# NavCrafter: Exploring 3D Scenes from a Single Image

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02828 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.02828/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in 3D, point cloud and scene generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 29 of its 35 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Apr 2026.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [3D, point cloud and scene generation](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/3d-point-cloud-and-scene-generation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Wan: Open and Advanced Large-Scale Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.20314/) (2025)
- [Stable Video Diffusion: Scaling Latent Video Diffusion Models to Large Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15127/) (2023)
- [DPM-Solver: A Fast ODE Solver for Diffusion Probabilistic Model Sampling in Around 10 Steps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00927/) (2022)
- [VGGT: Visual Geometry Grounded Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.11651/) (2025)
- [MotionCtrl: A Unified and Flexible Motion Controller for Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03641/) (2023)
- [DL3DV-10K: A Large-Scale Scene Dataset for Deep Learning-based 3D Vision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16256/) (2023)
- [CAT3D: Create Anything in 3D with Multi-View Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.10314/) (2024)
- [ViewCrafter: Taming Video Diffusion Models for High-fidelity Novel View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.02048/) (2024)
- [GEN3C: 3D-Informed World-Consistent Video Generation with Precise Camera Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.03751/) (2025)
- [MoGe-2: Accurate Monocular Geometry with Metric Scale and Sharp Details](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02546/) (2025)
- [DNGaussian: Optimizing Sparse-View 3D Gaussian Radiance Fields with Global-Local Depth Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06912/) (2024)
- [LucidDreamer: Domain-free Generation of 3D Gaussian Splatting Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13384/) (2023)
- [WonderWorld: Interactive 3D Scene Generation from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09394/) (2024)
- [Difix3D+: Improving 3D Reconstructions with Single-Step Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01774/) (2025)
- [WonderJourney: Going from Anywhere to Everywhere](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03884/) (2023)
- [DimensionX: Create Any 3D and 4D Scenes from a Single Image with Controllable Video Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04928/) (2024)
- [MVSplat360: Feed-Forward 360 Scene Synthesis from Sparse Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04924/) (2024)
- [Wonderland: Navigating 3D Scenes from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.12091/) (2024)
- [3DTrajMaster: Mastering 3D Trajectory for Multi-Entity Motion in Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07759/) (2024)
- [You See it, You Got it: Learning 3D Creation on Pose-Free Videos at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06699/) (2024)
- [DropGaussian: Structural Regularization for Sparse-view Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00773/) (2025)
- [MotionMaster: Training-free Camera Motion Transfer For Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15789/) (2024)
- [StarGen: A Spatiotemporal Autoregression Framework with Video Diffusion Model for Scalable and Controllable Scene Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.05763/) (2025)
- [Scene Splatter: Momentum 3D Scene Generation from Single Image with Video Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.02764/) (2025)
- [LiftImage3D: Lifting Any Single Image to 3D Gaussians with Video Generation Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09597/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Spackle: Completing Large View Single Image NVS with Adaptive Gaussians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.30941/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Creating flexible 3D scenes from a single image is vital when direct 3D data acquisition is costly or impractical. We introduce NavCrafter, a novel framework that explores 3D scenes from a single image by synthesizing novel-view video sequences with camera controllability and temporal-spatial consistency. NavCrafter leverages video diffusion models to capture rich 3D priors and adopts a geometry-aware expansion strategy to progressively extend scene coverage. To enable controllable multi-view synthesis, we introduce a multi-stage camera control mechanism that conditions diffusion models with diverse trajectories via dual-branch camera injection and attention modulation. We further propose a collision-aware camera trajectory planner and an enhanced 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) pipeline with depth-aligned supervision, structural regularization and refinement. Extensive experiments demonstrate that NavCrafter achieves state-of-the-art novel-view synthesis under large viewpoint shifts and substantially improves 3D reconstruction fidelity.