# RichDreamer: A Generalizable Normal-Depth Diffusion Model for Detail Richness in Text-to-3D

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.16918 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16918/

## Key facts

- Cited by 168 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in 3D, point cloud and scene generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 88 of its 99 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Nov 2023.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [3D, point cloud and scene generation](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/3d-point-cloud-and-scene-generation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 88)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12092/) (2021)
- [LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08402/) (2022)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09841/) (2020)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [Vision Transformers for Dense Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13413/) (2021)
- [Objaverse: A Universe of Annotated 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08051/) (2022)
- [Towards Robust Monocular Depth Estimation: Mixing Datasets for Zero-shot Cross-dataset Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.01341/) (2019)
- [Zero-1-to-3: Zero-shot One Image to 3D Object](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11328/) (2023)
- [Magic3D: High-Resolution Text-to-3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10440/) (2022)
- [ProlificDreamer: High-Fidelity and Diverse Text-to-3D Generation with Variational Score Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16213/) (2023)
- [MVDream: Multi-view Diffusion for 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16512/) (2023)
- [DreamGaussian: Generative Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16653/) (2023)
- [Diffusion Probabilistic Models for 3D Point Cloud Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01458/) (2021)
- [Point-E: A System for Generating 3D Point Clouds from Complex Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08751/) (2022)
- [Wonder3D: Single Image to 3D using Cross-Domain Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15008/) (2023)
- [Fantasia3D: Disentangling Geometry and Appearance for High-quality Text-to-3D Content Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13873/) (2023)
- [Common Objects in 3D: Large-Scale Learning and Evaluation of Real-life 3D Category Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.00512/) (2021)
- [SyncDreamer: Generating Multiview-consistent Images from a Single-view Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.03453/) (2023)
- [Score Jacobian Chaining: Lifting Pretrained 2D Diffusion Models for 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00774/) (2022)
- [One-2-3-45: Any Single Image to 3D Mesh in 45 Seconds without Per-Shape Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.16928/) (2023)
- [Learning a Probabilistic Latent Space of Object Shapes via 3D Generative-Adversarial Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.07584/) (2016)
- [LION: Latent Point Diffusion Models for 3D Shape Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.06978/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 168)

- [CLAY: A Controllable Large-scale Generative Model for Creating High-quality 3D Assets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13897/) (2024)
- [GeoWizard: Unleashing the Diffusion Priors for 3D Geometry Estimation from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12013/) (2024)
- [CRM: Single Image to 3D Textured Mesh with Convolutional Reconstruction Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05034/) (2024)
- [Direct3D: Scalable Image-to-3D Generation via 3D Latent Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14832/) (2024)
- [StableNormal: Reducing Diffusion Variance for Stable and Sharp Normal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16864/) (2024)
- [L4GM: Large 4D Gaussian Reconstruction Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10324/) (2024)
- [Hi3DGen: High-fidelity 3D Geometry Generation from Images via Normal Bridging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22236/) (2025)
- [Dora: Sampling and Benchmarking for 3D Shape Variational Auto-Encoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17808/) (2024)
- [SAMPart3D: Segment Any Part in 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07184/) (2024)
- [LN3DIFF++: Scalable Latent Neural Fields Diffusion for Speedy 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12019/) (2024)
- [EdgeRunner: Auto-regressive Auto-encoder for Artistic Mesh Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.18114/) (2024)
- [IM-3D: Iterative Multiview Diffusion and Reconstruction for High-Quality 3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.08682/) (2024)
- [Fine-Tuning Image-Conditional Diffusion Models is Easier than You Think](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.11355/) (2024)
- [3DTopia: Large Text-to-3D Generation Model with Hybrid Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.02234/) (2024)
- [Geo4D: Leveraging Video Generators for Geometric 4D Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07961/) (2025)
- [Meta 3D AssetGen: Text-to-Mesh Generation with High-Quality Geometry, Texture, and PBR Materials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02445/) (2024)
- [You See it, You Got it: Learning 3D Creation on Pose-Free Videos at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06699/) (2024)
- [DeepMesh: Auto-Regressive Artist-mesh Creation with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15265/) (2025)
- [PartGen: Part-level 3D Generation and Reconstruction with Multi-View Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18608/) (2024)
- [Gamba: Marry Gaussian Splatting with Mamba for single view 3D reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18795/) (2024)
- [Animate3D: Animating Any 3D Model with Multi-view Video Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11398/) (2024)
- [LaRa: Efficient Large-Baseline Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.04699/) (2024)
- [MeshFormer: High-Quality Mesh Generation with 3D-Guided Reconstruction Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.10198/) (2024)
- [Fast Feedforward 3D Gaussian Splatting Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08017/) (2024)
- [DiffSplat: Repurposing Image Diffusion Models for Scalable Gaussian Splat Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16764/) (2025)
- [UniDream: Unifying Diffusion Priors for Relightable Text-to-3D Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.08754/) (2023)
- [VideoMV: Consistent Multi-View Generation Based on Large Video Generative Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12010/) (2024)
- [DressCode: Autoregressively Sewing and Generating Garments from Text Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.16465/) (2024)
- [Articulate AnyMesh: Open-Vocabulary 3D Articulated Objects Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02590/) (2025)
- [Vivid-ZOO: Multi-View Video Generation with Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.08659/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Lifting 2D diffusion for 3D generation is a challenging problem due to the lack of geometric prior and the complex entanglement of materials and lighting in natural images. Existing methods have shown promise by first creating the geometry through score-distillation sampling (SDS) applied to rendered surface normals, followed by appearance modeling. However, relying on a 2D RGB diffusion model to optimize surface normals is suboptimal due to the distribution discrepancy between natural images and normals maps, leading to instability in optimization. In this paper, recognizing that the normal and depth information effectively describe scene geometry and be automatically estimated from images, we propose to learn a generalizable Normal-Depth diffusion model for 3D generation. We achieve this by training on the large-scale LAION dataset together with the generalizable image-to-depth and normal prior models. In an attempt to alleviate the mixed illumination effects in the generated materials, we introduce an albedo diffusion model to impose data-driven constraints on the albedo component. Our experiments show that when integrated into existing text-to-3D pipelines, our models significantly enhance the detail richness, achieving state-of-the-art results. Our project page is https://aigc3d.github.io/richdreamer/.
