# GS-LiDAR: Generating Realistic LiDAR Point Clouds with Panoramic Gaussian Splatting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.13971 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13971/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jan 2025.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [RealEngine: Simulating Autonomous Driving in Realistic Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.16902/) (2025)
- [Scaling Up Occupancy-centric Driving Scene Generation: Dataset and Method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.22973/) (2025)
- [B'ezierGS: Dynamic Urban Scene Reconstruction with B'ezier Curve Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.22099/) (2025)
- [Splat-LOAM: Gaussian Splatting LiDAR Odometry and Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17491/) (2025)
- [SimULi: Real-Time LiDAR and Camera Simulation with Unscented Transforms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.12901/) (2025)
- [Industrial-Grade Sensor Simulation via Gaussian Splatting: A Modular Framework for Scalable Editing and Full-Stack Validation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.11731/) (2025)
- [LiDAR-GS++:Improving LiDAR Gaussian Reconstruction via Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.12304/) (2025)
- [OmniLiDAR: A Unified Diffusion Framework for Multi-Domain 3D LiDAR Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.13815/) (2026)
- [LiDAR-EVS: Enhance Extrapolated View Synthesis for 3D Gaussian Splatting with Pseudo-LiDAR Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.14763/) (2026)
- [Visual Relocalization from Sparse Views in Aliased and Low-Texture Environments via Novel View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.22147/) (2026)
- [Neural-MMGS: Multi-modal Neural Gaussian Splats for Large-Scale Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.17762/) (2025)
- [SurfelSoup: Learned Point Cloud Geometry Compression With a Probablistic SurfelTree Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00186/) (2026)
- [Resolving Mixed Single-Photon LiDAR Returns for Foreground-View and Hidden Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01206/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

LiDAR novel view synthesis (NVS) has emerged as a novel task within LiDAR simulation, offering valuable simulated point cloud data from novel viewpoints to aid in autonomous driving systems. However, existing LiDAR NVS methods typically rely on neural radiance fields (NeRF) as their 3D representation, which incurs significant computational costs in both training and rendering. Moreover, NeRF and its variants are designed for symmetrical scenes, making them ill-suited for driving scenarios. To address these challenges, we propose GS-LiDAR, a novel framework for generating realistic LiDAR point clouds with panoramic Gaussian splatting. Our approach employs 2D Gaussian primitives with periodic vibration properties, allowing for precise geometric reconstruction of both static and dynamic elements in driving scenarios. We further introduce a novel panoramic rendering technique with explicit ray-splat intersection, guided by panoramic LiDAR supervision. By incorporating intensity and ray-drop spherical harmonic (SH) coefficients into the Gaussian primitives, we enhance the realism of the rendered point clouds. Extensive experiments on KITTI-360 and nuScenes demonstrate the superiority of our method in terms of quantitative metrics, visual quality, as well as training and rendering efficiency.