Boracay, Philippines · one drone capture, two representations

Gaussian splat vs digital twin

The same capture of The Lind, Boracay, shown two ways from identical cameras. Drag the divider: on the left the 3D Gaussian splat (photoreal, view-dependent light), on the right the mesh digital twin reconstructed from it (solid, measurable, editable geometry).

◀ Open the interactive splat Rotate the digital twin All captures

Aerial three-quarter view

The opening view of the splat viewer.

Gaussian splat render, aerial three-quarter view of The Lind, Boracay Digital twin mesh render from the same camera
3D Gaussian splatDigital twin (mesh)

Top-down

Straight down over the hotel blocks and pools: the twin's footprint lines up with the splat to the pixel.

Gaussian splat render, top-down view Digital twin mesh render, top-down view
3D Gaussian splatDigital twin (mesh)

Low oblique towards White Beach

Up close, the difference shows: the splat keeps the look of the place, the mesh keeps its shape.

Gaussian splat render, low oblique view towards the beach Digital twin mesh render, low oblique view
3D Gaussian splatDigital twin (mesh)

What each is good for

3D Gaussian splat

  • Photoreal: reflections, foliage, soft light and fine texture as the drone saw them
  • Fast to make from drone photos or video, streams in a browser
  • Great for showing a place: tourism, real estate, storytelling
  • No real surfaces: hard to measure, edit or simulate

Mesh digital twin

  • Solid geometry: measure distances, areas, heights; run sightlines and shadows
  • Editable in Blender, Unreal, CAD; exportable to GLB / OBJ / USD
  • Base for planning, simulation, games and labelled datasets
  • Loses the photoreal look; noisy where the capture was thin

How it was made: the splat's Gaussian centres (with their colours) were filtered, turned into a surface with Poisson reconstruction, trimmed to where the capture has data, coloured from the nearest captured point, decimated to 280,000 triangles and finished in Blender with a simplified ground. Both renders use the same camera, so the slider compares like with like.

Rotate the digital twin

1.4 MB GLB (Draco-compressed). Drag to orbit, pinch or scroll to zoom.