# Evaluating Alternatives to SFM Point Cloud Initialization for Gaussian Splatting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12547 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.12547/

## Key facts

- Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 35 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 Apr 2024.

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

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [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)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [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)
- [Plenoxels: Radiance Fields without Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05131/) (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)
- [Learning Implicit Fields for Generative Shape Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02822/) (2018)
- [ORB-SLAM: a Versatile and Accurate Monocular SLAM System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1502.00956/) (2015)
- [Neural Sparse Voxel Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11571/) (2020)
- [The Replica Dataset: A Digital Replica of Indoor Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05797/) (2019)
- [ORB-SLAM3: An Accurate Open-Source Library for Visual, Visual-Inertial and Multi-Map SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11898/) (2020)
- [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)
- [Depth-supervised NeRF: Fewer Views and Faster Training for Free](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02791/) (2021)
- [pixelSplat: 3D Gaussian Splats from Image Pairs for Scalable Generalizable 3D Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.12337/) (2023)
- [Mip-Splatting: Alias-free 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16493/) (2023)
- [RegNeRF: Regularizing Neural Radiance Fields for View Synthesis from Sparse Inputs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00724/) (2021)
- [Dense Depth Priors for Neural Radiance Fields from Sparse Input Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03288/) (2021)
- [GS-SLAM: Dense Visual SLAM with 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.11700/) (2023)
- [Triplane Meets Gaussian Splatting: Fast and Generalizable Single-View 3D Reconstruction with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09147/) (2023)
- [DONeRF: Towards Real-Time Rendering of Compact Neural Radiance Fields using Depth Oracle Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.03231/) (2021)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting as Markov Chain Monte Carlo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09591/) (2024)
- [COLMAP-Free 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07504/) (2023)
- [HUGS: Human Gaussian Splats](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17910/) (2023)
- [Gaussian-SLAM: Photo-realistic Dense SLAM with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10070/) (2023)
- [Multi-Scale 3D Gaussian Splatting for Anti-Aliased Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17089/) (2023)
- [RadSplat: Radiance Field-Informed Gaussian Splatting for Robust Real-Time Rendering with 900+ FPS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.13806/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Turbo-GS: Accelerating 3D Gaussian Fitting for High-Quality Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13547/) (2024)
- [GaussFusion: Improving 3D Reconstruction in the Wild with A Geometry-Informed Video Generator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.25053/) (2026)
- [ConeGS: Error-Guided Densification Using Pixel Cones for Improved Reconstruction With Fewer Primitives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.06810/) (2025)
- [Exploring Dynamic Novel View Synthesis Technologies for Cinematography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17532/) (2024)
- [DBMovi-GS: Dynamic View Synthesis from Blurry Monocular Video via Sparse-Controlled Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.20998/) (2025)
- [Reconstructing Tornadoes in 3D with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.18677/) (2025)
- [The Role of Initialization in 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.20714/) (2026)
- [RouteBridge: Reliability-Routed Bidirectional Distillation Between Neural Radiance Fields and 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.09606/) (2026)
- [Is Gaussian Splatting Becoming Neural Again? A Taxonomy and Controlled Study of Learned Parameterization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.12395/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

3D Gaussian Splatting has recently been embraced as a versatile and effective method for scene reconstruction and novel view synthesis, owing to its high-quality results and compatibility with hardware rasterization. Despite its advantages, Gaussian Splatting's reliance on high-quality point cloud initialization by Structure-from-Motion (SFM) algorithms is a significant limitation to be overcome. To this end, we investigate various initialization strategies for Gaussian Splatting and delve into how volumetric reconstructions from Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) can be utilized to bypass the dependency on SFM data. Our findings demonstrate that random initialization can perform much better if carefully designed and that by employing a combination of improved initialization strategies and structure distillation from low-cost NeRF models, it is possible to achieve equivalent results, or at times even superior, to those obtained from SFM initialization. Source code is available at https://theialab.github.io/nerf-3dgs .