DualPrim: Compact 3D Reconstruction with Positive and Negative Primitives

TL;DR

DualPrim achieves compact 3D reconstruction using positive and negative superquadrics, enhancing structural expressiveness.

cs.CV 🔴 Advanced 2026-03-17 33 views
Xiaoxu Meng Zhongmin Chen Bo Yang Weikai Chen Weixiao Liu Lin Gao
3D reconstruction neural networks superquadrics boolean difference structured mesh

Key Findings

Methodology

DualPrim utilizes a combination of positive and negative superquadrics to perform additive and subtractive modeling of 3D shapes through a differentiable boolean difference operation. Positive superquadrics form the base shapes, while negative ones carve local volumes, enhancing topological expressiveness. This method is embedded in a volumetric differentiable renderer, supporting end-to-end learning from multi-view images.

Key Results

  • On the ShapeNet dataset, DualPrim achieves a Chamfer Distance of 7.94, outperforming existing methods.
  • DualPrim generates compact and interpretable meshes with an editability score of 8.29, significantly higher than other methods.
  • Ablation studies show that the combination of positive and negative superquadrics significantly enhances topological expressiveness.

Significance

DualPrim holds significant implications for academia and industry. It addresses the irregular and hard-to-edit structures of existing neural reconstruction methods, offering a compact and structured 3D reconstruction solution. This method opens new possibilities for 3D modeling, animation, and asset reuse.

Technical Contribution

DualPrim's technical contributions lie in its unique additive-subtractive modeling mechanism, significantly enhancing expressiveness compared to existing additive-only methods. Additionally, it supports end-to-end learning from multi-view images while maintaining compactness and differentiability, offering new engineering possibilities.

Novelty

DualPrim is the first to combine positive and negative superquadrics for 3D reconstruction, achieving topology-aware modeling. This innovation breaks the limitations of traditional methods, enabling the expression of complex internal cavities and open structures.

Limitations

  • DualPrim may encounter computational efficiency issues when handling extremely complex geometries.
  • The method is sensitive to the initial parameter settings of the superquadrics.

Future Work

Future work could explore DualPrim's application in more complex scenarios and further optimize its computational efficiency. Additionally, combining with other geometric modeling techniques may bring more innovations and breakthroughs.

AI Executive Summary

In the field of 3D reconstruction, existing neural reconstruction methods often trade structure for fidelity, resulting in irregular and hard-to-edit mesh structures. DualPrim introduces a novel 3D reconstruction framework that achieves compact and structured reconstruction through the combination of positive and negative superquadrics. Positive superquadrics build the base shapes, while negative ones carve local volumes through differentiable operations, enhancing topological expressiveness.

DualPrim is embedded in a volumetric differentiable renderer, supporting end-to-end learning from multi-view images and seamless mesh export via closed-form boolean difference. Experimental results show that DualPrim outperforms existing methods in reconstruction accuracy on the ShapeNet dataset, generating compact and interpretable meshes that meet downstream application needs.

Despite significant advances in expressiveness and structured reconstruction, DualPrim may encounter computational efficiency issues when handling extremely complex geometries. Future research could explore its application in more complex scenarios and further optimize its computational efficiency.

Deep Analysis

Background

Recent advances in neural reconstruction have achieved significant progress, especially in high-fidelity modeling from multi-view images. However, these methods typically generate dense and unstructured meshes that are difficult to edit and animate. Traditional primitive-based reconstruction methods represent shapes as combinations of analytic primitives, but most rely solely on additive composition, limiting their ability to express complex topologies.

Core Problem

Existing neural reconstruction methods face a trade-off between structure and fidelity, resulting in irregular mesh structures that lack meaningful part boundaries. This irregularity limits the possibilities for editing and animation, hindering downstream asset reuse.

Innovation

DualPrim achieves topology-aware 3D modeling through the combination of positive and negative superquadrics. Positive superquadrics build the base shapes, while negative ones carve local volumes through differentiable operations, enhancing expressiveness. This innovation breaks the limitations of traditional methods, enabling the expression of complex internal cavities and open structures.

Methodology

  • �� Combination of positive and negative superquadrics: Positive superquadrics build base shapes, negative ones carve local volumes.
  • �� Embedded in a volumetric differentiable renderer: Supports end-to-end learning from multi-view images.
  • �� Closed-form boolean difference: Enables seamless mesh export.

Experiments

Experiments were conducted on 12 categories from the ShapeNet dataset to evaluate DualPrim's performance on multi-view reconstruction tasks. Chamfer Distance was used as the main evaluation metric, and comparisons were made with 13 existing methods.

Results

DualPrim achieves a Chamfer Distance of 7.94 on the ShapeNet dataset, outperforming existing methods. The generated meshes are compact and interpretable, with an editability score of 8.29, significantly higher than other methods.

Applications

DualPrim is applicable to scenarios such as 3D modeling, animation, and asset reuse. Its compact and structured reconstruction results provide more possibilities for downstream applications.

Limitations & Outlook

Despite significant advances in expressiveness and structured reconstruction, DualPrim may encounter computational efficiency issues when handling extremely complex geometries. Additionally, the method is sensitive to the initial parameter settings of the superquadrics.

Plain Language Accessible to non-experts

Imagine you're building a complex LEGO model. Traditional methods are like using a large number of small bricks to piece together a shape, which, while detailed, is structurally chaotic. DualPrim is like using a few special-shaped LEGO bricks to construct the model, where these bricks can combine to form complex structures. Positive bricks build the base shape, while negative bricks act like erasers, removing excess parts. This method not only makes the model more compact but also easier to modify and understand.

ELI14 Explained like you're 14

Hey, imagine you're building a castle with LEGO bricks. Traditional methods are like using tons of tiny bricks to piece together a complex castle, which, while detailed, is hard to modify. DualPrim's method is like using some special bricks that can combine to form complex structures. Positive bricks build the base of the castle, while negative bricks act like erasers, removing extra parts. This way, your castle is not only more compact but also easier to modify and understand!

Glossary

Superquadric

A superquadric is a geometric shape with adjustable curvature parameters used to represent complex 3D shapes.

In DualPrim, superquadrics are used to construct and carve 3D shapes.

Boolean Difference

A boolean difference is a geometric operation used to subtract one shape from another.

DualPrim uses boolean difference to perform additive and subtractive modeling of shapes.

Differentiable Renderer

A differentiable renderer is a rendering technique that supports gradient computation for optimizing geometric parameters.

DualPrim embeds a differentiable renderer to achieve end-to-end learning.

Chamfer Distance

Chamfer Distance is a metric used to evaluate the similarity between two sets of points.

Used in experiments to evaluate reconstruction accuracy.

ShapeNet

ShapeNet is a large-scale 3D shape database containing 3D models across various categories.

Experiments are conducted on the ShapeNet dataset for evaluation.

Open Questions Unanswered questions from this research

  • 1 How to improve DualPrim's computational efficiency when handling extremely complex geometries?
  • 2 How to further optimize DualPrim's initial parameter settings to improve reconstruction accuracy?

Applications

Immediate Applications

3D Modeling

DualPrim can be used to create compact and structured 3D models suitable for gaming and animation production.

Long-term Vision

Asset Reuse

By generating interpretable 3D models, DualPrim is expected to play a significant role in asset reuse and design automation.

Abstract

Neural reconstructions often trade structure for fidelity, yielding dense and unstructured meshes with irregular topology and weak part boundaries that hinder editing, animation, and downstream asset reuse. We present DualPrim, a compact and structured 3D reconstruction framework. Unlike additive-only implicit or primitive methods, DualPrim represents shapes with positive and negative superquadrics: the former builds the bases while the latter carves local volumes through a differentiable operator, enabling topology-aware modeling of holes and concavities. This additive-subtractive design increases the representational power without sacrificing compactness or differentiability. We embed DualPrim in a volumetric differentiable renderer, enabling end-to-end learning from multi-view images and seamless mesh export via closed-form boolean difference. Empirically, DualPrim delivers state-of-the-art accuracy and produces compact, structured, and interpretable outputs that better satisfy downstream needs than additive-only alternatives.

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