Gaussiansplatting became very trendy, but we never found a sensible user case for it. We prefer photogrammetry because it provides a mesh structure that can be edited with existing pipelines and tools. We don’t quite like the recognizable glitch cloud look of splatts, and the fact that they are difficult to edit and/or optimize.

Nevertheless, we kept researching new tech, so we flew our drone around Brighton West Pier—an iconic derelict structure in the middle of the sea—and processed it into 3D Gaussians. All our prior photogrammetry tries failed to capture the object’s essence because of difficult environmental conditions: lack of direct accessibility, reflective sea surface, a plethora of rusty metal rods with similar textures, and such. So this Gaussian splatting capture didn’t turn bad at all considering it was a quick test. This scene has 3 million points and it’s rendered offline, not real time.

The Metahorizon Hyperspace app on Quest gives hope that one day it might be a sensible method to create instant digital twins, but it is probably still quite a long way ahead.