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Show HN: Immersive Gaussian Splat tour of grace cathedral, San Francisco

https://vincentwoo.com/3d/grace_cathedral/
145•akanet•11h ago

Comments

hdz•8h ago
Hi Vincent, the Sutro Tower 3dgs demo is one I enjoyed a lot. I'd whip it out on my phone and show people saying, 'hey look this is whats possible with 3D Gaussian Splatting'. And this Grace Catherdral splat is stunning. It showcases one of my favorite parts of 3dgs which is reflections and glass. The color and essence of the stained glass comes through so well.

The cutaway Peek feature is like a sci fi version of an Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections book. Incredible work!

akanet•6h ago
Thank you!
squidsoup•8h ago
Very impressive. How are you managing to produce such a clean model without artifacts?
akanet•6h ago
I spent a lot of time hand-masking out inconsistencies between shoots. I waited too long between sessions and they actually built out an entirely new section of ceiling. PPISP guidance in splatting also helps a lot in solving sensor inconsistencies between the many different cameras and lighting conditions that went into the source dataset.
julienchastang•8h ago
Extraordinary. Thank you for sharing. If there would ever be the possibility of seeing European Gothic cathedrals in this manner, that would also be really cool.
CamperBob2•7h ago
Don't miss this one: https://superspl.at/scene/c67edb74
wxw•7h ago
From OP's prior work scanning Sutro Tower in SF: https://vincentwoo.com/2025/02/18/sutro-tower-in-3d/.

> This scan is made possible by recent advances in Gaussian Splatting. This is an emerging technology that lets us quickly create very detailed models just from photographs. For this model (or splat, as we call them), my friend Daylen and I flew our drones around Sutro Tower at a respectful distance for an afternoon until we had collected a few thousand photographs.

> I then aligned these pictures in free software called RealityCapture. Alignment is the process that teaches the computer that a bunch of points in different images all actually correspond with the same point in real life. Then I used another piece of free software called gsplat to produce the 3D model itself.

I'm assuming this was done similarly. Very cool.

akanet•6h ago
Yes, I also added a bit of context on twitter (https://xcancel.com/fulligin/status/2079296985811873796) and will probably blog about the process a bit more. Grace was a lot more work than Sutro. I wanted to be ambitious in combining interior/exterior scenes in a new way, and I also wanted it to be less of a "toy". Grace actually plans to use this to show prospective renters the space, and we spent a lot of time making sure it could run well on a wide variety of devices.
wxw•6h ago
Looking forward to it. I'm also a big fan of https://vincentwoo.com/2023/07/20/tunnel-vision-an-unauthori..., thanks for keeping the internet interesting.
skanga
bytesandbits•7h ago
absolutely crazy level of detail... in awe
ggm•6h ago
Reminded me of a VRML demonstrator inside Notre Dame from decades ago. Different approach, similar outcome. (it used surface texture mapping inside a game engine from my memory)

A lot more architecture would benefit from being available like this splat model. The Pharonic tombs which you can visit in google/other virtual tourism are good, but this is also good!

asd000hh•6h ago
Wow Did you have any apps in Apple Vision Pro?
sublinear•5h ago
The Keith Haring altarpiece is a really cool surprise!

It's unfortunate that this tour makes it very difficult to see. Really not a fan of this "on rails" presentation style. I understand the angles matter when viewing a splat, but come on.

rspeele•4h ago
You can also walk freely FPS style with WASD and mouse-dragging to look around.
sublinear•17m ago
I only ever look at HN on a phone, and I'm pretty sure I'm in the majority.

Bad mobile support is a sore spot for any "Show HN" announcement.

umko21•5h ago
The cars moving in the beginning is a nice touch.
magicalhippo•3h ago
Looks good the few seconds it works here. Then stops working and I have to close the tab and reopen for it to work again for another few seconds.

Firefox, Windows 11, Nvidia

Get the following in the console when it stops working:

  Uncaptured WebGPU error: Buffer binding 2 range 138024504 exceeds `max_*_buffer_binding_size` limit 134217728
  Uncaptured WebGPU error: Buffer binding 1 range 138024504 exceeds `max_*_buffer_binding_size` limit 134217728
  Uncaptured WebGPU error: In a set_bind_group command, caused by: BindGroup with '' label is invalid
akanet•2h ago
It looks like a webgpu driver issue - can you tell me what model of graphics chip you're using?
gblargg•2h ago
Totally hung my Windows 11 machine with Firefox and 32GB of RAM. Ryzen 8745HS (Radeon 780M iGPU).
joegibbs•3h ago
I like the moving cars. They're copies of the stopped ones right? Adds a good effect.
petarb•3h ago
This is such a cool immersive experience on mobile that works so well. Great job on this!
xdennis•2h ago
Wow, I didn't expect to see transsexual steps in front of a church.
hankbond•2h ago
Did you animate the cars separately? That really did a lot to add to the immersion (and the sound effects too). If nothing moved I think the effect would be significantly diminished.
arjie•2h ago
Unreal. It’s been years since I’ve been here. It’s crazy the fidelity you can capture. Stunning work.

Unrelated silly question. Are you the same Vincent Woo who went over the whole unit combination story on Medium of a supervisor?

suejunghuh0•47m ago
Gsplat is indeed the future for graphics. Handling much more detail in mobile hardware spec. Check this work too. (Not mine) https://demo.immersivetech.ch/chateau-la-sarraz/
franky47•43m ago
The Peek mode is insanely good, it reminds me of those exploded views of buildings and "how things work" children books.

The model seems to be having a hard time with the marble floor in the quire (low resolution), is this because of its reflection?

adaml_623•6m ago
Wow that's crazy that they built an apartment building where it would shadow all that stained glass.

I bet there's a story there.

•
6h ago
So beautifully done, its mindblowing. Please blog about your process a bit more.
nmstoker•5h ago
Beautiful work, thank you for sharing it!

In case it's useful, given your last sentence, it runs really well on Chrome on Android (on a Pixel 10) but it's a bit glitchy (although not impossible) on Firefox on Android. The loading indicator on Chrome got stuck briefly whereas the Firefox one was smoother, but that's about the only case there Firefox is better.

Hnrobert42•4h ago
FWIW, it works great in Firefox focus on an iPhone 16 Pro.
schaefer•3h ago
absolutely beautiful. I'd love to learn this process and attempt to capture a local rock climbing route.

anything you write about the process, or how you learned are very welcome.

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