# Topology-Aware Optimization of Gaussian Primitives for Human-Centric Volumetric Videos

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.07653 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.07653/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 9 Sep 2025.

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

- [Relightable Holoported Characters: Capturing and Relighting Dynamic Human Performance from Sparse Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.00255/) (2025)
- [High-Fidelity Mobile Avatars with Pruned Local Blendshapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.01854/) (2026)
- [TagSplat: Topology-Aware Gaussian Splatting for Dynamic Mesh Modeling and Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01329/) (2025)
- [CAGS: Color-Adaptive Volumetric Video Streaming with Dynamic 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.09279/) (2026)
- [4DAnyone: Create Anyone in 4D from a Casual Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.20335/) (2026)
- [Director: Instance-aware Gaussian Splatting for Dynamic Scene Modeling and Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.01678/) (2026)
- [AvatarDynamizer: From Static to Dynamic Human Avatars via Generative Dynamic Textures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19900/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Volumetric video is emerging as a key medium for digitizing the dynamic physical world, creating the virtual environments with six degrees of freedom to deliver immersive user experiences. However, robustly modeling general dynamic scenes, especially those involving topological changes while maintaining long-term tracking remains a fundamental challenge. In this paper, we present TaoGS, a novel topology-aware dynamic Gaussian representation that disentangles motion and appearance to support, both, long-range tracking and topological adaptation. We represent scene motion with a sparse set of motion Gaussians, which are continuously updated by a spatio-temporal tracker and photometric cues that detect structural variations across frames. To capture fine-grained texture, each motion Gaussian anchors and dynamically activates a set of local appearance Gaussians, which are non-rigidly warped to the current frame to provide strong initialization and significantly reduce training time. This activation mechanism enables efficient modeling of detailed textures and maintains temporal coherence, allowing high-fidelity rendering even under challenging scenarios such as changing clothes. To enable seamless integration into codec-based volumetric formats, we introduce a global Gaussian Lookup Table that records the lifespan of each Gaussian and organizes attributes into a lifespan-aware 2D layout. This structure aligns naturally with standard video codecs and supports up to 40 compression. TaoGS provides a unified, adaptive solution for scalable volumetric video under topological variation, capturing moments where "elegance in motion" and "Power in Stillness", delivering immersive experiences that harmonize with the physical world.