How does 3D Gaussian Splatting differ from NeRF?

3D Gaussian Splatting and NeRF (Neural Radiance Fields) are methods for representing and rendering 3D scenes, but they differ in approach and data structure:

• NeRF uses a neural network that takes 3D coordinates and viewing direction and returns color and density. Rendering involves ray tracing and integrating along rays. NeRF requires long training and is computationally intensive during rendering.

• 3D Gaussian Splatting represents a scene as a set of 3D Gaussian spheres (splats), each with parameters (position, shape, color, transparency). Rendering projects these splats onto an image and blends them. This approach can be faster and more efficient for interactive rendering.

The main difference is that NeRF is a continuous neural scene representation, while 3D Gaussian Splatting is more explicit, based on primitives (Gaussians), offering speed and simplicity advantages.