3DGS vs. Oblique Photogrammetry: Era Tower Reconstruction Marks an Efficiency Revolution in 3D Modeling

Amid rapid advances in digital twin and smart city technologies, 3D modeling has evolved from a supporting tool into a foundational core. Oblique photogrammetry long dominated large-scale modeling, yet struggles with bottlenecks in high-fidelity reconstruction and real-time interaction. The emerging 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) technology is now driving a paradigm shift across the entire modeling workflow.

Invited by a client, our team delivered professional 3D scanning and reconstruction for the Era Tower. Leveraging robust expertise, precision equipment, and refined project execution, we successfully built a centimeter-accurate reality-based 3D model powered by Lixel CyberColor (LCC) technology, delivering stunning visual and geometric results. This article uses the Era Tower project to compare the strengths and limitations of 3DGS and traditional oblique models.

Oblique photogrammetry has been a cornerstone of 3D geospatial applications, enabling large-scale reality modeling for smart cities and engineering surveys. It generates georeferenced 3D scenes with real textures via multi-view image fusion and automated processing. However, critical challenges persist in real-world projects:

• Severe detail loss: Thin structures such as power lines, openwork decorations, and complex vegetation often appear broken, incomplete, or blurred.
• Poor performance in low-texture areas: Glass facades, concrete surfaces, and similar regions frequently cause point-cloud mismatching, leading to deformation and inaccuracies.
• Difficult indoor-outdoor integration: Indoor modeling relies heavily on manual work, driving high costs and preventing seamless outdoor-indoor fusion.
• High post-processing overhead: Extensive manual editing is required, creating strong dependence on skilled technicians.

To overcome these pain points, our team deployed the cutting-edge Lixel CyberColor (LCC) system for the Era Tower. Built on Multi-SLAM + 3D Gaussian Splatting fusion, LCC automatically generates hyper-realistic, centimeter-precise 3D models that faithfully reproduce architectural details and components, supporting immersive, unified experiences across terminals and spatial computing devices.

Given the Era Tower’s combination of tall outdoor structures and complex interior spaces, we adopted a unified indoor-outdoor workflow:

• Ground scanning: Lingguang L2pro Handheld Scanner

  For indoor areas, eaves, and fine architectural details unreachable by drones, the lightweight (1.7kg) L2pro scanner captures real-time color point clouds with RTK fusion. Its “scan-while-walking” design improves efficiency by 5× over traditional static stations.

• Aerial survey: Matrice 4E Drone

  For large-scale exterior and surrounding environments, the M4E performs multi-angle oblique photography, ensuring full coverage of the entire tower site.

All drone imagery and handheld scan data are imported and processed automatically in the Lixel CyberColor software suite, with zero manual intervention required.

Selected deliverables demonstrate seamless integration of indoor and outdoor datasets.

Side-by-side evaluation at the Era Tower reveals clear performance differences:

• 3DGS model: Visually near-photorealistic, preserving nearly all high-frequency details. Restoration rate for architectural decorations, vegetation, and fine structures exceeds 90%.
• Oblique model: Limited detail clarity, with fine-structure preservation below 50%, often showing holes, broken surfaces, and blurry textures.

The comparison between 3DGS and oblique modeling reflects the industry’s shift from accuracy-only to accuracy + efficiency. While oblique photogrammetry once revolutionized surveying efficiency, 3DGS uses AI-driven innovation to meet the digital twin era’s demand for real-time, high-detail, and interactive 3D content.

By deeply integrating 3DGS and other frontier technologies, we lower barriers to high-precision modeling and turn digital twin concepts into scalable, real-world applications.