# PolGS++: Physically-Guided Polarimetric Gaussian Splatting for Fast Reflective Surface Reconstruction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10801 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.10801/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 33 of its 54 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Mar 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [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)
- [NeuS: Learning Neural Implicit Surfaces by Volume Rendering for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10689/) (2021)
- [Volume Rendering of Neural Implicit Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.12052/) (2021)
- [Differentiable Volumetric Rendering: Learning Implicit 3D Representations without 3D Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.07372/) (2019)
- [UNISURF: Unifying Neural Implicit Surfaces and Radiance Fields for Multi-View Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10078/) (2021)
- [SuGaR: Surface-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Mesh Reconstruction and High-Quality Mesh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12775/) (2023)
- [Neuralangelo: High-Fidelity Neural Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03092/) (2023)
- [Omnidata: A Scalable Pipeline for Making Multi-Task Mid-Level Vision Datasets from 3D Scans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04994/) (2021)
- [NeuS2: Fast Learning of Neural Implicit Surfaces for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05231/) (2022)
- [PGSR: Planar-based Gaussian Splatting for Efficient and High-Fidelity Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06521/) (2024)
- [Gaussian Opacity Fields: Efficient Adaptive Surface Reconstruction in Unbounded Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.10772/) (2024)
- [NeRO: Neural Geometry and BRDF Reconstruction of Reflective Objects from Multiview Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17398/) (2023)
- [High-quality Surface Reconstruction using Gaussian Surfels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.17774/) (2024)
- [Relightable 3D Gaussians: Realistic Point Cloud Relighting with BRDF Decomposition and Ray Tracing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16043/) (2023)
- [NeuSG: Neural Implicit Surface Reconstruction with 3D Gaussian Splatting Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00846/) (2023)
- [HF-NeuS: Improved Surface Reconstruction Using High-Frequency Details](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07850/) (2022)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting with Deferred Reflection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.18454/) (2024)
- [Deep Polarization Imaging for 3D shape and SVBRDF Acquisition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.02875/) (2021)
- [Shape from Polarization for Complex Scenes in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.11377/) (2021)
- [PANDORA: Polarization-Aided Neural Decomposition Of Radiance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.13458/) (2022)
- [TensoSDF: Roughness-aware Tensorial Representation for Robust Geometry and Material Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02771/) (2024)
- [NeRSP: Neural 3D Reconstruction for Reflective Objects with Sparse Polarized Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07111/) (2024)
- [Multi-View Azimuth Stereo via Tangent Space Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.16447/) (2023)
- [Inverse Rendering of Glossy Objects via the Neural Plenoptic Function and Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16224/) (2024)
- [PISR: Polarimetric Neural Implicit Surface Reconstruction for Textureless and Specular Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14331/) (2024)
- [GS-ROR2: Bidirectional-guided 3DGS and SDF for Reflective Object Relighting and Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.18544/) (2024)
- [NeISF++: Neural Incident Stokes Field for Polarized Inverse Rendering of Conductors and Dielectrics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.10189/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Accurate reconstruction of reflective surfaces remains a fundamental challenge in computer vision, with broad applications in real-time virtual reality and digital content creation. Although 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) enables efficient novel-view rendering with explicit representations, its performance on reflective surfaces still lags behind implicit neural methods, especially in recovering fine geometry and surface normals. To address this gap, we propose PolGS++, a physically-guided polarimetric Gaussian Splatting framework for fast reflective surface reconstruction. Specifically, we integrate a polarized BRDF (pBRDF) model into 3DGS to explicitly decouple diffuse and specular components, providing physically grounded reflectance modeling and stronger geometric cues for reflective surface recovery. Furthermore, we introduce a depth-guided visibility mask acquisition mechanism that enables angle-of-polarization (AoP)-based tangent-space consistency constraints in Gaussian Splatting without costly ray-tracing intersections. This physically guided design improves reconstruction quality and efficiency, requiring only about 10 minutes of training. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets validate the effectiveness of our method.