{"id":17829,"date":"2025-08-11T06:33:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ogc.org\/?p=17829"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:08:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:08:37","slug":"ogc-khronos-and-geospatial-leaders-add-3d-gaussian-splats-to-the-gltf-asset-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fm-connect1.fortmindz.in\/wp-ogc\/blog-article\/ogc-khronos-and-geospatial-leaders-add-3d-gaussian-splats-to-the-gltf-asset-standard\/","title":{"rendered":"OGC, Khronos, and Geospatial Leaders Add 3D Gaussian Splats to the glTF Asset Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By <\/em>Tamrat Belayneh<\/mark><\/kbd> <\/em><\/a>(Principal Technologist, Esri), <\/em>Konrad Wenzel <\/mark><\/em><\/a>(Director, Esri R&D Center Stuttgart GmbH),<\/em> Amanda Morgan<\/mark><\/em><\/a> (Senior Director, Open Standards, Bentley Systems\/Cesium), <\/em>Adam Morris<\/mark><\/em><\/a> (Principal Engineer, Platform Cesium, Bentley Systems\/Cesium),<\/em> Azad Balabanian <\/mark><\/em><\/a>(Senior Product Manager Niantic Spatial, Inc)<\/em><\/summary><\/details>\n\n\n\n

3D Gaussian Splats are an innovative 3D representation technology emerging in the realm of reality capture. Unlike traditional solid geometries, 3D Gaussian Splats utilize radiance fields to represent the complexity of real-world environments with unprecedented photorealistic detail. This sophisticated method captures subtle features such as thin structures, semi-transparent materials, reflections, and intricate textures\u2014previously challenging aspects for conventional 3D capture techniques and storage mechanisms popularized in photogrammetric meshes. Their unique ability to represent high-fidelity spatial content with efficient rendering has sparked broad interest across the geospatial, graphics, and standards communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing the transformative potential of 3D Gaussian Splats, leading organizations across the geospatial, graphics, and standards domains \u2014 including <\/a>Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)<\/a>, <\/a>Khronos Group\u00ae<\/a>, Niantic Spatial<\/a>, Cesium(Bentley)<\/a>, and Esri<\/a>\u2014 have come together to integrate 3D Geospatial Gaussian Splats into Khronos\u2019 widely adopted glTF\u2122<\/a> 3D asset format standard. This collaborative initiative aims to create a standardized, interoperable framework for encoding and sharing 3D Gaussian Splats, ensuring broad interoperability and easy implementation across platforms and applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPZ and glTF: Efficiency, Simplicity, and Flexibility<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Central to this initiative is the adoption of the SPZ format<\/a>, an open-source file format provided by Niantic Spatial under the MIT License, which compresses 3D Gaussian splats by up to 90% compared to PLY while preserving visual fidelity and performance. The simplicity and efficiency of SPZ make it ideally suited for widespread adoption, as it strikes a balance between computational performance and high-quality visualization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combining SPZ\u2019s strengths with glTF\u2019s flexible structure will enable an interoperable and straightforward implementation that allows for future extensibility via the potential inclusion of additional data fields to accommodate diverse user requirements and custom workflows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Gaussian Splatting glTF Extensions in Development<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Khronos 3D Formats Working Group is now developing two new extensions, aimed at standardizing the delivery of Gaussian Splats within glTF assets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n