# 3DGSR: Implicit Surface Reconstruction with 3D Gaussian Splatting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.00409 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.00409/

## Key facts

- Cited by 79 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 35 of its 69 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 35)

- [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: 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)
- [Plenoxels: Radiance Fields without Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05131/) (2021)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [Volume Rendering of Neural Implicit Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.12052/) (2021)
- [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)
- [Scene Representation Networks: Continuous 3D-Structure-Aware Neural Scene Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.01618/) (2019)
- [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)
- [Implicit Geometric Regularization for Learning Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.10099/) (2020)
- [Differentiable Volumetric Rendering: Learning Implicit 3D Representations without 3D Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.07372/) (2019)
- [SuGaR: Surface-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Mesh Reconstruction and High-Quality Mesh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12775/) (2023)
- [Real-time Photorealistic Dynamic Scene Representation and Rendering with 4D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10642/) (2023)
- [Neuralangelo: High-Fidelity Neural Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03092/) (2023)
- [SC-GS: Sparse-Controlled Gaussian Splatting for Editable Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14937/) (2023)
- [Neural Point-Based Graphics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.08240/) (2019)
- [NeuS2: Fast Learning of Neural Implicit Surfaces for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05231/) (2022)
- [Differentiable Surface Splatting for Point-based Geometry Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.04173/) (2019)
- [BakedSDF: Meshing Neural SDFs for Real-Time View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.14859/) (2023)
- [Neural Volumes: Learning Dynamic Renderable Volumes from Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.07751/) (2019)
- [NeRO: Neural Geometry and BRDF Reconstruction of Reflective Objects from Multiview Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17398/) (2023)
- [SDFDiff: Differentiable Rendering of Signed Distance Fields for 3D Shape Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.07109/) (2019)
- [NeuSG: Neural Implicit Surface Reconstruction with 3D Gaussian Splatting Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00846/) (2023)
- [Drivable 3D Gaussian Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.08581/) (2023)
- [Delicate Textured Mesh Recovery from NeRF via Adaptive Surface Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.02091/) (2023)
- [Neural Lumigraph Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.11571/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 79)

- [RaDe-GS: Rasterizing Depth in Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01467/) (2024)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting: Survey, Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17418/) (2024)
- [Neural Signed Distance Function Inference through Splatting 3D Gaussians Pulled on Zero-Level Set](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14189/) (2024)
- [GeoSplatting: Towards Geometry Guided Gaussian Splatting for Physically-based Inverse Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.24204/) (2024)
- [MAtCha Gaussians: Atlas of Charts for High-Quality Geometry and Photorealism From Sparse Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06767/) (2024)
- [GausSurf: Geometry-Guided 3D Gaussian Splatting for Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.19454/) (2024)
- [Deformable Radial Kernel Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.11752/) (2024)
- [GeoSVR: Taming Sparse Voxels for Geometrically Accurate Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18090/) (2025)
- [GaussianUDF: Inferring Unsigned Distance Functions through 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19458/) (2025)
- [LightSwitch: Multi-view Relighting with Material-guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06494/) (2025)
- [Gaussian Splatting with Discretized SDF for Relightable Assets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15629/) (2025)
- [ProEdit: Simple Progression is All You Need for High-Quality 3D Scene Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.05006/) (2024)
- [Revisiting Depth Representations for Feed-Forward 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05327/) (2025)
- [Dynamic 2D Gaussians: Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields for Dynamic Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14072/) (2024)
- [MonoGSDF: Exploring Monocular Geometric Cues for Gaussian Splatting-Guided Implicit Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16898/) (2024)
- [PINGS: Gaussian Splatting Meets Distance Fields within a Point-Based Implicit Neural Map](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.05752/) (2025)
- [VoxelSplat: Dynamic Gaussian Splatting as an Effective Loss for Occupancy and Flow Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05563/) (2025)
- [Learning-based 3D Reconstruction in Autonomous Driving: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14537/) (2025)
- [SparseRecon: Neural Implicit Surface Reconstruction from Sparse Views with Feature and Depth Consistencies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00366/) (2025)
- [GS-SDF: LiDAR-Augmented Gaussian Splatting and Neural SDF for Geometrically Consistent Rendering and Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10170/) (2025)
- [PolGS: Polarimetric Gaussian Splatting for Fast Reflective Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19726/) (2025)
- [GSurf: Learning Signed Distance Fields from Splatting Opaque Gaussians for High-quality 3D Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15723/) (2024)
- [SOF: Sorted Opacity Fields for Fast Unbounded Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19139/) (2025)
- [GS-Octree: Octree-based 3D Gaussian Splatting for Robust Object-level 3D Reconstruction Under Strong Lighting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.18199/) (2024)
- [HaloGS: Loose Coupling of Compact Geometry and Gaussian Splats for 3D Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.20267/) (2025)
- [SurfaceSplat: Connecting Surface Reconstruction and Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15602/) (2025)
- [VA-GS: Enhancing the Geometric Representation of Gaussian Splatting via View Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11473/) (2025)
- [SplatSDF: Boosting SDF-NeRF via Architecture-Level Fusion with Gaussian Splats](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15468/) (2024)
- [Laplace-Beltrami Operator for Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.17531/) (2025)
- [From Pixels to Polygons: A Survey of Deep Learning Approaches for Medical Image-to-Mesh Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.03599/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper, we present an implicit surface reconstruction method with 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), namely 3DGSR, that allows for accurate 3D reconstruction with intricate details while inheriting the high efficiency and rendering quality of 3DGS. The key insight is incorporating an implicit signed distance field (SDF) within 3D Gaussians to enable them to be aligned and jointly optimized. First, we introduce a differentiable SDF-to-opacity transformation function that converts SDF values into corresponding Gaussians' opacities. This function connects the SDF and 3D Gaussians, allowing for unified optimization and enforcing surface constraints on the 3D Gaussians. During learning, optimizing the 3D Gaussians provides supervisory signals for SDF learning, enabling the reconstruction of intricate details. However, this only provides sparse supervisory signals to the SDF at locations occupied by Gaussians, which is insufficient for learning a continuous SDF. Then, to address this limitation, we incorporate volumetric rendering and align the rendered geometric attributes (depth, normal) with those derived from 3D Gaussians. This consistency regularization introduces supervisory signals to locations not covered by discrete 3D Gaussians, effectively eliminating redundant surfaces outside the Gaussian sampling range. Our extensive experimental results demonstrate that our 3DGSR method enables high-quality 3D surface reconstruction while preserving the efficiency and rendering quality of 3DGS. Besides, our method competes favorably with leading surface reconstruction techniques while offering a more efficient learning process and much better rendering qualities. The code will be available at https://github.com/CVMI-Lab/3DGSR.