Consumer- and industry-level 3d sensing devices are becoming more common than ever before, increasing the amount of available 3D point-cloud data. The full geometry and details of a 3D scene can be captured by 3D scans, which are useful in many applications, including virtual reality (VR), 3D video, robotics, and geographic information access. However, it is often problematic to efficiently store, exchange, and access the large volume of these point-cloud data sets. To address these challenges, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) initiated a standardization activity on point-cloud compression (PCC). This article provides an overview of MPEG?s ground-breaking PCC standardization efforts as of January 2018, which are set to be finished by 2020.