Edit2Perceive: Image Editing Diffusion Models Are Strong Dense Perceivers
On the map: Diffusion models → Image generation, text-to-image and editing
Abstract (arXiv)
Recent advances in diffusion transformers have shown remarkable generalization in visual synthesis, yet most dense perception methods still rely on text-to-image (T2I) generators designed for stochastic generation. We revisit this paradigm and show that image editing diffusion models are inherently image-to-image consistent, providing a more suitable foundation for dense perception task. We introduce Edit2Perceive, a unified diffusion framework that adapts editing models for depth, normal, and matting. Built upon the FLUX.1 Kontext architecture, our approach employs full-parameter fine-tuning and a pixel-space consistency loss to enforce structure-preserving refinement across intermediate denoising states. Moreover, our single-step deterministic inference yields up to faster runtime while training on relatively small datasets. Extensive experiments demonstrate comprehensive state-of-the-art results across all three tasks, revealing the strong potential of editing-oriented diffusion transformers for geometry-aware perception.
Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 46 of its 56 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 Nov 2025.
Builds on
46 of 56 references.
Closest ancestors · 6
Same direction, newest first
- 2025RelationAdapter: Learning and Transferring Visual Relation with Diffusion Transformers3 Jun
- 2025EasyText: Controllable Diffusion Transformer for Multilingual Text Rendering30 May
- 2025MakeAnything: Harnessing Diffusion Transformers for Multi-Domain Procedural Sequence Generation3 Feb
- 2025LayerTracer: Cognitive-Aligned Layered SVG Synthesis via Diffusion Transformer3 Feb
- 2024Stable-Makeup: When Real-World Makeup Transfer Meets Diffusion Model12 Mar
- 2024What Matters When Repurposing Diffusion Models for General Dense Perception Tasks?10 Mar
Other references · 40
- 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,694
- 2022Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformerscited by 5,931
- 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,426
- 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flowcited by 3,550
- 2017ScanNet: Richly-annotated 3D Reconstructions of Indoor Scenescited by 3,088
- 2019Towards Robust Monocular Depth Estimation: Mixing Datasets for Zero-shot Cross-dataset Transfercited by 1,484
- 2024Depth Anything V2cited by 1,385
- 2024Depth Anything: Unleashing the Power of Large-Scale Unlabeled Datacited by 1,346
- 2020Hypersim: A Photorealistic Synthetic Dataset for Holistic Indoor Scene Understandingcited by 593
- 2025Step1X-Edit: A Practical Framework for General Image Editingcited by 417
- 2020Virtual KITTI 2cited by 345
- 2024GeoWizard: Unleashing the Diffusion Priors for 3D Geometry Estimation from a Single Imagecited by 283
28 more
- 2019DIODE: A Dense Indoor and Outdoor DEpth Datasetcited by 236
- 2024Follow-Your-Emoji: Fine-Controllable and Expressive Freestyle Portrait Animationcited by 172
- 2024Lotus: Diffusion-based Visual Foundation Model for High-quality Dense Predictioncited by 163
- 2024StableNormal: Reducing Diffusion Variance for Stable and Sharp Normalcited by 153
- 2017Deep Image Mattingcited by 150
- 2018Evaluation of CNN-based Single-Image Depth Estimation Methodscited by 137
- 2024Rethinking Inductive Biases for Surface Normal Estimationcited by 122
- 2025EasyControl: Adding Efficient and Flexible Control for Diffusion Transformercited by 118
- 2020Bridging Composite and Real: Towards End-to-end Deep Image Mattingcited by 89
- 2024Fine-Tuning Image-Conditional Diffusion Models is Easier than You Thinkcited by 82
- 2025Follow-Your-Motion: Video Motion Transfer via Efficient Spatial-Temporal Decoupled Finetuningcited by 81
- 2022Learning-based Inverse Rendering of Complex Indoor Scenes with Differentiable Monte Carlo Raytracingcited by 78
- 2025Marigold: Affordable Adaptation of Diffusion-Based Image Generators for Image Analysiscited by 78
- 2025Any2AnyTryon: Leveraging Adaptive Position Embeddings for Versatile Virtual Clothing Taskscited by 62
- 2021Privacy-Preserving Portrait Mattingcited by 60
- 2021Deep Automatic Natural Image Mattingcited by 59
- 2023ViTMatte: Boosting Image Matting with Pretrained Plain Vision Transformerscited by 56
- 2025Follow-Your-Emoji-Faster: Towards Efficient, Fine-Controllable, and Expressive Freestyle Portrait Animationcited by 41
- 2024FonTS: Text Rendering with Typography and Style Controlscited by 40
- 2024ProcessPainter: Learn Painting Process from Sequence Datacited by 37
- 2024Stable-Hair: Real-World Hair Transfer via Diffusion Modelcited by 34
- 2023Matting Anythingcited by 30
- 2025TransAnimate: Taming Layer Diffusion to Generate RGBA Videocited by 24
- 2025DiffDecompose: Layer-Wise Decomposition of Alpha-Composited Images via Diffusion Transformerscited by 20
- 2025WordCon: Word-level Typography Control in Scene Text Renderingcited by 16
- 2025Personalized Vision via Visual In-Context Learningcited by 14
- 2025SDMatte: Grafting Diffusion Models for Interactive Mattingcited by 4
- 2024Towards Natural Image Matting in the Wild via Real-Scenario Priorcited by 3
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.
4 papers.
- 2026From RGB Generation to Dense Field Readout: Pixel-Space Dense Prediction with Text-to-Image Modelscited by 1
- 2026RenderMatte: Exact-Alpha Rendering and Group-Relative Alignment for Image Mattingcited by 0
- 2026SPARGen: Unifying Spatial Perception and Reasoning through Native Multimodal Generationcited by 0
- 2026TransNormal-2: Geometry-Grounded Rectified Flow with Edge-Aware Decoding for Precise Normal Estimationcited by 0
- 2026TransNormal-2: Geometry-Grounded Rectified Flow with Edge-Aware Decoding for Precise Normal Estimation6 Sep 2026
- 2026SPARGen: Unifying Spatial Perception and Reasoning through Native Multimodal Generation14 Aug 2026
- 2026RenderMatte: Exact-Alpha Rendering and Group-Relative Alignment for Image Matting9 Aug 2026
- 2026From RGB Generation to Dense Field Readout: Pixel-Space Dense Prediction with Text-to-Image Models7 Jul 2026
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2025From Editor to Dense Geometry Estimator
- 2024Diffusion Models are Geometry Critics: Single Image 3D Editing Using Pre-Trained Diffusion Priors
- 2026Editing on the Generative Manifold: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of General Diffusion-Based Image Editing Trade-offs
- 2026Guidance for Low-Level Perceptual Editing in Unconditional Diffusion Models
- 2024Diffusion Model-Based Image Editing: A Survey
- 2025Coupled Diffusion Sampling for Training-Free Multi-View Image Editing
- 2024Diff-2-in-1: Bridging Generation and Dense Perception with Diffusion Models
- 2023Differential Diffusion: Giving Each Pixel Its Strength