APPLE LUCE · RELIGHTABLE 3D ASSET GENERATION
Luce: relightable 3D assets from one image
Luce is Apple Machine Learning Research’s August 2026 method for image-to-3D asset generation. Instead of a baked-in lighting look, it predicts geometry and physically based materials inside a voxelised multimodal Gaussian cloud, so the result can be relit and exported as a textured mesh.
What “relightable” buys you
Most single-image 3D methods bake the photo’s lighting into colour, so the asset looks wrong under a new light. Luce separates albedo from metallic, roughness and surface normals, which is what game engines and renderers expect from a PBR material. The paper also reports that fine details such as text and logos survive the reconstruction.
Luce vs SHARP
SHARP turns a photo of a scene into 3D Gaussians for nearby-view synthesis in under a second, and its code is public. Luce targets objects and produces editable, relightable assets. If you want a 3D-photo effect, use SHARP today; if you want a product or game asset, watch Luce.
Questions
Can I run Luce today?
As of the check date we could not confirm a public code or weight release. This page tracks the research; SHARP is the Apple image-to-3D model you can run now.
What is a Gaussian “cloud” or splat?
3D Gaussian splatting represents a scene as many small, soft ellipsoids with colour and opacity that render in real time. Luce adds material channels to each Gaussian so lighting can be computed instead of baked.