# Reconstruction and Simulation of Elastic Objects with Spring-Mass 3D Gaussians

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.09434 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.09434/

## Key facts

- Cited by 97 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 43 of its 52 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 43)

- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Perceptual Losses for Real-Time Style Transfer and Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.08155/) (2016)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [Mip-NeRF: A Multiscale Representation for Anti-Aliasing Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13415/) (2021)
- [pixelNeRF: Neural Radiance Fields from One or Few Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.02190/) (2020)
- [D-NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields for Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13961/) (2020)
- [On the Continuity of Rotation Representations in Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.07035/) (2018)
- [Nerfies: Deformable Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12948/) (2020)
- [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)
- [Learning to Simulate Complex Physics with Graph Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.09405/) (2020)
- [Scene Representation Networks: Continuous 3D-Structure-Aware Neural Scene Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.01618/) (2019)
- [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)
- [Neural Scene Flow Fields for Space-Time View Synthesis of Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13084/) (2020)
- [MVSNeRF: Fast Generalizable Radiance Field Reconstruction from Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.15595/) (2021)
- [Dynamic 3D Gaussians: Tracking by Persistent Dynamic View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09713/) (2023)
- [Point-NeRF: Point-based Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.08845/) (2022)
- [Real-time Photorealistic Dynamic Scene Representation and Rendering with 4D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10642/) (2023)
- [Non-Rigid Neural Radiance Fields: Reconstruction and Novel View Synthesis of a Dynamic Scene From Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.12247/) (2020)
- [PhysGaussian: Physics-Integrated 3D Gaussians for Generative Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12198/) (2023)
- [SC-GS: Sparse-Controlled Gaussian Splatting for Editable Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14937/) (2023)
- [OmniObject3D: Large-Vocabulary 3D Object Dataset for Realistic Perception, Reconstruction and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.07525/) (2023)
- [DynIBaR: Neural Dynamic Image-Based Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.11082/) (2022)
- [Learning Particle Dynamics for Manipulating Rigid Bodies, Deformable Objects, and Fluids](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.01566/) (2018)
- [Gaussian-Flow: 4D Reconstruction with Dynamic 3D Gaussian Particle](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03431/) (2023)
- [Neural Rays for Occlusion-aware Image-based Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13421/) (2021)
- [PAC-NeRF: Physics Augmented Continuum Neural Radiance Fields for Geometry-Agnostic System Identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05512/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 97)

- [Recent Advances in 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11134/) (2024)
- [CAST: Component-Aligned 3D Scene Reconstruction from an RGB Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12894/) (2025)
- [PhysTwin: Physics-Informed Reconstruction and Simulation of Deformable Objects from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17973/) (2025)
- [RoboGSim: A Real2Sim2Real Robotic Gaussian Splatting Simulator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11839/) (2024)
- [Force Prompting: Video Generation Models Can Learn and Generalize Physics-based Control Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19386/) (2025)
- [GIC: Gaussian-Informed Continuum for Physical Property Identification and Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14927/) (2024)
- [PhysMotion: Physics-Grounded Dynamics From a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17189/) (2024)
- [WonderPlay: Dynamic 3D Scene Generation from a Single Image and Actions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18151/) (2025)
- [PhysX-3D: Physical-Grounded 3D Asset Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.12465/) (2025)
- [PhysCtrl: Generative Physics for Controllable and Physics-Grounded Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.20358/) (2025)
- [Physically Compatible 3D Object Modeling from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20510/) (2024)
- [Neural Material Adaptor for Visual Grounding of Intrinsic Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08257/) (2024)
- [Efficient Physics Simulation for 3D Scenes via MLLM-Guided Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.12789/) (2024)
- [Real-to-Sim Robot Policy Evaluation with Gaussian Splatting Simulation of Soft-Body Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.04665/) (2025)
- [LLM-as-a-Verifier: A General-Purpose Verification Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.05391/) (2026)
- [Particle-Grid Neural Dynamics for Learning Deformable Object Models from RGB-D Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.15680/) (2025)
- [Generative Physical AI in Vision: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.10928/) (2025)
- [Pixie: Fast and Generalizable Supervised Learning of 3D Physics from Pixels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.17437/) (2025)
- [Phys4DGen: Physics-Compliant 4D Generation with Multi-Material Composition Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16800/) (2024)
- [GaussianProperty: Integrating Physical Properties to 3D Gaussians with LMMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.11258/) (2024)
- [Neural Fields in Robotics: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.20220/) (2024)
- [FluidNexus: 3D Fluid Reconstruction and Prediction from a Single Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04720/) (2025)
- [Vid2Sim: Generalizable, Video-based Reconstruction of Appearance, Geometry and Physics for Mesh-free Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06440/) (2025)
- [A Survey on 3D Gaussian Splatting Applications: Segmentation, Editing, and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09977/) (2025)
- [FreeGave: 3D Physics Learning from Dynamic Videos by Gaussian Velocity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07865/) (2025)
- [Grounding Creativity in Physics: A Brief Survey of Physical Priors in AIGC](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07007/) (2025)
- [TRACE: Learning 3D Gaussian Physical Dynamics from Multi-view Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09811/) (2025)
- [PhysWorld: From Real Videos to World Models of Deformable Objects via Physics-Aware Demonstration Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.21447/) (2025)
- [MaGS: Reconstructing and Simulating Dynamic 3D Objects with Mesh-adsorbed Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01593/) (2024)
- [MASIV: Toward Material-Agnostic System Identification from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01112/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Reconstructing and simulating elastic objects from visual observations is crucial for applications in computer vision and robotics. Existing methods, such as 3D Gaussians, model 3D appearance and geometry, but lack the ability to estimate physical properties for objects and simulate them. The core challenge lies in integrating an expressive yet efficient physical dynamics model. We propose Spring-Gaus, a 3D physical object representation for reconstructing and simulating elastic objects from videos of the object from multiple viewpoints. In particular, we develop and integrate a 3D Spring-Mass model into 3D Gaussian kernels, enabling the reconstruction of the visual appearance, shape, and physical dynamics of the object. Our approach enables future prediction and simulation under various initial states and environmental properties. We evaluate Spring-Gaus on both synthetic and real-world datasets, demonstrating accurate reconstruction and simulation of elastic objects. Project page: https://zlicheng.com/spring_gaus/.