# WonderWorld: Interactive 3D Scene Generation from a Single Image

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09394 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09394/

## Key facts

- Cited by 202 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 60 of its 75 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Jun 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 60)

- [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)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00364/) (2022)
- [Stable Video Diffusion: Scaling Latent Video Diffusion Models to Large Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15127/) (2023)
- [Plenoxels: Radiance Fields without Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05131/) (2021)
- [pixelNeRF: Neural Radiance Fields from One or Few Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.02190/) (2020)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [Exploring CLIP for Assessing the Look and Feel of Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12396/) (2022)
- [Mip-Splatting: Alias-free 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16493/) (2023)
- [MotionCtrl: A Unified and Flexible Motion Controller for Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03641/) (2023)
- [Q-Align: Teaching LMMs for Visual Scoring via Discrete Text-Defined Levels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.17090/) (2023)
- [VideoPoet: A Large Language Model for Zero-Shot Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14125/) (2023)
- [CameraCtrl: Enabling Camera Control for Text-to-Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02101/) (2024)
- [Lumiere: A Space-Time Diffusion Model for Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12945/) (2024)
- [CAT3D: Create Anything in 3D with Multi-View Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.10314/) (2024)
- [SynSin: End-to-end View Synthesis from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.08804/) (2019)
- [OneFormer: One Transformer to Rule Universal Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.06220/) (2022)
- [Diffusion Self-Guidance for Controllable Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00986/) (2023)
- [GRM: Large Gaussian Reconstruction Model for Efficient 3D Reconstruction and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14621/) (2024)
- [Generative Novel View Synthesis with 3D-Aware Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02602/) (2023)
- [Single-View View Synthesis with Multiplane Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.11364/) (2020)
- [Text2Room: Extracting Textured 3D Meshes from 2D Text-to-Image Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11989/) (2023)
- [Infinite Nature: Perpetual View Generation of Natural Scenes from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09855/) (2020)
- [LucidDreamer: Domain-free Generation of 3D Gaussian Splatting Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13384/) (2023)
- [3D Photography using Context-aware Layered Depth Inpainting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04727/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 202)

- [MoGe-2: Accurate Monocular Geometry with Metric Scale and Sharp Details](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02546/) (2025)
- [WorldPlay: Towards Long-Term Geometric Consistency for Real-Time Interactive World Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.14614/) (2025)
- [WorldMem: Long-term Consistent World Simulation with Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12369/) (2025)
- [Understanding World or Predicting Future? A Comprehensive Survey of World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.14499/) (2024)
- [WorldScore: A Unified Evaluation Benchmark for World Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00983/) (2025)
- [Frame Context Packing and Drift Prevention in Next-Frame-Prediction Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12626/) (2025)
- [VMem: Consistent Interactive Video Scene Generation with Surfel-Indexed View Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.18903/) (2025)
- [Voyager: Long-Range and World-Consistent Video Diffusion for Explorable 3D Scene Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04225/) (2025)
- [Wonderland: Navigating 3D Scenes from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12091/) (2024)
- [CameraCtrl II: Dynamic Scene Exploration via Camera-controlled Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10592/) (2025)
- [Geometry Forcing: Marrying Video Diffusion and 3D Representation for Consistent World Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07982/) (2025)
- [RELIC: Interactive Video World Model with Long-Horizon Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.04040/) (2025)
- [TesserAct: Learning 4D Embodied World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.20995/) (2025)
- [HunyuanWorld 1.0: Generating Immersive, Explorable, and Interactive 3D Worlds from Words or Pixels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21809/) (2025)
- [Scenethesis: A Language and Vision Agentic Framework for 3D Scene Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02836/) (2025)
- [You See it, You Got it: Learning 3D Creation on Pose-Free Videos at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06699/) (2024)
- [Bolt3D: Generating 3D Scenes in Seconds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14445/) (2025)
- [4K4DGen: Panoramic 4D Generation at 4K Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13527/) (2024)
- [LayerPano3D: Layered 3D Panorama for Hyper-Immersive Scene Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.13252/) (2024)
- [Marigold-DC: Zero-Shot Monocular Depth Completion with Guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13389/) (2024)
- [World-in-World: World Models in a Closed-Loop World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18135/) (2025)
- [PhysMotion: Physics-Grounded Dynamics From a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17189/) (2024)
- [WonderPlay: Dynamic 3D Scene Generation from a Single Image and Actions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18151/) (2025)
- [Depth Any Camera: Zero-Shot Metric Depth Estimation from Any Camera](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.02464/) (2025)
- [Spatia: Video Generation with Updatable Spatial Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.15716/) (2025)
- [VistaDream: Sampling multiview consistent images for single-view scene reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16892/) (2024)
- [FantasyWorld: Geometry-Consistent World Modeling via Unified Video and 3D Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21657/) (2025)
- [FlexWorld: Progressively Expanding 3D Scenes for Flexiable-View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.13265/) (2025)
- [Depth Anything with Any Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10565/) (2025)
- [Matrix-3D: Omnidirectional Explorable 3D World Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08086/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present WonderWorld, a novel framework for interactive 3D scene generation that enables users to interactively specify scene contents and layout and see the created scenes in low latency. The major challenge lies in achieving fast generation of 3D scenes. Existing scene generation approaches fall short of speed as they often require (1) progressively generating many views and depth maps, and (2) time-consuming optimization of the scene geometry representations. We introduce the Fast Layered Gaussian Surfels (FLAGS) as our scene representation and an algorithm to generate it from a single view. Our approach does not need multiple views, and it leverages a geometry-based initialization that significantly reduces optimization time. Another challenge is generating coherent geometry that allows all scenes to be connected. We introduce the guided depth diffusion that allows partial conditioning of depth estimation. WonderWorld generates connected and diverse 3D scenes in less than 10 seconds on a single A6000 GPU, enabling real-time user interaction and exploration. We demonstrate the potential of WonderWorld for user-driven content creation and exploration in virtual environments. We release full code and software for reproducibility. Project website: https://kovenyu.com/WonderWorld/.