# LooseControl: Lifting ControlNet for Generalized Depth Conditioning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03079 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03079/

## Key facts

- Cited by 68 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 48 of its 54 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Dec 2023.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Image generation, text-to-image and editing](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/image-generation-text-to-image-and-editing/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 48)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [BLIP-2: Bootstrapping Language-Image Pre-training with Frozen Image Encoders and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12597/) (2023)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10741/) (2021)
- [DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12242/) (2022)
- [CLIPScore: A Reference-free Evaluation Metric for Image Captioning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08718/) (2021)
- [An Image is Worth One Word: Personalizing Text-to-Image Generation using Textual Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01618/) (2022)
- [Matterport3D: Learning from RGB-D Data in Indoor Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.06158/) (2017)
- [T2I-Adapter: Learning Adapters to Dig out More Controllable Ability for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08453/) (2023)
- [Null-text Inversion for Editing Real Images using Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09794/) (2022)
- [OpenPose: Realtime Multi-Person 2D Pose Estimation using Part Affinity Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.08008/) (2018)
- [Realtime Multi-Person 2D Pose Estimation using Part Affinity Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.08050/) (2016)
- [Exploring CLIP for Assessing the Look and Feel of Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12396/) (2022)
- [eDiff-I: Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with an Ensemble of Expert Denoisers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.01324/) (2022)
- [Accelerating 3D Deep Learning with PyTorch3D](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.08501/) (2020)
- [GLIGEN: Open-Set Grounded Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.07093/) (2023)
- [Open3D: A Modern Library for 3D Data Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.09847/) (2018)
- [Text2Video-Zero: Text-to-Image Diffusion Models are Zero-Shot Video Generators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13439/) (2023)
- [ZoeDepth: Zero-shot Transfer by Combining Relative and Metric Depth](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12288/) (2023)
- [DiffEdit: Diffusion-based semantic image editing with mask guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.11427/) (2022)
- [Compositional Visual Generation with Composable Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.01714/) (2022)
- [3DShape2VecSet: A 3D Shape Representation for Neural Fields and Generative Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.11445/) (2023)
- [Diffusion Models already have a Semantic Latent Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.10960/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 68)

- [Controllable Generation with Text-to-Image Diffusion Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04279/) (2024)
- [DreamScene360: Unconstrained Text-to-3D Scene Generation with Panoramic Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.06903/) (2024)
- [CineMaster: A 3D-Aware and Controllable Framework for Cinematic Text-to-Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08639/) (2025)
- [LeviTor: 3D Trajectory Oriented Image-to-Video Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.15214/) (2024)
- [Neural Assets: 3D-Aware Multi-Object Scene Synthesis with Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09292/) (2024)
- [ObjectMover: Generative Object Movement with Video Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08037/) (2025)
- [DreamRenderer: Taming Multi-Instance Attribute Control in Large-Scale Text-to-Image Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12885/) (2025)
- [Coin3D: Controllable and Interactive 3D Assets Generation with Proxy-Guided Conditioning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.08054/) (2024)
- [SmartControl: Enhancing ControlNet for Handling Rough Visual Conditions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.06451/) (2024)
- [ZeST: Zero-Shot Material Transfer from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.06425/) (2024)
- [FastCache: Fast Caching for Diffusion Transformer Through Learnable Linear Approximation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.20353/) (2025)
- [Consolidating Attention Features for Multi-view Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14792/) (2024)
- [Build-A-Scene: Interactive 3D Layout Control for Diffusion-Based Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.14819/) (2024)
- [VideoHandles: Editing 3D Object Compositions in Videos Using Video Generative Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01107/) (2025)
- [A Simple Approach to Unifying Diffusion-based Conditional Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11439/) (2024)
- [PreciseCam: Precise Camera Control for Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.12910/) (2025)
- [Compass Control: Multi Object Orientation Control for Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06752/) (2025)
- [JointDiT: Enhancing RGB-Depth Joint Modeling with Diffusion Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.00482/) (2025)
- [ORIGEN: Zero-Shot 3D Orientation Grounding in Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22194/) (2025)
- [BideDPO: Conditional Image Generation with Simultaneous Text and Condition Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19268/) (2025)
- [Block and Detail: Scaffolding Sketch-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.18116/) (2024)
- [Conditional Balance: Improving Multi-Conditioning Trade-Offs in Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.19853/) (2024)
- [MARBLE: Material Recomposition and Blending in CLIP-Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05313/) (2025)
- [SceneDesigner: Controllable Multi-Object Image Generation with 9-DoF Pose Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.16666/) (2025)
- [SpaceControl: Introducing Test-Time Spatial Control to 3D Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05343/) (2025)
- [FlexGen: Flexible Multi-View Generation from Text and Image Inputs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.10745/) (2024)
- [UrbanSAM: Learning Invariance-Inspired Adapters for Segment Anything Models in Urban Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.15199/) (2025)
- [LaRI: Layered Ray Intersections for Single-view 3D Geometric Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.18424/) (2025)
- [CoT-lized Diffusion: Let's Reinforce T2I Generation Step-by-step](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04451/) (2025)
- [When ControlNet Meets Inexplicit Masks: A Case Study of ControlNet on its Contour-following Ability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00467/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present LooseControl to allow generalized depth conditioning for diffusion-based image generation. ControlNet, the SOTA for depth-conditioned image generation, produces remarkable results but relies on having access to detailed depth maps for guidance. Creating such exact depth maps, in many scenarios, is challenging. This paper introduces a generalized version of depth conditioning that enables many new content-creation workflows. Specifically, we allow (C1) scene boundary control for loosely specifying scenes with only boundary conditions, and (C2) 3D box control for specifying layout locations of the target objects rather than the exact shape and appearance of the objects. Using LooseControl, along with text guidance, users can create complex environments (e.g., rooms, street views, etc.) by specifying only scene boundaries and locations of primary objects. Further, we provide two editing mechanisms to refine the results: (E1) 3D box editing enables the user to refine images by changing, adding, or removing boxes while freezing the style of the image. This yields minimal changes apart from changes induced by the edited boxes. (E2) Attribute editing proposes possible editing directions to change one particular aspect of the scene, such as the overall object density or a particular object. Extensive tests and comparisons with baselines demonstrate the generality of our method. We believe that LooseControl can become an important design tool for easily creating complex environments and be extended to other forms of guidance channels. Code and more information are available at https://shariqfarooq123.github.io/loose-control/ .