# GaussianPOP: Principled Simplification Framework for Compact 3D Gaussian Splatting via Error Quantification

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.06830 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06830/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 26 of its 33 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Feb 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (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)
- [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)
- [Taming 3DGS: High-Quality Radiance Fields with Limited Resources](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15643/) (2024)
- [EAGLES: Efficient Accelerated 3D Gaussians with Lightweight EncodingS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.04564/) (2023)
- [CompGS: Smaller and Faster Gaussian Splatting with Vector Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.18159/) (2023)
- [RadSplat: Radiance Field-Informed Gaussian Splatting for Robust Real-Time Rendering with 900+ FPS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.13806/) (2024)
- [PUP 3D-GS: Principled Uncertainty Pruning for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10219/) (2024)
- [Speedy-Splat: Fast 3D Gaussian Splatting with Sparse Pixels and Sparse Primitives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00578/) (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)
- [3DGS.zip: A survey on 3D Gaussian Splatting Compression Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.09510/) (2024)
- [MesonGS: Post-training Compression of 3D Gaussians via Efficient Attribute Transformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.09756/) (2024)
- [LP-3DGS: Learning to Prune 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.18784/) (2024)
- [MaskGaussian: Adaptive 3D Gaussian Representation from Probabilistic Masks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.20522/) (2024)
- [CAT-3DGS: A Context-Adaptive Triplane Approach to Rate-Distortion-Optimized 3DGS Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00357/) (2025)
- [Compact 3D Gaussian Splatting for Static and Dynamic Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03822/) (2024)
- [Compression of 3D Gaussian Splatting with Optimized Feature Planes and Standard Video Codecs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03399/) (2025)
- [Locality-aware Gaussian Compression for Fast and High-quality Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.05757/) (2025)
- [ELMGS: Enhancing memory and computation scaLability through coMpression for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23213/) (2024)
- [F-3DGS: Factorized Coordinates and Representations for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17083/) (2024)
- [Optimized Minimal 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16924/) (2025)
- [Improving 3D Gaussian Splatting Compression by Scene-Adaptive Lattice Vector Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.13482/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Camera-Agnostic Pruning of 3D Gaussian Splats via Descriptor-Based Beta Evidence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.21933/) (2026)
- [KISS-GS: 3D Gaussian Splatting Compression Kept Simple](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.26948/) (2026)
- [SplatQ: Interaction-Aware Pruning of 3D Gaussian Splatting via Quadratic Selection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.13503/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Existing 3D Gaussian Splatting simplification methods commonly use importance scores, such as blending weights or sensitivity, to identify redundant Gaussians. However, these scores are not driven by visual error metrics, often leading to suboptimal trade-offs between compactness and rendering fidelity. We present GaussianPOP, a principled simplification framework based on analytical Gaussian error quantification. Our key contribution is a novel error criterion, derived directly from the 3DGS rendering equation, that precisely measures each Gaussian's contribution to the rendered image. By introducing a highly efficient algorithm, our framework enables practical error calculation in a single forward pass. The framework is both accurate and flexible, supporting on-training pruning as well as post-training simplification via iterative error re-quantification for improved stability. Experimental results show that our method consistently outperforms existing state-of-the-art pruning methods across both application scenarios, achieving a superior trade-off between model compactness and high rendering quality.