Deformable Radial Kernel Splatting

TL;DR

This paper introduces Deformable Radial Kernel (DRK), a flexible extension of Gaussian splatting that models complex 3D shapes more efficiently, improving rendering quality and reducing primitive count.

Contribution

We propose DRK, a novel deformable kernel framework with learnable bases for better shape representation and efficient rendering in 3D scene modeling.

Findings

DRK outperforms existing methods in representation efficiency.

DRK achieves higher rendering quality with fewer primitives.

DRK enables precise control over shape boundaries.

Abstract

Recently, Gaussian splatting has emerged as a robust technique for representing 3D scenes, enabling real-time rasterization and high-fidelity rendering. However, Gaussians' inherent radial symmetry and smoothness constraints limit their ability to represent complex shapes, often requiring thousands of primitives to approximate detailed geometry. We introduce Deformable Radial Kernel (DRK), which extends Gaussian splatting into a more general and flexible framework. Through learnable radial bases with adjustable angles and scales, DRK efficiently models diverse shape primitives while enabling precise control over edge sharpness and boundary curvature. iven DRK's planar nature, we further develop accurate ray-primitive intersection computation for depth sorting and introduce efficient kernel culling strategies for improved rasterization efficiency. Extensive experiments demonstrate that DRK outperforms existing methods in both representation efficiency and rendering quality, achieving state-of-the-art performance while dramatically reducing primitive count.