# PolyDiff: Generating 3D Polygonal Meshes with Diffusion Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.11417 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11417/

## Key facts

- Cited by 66 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 27 of its 35 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 Dec 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, 27 of 27)

- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [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)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00364/) (2022)
- [ShapeNet: An Information-Rich 3D Model Repository](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03012/) (2015)
- [Consistency Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.01469/) (2023)
- [Structured Denoising Diffusion Models in Discrete State-Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03006/) (2021)
- [Learning Implicit Fields for Generative Shape Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02822/) (2018)
- [A Point Set Generation Network for 3D Object Reconstruction from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.00603/) (2016)
- [Diffusion Probabilistic Models for 3D Point Cloud Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01458/) (2021)
- [Equivariant Diffusion for Molecule Generation in 3D](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.17003/) (2022)
- [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)
- [AtlasNet: A Papier-Mach'e Approach to Learning 3D Surface Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05384/) (2018)
- [DiGress: Discrete Denoising diffusion for graph generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14734/) (2022)
- [3D Shape Generation and Completion through Point-Voxel Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03670/) (2021)
- [All are Worth Words: A ViT Backbone for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.12152/) (2022)
- [PolyGen: An Autoregressive Generative Model of 3D Meshes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.10880/) (2020)
- [BSP-Net: Generating Compact Meshes via Binary Space Partitioning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.06971/) (2019)
- [MeshDiffusion: Score-based Generative 3D Mesh Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08133/) (2023)
- [State of the Art on Diffusion Models for Visual Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.07204/) (2023)
- [Learning Deformable Tetrahedral Meshes for 3D Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.01437/) (2020)
- [HouseDiffusion: Vector Floorplan Generation via a Diffusion Model with Discrete and Continuous Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.13287/) (2022)
- [PolyDiffuse: Polygonal Shape Reconstruction via Guided Set Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.01461/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 66)

- [InstantMesh: Efficient 3D Mesh Generation from a Single Image with Sparse-view Large Reconstruction Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07191/) (2024)
- [MeshAnything: Artist-Created Mesh Generation with Autoregressive Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10163/) (2024)
- [MeshAnything V2: Artist-Created Mesh Generation With Adjacent Mesh Tokenization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.02555/) (2024)
- [BrepGen: A B-rep Generative Diffusion Model with Structured Latent Geometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.15563/) (2024)
- [MeshXL: Neural Coordinate Field for Generative 3D Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20853/) (2024)
- [Meshtron: High-Fidelity, Artist-Like 3D Mesh Generation at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09548/) (2024)
- [Scaling Mesh Generation via Compressive Tokenization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07025/) (2024)
- [You See it, You Got it: Learning 3D Creation on Pose-Free Videos at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06699/) (2024)
- [Meta 3D TextureGen: Fast and Consistent Texture Generation for 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02430/) (2024)
- [PivotMesh: Generic 3D Mesh Generation via Pivot Vertices Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.16890/) (2024)
- [MeshArt: Generating Articulated Meshes with Structure-Guided Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.11596/) (2024)
- [GenCAD: Image-Conditioned Computer-Aided Design Generation with Transformer-Based Contrastive Representation and Diffusion Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.16294/) (2024)
- [DynamicCity: Large-Scale 4D Occupancy Generation from Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18084/) (2024)
- [An Object is Worth 64x64 Pixels: Generating 3D Object via Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03178/) (2024)
- [PrEditor3D: Fast and Precise 3D Shape Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06592/) (2024)
- [Mesh-RFT: Enhancing Mesh Generation via Fine-grained Reinforcement Fine-Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.16761/) (2025)
- [TetSphere Splatting: Representing High-Quality Geometry with Lagrangian Volumetric Meshes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20283/) (2024)
- [MeshLLM: Empowering Large Language Models to Progressively Understand and Generate 3D Mesh](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01242/) (2025)
- [LL3M: Large Language 3D Modelers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08228/) (2025)
- [Nautilus: Locality-aware Autoencoder for Scalable Mesh Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.14317/) (2025)
- [FastMesh: Efficient Artistic Mesh Generation via Component Decoupling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19188/) (2025)
- [VertexRegen: Mesh Generation with Continuous Level of Detail](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09062/) (2025)
- [PuzzleFusion++: Auto-agglomerative 3D Fracture Assembly by Denoise and Verify](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.00259/) (2024)
- [MeshCraft: Exploring Efficient and Controllable Mesh Generation with Flow-based DiTs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.23022/) (2025)
- [NeuSDFusion: A Spatial-Aware Generative Model for 3D Shape Completion, Reconstruction, and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18241/) (2024)
- [Assembler: Scalable 3D Part Assembly via Anchor Point Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17074/) (2025)
- [LATO: 3D Mesh Flow Matching with Structured TOpology Preserving LAtents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06357/) (2026)
- [A Lesson in Splats: Teacher-Guided Diffusion for 3D Gaussian Splats Generation with 2D Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00623/) (2024)
- [Coherent 3D Scene Diffusion From a Single RGB Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10294/) (2024)
- [MeshMosaic: Scaling Artist Mesh Generation via Local-to-Global Assembly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19995/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce PolyDiff, the first diffusion-based approach capable of directly generating realistic and diverse 3D polygonal meshes. In contrast to methods that use alternate 3D shape representations (e.g. implicit representations), our approach is a discrete denoising diffusion probabilistic model that operates natively on the polygonal mesh data structure. This enables learning of both the geometric properties of vertices and the topological characteristics of faces. Specifically, we treat meshes as quantized triangle soups, progressively corrupted with categorical noise in the forward diffusion phase. In the reverse diffusion phase, a transformer-based denoising network is trained to revert the noising process, restoring the original mesh structure. At inference, new meshes can be generated by applying this denoising network iteratively, starting with a completely noisy triangle soup. Consequently, our model is capable of producing high-quality 3D polygonal meshes, ready for integration into downstream 3D workflows. Our extensive experimental analysis shows that PolyDiff achieves a significant advantage (avg. FID and JSD improvement of 18.2 and 5.8 respectively) over current state-of-the-art methods.