Gaussian splats#

The Nyx plugin renders captured light fields alongside simulated geometry. One field type is supported:

Gaussian splats — a point-cloud-like representation where each point is a 3D Gaussian with view-dependent colour. Loaded from a .ply or .spz file.

Both are declared on a Nyx camera sensor via the light_fields field of NyxCameraOptions and modelled as LightFieldAsset instances. They render as part of the scene every frame, alongside simulated rigid and deformable geometry.

Declaring a light field#

A light field is built by constructing a LightFieldAsset, setting its type (ELightFieldType) and URI, and passing it through light_fields:

import gs_nyx.nyx_py_sdk as nps
from gs_nyx_plugin.nyx_camera_options import NyxCameraOptions

splat            = nps.LightFieldAsset()
splat.type       = nps.ELightFieldType.GaussianField
splat.uri        = "assets/bonsai.ply"

cam = scene.add_sensor(NyxCameraOptions(
    res=(256, 256),
    pos=(0, 0, 5),
    light_fields=[splat],
    tone_mapper=nps.EToneMapper.Off,
))

light_fields from every Nyx sensor in the scene are collected at scene.build() and merged into the shared scene description.

Supported field types#

`ELightFieldType`	File formats	Description
`GaussianField`	`.ply`, `.spz`	3D Gaussian splats with view-dependent colour stored per Gaussian.

Gaussian splat formats#

Extension	Description
`.ply`	Standard 3D Gaussian Splatting output (Inria / INRIA-style). Plain-text PLY header with per-Gaussian position, scale, rotation, opacity, and spherical-harmonic coefficients.
`.spz`	Compact compressed Gaussian-splat format. Quantises and compresses the same per-Gaussian fields for faster loading and a much smaller on-disk footprint.

The format is auto-detected from the URI extension. No flag is required to switch between them.

Common properties#

Property	Type	Description
`type`	`ELightFieldType`	`GaussianField`.
`uri`	`str`	Path to the asset file.

Tone mapping for Gaussian splats#

Gaussian splats are typically authored against a specific exposure and tone curve. To match the original capture, disable the renderer’s tone mapper:

NyxCameraOptions(
    ...,
    tone_mapper=nps.EToneMapper.Off,
    light_fields=[splat],
)

Lifecycle and constraints#

Warning

Light fields are loaded once at scene.build() from the URIs declared at that point. Replacing the asset or changing its placement at runtime is not supported. To change the field, rebuild the scene.

Note

Light fields render alongside simulated geometry. A scene can mix simulated rigid bodies, deformable solvers, and a Gaussian-splat capture in the same frame.