# EliGSiR: Continual RGB-D Mapping with Gaussian Splatting under Bounded Compute

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20348 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.20348/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 18 of its 19 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [ScanNet: Richly-annotated 3D Reconstructions of Indoor Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.04405/) (2017)
- [The Replica Dataset: A Digital Replica of Indoor Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05797/) (2019)
- [ORB-SLAM3: An Accurate Open-Source Library for Visual, Visual-Inertial and Multi-Map SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11898/) (2020)
- [ScanNet++: A High-Fidelity Dataset of 3D Indoor Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11417/) (2023)
- [NICE-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scalable Encoding for SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.12130/) (2021)
- [Gaussian Splatting SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06741/) (2023)
- [SplaTAM: Splat, Track & Map 3D Gaussians for Dense RGB-D SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02126/) (2023)
- [gsplat: An Open-Source Library for Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.06765/) (2024)
- [GS-SLAM: Dense Visual SLAM with 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.11700/) (2023)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting as Markov Chain Monte Carlo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09591/) (2024)
- [Point-SLAM: Dense Neural Point Cloud-based SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.04278/) (2023)
- [Gaussian-SLAM: Photo-realistic Dense SLAM with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10070/) (2023)
- [Photo-SLAM: Real-time Simultaneous Localization and Photorealistic Mapping for Monocular, Stereo, and RGB-D Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16728/) (2023)
- [RGBD GS-ICP SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12550/) (2024)
- [LoopSplat: Loop Closure by Registering 3D Gaussian Splats](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.10154/) (2024)
- [GSFusion: Online RGB-D Mapping Where Gaussian Splatting Meets TSDF Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.12677/) (2024)
- [CaRtGS: Computational Alignment for Real-Time Gaussian Splatting SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.00486/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Conventional 3D Gaussian Splatting assumes a closed set of observations and long optimization schedules. Continual RGB-D mapping in contrast poses the problem that new observations arrive online, while previously reconstructed regions must be preserved. We present EliGSiR (Evidence-guided Load-adaptive Incremental Gaussian Splatting with Image Replay), a continual Gaussian mapper that controls how the available optimization budget is used as the reconstruction evolves. Map-Guided View Scheduling filters redundant incoming views and reconsiders retained views according to the current state of the map. Load-Adaptive Fidelity adjusts supervision resolution to the current mapping load instead of following a fixed resolution schedule. Targeted Geometry Growth separates depth supervision from Gaussian creation and adds geometric capacity only where repeated RGB-D observations indicate missing or misplaced structure. Together, these mechanisms adapt which views are optimized, how much image detail is used, and where the representation grows while mapping remains active. We evaluate EliGSiR on Replica, TUM RGB-D, ScanNet++, and real RGB-D sensor sequences, considering both the final reconstruction and the map available throughout acquisition. On TUM RGB-D fr3/long_office_household, EliGSiR reaches 21.52 dB with the same ground-truth mapping poses used by the controlled baselines, compared with 19.42 dB for SplaTAM. In the tracked-pose comparison, EliGSiR with live ORB-SLAM3 poses reaches 23.02 dB in 155.5 s, compared with 20.10 dB in 230.9 s for CaRtGS using its native tracker. We further evaluate reconstruction throughout acquisition and show how EliGSiR adaptive view scheduling, supervision fidelity, and geometry growth improve the use of the available mapping budget.