Gaussian splats…

Thmoore · Jan 31, 2024

Has anyone played with Gaussian splats using their drone footage? It’s a new 3-D technique, and it’s pretty amazing. I use an iOS app called Polycam to create ’em.

This was done with a single POI circle around this water tower:

Water Tower! Jan. 2024 - Download Free 3D Model on Polycam

Water Tower! Jan. 2024 by Tom_Moore. Created with Polycam LiDAR 3D scanner app for iPhone and Android. Free 3D models, photogrammetry and LiDAR scans.

poly.cam

SethB · Jan 31, 2024

Hitting the link with an iPad I found a paywall.

Phantomrain.org · Jan 31, 2024

Now that was very cool , not sure How to get started but would love to try this wit some storm footage.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain, Land on the water.

Thmoore · Jan 31, 2024

Thmoore said:
Has anyone played with Gaussian splats using their drone footage? It’s a new 3-D technique, and it’s pretty amazing. I use an iOS app called Polycam to create ’em.

This was done with a single POI circle around this water tower:

Water Tower! Jan. 2024 - Download Free 3D Model on Polycam

Water Tower! Jan. 2024 by Tom_Moore. Created with Polycam LiDAR 3D scanner app for iPhone and Android. Free 3D models, photogrammetry and LiDAR scans.

poly.cam

SethB said:
Hitting the link with an iPad I found a paywall.

Hmmmm. Sorry you’re having trouble. I just tried a private Safari tab on Mac and iPad and it worked fine.

SethB · Jan 31, 2024

Thmoore said:
Hmmmm. Sorry you’re having trouble. I just tried a private Safari tab on Mac and iPad and it worked fine.

Ah, there it is. Good tip on private browsing. Apparently I had downloaded polycam way back when. I think it wasn’t working on a non-LIDAR iPad, does that sound right? I didn’t spend much time on it.

So iOS Safari opened the unlicensed app when I first hit your link.

OK, now I see it - that’s awesome! What device did you process on, are you on a paid account?

How does it compare to any photogrammetry software you may have used?

Thmoore · Jan 31, 2024

SethB said:
Ah, there it is. Good tip on private browsing. Apparently I had downloaded polycam way back when. I think it wasn’t working on a non-LIDAR iPad, does that sound right? I didn’t spend much time on it.

So iOS Safari opened the unlicensed app when I first hit your link.

OK, now I see it - that’s awesome! What device did you process on, are you on a paid account?

How does it compare to any photogrammetry software you may have used?

Oh, good! Glad it worked! This was just a simple drag and drop on their website – Polycam - LiDAR & 3D Scanner for iPhone & Android The processing is on their side.

You might be able to do it for free?: Gaussian Splatting 3D Creator & Viewer | Polycam

I've subscribed to Polycam's ~$60/year plan, because their iOS and web apps seem to work better than anyone else's doing this stuff. Now that Apple has opened up their photogrammetry APIs in iOS, we may get a new king of the hill at some point, but so far, I've been very happy with Polycam.

These Gaussian splats are dramatically better – and easier to create – than anything I've seen from any of the other tools I've used (including Polycom's other methods). There's no fussiness at all.

Check out this Youtube video:

It's wild: They went and took already-existing shots from old and famous movies that circled around something, and created splats from them, with pretty impressive results!

SethB · Jan 31, 2024

Very nice indeed! Did you drop an image sequence or video?

I'm just having a look on their desktop viewer on a 27" monitor; the quality is stunning.

I will be exploring polycam - thanks so much!

Thmoore · Jan 31, 2024

SethB said:
Very nice indeed! Did you drop an image sequence or video?

I'm just having a look on their desktop viewer on a 27" monitor; the quality is stunning.

I will be exploring polycam - thanks so much!

Dropped a video! Couldn’t have been easier. It’ll also take image sequences.

twickers14 · Feb 1, 2024

Anything new on the tech front I am interested in. BUT I am not the most techy guy. I would love to try this and have a iPad Air 5th and MacBook Air 16” 2024. Will Polycam work with any circling shots I take-it looks brilliant but don’t fancy a $60 pa fee!

Thmoore · Feb 1, 2024

twickers14 said:
Anything new on the tech front I am interested in. BUT I am not the most techy guy. I would love to try this and have a iPad Air 5th and MacBook Air 16” 2024. Will Polycam work with any circling shots I take-it looks brilliant but don’t fancy a $60 pa fee!

It's a little hard for me to tell what they'll do for free because I'm in paid mode, but they say on their site that the splats are free. Go ahead and drop a circling shot onto this page: Gaussian Splatting 3D Creator & Viewer | Polycam

I think they may make you create an account (fair enough), but it's free. Good luck!

rawman001 · Feb 1, 2024

This is neat, thanks for sharing! Going to have to try this myself. I'm finally about to become a model! (A 3-D Model anyway)

twickers14 · Feb 2, 2024

Thmoore said:
It's a little hard for me to tell what they'll do for free because I'm in paid mode, but they say on their site that the splats are free. Go ahead and drop a circling shot onto this page: Gaussian Splatting 3D Creator & Viewer | Polycam

I think they may make you create an account (fair enough), but it's free. Good luck!

Thanks for this. I will give it a go but quick question-are we talking about a whole circling video here or a series of stills. And does it need to be a full 360 or part of one?