Luce: Relightable Gaussians for 3D Asset Generation

On August 26, 2026, Apple ML Research released a new 3D asset generation method called Luce. This method uses voxelized multimodal Gaussian clouds as the core representation technique, innovatively integrating geometric information with physically based rendering (PBR) materials. Specifically, Luce encodes material modalities such as diffuse reflection, metal-roughness, and normal textures using dedicated Gaussian primitives. Additionally, the research team compresses this multimodal representation into a unified material perception latent space using variational autoencoders. The ultimate goal of this technology is to support the generation of high-quality 3D images and achieve seamless integration with standard rendering pipelines, thereby providing high-quality results in scenarios with complex lighting conditions.