**A high-performance C++ and CUDA implementation of 3D Gaussian Splatting**

Overview • Community & Support • Installation • Contributing • Acknowledgments • Citation • License

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Sponsors

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Support LichtFeld Studio Development

LichtFeld Studio is a free, open-source implementation of 3D Gaussian Splatting that pushes the boundaries of real-time rendering performance.

Why Your Support Matters: This project requires significant time and resources to develop and maintain.

Unlike commercial alternatives that can cost thousands in licensing fees, LichtFeld Studio remains completely free and open. Your contribution helps ensure it stays that way while continuing to evolve with the latest research.

Whether you're using it for research, production, or learning, your support enables us to dedicate more time to making LichtFeld Studio faster, more powerful, and accessible to everyone in the 3D graphics community.

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Overview

LichtFeld Studio is a high-performance implementation of 3D Gaussian Splatting that leverages modern C++23 and CUDA 12.8+ for optimal performance. Built with a modular architecture, it provides both training and real-time visualization capabilities for neural rendering research and applications.

Key Features

• 2.4x faster rasterization (winner of first bounty by Florian Hahlbohm)
• MCMC optimization strategy for improved convergence
• Real-time interactive viewer with OpenGL rendering
• Modular architecture with separate core, training, and rendering components
• Multiple rendering modes including RGB, depth, and combined views
• Bilateral grid appearance modeling for handling per-image variations

Community & Support

Join our growing community for discussions, support, and updates:

• Discord Community - Get help, share results, and discuss development
• LichtFeld Studio FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about LichtFeld Studio
• LichtFeld Studio Wiki - Documentation WIKI
• Website - Visit our website for more resources
• Awesome 3D Gaussian Splatting - Comprehensive paper list
• @janusch_patas - Follow for the latest updates

Installation

Find out how to install in our LichtFeld Studio Wiki

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See our Contributing Guidelines.

Getting Started

• Check issues labeled good first issue
• Join our Discord for discussions
• Use the pre-commit hook: cp tools/pre-commit .git/hooks/

Acknowledgments

This project builds upon and is inspired by the following:

Core Research

Project	Description	License
3D Gaussian Splatting	Original work by Kerbl et al.	Custom
gsplat	Optimized CUDA rasterization backend	Apache-2.0

Gaussian Splatting Tools & Inspiration

Project	Description	License
SuperSplat	PlayCanvas Gaussian Splat editor	MIT
SplatShop	Gaussian Splat editing tool	MIT
splat-transform	Transformation utilities for splats	MIT
spz	Niantic's compressed splat format	MIT

Graphics & UI Libraries

Project	Description	License
Dear ImGui	Immediate mode GUI library	MIT
ImGuizmo	Gizmo manipulation for ImGui	MIT
GLFW	OpenGL window/context management	zlib
GLM	OpenGL Mathematics library	MIT
glad	OpenGL loader	MIT

CUDA & GPU Libraries

Project	Description	License
NVIDIA nvImageCodec	GPU-accelerated image encoding/decoding	Apache-2.0
Intel TBB	Threading Building Blocks	Apache-2.0

Data & I/O Libraries

Project	Description	License
tinyply	Lightweight PLY file loader	Public Domain / BSD-2
OpenImageIO	Image I/O library	Apache-2.0
nlohmann/json	JSON for Modern C++	MIT
LibArchive	Multi-format archive library	BSD
libwebp	WebP image format library	BSD-3-Clause

Utilities

Project	Description	License
spdlog	Fast C++ logging library	MIT
cpp-httplib	HTTP/HTTPS library	MIT
FreeType	Font rendering library	FreeType License
args	Command-line argument parser	MIT

Testing & Development

Project	Description	License
PyTorch/LibTorch	Used for tensor comparison tests	BSD-3-Clause
Google Test	C++ testing framework	BSD-3-Clause

Icons

Project	Description	License
Tabler Icons	UI icons	MIT
Lucide Icons	UI icons (fork of Feather)	ISC

Citation

@software{lichtfeld2025,
  author    = {LichtFeld Studio},
  title     = {A high-performance C++ and CUDA implementation of 3D Gaussian Splatting},
  year      = {2025},
  url       = {https://github.com/MrNeRF/LichtFeld-Studio}
}

License

This project is licensed under GPLv3. See LICENSE for details.

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