# Let it Snow! Animating 3D Gaussian Scenes with Dynamic Weather Effects via Physics-Guided Score Distillation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.05296 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05296/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 34 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Apr 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 34)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [CogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06072/) (2024)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [4D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Dynamic Scene Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08528/) (2023)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [Open3D: A Modern Library for 3D Data Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.09847/) (2018)
- [Instruct-NeRF2NeRF: Editing 3D Scenes with Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12789/) (2023)
- [Evaluating Text-to-Visual Generation with Image-to-Text Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01291/) (2024)
- [PhysGaussian: Physics-Integrated 3D Gaussians for Generative Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12198/) (2023)
- [GaussianEditor: Swift and Controllable 3D Editing with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.14521/) (2023)
- [Text-To-4D Dynamic Scene Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.11280/) (2023)
- [DreamGaussian4D: Generative 4D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.17142/) (2023)
- [PhysDreamer: Physics-Based Interaction with 3D Objects via Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13026/) (2024)
- [Align Your Gaussians: Text-to-4D with Dynamic 3D Gaussians and Composed Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.13763/) (2023)
- [GaussianEditor: Editing 3D Gaussians Delicately with Text Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16037/) (2023)
- [DreamEditor: Text-Driven 3D Scene Editing with Neural Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.13455/) (2023)
- [PAC-NeRF: Physics Augmented Continuum Neural Radiance Fields for Geometry-Agnostic System Identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05512/) (2023)
- [Vox-E: Text-guided Voxel Editing of 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12048/) (2023)
- [Animate124: Animating One Image to 4D Dynamic Scene](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.14603/) (2023)
- [GaussCtrl: Multi-View Consistent Text-Driven 3D Gaussian Splatting Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.08733/) (2024)
- [Noise-Free Score Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.17590/) (2023)
- [Feature Splatting: Language-Driven Physics-Based Scene Synthesis and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01223/) (2024)
- [DreamPhysics: Learning Physics-Based 3D Dynamics with Video Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01476/) (2024)
- [Rethinking Score Distillation as a Bridge Between Image Distributions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09417/) (2024)
- [ClimateNeRF: Extreme Weather Synthesis in Neural Radiance Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.13226/) (2022)
- [Gaussian Splashing: Unified Particles for Versatile Motion Synthesis and Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.15318/) (2024)
- [Instruct 4D-to-4D: Editing 4D Scenes as Pseudo-3D Scenes Using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09402/) (2024)
- [Through-The-Mask: Mask-based Motion Trajectories for Image-to-Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03059/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [RealX3D: A Physically-Degraded 3D Benchmark for Multi-view Visual Restoration and Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.23437/) (2025)
- [Controllable Weather Synthesis and Removal with Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.00704/) (2025)
- [Weather-Magician: Reconstruction and Rendering Framework for 4D Weather Synthesis In Real Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19919/) (2025)
- [WeatherCity: Urban Scene Reconstruction with Controllable Multi-Weather Transformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.22096/) (2026)
- [Semantic-Aware, Physics-Informed, Geometry-Grounded Weather Video Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29020/) (2026)
- [MV-Forcing: Long Multi-View Video Generation via 4D-Grounded Spatio-Temporal Self-Forcing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.05376/) (2026)
- [Make It Flow: Animating Water in 3D Gaussian Splatting Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.13860/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

3D Gaussian Splatting has recently enabled fast and photorealistic reconstruction of static 3D scenes. However, dynamic editing of such scenes remains a significant challenge. We introduce a novel framework, Physics-Guided Score Distillation, to address a fundamental conflict: physics simulation provides a strong motion prior that is insufficient for photorealism , while video-based Score Distillation Sampling (SDS) alone cannot generate coherent motion for complex, multi-particle scenarios. We resolve this through a unified optimization framework where physics simulation guides Score Distillation to jointly refine the motion prior for photorealism while simultaneously optimizing appearance. Specifically, we learn a neural dynamics model that predicts particle motion and appearance, optimized end-to-end via a combined loss integrating Video-SDS for photorealism with our physics-guidance prior. This allows for photorealistic refinements while ensuring the dynamics remain plausible. Our framework enables scene-wide dynamic weather effects, including snowfall, rainfall, fog, and sandstorms, with physically plausible motion. Experiments demonstrate our physics-guided approach significantly outperforms baselines, with ablations confirming this joint refinement is essential for generating coherent, high-fidelity dynamics.