Real-Time Novel-View Synthesis for the Web Using 3D Gaussian Splatting - Exploring Mesh-Supervised 3D Gaussian Scene Optimization and Efficient Web Rendering for Product Visualization

Abstract

This thesis explores real-time novel-view synthesis for web applications using 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), with a focus on enhancing product visualization. The study investigates two primary research questions: The impact of utilizing classical scene representations (i.e., polygonal meshes) on the optimization process and results of 3D Gaussian Splatting, and the efficient rendering of 3D Gaussians within web constraints. Firstly, a method for initializing a 3D Gaussian scene from existing scene geometry is proposed. Evaluation across various synthetic scenes suggests that while there is noticeable quality improvement in some cases, the average improvement is marginal. Secondly, multiple WebGPU-based rendering methods for 3D Gaussian scenes are implemented and evaluated. Results indicate that using the original 3DGS architecture on the web is viable, with a geometry-based rendering method significantly outperforming the original renderer in terms of frame-time speed-up. An optimization technique to tighten 3D Gaussian screen-space bounding boxes further enhances performance. Overall, the findings demonstrate that 3D Gaussian Splatting can be effectively applied to real-time web-based novel-view synthesis, offering a potential avenue for interactive and high-quality product visualization.