# Unified Gaussian Primitives for Scene Representation and Rendering

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09733 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09733/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Jun 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [EVER: Exact Volumetric Ellipsoid Rendering for Real-time View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01804/) (2024)
- [Does 3D Gaussian Splatting Need Accurate Volumetric Rendering?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19318/) (2025)
- [7DGS: Unified Spatial-Temporal-Angular Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.07946/) (2025)
- [TransparentGS: Fast Inverse Rendering of Transparent Objects with Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.18768/) (2025)
- [6DGS: Enhanced Direction-Aware Gaussian Splatting for Volumetric Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.04974/) (2024)
- [BiGS: Bidirectional Gaussian Primitives for Relightable 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.13370/) (2024)
- [2DGH: 2D Gaussian-Hermite Splatting for High-quality Rendering and Better Geometry Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.16982/) (2024)
- [Gabor Fields: Orientation-Selective Level-of-Detail for Volume Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.05081/) (2026)
- [EAG-PT: Emission-Aware Gaussians and Path Tracing for Diffuse Indoor Scene Reconstruction and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.23065/) (2026)
- [Projecting Gaussian Ellipsoids While Avoiding Affine Projection Approximation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07579/) (2024)
- [From Particles to Fields: Reframing Photon Mapping with Continuous Gaussian Photon Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.12459/) (2025)
- [TRON: Tracing Rays to Orchestrate a Neural Renderer for 3D Gaussian Reconstructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.11314/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Searching for a unified scene representation remains a research challenge in computer graphics. Traditional mesh-based representations are unsuitable for dense, fuzzy elements and introduce additional complexity for filtering and differentiable rendering. Conversely, voxel-based representations struggle to model hard surfaces and high-frequency details. We propose a general-purpose rendering primitive based on 3D Gaussian distributions for unified scene representation, featuring versatile appearance ranging from glossy surfaces to fuzzy elements, as well as physically based scattering to enable accurate global illumination. We formulate the rendering theory for the primitive based on non-exponential transport and derive efficient rendering operations to be compatible with Monte Carlo path tracing. The new representation can be converted from different sources, including meshes and 3D Gaussian splatting, and further refined via transmittance optimization thanks to its differentiability. We demonstrate the versatility of our representation in various rendering applications such as global illumination and appearance editing, while naturally supporting arbitrary lighting conditions. With suitable simplification, we further adapt our method to radiance field reconstruction and rendering. We conduct comprehensive comparisons of our representation with existing scene representations, highlighting its efficiency in capturing details and representing aggregate elements.