# VRGaussianAvatar: Integrating 3D Gaussian Avatars into VR

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.01674 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.01674/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 43 of its 71 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Feb 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 43)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [End-to-end Recovery of Human Shape and Pose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.06584/) (2017)
- [DreamGaussian: Generative Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16653/) (2023)
- [LGM: Large Multi-View Gaussian Model for High-Resolution 3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05054/) (2024)
- [VIBE: Video Inference for Human Body Pose and Shape Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.05656/) (2019)
- [Learning an Animatable Detailed 3D Face Model from In-The-Wild Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04012/) (2020)
- [GaussianAvatars: Photorealistic Head Avatars with Rigged 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02069/) (2023)
- [Video Based Reconstruction of 3D People Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.04758/) (2018)
- [3DGS-Avatar: Animatable Avatars via Deformable 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09228/) (2023)
- [VR-GS: A Physical Dynamics-Aware Interactive Gaussian Splatting System in Virtual Reality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.16663/) (2024)
- [SMPLer-X: Scaling Up Expressive Human Pose and Shape Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.17448/) (2023)
- [InstantAvatar: Learning Avatars from Monocular Video in 60 Seconds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10550/) (2022)
- [Reconstructing Personalized Semantic Facial NeRF Models From Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.06108/) (2022)
- [Human Gaussian Splatting: Real-time Rendering of Animatable Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17113/) (2023)
- [MonoGaussianAvatar: Monocular Gaussian Point-based Head Avatar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04558/) (2023)
- [Expressive Whole-Body 3D Gaussian Avatar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21686/) (2024)
- [SHERF: Generalizable Human NeRF from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12791/) (2023)
- [MonoHuman: Animatable Human Neural Field from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02001/) (2023)
- [AvatarReX: Real-time Expressive Full-body Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.04789/) (2023)
- [LHM: Large Animatable Human Reconstruction Model from a Single Image in Seconds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10625/) (2025)
- [HeadGAP: Few-Shot 3D Head Avatar via Generalizable Gaussian Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06019/) (2024)
- [LAM: Large Avatar Model for One-shot Animatable Gaussian Head](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.17796/) (2025)
- [VOODOO 3D: Volumetric Portrait Disentanglement for One-Shot 3D Head Reenactment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04651/) (2023)
- [FATE: Full-head Gaussian Avatar with Textural Editing from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15604/) (2024)
- [SMPLest-X: Ultimate Scaling for Expressive Human Pose and Shape Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09782/) (2025)
- [TexMesh: Reconstructing Detailed Human Texture and Geometry from RGB-D Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.00158/) (2020)
- [VividDream: Generating 3D Scene with Ambient Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20334/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [S-Avatar: Diffusion-Guided Gaussian Head Avatars from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.28164/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present VRGaussianAvatar, an integrated system that enables real-time full-body 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) avatars in virtual reality using only head-mounted display (HMD) tracking signals. The system adopts a parallel pipeline with a VR Frontend and a GA Backend. The VR Frontend uses inverse kinematics to estimate full-body pose and streams the resulting pose along with stereo camera parameters to the backend. The GA Backend stereoscopically renders a 3DGS avatar reconstructed from a single image. To improve stereo rendering efficiency, we introduce Binocular Batching, which jointly processes left and right eye views in a single batched pass to reduce redundant computation and support high-resolution VR displays. We evaluate VRGaussianAvatar with quantitative performance tests and a within-subject user study against image- and video-based mesh avatar baselines. Results show that VRGaussianAvatar sustains interactive VR performance and yields higher perceived appearance similarity, embodiment, and plausibility. Project page and source code are available at https://vrgaussianavatar.github.io.