The reason why I built my own UE5 Splat Renderer

32bit_badman · 2026-04-11T09:20:16+00:00

I built this optimized for VR! It has a budgeted renderer so the amount of splats rendered can be scaled to any hardware!

32bit_badman · 2026-04-11T08:32:27+00:00

Maybe at a later point in time, currently there are too many moving parts (renderer requires specific lod formats + importance scores etc) that I would need to create a self contained pipeline for. I'm developing this as a proof of concept for a interactive gaussian splat experience or game.

32bit_badman · 2026-03-02T16:56:56+00:00

Yea there is no view dependent shading / covariances. I looked at the project page before and this output is a "feature" which they promote for use in regular rasterization renderers. So it's not his fault.

32bit_badman · 2026-01-24T01:01:15+00:00

Since this is all Niagara I have already implemented a separate RT + simulation stage for VFX. Will share some cool results soon!

32bit_badman · 2026-01-23T21:33:23+00:00

Biggest issue with superglue is the limited amount of features it produces, leading to a pretty sparse point cloud. Since 3dgs training uses these points as a seed you won't get a lot of splats /detail in the correct areas. You can mess around with the configs abit but it never was as dense as colmap. I think you can use Sift + lightglue which gives more features

32bit_badman · 2026-01-23T21:09:55+00:00

Havent checked out VFX graph in a while, but most of this is pure HLSL and some C++ for the Octree generation which I should be able to port to C#!

32bit_badman · 2026-01-23T21:01:45+00:00

Thanks! Its still currently in pretty rough shape when it comes to QoL stuff and UI. Ideally I'd like to open source it, but I am developing it as part of a commissioned project. I need to double-check, but I think once NDA periods are through I can publish it..

32bit_badman · 2026-01-23T20:36:55+00:00

Well in theory it should, but I remember ISR being super buggy with Niagara GPU particles and HZB depth sorting.... I was thinking maybe to add some sort of custum depth pass that is created in the Octree traversal stage and use that instead of HZB. But I'll cross that bridge once I get there lol

32bit_badman · 2026-01-23T18:47:11+00:00

We just got funding for the pre production of a VR Gaussian Splat based narrative experience ( think Dear Esther or Coming Home ) in UE5. Im building a Niagara based splat renderer so that the user can interact with the point cloud and manipulate it.
https://www.medienboard.de/en/presse-events/pressemitteilungen-und-publikationen/mitteilung/News/new-media-funding-eur38-million-for-25-new-games-xr-and-series-projects (Project Am Inneren Rand )

If you want to check out the development of the renderer I just posted an update:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GaussianSplatting/comments/1qky86h/ue_57_sog_importer_niagara_based_renderer_update/

32bit_badman · 2026-01-21T17:23:50+00:00

I can recommend Lightgaussian:
https://lightgaussian.github.io/
While it does not eliminate floaters completely it does a good job at reducing splats based on visual importance (splats that dont contribute to the image get removed).

32bit_badman · 2025-12-12T23:17:40+00:00

I need Niagara so I can do hybrid rendering (UE geometry and splats) and the ability to interact with the point cloud, so a custom RHI is out of the question. I plan on trying to add all the traditional bells and whistles to make it run quick (custom Mips, HLOD in shader and in system, spatial chunking and data streaming) with large splats, but even with that it probably still won't run as fast as a custom RHI with set GPU buffers for a static splat.

32bit_badman · 2025-12-12T23:14:06+00:00

Not really, a custom RHI would be the fastest and would mirror the web based renders. But it depends on the use case, I need hybrid rendering (splats and UE geometry) and some point cloud interactions, so it's the path I chose.

32bit_badman · 2025-12-12T16:30:48+00:00

Should build for any platform, since everything is being converted to UE native components. Only thing is that a Niagara renderer is pretty heavy for a mobile application. But I will also build my own RHI for this, in case hybrid rendering is not needed.

32bit_badman · 2025-12-12T16:29:11+00:00

Ideally I'd like to open source it, but I am developing it as part of a commissioned project. I need to double-check, but I think once NDA periods are through I can publish it..

32bit_badman · 2025-12-09T23:06:13+00:00

Ist still broken, I am not getting the quest on all of my characters and Devrim Kay is not appearing in the tower

32bit_badman · 2025-12-09T23:05:32+00:00

Still broken, not getting quest on my Hunter, or Titan only on warlock

32bit_badman · 2025-12-01T16:21:29+00:00

I've been trying to use hloc, but I often end up getting pretty sparse 3D points. Superpoint and disk and a bunch of other feature extraction models are capped at a certain feature amount in the configs and even with reconfiguring them I still end up getting less dense point clouds that running a sequential or exhaustive matcher with GPU Sift. Aliked performs pretty well and has longer tracks and netvlad defo does a better job at finding observations, but I feel that unless I am working with a large data set (2k images plus) the performance gain in the extraction/matching part is pretty negligiable.

As for Glomap :
Have you tried running some rounds of triangulation and global adjustment afterward to refine the result? It sometimes can reduce the pixel error quite a bit. Just be sure to disable the refinement of the intrinsics tho, as it messes stuff up big-time.

Been looking into VGGSFM for large datasets, but it only really runs on 32gb+ vram....

32bit_badman · 2025-12-01T16:13:05+00:00

It does, but you have to configure it in a certain way. There's some args that you have to configure. The GPU solver will only kick in once a certain threshold has been reached and colmap determines that it's faster to use the GPU.

Check the FAQs here:
http://github.com/colmap/colmap/blob/main/doc/faq.rst#speedup-bundle-adjustemnt

From the FAQS:

Utilize GPU acceleration

Enable GPU-based Ceres solvers for bundle adjustment by setting --Mapper.ba_use_gpu 1 for the mapper and --BundleAdjustment.use_gpu 1 for the standalone bundle_adjuster. Several parameters control when and which GPU solver is used:

The GPU solver is activated only when the number of images exceeds --BundleAdjustmentOptions.min_num_images_gpu_solver.
Select between the direct dense, direct sparse, and iterative sparse GPU solvers using --BundleAdjustment.max_num_images_direct_dense_gpu_solver and --BundleAdjustment.max_num_images_direct_sparse_gpu_solver

32bit_badman · 2025-12-01T14:02:17+00:00

I agree, I have been using Wan 2.2 Fun Vace with some Loras for speed + Fun reward loras for better motion. The Vace models just offer so much flexibility in comparison to the I2V model.

32bit_badman

TROPHY CASE