Mesh based photogrammetry is a dead end. GS or radiance field representation is just getting started. Not just rendering but potentially a highly compact way to store large 3D scenes.
Is it? So far it seems like the storage size is massive and the detail is unacceptably low up close.
Is there a demo that will make me go “holy crap I can’t believe how well this scene compressed”?
The key is not to compress but to leverage the property of neural radiance fields and optimize for entropy. I suspect NERF can yield more compact storage since it's volumetric.
Not sure what you mean by "unacceptably low up close". Most GS demos don't have LoD lol.
When the camera gets close the "texture" resolution is extremely low. Like, roughly 1/4 what I would expect. Maybe even 1/8. Aka it's very blurry.