# Mesh-based Gaussian Splatting for Real-time Large-scale Deformation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.04796 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.04796/

## Key facts

- Cited by 28 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 52 of its 74 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Feb 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 52)

- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.00593/) (2016)
- [PointNet++: Deep Hierarchical Feature Learning on Point Sets in a Metric Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02413/) (2017)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03828/) (2018)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [NeuS: Learning Neural Implicit Surfaces by Volume Rendering for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10689/) (2021)
- [Plenoxels: Radiance Fields without Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05131/) (2021)
- [Zero-1-to-3: Zero-shot One Image to 3D Object](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11328/) (2023)
- [D-NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields for Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13961/) (2020)
- [Learning Implicit Fields for Generative Shape Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02822/) (2018)
- [A Point Set Generation Network for 3D Object Reconstruction from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.00603/) (2016)
- [PlenOctrees for Real-time Rendering of Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14024/) (2021)
- [DreamGaussian: Generative Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16653/) (2023)
- [Deformable 3D Gaussians for High-Fidelity Monocular Dynamic Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.13101/) (2023)
- [Dynamic 3D Gaussians: Tracking by Persistent Dynamic View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09713/) (2023)
- [Pixel2Mesh: Generating 3D Mesh Models from Single RGB Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.01654/) (2018)
- [Neural Body: Implicit Neural Representations with Structured Latent Codes for Novel View Synthesis of Dynamic Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.15838/) (2020)
- [SuGaR: Surface-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Mesh Reconstruction and High-Quality Mesh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12775/) (2023)
- [3D-R2N2: A Unified Approach for Single and Multi-view 3D Object Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.00449/) (2016)
- [Learning a Probabilistic Latent Space of Object Shapes via 3D Generative-Adversarial Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.07584/) (2016)
- [Instruct-NeRF2NeRF: Editing 3D Scenes with Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12789/) (2023)
- [Neuralangelo: High-Fidelity Neural Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03092/) (2023)
- [PhysGaussian: Physics-Integrated 3D Gaussians for Generative Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12198/) (2023)
- [Decomposing NeRF for Editing via Feature Field Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.15585/) (2022)
- [CLIP-NeRF: Text-and-Image Driven Manipulation of Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05139/) (2021)
- [SC-GS: Sparse-Controlled Gaussian Splatting for Editable Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14937/) (2023)
- [Implicit Functions in Feature Space for 3D Shape Reconstruction and Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.01456/) (2020)
- [NeuS2: Fast Learning of Neural Implicit Surfaces for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05231/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [Recent Advances in 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11134/) (2024)
- [3D Gaussian as a New Era: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07181/) (2024)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting: Survey, Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17418/) (2024)
- [ArticulatedGS: Self-supervised Digital Twin Modeling of Articulated Objects using 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08135/) (2025)
- [4D LangSplat: 4D Language Gaussian Splatting via Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10437/) (2025)
- [DRAWER: Digital Reconstruction and Articulation With Environment Realism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.15278/) (2025)
- [StylizedGS: Controllable Stylization for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.05220/) (2024)
- [Mani-GS: Gaussian Splatting Manipulation with Triangular Mesh](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17811/) (2024)
- [Beyond Gaussians: Fast and High-Fidelity 3D Splatting with Linear Kernels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.12440/) (2024)
- [D-MiSo: Editing Dynamic 3D Scenes using Multi-Gaussians Soup](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14276/) (2024)
- [GaussianTalker: Real-Time High-Fidelity Talking Head Synthesis with Audio-Driven 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16012/) (2024)
- [VeGaS: Video Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11024/) (2024)
- [Self-supervised Learning of Hybrid Part-aware 3D Representations of 2D Gaussians and Superquadrics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.10789/) (2024)
- [Cloth-Splatting: 3D Cloth State Estimation from RGB Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.01715/) (2025)
- [VTGaussian-SLAM: RGBD SLAM for Large Scale Scenes with Splatting View-Tied 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02741/) (2025)
- [AG2aussian: Anchor-Graph Structured Gaussian Splatting for Instance-Level 3D Scene Understanding and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01740/) (2025)
- [GSDeformer: Direct, Real-time and Extensible Cage-based Deformation for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15491/) (2024)
- [Sketch-guided Cage-based 3D Gaussian Splatting Deformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.12168/) (2024)
- [Hybrid Mesh-Gaussian Representation for Efficient Indoor Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06988/) (2025)
- [Virtual Memory for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19415/) (2025)
- [Tessellation GS: Neural Mesh Gaussians for Robust Monocular Reconstruction of Dynamic Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07381/) (2025)
- [SGAD-SLAM: Splatting Gaussians at Adjusted Depth for Better Radiance Fields in RGBD SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.21055/) (2026)
- [Handle-based Mesh Deformation Guided By Vision Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04562/) (2025)
- [Disentangled Geometry and Appearance for Efficient Multi-View Surface Reconstruction and Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.17436/) (2025)
- [Improving Multi-View Reconstruction via Texture-Guided Gaussian-Mesh Joint Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.03950/) (2025)
- [GSM-GS: Geometry-Constrained Single and Multi-view Gaussian Splatting for Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.12796/) (2026)
- [Monocular Endoscopic Tissue 3D Reconstruction with Multi-Level Geometry Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.20718/) (2026)
- [P-CORE: Self-Supervised Surface Consistency for Point-Based Neural Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.03349/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Neural implicit representations, including Neural Distance Fields and Neural Radiance Fields, have demonstrated significant capabilities for reconstructing surfaces with complicated geometry and topology, and generating novel views of a scene. Nevertheless, it is challenging for users to directly deform or manipulate these implicit representations with large deformations in the real-time fashion. Gaussian Splatting(GS) has recently become a promising method with explicit geometry for representing static scenes and facilitating high-quality and real-time synthesis of novel views. However,it cannot be easily deformed due to the use of discrete Gaussians and lack of explicit topology. To address this, we develop a novel GS-based method that enables interactive deformation. Our key idea is to design an innovative mesh-based GS representation, which is integrated into Gaussian learning and manipulation. 3D Gaussians are defined over an explicit mesh, and they are bound with each other: the rendering of 3D Gaussians guides the mesh face split for adaptive refinement, and the mesh face split directs the splitting of 3D Gaussians. Moreover, the explicit mesh constraints help regularize the Gaussian distribution, suppressing poor-quality Gaussians(e.g. misaligned Gaussians,long-narrow shaped Gaussians), thus enhancing visual quality and avoiding artifacts during deformation. Based on this representation, we further introduce a large-scale Gaussian deformation technique to enable deformable GS, which alters the parameters of 3D Gaussians according to the manipulation of the associated mesh. Our method benefits from existing mesh deformation datasets for more realistic data-driven Gaussian deformation. Extensive experiments show that our approach achieves high-quality reconstruction and effective deformation, while maintaining the promising rendering results at a high frame rate(65 FPS on average).