# RawSLAM: Online HDR Gaussian SLAM from Linear Radiance

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20589 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.20589/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 27 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [ORB-SLAM3: An Accurate Open-Source Library for Visual, Visual-Inertial and Multi-Map SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11898/) (2020)
- [ORB-SLAM2: an Open-Source SLAM System for Monocular, Stereo and RGB-D Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.06475/) (2016)
- [Depth-supervised NeRF: Fewer Views and Faster Training for Free](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02791/) (2021)
- [DROID-SLAM: Deep Visual SLAM for Monocular, Stereo, and RGB-D Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10869/) (2021)
- [Direct Sparse Odometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.02565/) (2016)
- [Learning to See in the Dark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.01934/) (2018)
- [SplaTAM: Splat, Track & Map 3D Gaussians for Dense RGB-D SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02126/) (2023)
- [NeRF in the Dark: High Dynamic Range View Synthesis from Noisy Raw Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.13679/) (2021)
- [Unprocessing Images for Learned Raw Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.11127/) (2018)
- [NerfingMVS: Guided Optimization of Neural Radiance Fields for Indoor Multi-view Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01129/) (2021)
- [Co-SLAM: Joint Coordinate and Sparse Parametric Encodings for Neural Real-Time SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.14377/) (2023)
- [HDR image reconstruction from a single exposure using deep CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.07480/) (2017)
- [ESLAM: Efficient Dense SLAM System Based on Hybrid Representation of Signed Distance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.11704/) (2022)
- [Gaussian-SLAM: Photo-realistic Dense SLAM with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10070/) (2023)
- [Vox-Fusion: Dense Tracking and Mapping with Voxel-based Neural Implicit Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.15858/) (2022)
- [Photo-SLAM: Real-time Simultaneous Localization and Photorealistic Mapping for Monocular, Stereo, and RGB-D Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16728/) (2023)
- [Single-Image HDR Reconstruction by Learning to Reverse the Camera Pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.01179/) (2020)
- [TartanVO: A Generalizable Learning-based VO](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.00359/) (2020)
- [CG-SLAM: Efficient Dense RGB-D SLAM in a Consistent Uncertainty-aware 3D Gaussian Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16095/) (2024)
- [HDR-GS: Efficient High Dynamic Range Novel View Synthesis at 1000x Speed via Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15125/) (2024)
- [Lighting Every Darkness with 3DGS: Fast Training and Real-Time Rendering for HDR View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06216/) (2024)
- [HDRSplat: Gaussian Splatting for High Dynamic Range 3D Scene Reconstruction from Raw Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.16503/) (2024)
- [MGS-SLAM: Monocular Sparse Tracking and Gaussian Mapping with Depth Smooth Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.06241/) (2024)
- [GauS-SLAM: Dense RGB-D SLAM with Gaussian Surfels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01934/) (2025)
- [FGS-SLAM: Fourier-based Gaussian Splatting for Real-time SLAM with Sparse and Dense Map Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01109/) (2025)
- [PointSLAM++: Robust Dense Neural Gaussian Point Cloud-based SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.11617/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Current dense visual SLAM systems rely almost exclusively on 8-bit tonemapped Low Dynamic Range (LDR) inputs, limiting their robustness in extreme lighting where shadows and highlights trigger tracking drift and mapping collapse. Conversely, existing raw and High Dynamic Range (HDR) reconstruction pipelines operate strictly offline. They depend on Structure-from-Motion preprocessing and are not suited for large inter-frame motion. We present, to the best of our knowledge, the first online Gaussian SLAM framework that tracks and maps directly on single-exposure 16-bit linear HDR imagery. Our method rests on three core components: an architecture-agnostic HDR Gaussian Splatting module featuring an MLP-free logarithmic parameterization of Gaussian color features; a Reinhard range-compressed photometric objective; and structure-guided spatial gradient weighting. Combined, these components allow our approach to outperform a direct HDR adaptation of MonoGS in both trajectory and reconstruction accuracy, while rendering natively in linear scene radiance for post-rendering processing. The same formulation runs unchanged on standard 8-bit inputs, roughly halving the MonoGS baseline error. Furthermore, our HDR Gaussian module transfers seamlessly to SplaTAM, Gaussian SLAM, and DROID-W, eliminating all tracking failures these systems suffer on challenging illumination sequences. To enable this research, we introduce RawSLAM: a dataset of 10 real-world indoor sequences featuring 16-bit RAW imagery, aligned depth, IMU measurements, and external OptiTrack poses. Code and dataset will be made publicly available soon.