Texture2Splat: Textures for 3D Gaussian Splatting

Abstract

As virtual environments grow in complexity and realism, traditional mesh-based shading techniques face increasing limitations. Recent advances in 3D Gaussian Splatting [1] offer a promising alternative representation that is both flexible and photorealistic. However, despite its advantages, 3D Gaussian Splatting remains underexplored as a medium for material creation and texture authoring in computer graphics.

We present Texture2Splat, a two-stage system for authoring and rendering real-time textures using 3D Gaussian Splatting. In the first stage, users convert conventional Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials and object-level details—such as fur or mesh instances—into a volumetric texture format composed of oriented 3D Gaussians. The pipeline also supports processing captured 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) scenes, enabling the creation of reusable 3DGS-based textures from real-world or pre-generated data. This generation process preserves visual richness while enabling layered surface effects. In the second stage, we introduce a real-time GPU mapping algorithm that projects splats onto arbitrary mesh surfaces. Our mapping system supports advanced texture-level features including alpha blending of multiple layers, level-of-detail (LOD), and a brush-based interface for interactive painting.

We evaluate both the authoring pipeline and runtime performance. Results demonstrate that Texture2Splat enables efficient creation of expressive textures and achieves real-time rendering performance on commodity hardware. The system offers a flexible and powerful alternative to traditional 2D image-based texture workflows for complex material representations in interactive applications.