Papers for

graphics programmers

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Tile skipper speeds up 3d gaussian splatting with adaptive pruning

TileSkipper: Region-Adaptive Tile Pruning for 3D Gaussian Splatting

Abstract: Tiled 3D Gaussian Splatting rasterizers often use one scene-wide contribution cutoff for tile enumeration, although content differs in its sensitivity to support truncation. TileSkipper selects a static per-Gaussian cutoff policy for a frozen checkpoint. Calibration renders measure candidate pair savings and an isolated-removal distortion proxy that accounts for front transmittance and background color. The method allocates cutoffs across 64 Gaussian groups and accepts policies only after complete renders on disjoint selection views. The exported policy uses one byte per Gaussian, with no parameter updates, additional kernel, or per-frame policy inference. Across 13 scenes from Mip-NeRF 360, Tanks & Temples, and Deep Blending, a fixed-policy AccuTile sweep gives dataset-macro speedups of $1.088\times$ at standard resolution and $1.238\times$ at 3840 pixels wide, with $-0.007/-0.023$ dB mean PSNR change. Six integrations with existing opacity-aware bounds yield $1.009\times$--$1.121\times$ compiler-only speedups. For four ports from $3σ$ rasterizers, we separately attribute the prior exact-bound transition and our incremental gain. Matched-quality ablations show modest gains over scene-global calibration and parity with per-Gaussian control; the standalone comparison with AdaGScale is regime-dependent.

Wed 7 OctComputer Vision and Pattern Recognition
The gist
Rendering 3D scenes using Gaussian splats often wastes time by treating all parts of the scene the same way. The authors developed TileSkipper, which picks different shortcuts for parts of the scene based on their visual importance. This approach speeds up rendering by skipping unnecessary calculations while keeping the image quality nearly the same. It works by pre-calculating where to cut off support for each Gaussian and using a small extra data amount for efficient rendering.
Open → 2610.09343v1

Benchmarking AI agents that turn video into dynamic scene code

4DCodeBench: Benchmarking Agents on Inverse Graphics of Dynamic Scenes

Abstract: We introduce 4DCodeBench, a benchmark for 4D inverse graphics through code generation, in which agents reconstruct dynamic scenes from video as executable graphics programs. To accomplish this, agents must translate visual observations into compact representations of scene structure and dynamics, by implementing abstractions such as physical simulations to reproduce complex behavior. To evaluate this capability, we curate a set of real-world videos and construct synthetic scenes spanning diverse physical phenomena, including deformation, fluid flow, and fracture. We perform extensive benchmarking of frontier models, finding that strong static reconstruction capabilities do not yet translate into reliable reconstruction of complex dynamics. 4DCodeBench provides a testbed for tracking progress toward agents that can interpret the dynamics of the world through code. Our benchmark is available at https://github.com/4DCodeBench/4DCodeBench

Fri 2 OctComputer Vision and Pattern RecognitionArtificial IntelligenceGraphics
The gist
Understanding how things move and change in videos is hard for computers. The authors created 4DCodeBench, a test to see if AI can watch a video and write a program that explains what’s happening. They tested many top models and found that while AI can often understand still scenes well, it struggles to capture complex movements and changes over time. This benchmark helps measure progress toward AI that can explain dynamic scenes by writing code, not just describing images.
Open → 2610.03715v1

Fast and differentiable matrix decomposition method speeds up GPU work

Fast Differentiable SVD on GPU via Polar Decomposition

Abstract: We present a fully GPU-oriented SVD pipeline based on polar decomposition, motivated by iterative methods that rely solely on matrix multiplications, such as the Newton-Schulz iteration. We show that this approach enables up to a $2\times$ speedup compared to standard implementations. Furthermore, we derive a numerically stable backward pass for the polar decomposition and leverage it to obtain a fully differentiable SVD. Our methods are released as open-source implementations in both PyTorch and JAX: https://github.com/fallnlove/cans_svd.

Sat 26 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
Breaking down large tables of numbers into simpler parts is important in many technology areas but can be slow and hard to reverse for learning. The authors show a way to do this breakdown on GPUs using a method called polar decomposition, which mostly uses multiplication and is faster than usual methods. They also figured out how to reliably work backward through this process, making it easier to use in training computer models. Their approach runs up to twice as fast and has been made available as open-source code in popular programming tools.
Open → 2609.32505v1

New efficient method speeds up 3 by 3 matrix multiplication

A 51-Addition Alternative-Basis Kernel for Rank-23 $3\times3$ Matrix Multiplication

Abstract: We give a rank-23 algorithm for $3\times3$ matrix multiplication using 51 additions and subtractions in alternative bases. The input and output conversions require five further additions, giving 56 additions in ordinary coordinates. The construction combines linear-program reduction with a search over sparse basis changes, and the resulting programs are distributed as a machine-checkable certificate. We verify correctness by exact coefficient expansion and distinguish the kernel cost from the cost of a complete multiplication.

Sat 26 SeptData Structures and AlgorithmsComputational ComplexitySymbolic Computation
The gist
Multiplying two 3 by 3 grids of numbers is important in many computer tasks but can be slow. The authors found a way to do this multiplication with fewer simple steps, like additions and subtractions, by changing the way the numbers are represented. This method uses a special combination of shortcuts and checks to make sure the result is correct. It helps separate the core multiplication work from extra steps needed to switch formats.
Open → 2609.32388v1

Neural denoiser speeds up noise removal in new 3d gaussian rendering

Ultra-fast Neural Inference for Stochastic Gaussian Splatting Denoising

Abstract: Stochastic rendering eliminates the sorting and alpha blending process in Gaussian splatting, at the cost of introducing spatial noise. Formulating temporal denoising over the pixel stream shared by view-consistent stochastic splatting renderers, we propose a temporal neural denoiser validated on stochastic 2D Gaussian Splatting rendering, combining dual-path exponential moving average accumulation, per-pixel learned trust prediction for history validation, a fixed anisotropic spatial filter and a variance-gated composition with stabilization. The denoiser suppresses the noise, achieving temporally stable, visually compelling outputs during free camera navigation, all while retaining the sort-free, blend-free rasterization performance. The combined pipeline retains a PSNR gap to sorted alpha-blending renderers, but the denoiser's overhead stays below the time saved by removing sorting and blending.

Tue 22 SeptComputer Vision and Pattern RecognitionGraphics
The gist
Rendering 3D images using Gaussian splatting can be slow because it requires sorting and blending many visual elements. The authors found a way to skip these slow steps by allowing some noise in the image and then using a special neural network to quickly clean up the noise over time. This method produces stable and clear images even when the viewpoint changes, while still running faster overall. Their approach keeps the final image quality close to the slower method, but with better performance.
Open → 2609.25604v1

Improving diffusion model outputs by smartly distributing compute steps

Leveraging Inference-Time Compute for Diffusion Models via Global Scheduling of Denoising Trajectories

Abstract: Diffusion models generate a sample by traversing a denoising trajectory, a sequence of stochastic noise-reduction steps that transforms pure noise into a draw from a target distribution. At deployment time, additional computation can improve sample quality without retraining: at each step, the sampler draws several candidate noise samples, scores the resulting predictions with a quality criterion called the verifier, and retains the best candidate at the cost of one network evaluation per candidate. This raises a resource allocation question: given a fixed budget of function evaluations, how should search effort be distributed across the steps of the denoising trajectory? We formulate this as a computational budget allocation problem. First, we show that, to leading order in the step size, the expected gain from evaluating $K$ candidates at a step factorizes into an endogenous, step-specific sensitivity parameter times a universal sample-size factor equal to the expected best of $K$ standard-normal draws. Second, for a fixed sensitivity profile, the optimal allocation solves a separable concave integer program with water-filling structure; at fixed total sensitivity, its advantage over uniform allocation increases with sensitivity dispersion in the majorization order. Third, we prove that when sensitivities vary across instances, no adaptive policy can avoid worst-case regret that grows linearly in the trajectory length, which motivates a design that anchors the allocation offline and adapts online only to recover instance-specific slack. We extend the analysis from independent random search to a broader family of local search operators, and instantiate it as an implementable algorithm. Experiments on three families of diffusion samplers show that the proposed allocation attains the quality of the uniform benchmark with 20 to 50 percent fewer function evaluations.

Sat 19 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
Diffusion models create images or data by gradually removing noise through many steps. The authors studied how to use a fixed amount of extra computing effort best across these steps to improve output quality. They found a way to decide which steps should get more computational attention based on their impact. Their method can produce better results using fewer calculations compared to treating every step equally.
Open → 2609.22867v1

New simple model improves light reflections on rough surfaces

An Elementary Expression for Multiple Scattering in Homogeneous Microflake Media

Abstract: We derive a novel diffuse-like BRDF based on microfacet theory. Its main novelty lies in the fact that it admits an elementary expression for both evaluation and importance sampling, while accounting exactly for all scattering orders under the Smith shadowing assumption. As such, it is the first to settle the question of whether such a construction was possible. In practice, the BRDF produces Lambertian reflectance at normal incidence and progressively concentrates reflected light around the mirror direction as incidence approaches grazing. We showcase this effect by comparing rendering results against Lambertian and state-of-the-art stochastic microfacet BRDFs.

Thu 17 SeptGraphics
The gist
When light bounces off rough surfaces like frosted glass or tiny flakes, it can scatter in complicated ways. The authors found a simple formula that accurately describes how light bounces multiple times inside such materials. This formula is easy to calculate and helps make computer-generated images look more realistic. Their model smoothly changes from rough diffuse reflection to shiny mirror-like reflection depending on the angle you look at the surface.
Open → 2609.20394v1

Contrastive noise alignment improves generative flow models quality and speed

Beyond Random Couplings: Contrastive Noise Alignment in Generative Flows

Abstract: Diffusion and flow-matching models are typically trained by corrupting data through independently sampled Gaussian noise. While simple and scalable, this forward process induces arbitrary data-noise couplings, forcing the network to learn high-curvature transports between unrelated endpoints. Existing optimal-transport methods reduce this burden by reassigning fixed noise samples to data, but the source noise distribution itself remains passive. To address this, we introduce Contrastive Noise Alignment (CNA), a training-time method that creates dynamic, contrastive couplings by optimizing the noise representations directly. By modeling the noise batch as an interacting particle system, CNA employs a cross-modal InfoNCE objective to align noise particles with their paired data targets. To prevent spatial collapse, this alignment is regularized using an angular entropy term and a radial norm penalty. We show theoretically that this equilibrium asymptotically preserves Gaussian structures, maintaining tractability during inference. Empirically, CNA improves the alignment between noise and data, reduces flow curvature, and provides better generation quality with fewer required sampling steps. For few-step, pixel-space generation (2-4 NFEs), CNA reduces FID by over 50\% compared to standard rectified flow, and by at least 24\% against Optimal Transport baselines.

Wed 16 SeptComputer Vision and Pattern RecognitionMachine Learning
The gist
Generating images using flow-based models usually involves adding random noise in a way that can make learning difficult and slow. The authors introduce Contrastive Noise Alignment (CNA), a method that actively adjusts the noise used during training to better match the data. This makes the model's job easier, leading to improved image quality and faster generation with fewer steps. Their method maintains the math properties needed for smooth operation while significantly reducing errors compared to earlier approaches.
Open → 2609.18488v1