# 3DGS.zip: A survey on 3D Gaussian Splatting Compression Methods

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.09510 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.09510/

## Key facts

- Cited by 69 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 33 of its 61 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Jun 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [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)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [PlenOctrees for Real-time Rendering of Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14024/) (2021)
- [K-Planes: Explicit Radiance Fields in Space, Time, and Appearance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.10241/) (2023)
- [Scaffold-GS: Structured 3D Gaussians for View-Adaptive Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00109/) (2023)
- [Zip-NeRF: Anti-Aliased Grid-Based Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.06706/) (2023)
- [LightGaussian: Unbounded 3D Gaussian Compression with 15x Reduction and 200+ FPS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17245/) (2023)
- [Compact 3D Gaussian Representation for Radiance Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13681/) (2023)
- [Compressed 3D Gaussian Splatting for Accelerated Novel View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.02436/) (2023)
- [Octree-GS: Towards Consistent Real-time Rendering with LOD-Structured 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17898/) (2024)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting as Markov Chain Monte Carlo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09591/) (2024)
- [Mini-Splatting: Representing Scenes with a Constrained Number of Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14166/) (2024)
- [HAC: Hash-grid Assisted Context for 3D Gaussian Splatting Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14530/) (2024)
- [GaussianPro: 3D Gaussian Splatting with Progressive Propagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14650/) (2024)
- [EAGLES: Efficient Accelerated 3D Gaussians with Lightweight EncodingS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04564/) (2023)
- [Compact 3D Scene Representation via Self-Organizing Gaussian Grids](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.13299/) (2023)
- [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)
- [Pixel-GS: Density Control with Pixel-aware Gradient for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15530/) (2024)
- [FreGS: 3D Gaussian Splatting with Progressive Frequency Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06908/) (2024)
- [3D Gaussian as a New Era: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07181/) (2024)
- [ContextGS: Compact 3D Gaussian Splatting with Anchor Level Context Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20721/) (2024)
- [CompGS: Efficient 3D Scene Representation via Compressed Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09458/) (2024)
- [End-to-End Rate-Distortion Optimized 3D Gaussian Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01597/) (2024)
- [Compressing Volumetric Radiance Fields to 1 MB](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.16386/) (2022)
- [Spectrally Pruned Gaussian Fields with Neural Compensation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.00676/) (2024)
- [How Far Can We Compress Instant-NGP-Based NeRF?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04101/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 69)

- [Textured Gaussians for Enhanced 3D Scene Appearance Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.18625/) (2024)
- [Efficient Perspective-Correct 3D Gaussian Splatting Using Hybrid Transparency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08129/) (2024)
- [Compression of 3D Gaussian Splatting with Optimized Feature Planes and Standard Video Codecs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03399/) (2025)
- [PCGS: Progressive Compression of 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08511/) (2025)
- [StochasticSplats: Stochastic Rasterization for Sorting-Free 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.24366/) (2025)
- [A Survey on 3D Gaussian Splatting Applications: Segmentation, Editing, and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09977/) (2025)
- [Faster-GS: Analyzing and Improving Gaussian Splatting Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.09999/) (2026)
- [6DGS: Enhanced Direction-Aware Gaussian Splatting for Volumetric Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.04974/) (2024)
- [NeRF Is a Valuable Assistant for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.23374/) (2025)
- [GoDe: Gaussians on Demand for Progressive Level of Detail and Scalable Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13558/) (2025)
- [CF3: Compact and Fast 3D Feature Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.05254/) (2025)
- [Gaussian Herding across Pens: An Optimal Transport Perspective on Global Gaussian Reduction for 3DGS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09534/) (2025)
- [Improving Adaptive Density Control for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14274/) (2025)
- [Multi-Layer Gaussian Splatting for Immersive Anatomy Visualization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16978/) (2024)
- [SizeGS: Size-aware Compression of 3D Gaussian Splatting via Mixed Integer Programming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.05808/) (2024)
- [Compressing 3D Gaussian Splatting by Noise-Substituted Vector Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03059/) (2025)
- [Feed-Forward 3D Gaussian Splatting Compression with Long-Context Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.00877/) (2025)
- [Content-Aware Texturing for Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.02621/) (2025)
- [Dropping Anchor and Spherical Harmonics for Sparse-view Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.20933/) (2026)
- [Prune Wisely, Reconstruct Sharply: Compact 3D Gaussian Splatting via Adaptive Pruning and Difference-of-Gaussian Primitives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.24136/) (2026)
- [FlexGS: Train Once, Deploy Everywhere with Many-in-One Flexible 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04174/) (2025)
- [Towards Integrating Multi-Spectral Imaging with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.00989/) (2025)
- [POTR: Post-Training 3DGS Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.14821/) (2026)
- [GaussianPOP: Principled Simplification Framework for Compact 3D Gaussian Splatting via Error Quantification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06830/) (2026)
- [AI-Driven Innovations in Volumetric Video Streaming: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12208/) (2024)
- [4D-MoDe: Towards Editable and Scalable Volumetric Streaming via Motion-Decoupled 4D Gaussian Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.17506/) (2025)
- [BalanceGS: Algorithm-System Co-design for Efficient 3D Gaussian Splatting Training on GPU](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.14564/) (2025)
- [Splatwizard: A Benchmark Toolkit for 3D Gaussian Splatting Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.24742/) (2025)
- [NanoGS: Training-Free Gaussian Splat Simplification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16103/) (2026)
- [DOC-GS: Dual-Domain Observation and Calibration for Reliable Sparse-View Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.06739/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) has emerged as a cutting-edge technique for real-time radiance field rendering, offering state-of-the-art performance in terms of both quality and speed. 3DGS models a scene as a collection of three-dimensional Gaussians, with additional attributes optimized to conform to the scene's geometric and visual properties. Despite its advantages in rendering speed and image fidelity, 3DGS is limited by its significant storage and memory demands. These high demands make 3DGS impractical for mobile devices or headsets, reducing its applicability in important areas of computer graphics. To address these challenges and advance the practicality of 3DGS, this survey provides a comprehensive and detailed examination of compression and compaction techniques developed to make 3DGS more efficient. We classify existing methods into two categories: compression, which focuses on reducing file size, and compaction, which aims to minimize the number of Gaussians. Both methods aim to maintain or improve quality, each by minimizing its respective attribute: file size for compression and Gaussian count for compaction. We introduce the basic mathematical concepts underlying the analyzed methods, as well as key implementation details and design choices. Our report thoroughly discusses similarities and differences among the methods, as well as their respective advantages and disadvantages. We establish a consistent framework for comparing the surveyed methods based on key performance metrics and datasets. Specifically, since these methods have been developed in parallel and over a short period of time, currently, no comprehensive comparison exists. This survey, for the first time, presents a unified framework to evaluate 3DGS compression techniques. We maintain a website that will be regularly updated with emerging methods: https://w-m.github.io/3dgs-compression-survey/ .