# Spec-Gaussian: Anisotropic View-Dependent Appearance for 3D Gaussian Splatting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.15870 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.15870/

## Key facts

- Cited by 74 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 58 of its 81 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Feb 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 58)

- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [Mip-NeRF: A Multiscale Representation for Anti-Aliasing Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13415/) (2021)
- [NeuS: Learning Neural Implicit Surfaces by Volume Rendering for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10689/) (2021)
- [TensoRF: Tensorial Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09517/) (2022)
- [4D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Dynamic Scene Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08528/) (2023)
- [Direct Voxel Grid Optimization: Super-fast Convergence for Radiance Fields Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11215/) (2021)
- [Neural Sparse Voxel Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11571/) (2020)
- [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)
- [Depth-supervised NeRF: Fewer Views and Faster Training for Free](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02791/) (2021)
- [Scaffold-GS: Structured 3D Gaussians for View-Adaptive Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00109/) (2023)
- [KiloNeRF: Speeding up Neural Radiance Fields with Thousands of Tiny MLPs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13744/) (2021)
- [Zip-NeRF: Anti-Aliased Grid-Based Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.06706/) (2023)
- [BARF: Bundle-Adjusting Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.06405/) (2021)
- [Ref-NeRF: Structured View-Dependent Appearance for Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03907/) (2021)
- [FastNeRF: High-Fidelity Neural Rendering at 200FPS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.10380/) (2021)
- [NeRV: Neural Reflectance and Visibility Fields for Relighting and View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.03927/) (2020)
- [Real-time Photorealistic Dynamic Scene Representation and Rendering with 4D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10642/) (2023)
- [Baking Neural Radiance Fields for Real-Time View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14645/) (2021)
- [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)
- [Extracting Triangular 3D Models, Materials, and Lighting From Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12503/) (2021)
- [SC-GS: Sparse-Controlled Gaussian Splatting for Editable Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14937/) (2023)
- [Spacetime Gaussian Feature Splatting for Real-Time Dynamic View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16812/) (2023)
- [ReconFusion: 3D Reconstruction with Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02981/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 74)

- [Recent Advances in 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11134/) (2024)
- [Revising Densification in Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.06109/) (2024)
- [Gaussian in the Wild: 3D Gaussian Splatting for Unconstrained Image Collections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15704/) (2024)
- [Pixel-GS: Density Control with Pixel-aware Gradient for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15530/) (2024)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting: Survey, Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17418/) (2024)
- [LUDVIG: Learning-Free Uplifting of 2D Visual Features to Gaussian Splatting Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14462/) (2024)
- [Instant Gaussian Stream: Fast and Generalizable Streaming of Dynamic Scene Reconstruction via Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16979/) (2025)
- [Splatter a Video: Video Gaussian Representation for Versatile Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13870/) (2024)
- [Ref-GS: Directional Factorization for 2D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00905/) (2024)
- [GauStudio: A Modular Framework for 3D Gaussian Splatting and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.19632/) (2024)
- [SpectroMotion: Dynamic 3D Reconstruction of Specular Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.17249/) (2024)
- [MirrorGaussian: Reflecting 3D Gaussians for Reconstructing Mirror Reflections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.11921/) (2024)
- [GaussianSR: 3D Gaussian Super-Resolution with 2D Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10111/) (2024)
- [A Survey on 3D Gaussian Splatting Applications: Segmentation, Editing, and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09977/) (2025)
- [D-MiSo: Editing Dynamic 3D Scenes using Multi-Gaussians Soup](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14276/) (2024)
- [LoopSparseGS: Loop Based Sparse-View Friendly Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00254/) (2024)
- [Advancing Extended Reality with 3D Gaussian Splatting: Innovations and Prospects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06257/) (2024)
- [Deformable Radial Kernel Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.11752/) (2024)
- [SurFhead: Affine Rig Blending for Geometrically Accurate 2D Gaussian Surfel Head Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11682/) (2024)
- [TSGS: Improving Gaussian Splatting for Transparent Surface Reconstruction via Normal and De-lighting Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12799/) (2025)
- [Efficient Density Control for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.10133/) (2024)
- [DisC-GS: Discontinuity-aware Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15196/) (2024)
- [HyperGS: Hyperspectral 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12849/) (2024)
- [3D Gaussian Inverse Rendering with Approximated Global Illumination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01358/) (2025)
- [Normal-GS: 3D Gaussian Splatting with Normal-Involved Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.20593/) (2024)
- [2DGH: 2D Gaussian-Hermite Splatting for High-quality Rendering and Better Geometry Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.16982/) (2024)
- [Content-Aware Texturing for Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.02621/) (2025)
- [Car-GS: Addressing Reflective and Transparent Surface Challenges in 3D Car Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.11020/) (2025)
- [Micro-splatting: Multistage Isotropy-informed Covariance Regularization Optimization for High-Fidelity 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05740/) (2025)
- [Towards Realistic Example-based Modeling via 3D Gaussian Stitching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15708/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The recent advancements in 3D Gaussian splatting (3D-GS) have not only facilitated real-time rendering through modern GPU rasterization pipelines but have also attained state-of-the-art rendering quality. Nevertheless, despite its exceptional rendering quality and performance on standard datasets, 3D-GS frequently encounters difficulties in accurately modeling specular and anisotropic components. This issue stems from the limited ability of spherical harmonics (SH) to represent high-frequency information. To overcome this challenge, we introduce Spec-Gaussian, an approach that utilizes an anisotropic spherical Gaussian (ASG) appearance field instead of SH for modeling the view-dependent appearance of each 3D Gaussian. Additionally, we have developed a coarse-to-fine training strategy to improve learning efficiency and eliminate floaters caused by overfitting in real-world scenes. Our experimental results demonstrate that our method surpasses existing approaches in terms of rendering quality. Thanks to ASG, we have significantly improved the ability of 3D-GS to model scenes with specular and anisotropic components without increasing the number of 3D Gaussians. This improvement extends the applicability of 3D GS to handle intricate scenarios with specular and anisotropic surfaces. Project page is https://ingra14m.github.io/Spec-Gaussian-website/.