Goal Force: Teaching Video Models To Accomplish Physics-Conditioned Goals
On the map: World models → Latent predictive world models
Abstract (arXiv)
Recent advancements in video generation have enabled the development of ``world models'' capable of simulating potential futures for robotics and planning. However, specifying precise goals for these models remains a challenge; text instructions are often too abstract to capture physical nuances, while target images are frequently infeasible to specify for dynamic tasks. To address this, we introduce Goal Force, a novel framework that allows users to define goals via explicit force vectors and intermediate dynamics, mirroring how humans conceptualize physical tasks. We train a video generation model on a curated dataset of synthetic causal primitives-such as elastic collisions and falling dominos-teaching it to propagate forces through time and space. Despite being trained on simple physics data, our model exhibits remarkable zero-shot generalization to complex, real-world scenarios, including tool manipulation and multi-object causal chains. Our results suggest that by grounding video generation in fundamental physical interactions, models can emerge as implicit neural physics simulators, enabling precise, physics-aware planning without reliance on external engines. We release all datasets, code, model weights, and interactive video demos at our project page.
Key facts. Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Latent predictive world models, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 33 of its 67 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Jan 2026.
Builds on
33 of 67 references.
Closest ancestors · 1
Same direction, newest first
- 2025Force Prompting: Video Generation Models Can Learn and Generalize Physics-based Control Signals26 May
Other references · 32
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- 2024CogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert Transformercited by 2,261
- 2022Imagen Video: High Definition Video Generation with Diffusion Modelscited by 1,778
- 2022Make-A-Video: Text-to-Video Generation without Text-Video Datacited by 1,742
- 2018World Modelscited by 1,513
- 2025Cosmos World Foundation Model Platform for Physical AIcited by 864
- 2023Learning Interactive Real-World Simulatorscited by 458
- 2024Diffusion Models Are Real-Time Game Enginescited by 296
- 2024Navigation World Modelscited by 272
- 2023DragNUWA: Fine-grained Control in Video Generation by Integrating Text, Image, and Trajectorycited by 264
- 2023Emu Video: Factorizing Text-to-Video Generation by Explicit Image Conditioningcited by 255
20 more
- 2024RoboDreamer: Learning Compositional World Models for Robot Imaginationcited by 195
- 2024Motion Prompting: Controlling Video Generation with Motion Trajectoriescited by 178
- 2024DimensionX: Create Any 3D and 4D Scenes from a Single Image with Controllable Video Diffusioncited by 140
- 2024GameGen-X: Interactive Open-world Game Video Generationcited by 128
- 2024CamI2V: Camera-Controlled Image-to-Video Diffusion Modelcited by 120
- 2023Motion-Conditioned Diffusion Model for Controllable Video Synthesiscited by 99
- 2024MOFA-Video: Controllable Image Animation via Generative Motion Field Adaptions in Frozen Image-to-Video Diffusion Modelcited by 89
- 2024Dreamitate: Real-World Visuomotor Policy Learning via Video Generationcited by 87
- 2024Physics3D: Learning Physical Properties of 3D Gaussians via Video Diffusioncited by 80
- 2024SG-I2V: Self-Guided Trajectory Control in Image-to-Video Generationcited by 68
- 2024Image Conductor: Precision Control for Interactive Video Synthesiscited by 63
- 2023Diffusion Reward: Learning Rewards via Conditional Video Diffusioncited by 57
- 2025PISA Experiments: Exploring Physics Post-Training for Video Diffusion Models by Watching Stuff Dropcited by 50
- 2024MotionCraft: Physics-based Zero-Shot Video Generationcited by 48
- 2024PhysMotion: Physics-Grounded Dynamics From a Single Imagecited by 45
- 2025WonderPlay: Dynamic 3D Scene Generation from a Single Image and Actionscited by 45
- 2024DreamPhysics: Learning Physics-Based 3D Dynamics with Video Diffusion Priorscited by 41
- 2024Towards Generalist Robot Learning from Internet Video: A Surveycited by 40
- 2024Phys4DGen: Physics-Compliant 4D Generation with Multi-Material Composition Perceptioncited by 23
- 2025Solving New Tasks by Adapting Internet Video Knowledgecited by 13
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 9.
9 papers.
- 2026Masked Visual Actions for Unified World Modelingcited by 9
- 2026LaMo: Self-Supervised Latent Motion Priors for Physical Realism in Video Generationcited by 4
- 2026DeformMaster: An Interactive Physics-Neural World Model for Deformable Objects from Videoscited by 2
- 2026PhysAgent: Reflective Agentic Physics Control for Physically Plausible Video Generationcited by 2
- 2026PhysStream: Streaming Physics-Grounded Video Generation with Structured Scene Memory and Fine-Grained Motion Controlcited by 2
- 2026Seeking Physics in Diffusion Noisecited by 1
- 2026MotiMotion: Motion-Controlled Video Generation with Visual Reasoningcited by 1
- 2026VIPER: Visual In-Context Physics Reasoning for Physically Plausible Video Generationcited by 0
- 2026CompAdapt: Adaptable Composite Motion Modeling for Physics-Consistent Text-to-Video Generationcited by 0
- 2026CompAdapt: Adaptable Composite Motion Modeling for Physics-Consistent Text-to-Video Generation18 Sep 2026
- 2026PhysStream: Streaming Physics-Grounded Video Generation with Structured Scene Memory and Fine-Grained Motion Control15 Sep 2026
- 2026VIPER: Visual In-Context Physics Reasoning for Physically Plausible Video Generation26 Jul 2026
- 2026Masked Visual Actions for Unified World Modeling21 Jul 2026
- 2026PhysAgent: Reflective Agentic Physics Control for Physically Plausible Video Generation17 Jul 2026
- 2026LaMo: Self-Supervised Latent Motion Priors for Physical Realism in Video Generation22 May 2026
- 2026MotiMotion: Motion-Controlled Video Generation with Visual Reasoning21 May 2026
- 2026DeformMaster: An Interactive Physics-Neural World Model for Deformable Objects from Videos10 May 2026
- 2026Seeking Physics in Diffusion Noise15 Mar 2026
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