TetSphere Splatting: Representing High-Quality Geometry with Lagrangian Volumetric Meshes

We present TetSphere splatting, an explicit, Lagrangian representation for reconstructing 3D shapes with high-quality geometry. In contrast to conventional object reconstruction methods which predominantly use Eulerian representations, including both neural implicit (e.g., NeRF, NeuS) and explicit representations (e.g., DMTet), and often struggle with high computational demands and suboptimal mesh quality, TetSphere splatting utilizes an underused but highly effective geometric primitive -- tetrahedral meshes. This approach directly yields superior mesh quality without relying on neural networks or post-processing. It deforms multiple initial tetrahedral spheres to accurately reconstruct the 3D shape through a combination of differentiable rendering and geometric energy optimization, resulting in significant computational efficiency. Serving as a robust and versatile geometry representation, Tet-Sphere splatting seamlessly integrates into diverse applications, including single-view 3D reconstruction, image-/text-to-3D content generation. Experimental results demonstrate that TetSphere splatting outperforms existing representations, delivering faster optimization speed, enhanced mesh quality, and reliable preservation of thin structures.