# UrbanWorld: An Urban World Model for 3D City Generation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.11965 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11965/

## Key facts

- Cited by 24 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Video-generation world models and simulators, one of 11 directions in World models.
- Builds on 34 of its 41 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Jul 2024.

## Placed in

- World models / [Video-generation world models and simulators](https://mlsanity.com/wm/video-generation-world-models-and-simulators/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 34)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Improved Baselines with Visual Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03744/) (2023)
- [Towards Robust Monocular Depth Estimation: Mixing Datasets for Zero-shot Cross-dataset Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.01341/) (2019)
- [IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06721/) (2023)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [Large Language Models are not Fair Evaluators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17926/) (2023)
- [AI2-THOR: An Interactive 3D Environment for Visual AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05474/) (2017)
- [Genie: Generative Interactive Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.15391/) (2024)
- [VILA: On Pre-training for Visual Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.07533/) (2023)
- [GAIA-1: A Generative World Model for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.17080/) (2023)
- [Gibson Env: Real-World Perception for Embodied Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.10654/) (2018)
- [VirtualHome: Simulating Household Activities via Programs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.07011/) (2018)
- [Driving into the Future: Multiview Visual Forecasting and Planning with World Model for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17918/) (2023)
- [DriveDreamer: Towards Real-world-driven World Models for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.09777/) (2023)
- [ThreeDWorld: A Platform for Interactive Multi-Modal Physical Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.04954/) (2020)
- [LayoutDM: Discrete Diffusion Model for Controllable Layout Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08137/) (2023)
- [SceneCraft: An LLM Agent for Synthesizing 3D Scene as Blender Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01248/) (2024)
- [DreamBench++: A Human-Aligned Benchmark for Personalized Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16855/) (2024)
- [Paint3D: Paint Anything 3D with Lighting-Less Texture Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.13913/) (2023)
- [Interactive Gibson Benchmark (iGibson 0.5): A Benchmark for Interactive Navigation in Cluttered Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.14442/) (2019)
- [BlockFusion: Expandable 3D Scene Generation using Latent Tri-plane Extrapolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.17053/) (2024)
- [CityDreamer: Compositional Generative Model of Unbounded 3D Cities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.00610/) (2023)
- [SceneDreamer: Unbounded 3D Scene Generation from 2D Image Collections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01330/) (2023)
- [InfiniCity: Infinite-Scale City Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.09637/) (2023)
- [GRUtopia: Dream General Robots in a City at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10943/) (2024)
- [Persistent Nature: A Generative Model of Unbounded 3D Worlds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13515/) (2023)
- [Urban Generative Intelligence (UGI): A Foundational Platform for Agents in Embodied City Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11813/) (2023)
- [V-IRL: Grounding Virtual Intelligence in Real Life](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.03310/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 24 of 24)

- [Understanding World or Predicting Future? A Comprehensive Survey of World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.14499/) (2024)
- [3D and 4D World Modeling: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.07996/) (2025)
- [SynCity: Training-Free Generation of 3D Worlds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16420/) (2025)
- [Skyfall-GS: Synthesizing Immersive 3D Urban Scenes from Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.15869/) (2025)
- [Sat2City: 3D City Generation from A Single Satellite Image with Cascaded Latent Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04403/) (2025)
- [Synthetic Video Enhances Physical Fidelity in Video Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.20822/) (2025)
- [OptiScene: LLM-driven Indoor Scene Layout Generation via Scaled Human-aligned Data Synthesis and Multi-Stage Preference Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07570/) (2025)
- [Grounding World Simulation Models in a Real-World Metropolis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.15583/) (2026)
- [Proc-GS: Procedural Building Generation for City Assembly with 3D Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07660/) (2024)
- [EarthCrafter: Scalable 3D Earth Generation via Dual-Sparse Latent Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16535/) (2025)
- [MajutsuCity: Language-driven Aesthetic-adaptive City Generation with Controllable 3D Assets and Layouts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.20415/) (2025)
- [LatticeWorld: A Multimodal Large Language Model-Empowered Framework for Interactive Complex World Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.05263/) (2025)
- [Imagine a City: CityGenAgent for Procedural 3D City Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.05362/) (2026)
- [From 2D to 3D Cognition: A Brief Survey of General World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.20134/) (2025)
- [UrbanWorld2.0: A Multimodal Agentic Framework for Reality-Aligned 3D World Generation at City-Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18005/) (2025)
- [Sat2City v2: Native 3D City Asset Generation from a Single Satellite Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24138/) (2026)
- [Security of World-Model-Based Embodied AI: A Lifecycle of Threats, Defenses, and Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.28226/) (2026)
- [GS-Voxel: Fitting-Free Structured Latents for Large-Scale 3DGS Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.17988/) (2026)
- [Infrastructure-Centric World Models: Bridging Temporal Depth and Spatial Breadth for Roadside Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.17651/) (2026)
- [UrbanGround: From Local Perception to Spatial Agency in a Real-Scale City](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.27456/) (2026)
- [MultiFloodSynth: Multi-Annotated Flood Synthetic Dataset Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.03966/) (2025)
- [GeoTexBuild: 3D Building Model Generation from Map Footprints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08419/) (2025)
- [GeoFidelity-Bench: Evaluating Block-Conditioned Geographic Fidelity in Text-to-Image Street-View Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.23669/) (2026)
- [CityCode: Building Agent-Operable 3D Cities from Sparse Aerial Observations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.18342/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Cities, as the essential environment of human life, encompass diverse physical elements such as buildings, roads and vegetation, which continuously interact with dynamic entities like people and vehicles. Crafting realistic, interactive 3D urban environments is essential for nurturing AGI systems and constructing AI agents capable of perceiving, decision-making, and acting like humans in real-world environments. However, creating high-fidelity 3D urban environments usually entails extensive manual labor from designers, involving intricate detailing and representation of complex urban elements. Therefore, accomplishing this automatically remains a longstanding challenge. Toward this problem, we propose UrbanWorld, the first generative urban world model that can automatically create a customized, realistic and interactive 3D urban world with flexible control conditions. UrbanWorld incorporates four key stages in the generation pipeline: flexible 3D layout generation from OSM data or urban layout with semantic and height maps, urban scene design with Urban MLLM, controllable urban asset rendering via progressive 3D diffusion, and MLLM-assisted scene refinement. We conduct extensive quantitative analysis on five visual metrics, demonstrating that UrbanWorld achieves SOTA generation realism. Next, we provide qualitative results about the controllable generation capabilities of UrbanWorld using both textual and image-based prompts. Lastly, we verify the interactive nature of these environments by showcasing the agent perception and navigation within the created environments. We contribute UrbanWorld as an open-source tool available at https://github.com/Urban-World/UrbanWorld.