛠️
The update introduces a dedicated data schema, UsdVolParticleField3DGaussianSplat, designed to accurately represent the attributes of Gaussian splats within a USD scene. This ensures interoperability and reference management. Additionally, a rendering engine is included to visualize this data in usdview, along with a script to convert PLY files to USD. This tool facilitates adoption, allowing existing scans to be transformed into a native standard format, ready to be integrated, manipulated, and combined with traditional assets in compatible DCC applications.
A realistic future with storage challenges 💾
The adoption of Gaussian Splatting in VFX is already a reality in cinematic productions and scanning services, ideal for capturing vegetation, hair, or atmospheric effects. Its standardization in OpenUSD consolidates its professional use. However, the community continues to research solutions for the main current challenge: compression. Splat files are still very heavy, posing an obstacle for handling long sequences or very dense environments in large-scale production pipelines.
How will the native integration of Gaussian Splatting into OpenUSD affect visual effects workflows for cinematic and television production?
(P.S.: VFX are like magic: when they work, no one asks how; when they fail, everyone sees it.)