# Context-Aware Autoregressive Models for Multi-Conditional Image Generation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12274 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12274/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 40 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 18 May 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Image generation, text-to-image and editing](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/image-generation-text-to-image-and-editing/)

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

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (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)
- [LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.13971/) (2023)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [RoFormer: Enhanced Transformer with Rotary Position Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09864/) (2021)
- [Neural Discrete Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.00937/) (2017)
- [Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12092/) (2021)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09841/) (2020)
- [IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06721/) (2023)
- [Generating Diverse High-Fidelity Images with VQ-VAE-2](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.00446/) (2019)
- [T2I-Adapter: Learning Adapters to Dig out More Controllable Ability for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08453/) (2023)
- [Scaling Autoregressive Models for Content-Rich Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.10789/) (2022)
- [MUSIQ: Multi-scale Image Quality Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05997/) (2021)
- [Visual Autoregressive Modeling: Scalable Image Generation via Next-Scale Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02905/) (2024)
- [Chameleon: Mixed-Modal Early-Fusion Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.09818/) (2024)
- [Emu3: Next-Token Prediction is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.18869/) (2024)
- [Autoregressive Model Beats Diffusion: Llama for Scalable Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06525/) (2024)
- [Show-o: One Single Transformer to Unify Multimodal Understanding and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.12528/) (2024)
- [Autoregressive Image Generation without Vector Quantization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11838/) (2024)
- [Transfusion: Predict the Next Token and Diffuse Images with One Multi-Modal Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11039/) (2024)
- [Janus: Decoupling Visual Encoding for Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.13848/) (2024)
- [InstantID: Zero-shot Identity-Preserving Generation in Seconds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07519/) (2024)
- [Uni-ControlNet: All-in-One Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16322/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Layout-Conditioned Autoregressive Text-to-Image Generation via Structured Masking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.12046/) (2025)
- [Autoregressive Styled Text Image Generation, but Make it Reliable](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23240/) (2025)
- [Design Your Ad: Personalized Advertising Image and Text Generation with Unified Autoregressive Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.12138/) (2026)
- [TokenAR: Multiple Subject Generation via Autoregressive Token-level enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.16332/) (2025)
- [Editing Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.31278/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Autoregressive transformers have recently shown impressive image generation quality and efficiency on par with state-of-the-art diffusion models. Unlike diffusion architectures, autoregressive models can naturally incorporate arbitrary modalities into a single, unified token sequence--offering a concise solution for multi-conditional image generation tasks. In this work, we propose ContextAR, a flexible and effective framework for multi-conditional image generation. ContextAR embeds diverse conditions (e.g., canny edges, depth maps, poses) directly into the token sequence, preserving modality-specific semantics. To maintain spatial alignment while enhancing discrimination among different condition types, we introduce hybrid positional encodings that fuse Rotary Position Embedding with Learnable Positional Embedding. We design Conditional Context-aware Attention to reduces computational complexity while preserving effective intra-condition perception. Without any fine-tuning, ContextAR supports arbitrary combinations of conditions during inference time. Experimental results demonstrate the powerful controllability and versatility of our approach, and show that the competitive perpormance than diffusion-based multi-conditional control approaches the existing autoregressive baseline across diverse multi-condition driven scenarios. Project page: hrefhttps://context-ar.github.io/https://context-ar.github.io/.