# CL-MVSNet: Unsupervised Multi-view Stereo with Dual-level Contrastive Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.08219 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08219/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 40 of its 58 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Mar 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 40)

- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05722/) (2019)
- [Feature Pyramid Networks for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03144/) (2016)
- [Bootstrap your own latent: A new approach to self-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.07733/) (2020)
- [Self-Supervised Learning of Pretext-Invariant Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01991/) (2019)
- [MVSNet: Depth Inference for Unstructured Multi-view Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.02505/) (2018)
- [BlendedMVS: A Large-scale Dataset for Generalized Multi-view Stereo Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.10127/) (2019)
- [Cascade Cost Volume for High-Resolution Multi-View Stereo and Stereo Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.06378/) (2019)
- [Propagate Yourself: Exploring Pixel-Level Consistency for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.10043/) (2020)
- [Recurrent MVSNet for High-resolution Multi-view Stereo Depth Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.10556/) (2019)
- [PatchmatchNet: Learned Multi-View Patchmatch Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.01411/) (2020)
- [CrossPoint: Self-Supervised Cross-Modal Contrastive Learning for 3D Point Cloud Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00680/) (2022)
- [Unsupervised Learning of Depth and Ego-Motion from Monocular Video Using 3D Geometric Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05522/) (2018)
- [Cost Volume Pyramid Based Depth Inference for Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.08329/) (2019)
- [Deep Stereo using Adaptive Thin Volume Representation with Uncertainty Awareness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.12012/) (2019)
- [SurfaceNet: An End-to-end 3D Neural Network for Multiview Stereopsis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.01749/) (2017)
- [TransMVSNet: Global Context-aware Multi-view Stereo Network with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.14600/) (2021)
- [Multi-Scale Geometric Consistency Guided Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08103/) (2019)
- [Visibility-aware Multi-view Stereo Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.07928/) (2020)
- [Rethinking Depth Estimation for Multi-View Stereo: A Unified Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.01501/) (2022)
- [Dense Hybrid Recurrent Multi-view Stereo Net with Dynamic Consistency Checking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.10872/) (2020)
- [Learning Inverse Depth Regression for Multi-View Stereo with Correlation Cost Volume](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.11746/) (2019)
- [Planar Prior Assisted PatchMatch Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.11744/) (2019)
- [IterMVS: Iterative Probability Estimation for Efficient Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05126/) (2021)
- [Multiview Stereo with Cascaded Epipolar RAFT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.04502/) (2022)
- [MVSTER: Epipolar Transformer for Efficient Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07346/) (2022)
- [Multi-View Depth Estimation by Fusing Single-View Depth Probability with Multi-View Geometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08177/) (2021)
- [Improving Contrastive Learning by Visualizing Feature Transformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.02982/) (2021)
- [Learning Unsupervised Multi-View Stereopsis via Robust Photometric Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02706/) (2019)
- [Generalized Binary Search Network for Highly-Efficient Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.02338/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Sparse2DGS: Geometry-Prioritized Gaussian Splatting for Surface Reconstruction from Sparse Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.20378/) (2025)
- [H3R: Hybrid Multi-view Correspondence for Generalizable 3D Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03118/) (2025)
- [Boosting Multi-View Stereo with Depth Foundation Model in the Absence of Real-World Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.11845/) (2025)
- [Sparse-GS2Mesh: 3D Gaussian Splatting Guided by Novel Stereo Views and 2DGS for Sparse View Surface Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.04203/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Unsupervised Multi-View Stereo (MVS) methods have achieved promising progress recently. However, previous methods primarily depend on the photometric consistency assumption, which may suffer from two limitations: indistinguishable regions and view-dependent effects, e.g., low-textured areas and reflections. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose a new dual-level contrastive learning approach, named CL-MVSNet. Specifically, our model integrates two contrastive branches into an unsupervised MVS framework to construct additional supervisory signals. On the one hand, we present an image-level contrastive branch to guide the model to acquire more context awareness, thus leading to more complete depth estimation in indistinguishable regions. On the other hand, we exploit a scene-level contrastive branch to boost the representation ability, improving robustness to view-dependent effects. Moreover, to recover more accurate 3D geometry, we introduce an L0.5 photometric consistency loss, which encourages the model to focus more on accurate points while mitigating the gradient penalty of undesirable ones. Extensive experiments on DTU and Tanks&Temples benchmarks demonstrate that our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance among all end-to-end unsupervised MVS frameworks and outperforms its supervised counterpart by a considerable margin without fine-tuning.