Not All Noises Are Created Equally:Diffusion Noise Selection and Optimization
On the map: Diffusion models → Diffusion foundations and sampling
Abstract (arXiv)
Diffusion models that can generate high-quality data from randomly sampled Gaussian noises have become the mainstream generative method in both academia and industry. Are randomly sampled Gaussian noises equally good for diffusion models? While a large body of works tried to understand and improve diffusion models, previous works overlooked the possibility to select or optimize the sampled noise the possibility of selecting or optimizing sampled noises for improving diffusion models. In this paper, we mainly made three contributions. First, we report that not all noises are created equally for diffusion models. We are the first to hypothesize and empirically observe that the generation quality of diffusion models significantly depend on the noise inversion stability. This naturally provides us a noise selection method according to the inversion stability. Second, we further propose a novel noise optimization method that actively enhances the inversion stability of arbitrary given noises. Our method is the first one that works on noise space to generally improve generated results without fine-tuning diffusion models. Third, our extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed noise selection and noise optimization methods both significantly improve representative diffusion models, such as SDXL and SDXL-turbo, in terms of human preference and other objective evaluation metrics. For example, the human preference winning rates of noise selection and noise optimization over the baselines can be up to 57% and 72.5%, respectively, on DrawBench.
Key facts. Cited by 70 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion foundations and sampling, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 41 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Jul 2024.
Builds on
41 of 51 references.
Closest ancestors · 10
Same direction, newest first
- 2024SDXL-Lightning: Progressive Adversarial Diffusion Distillation21 Feb
- 2023Adversarial Diffusion Distillation28 Nov
- 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesis4 Jul
- 2023Structural Pruning for Diffusion Models18 May
- 2023End-to-End Diffusion Latent Optimization Improves Classifier Guidance23 Mar
- 2022Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Models1 Jun
- 2021Cascaded Diffusion Models for High Fidelity Image Generation30 May
- 2021Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis11 May
- 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models6 Oct
- 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models19 Jun
Other references · 31
- 2014Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimizationcited by 36,960
- 2014Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Contextcited by 17,498
- 2018The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metriccited by 11,029
- 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understandingcited by 6,322
- 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 5,466
- 2022LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text modelscited by 4,131
- 2021GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Modelscited by 3,595
- 2022Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Controlcited by 2,409
- 2022Video Diffusion Modelscited by 2,280
- 2022Imagen Video: High Definition Video Generation with Diffusion Modelscited by 1,765
- 2022Imagic: Text-Based Real Image Editing with Diffusion Modelscited by 1,172
- 2022Null-text Inversion for Editing Real Images using Guided Diffusion Modelscited by 1,168
19 more
- 2023ImageReward: Learning and Evaluating Human Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,010
- 2023Pick-a-Pic: An Open Dataset of User Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 950
- 2023GenEval: An Object-Focused Framework for Evaluating Text-to-Image Alignmentcited by 946
- 2023Human Preference Score v2: A Solid Benchmark for Evaluating Human Preferences of Text-to-Image Synthesiscited by 847
- 2023Attend-and-Excite: Attention-Based Semantic Guidance for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 696
- 2022DiffusionDB: A Large-scale Prompt Gallery Dataset for Text-to-Image Generative Modelscited by 376
- 2024SV3D: Novel Multi-view Synthesis and 3D Generation from a Single Image using Latent Video Diffusioncited by 364
- 2023OmniObject3D: Large-Vocabulary 3D Object Dataset for Realistic Perception, Reconstruction and Generationcited by 324
- 2023DragDiffusion: Harnessing Diffusion Models for Interactive Point-based Image Editingcited by 293
- 2023An Edit Friendly DDPM Noise Space: Inversion and Manipulationscited by 243
- 20233DGen: Triplane Latent Diffusion for Textured Mesh Generationcited by 181
- 2023HyperDiffusion: Generating Implicit Neural Fields with Weight-Space Diffusioncited by 152
- 2024InitNO: Boosting Text-to-Image Diffusion Models via Initial Noise Optimizationcited by 123
- 2024D-Flow: Differentiating through Flows for Controlled Generationcited by 115
- 2023A-STAR: Test-time Attention Segregation and Retention for Text-to-image Synthesiscited by 78
- 2023Guided Image Synthesis via Initial Image Editing in Diffusion Modelcited by 63
- 2024Drag Your Noise: Interactive Point-based Editing via Diffusion Semantic Propagationcited by 50
- 2023If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again: Faithful Diffusion-based Text-to-Image Generation by Selectioncited by 40
- 2024Videoshop: Localized Semantic Video Editing with Noise-Extrapolated Diffusion Inversioncited by 27
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Citing papers per year: 2024: 13; 2025: 34; 2026: 23.
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- 2026Boosting Text-to-Image Diffusion Models via Core Token Attention-Based Seed Selection19 May 2026
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- 2025IS-Diff: Improving Diffusion-Based Inpainting with Better Initial Seed15 Sep 2025
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- 2025Test-Time Scaling of Diffusion Models via Noise Trajectory Search24 May 2025
- 2025A Minimalist Method for Fine-tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models23 May 2025
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50 newest of 70 All 70 (JSON)
- 2024SAFREE: Training-Free and Adaptive Guard for Safe Text-to-Image And Video Generationcited by 125
- 2024Golden Noise for Diffusion Models: A Learning Frameworkcited by 91
- 2025From Reflection to Perfection: Scaling Inference-Time Optimization for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models via Reflection Tuningcited by 53
- 2024A Noise is Worth Diffusion Guidancecited by 48
- 2025Inference-Time Text-to-Video Alignment with Diffusion Latent Beam Searchcited by 40
- 2024Zigzag Diffusion Sampling: Diffusion Models Can Self-Improve via Self-Reflectioncited by 38
- 2024Alignment of Diffusion Models: Fundamentals, Challenges, and Futurecited by 34
- 2025Test-Time Scaling of Diffusion Models via Noise Trajectory Searchcited by 28
- 2024Self-Correcting Text-to-Video Generation with Misalignment Detection and Localized Refinementcited by 13
- 2024Text Embedding is Not All You Need: Attention Control for Text-to-Image Semantic Alignment with Text Self-Attention Mapscited by 12
- 2025ScalingNoise: Scaling Inference-Time Search for Generating Infinite Videoscited by 12
- 2024IV-Mixed Sampler: Leveraging Image Diffusion Models for Enhanced Video Synthesiscited by 8
12 most cited of 49 All 49 (JSON)
- 2026SALD: Self-Referenced Advantage Learning for Diffusion Models1 Oct 2026
- 2026NoisEasier: Test-Time Noise Optimization for Text-to-Video Generation31 Aug 2026
- 2026Anchoring and Steering Diffusion: Enhancing the Faithfulness of Text-to-Image Generation at Inference Time29 Jul 2026
- 2026UniNDM: A Unified Noise-driven Detection and Mitigation Framework Against Sexual Content in Text-to-Image Generation18 Jul 2026
- 2026FDM-MFVT: Few-step Sampling Diffusion Model for Mask-Free Virtual Try-On28 Jun 2026
- 2026Boosting Text-to-Image Diffusion Models via Core Token Attention-Based Seed Selection19 May 2026
- 2026Couple to Control: Joint Initial Noise Design in Diffusion Models11 May 2026
- 2026Towards Highly-Constrained Human Motion Generation with Retrieval-Guided Diffusion Noise Optimization8 May 2026
- 2026NoiseRater: Meta-Learned Noise Valuation for Diffusion Model Training2 May 2026
- 2026Oracle Noise: Faster Semantic Spherical Alignment for Interpretable Latent Optimization26 Apr 2026
- 2026LGTM: Training-Free Light-Guided Text-to-Image Diffusion Model via Initial Noise Manipulation25 Mar 2026
- 2026CRAFT: Aligning Diffusion Models with Fine-Tuning Is Easier Than You Think19 Mar 2026
12 newest of 49 All 49 (JSON)
- 2025Inference-Time Scaling for Diffusion Models beyond Scaling Denoising Stepscited by 225
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- 2025Effective Test-Time Scaling of Discrete Diffusion through Iterative Refinementcited by 7
- 2026FASTER: Value-Guided Sampling for Fast RLcited by 4
- 2025Navigating the Exploration-Exploitation Tradeoff in Inference-Time Scaling of Diffusion Modelscited by 2
- 2025Rethinking Prompt Design for Inference-time Scaling in Text-to-Visual Generationcited by 1
- 2026Inference-Time Scaling for Visual AutoRegressive modeling by Searching Representative Samplescited by 1
- 2026Inference-Time Scaling of Diffusion Models via Progressive Seed Pruningcited by 1
- 2026Adaptive Inference-Time Scaling via Early-Step Latent Verification for Image Editingcited by 0
- 2026Leveraging Inference-Time Compute for Diffusion Models via Global Scheduling of Denoising Trajectoriescited by 0
- 2026Leveraging Inference-Time Compute for Diffusion Models via Global Scheduling of Denoising Trajectories19 Sep 2026
- 2026Inference-Time Scaling of Diffusion Models via Progressive Seed Pruning23 Jul 2026
- 2026Adaptive Inference-Time Scaling via Early-Step Latent Verification for Image Editing13 Jun 2026
- 2026FASTER: Value-Guided Sampling for Fast RL21 Apr 2026
- 2026LatSearch: Latent Reward-Guided Search for Faster Inference-Time Scaling in Video Diffusion15 Mar 2026
- 2026Inference-Time Scaling for Visual AutoRegressive modeling by Searching Representative Samples12 Jan 2026
- 2025Rethinking Prompt Design for Inference-time Scaling in Text-to-Visual Generation3 Dec 2025
- 2025Effective Test-Time Scaling of Discrete Diffusion through Iterative Refinement4 Nov 2025
- 2025Navigating the Exploration-Exploitation Tradeoff in Inference-Time Scaling of Diffusion Models17 Aug 2025
- 2025Inference-Time Scaling for Diffusion Models beyond Scaling Denoising Steps16 Jan 2025
- 2024The Silent Assistant: NoiseQuery as Implicit Guidance for Goal-Driven Image Generationcited by 14
- 2025GARF: Learning Generalizable 3D Reassembly for Real-World Fracturescited by 12
- 2024ComfyGen: Prompt-Adaptive Workflows for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 11
- 2026TapSampling: Inference-Time Sampling with a Task-Progress-Understanding Verifier for Robotic Manipulationcited by 4
- 2024Efficient Semantic Splatting for Remote Sensing Multi-view Segmentationcited by 2
- 2025Language-based Image Colorization: A Benchmark and Beyondcited by 1
- 2025Policy Optimized Text-to-Image Pipeline Designcited by 1
- 2025An Empirical Study on the Robustness of YOLO Models for Underwater Object Detectioncited by 0
- 2025CSMapping: Scalable Crowdsourced Semantic Mapping and Topology Inference for Autonomous Drivingcited by 0
- 2026Parallel Tempering Initial Sampling in Inference-Time Reward Alignmentcited by 0
- 2026Parallel Tempering Initial Sampling in Inference-Time Reward Alignment29 May 2026
- 2026TapSampling: Inference-Time Sampling with a Task-Progress-Understanding Verifier for Robotic Manipulation25 May 2026
- 2025CSMapping: Scalable Crowdsourced Semantic Mapping and Topology Inference for Autonomous Driving3 Dec 2025
- 2025An Empirical Study on the Robustness of YOLO Models for Underwater Object Detection22 Sep 2025
- 2025Policy Optimized Text-to-Image Pipeline Design27 May 2025
- 2025GARF: Learning Generalizable 3D Reassembly for Real-World Fractures7 Apr 2025
- 2025Language-based Image Colorization: A Benchmark and Beyond19 Mar 2025
- 2024Efficient Semantic Splatting for Remote Sensing Multi-view Segmentation8 Dec 2024
- 2024The Silent Assistant: NoiseQuery as Implicit Guidance for Goal-Driven Image Generation6 Dec 2024
- 2024ComfyGen: Prompt-Adaptive Workflows for Text-to-Image Generation2 Oct 2024
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