# Causal Forcing++: Scalable Few-Step Autoregressive Diffusion Distillation for Real-Time Interactive Video Generation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15141 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.15141/

## Key facts

- Cited by 56 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Video generation, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 58 of its 63 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 May 2026.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Video generation](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/video-generation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 58)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Flow Matching for Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02747/) (2022)
- [Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flow](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.03003/) (2022)
- [Wan: Open and Advanced Large-Scale Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.20314/) (2025)
- [CogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06072/) (2024)
- [Consistency Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.01469/) (2023)
- [VBench: Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17982/) (2023)
- [HunyuanVideo: A Systematic Framework For Large Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03603/) (2024)
- [ProlificDreamer: High-Fidelity and Diverse Text-to-3D Generation with Variational Score Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16213/) (2023)
- [One-step Diffusion with Distribution Matching Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.18828/) (2023)
- [CogVideo: Large-scale Pretraining for Text-to-Video Generation via Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.15868/) (2022)
- [Improved Distribution Matching Distillation for Fast Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14867/) (2024)
- [Diffusion Forcing: Next-token Prediction Meets Full-Sequence Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01392/) (2024)
- [VideoGPT: Video Generation using VQ-VAE and Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10157/) (2021)
- [Open-Sora: Democratizing Efficient Video Production for All](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.20404/) (2024)
- [Self Forcing: Bridging the Train-Test Gap in Autoregressive Video Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08009/) (2025)
- [VideoPoet: A Large Language Model for Zero-Shot Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14125/) (2023)
- [Improved Techniques for Training Consistency Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.14189/) (2023)
- [From Slow Bidirectional to Fast Autoregressive Video Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07772/) (2024)
- [Pyramidal Flow Matching for Efficient Video Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.05954/) (2024)
- [OpenVid-1M: A Large-Scale High-Quality Dataset for Text-to-video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02371/) (2024)
- [Open-Sora Plan: Open-Source Large Video Generation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00131/) (2024)
- [Simplifying, Stabilizing and Scaling Continuous-Time Consistency Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11081/) (2024)
- [MAGI-1: Autoregressive Video Generation at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13211/) (2025)
- [LongLive: Real-time Interactive Long Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.22622/) (2025)
- [GODIVA: Generating Open-DomaIn Videos from nAtural Descriptions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14806/) (2021)
- [N"UWA: Visual Synthesis Pre-training for Neural visUal World creAtion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12417/) (2021)
- [Diff-Instruct: A Universal Approach for Transferring Knowledge From Pre-trained Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18455/) (2023)
- [Rolling Forcing: Autoregressive Long Video Diffusion in Real Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25161/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 56)

- [DreamX-World 1.0: A General-Purpose Interactive World Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.16993/) (2026)
- [Causal-rCM: A Unified Teacher-Forcing and Self-Forcing Open Recipe for Autoregressive Diffusion Distillation in Streaming Video Generation and Interactive World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.25473/) (2026)
- [minWM: A Full-Stack Open-Source Framework for Real-Time Interactive Video World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30263/) (2026)
- [Self Gradient Forcing: Native Long Video Extrapolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.20368/) (2026)
- [One-Forcing: Towards Stable One-Step Autoregressive Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23458/) (2026)
- [SolarWM: Open Data and Scalable Training for Long-Horizon Video World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.02886/) (2026)
- [Matrix-Game 3.5: Enhancing Real-Time Streaming Interactive World Models with Patch Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.29910/) (2026)
- [BiWM: Advancing Open-Source Interactive Video World Models with Bidirectional Autoregression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.10135/) (2026)
- [Context-Matched Distillation: Teacher Causality for Autoregressive Video Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.13391/) (2026)
- [TempAct: Advancing Temporal Plausibility in Autoregressive Video Generation via Planner-Executor RL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.28016/) (2026)
- [Vidu S1: A Real-Time Interactive Video Generation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.03118/) (2026)
- [From Pixels to States: Rethinking Interactive World Models as Game Engines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.14076/) (2026)
- [DistillAlign: Coordinating Mode Covering and Mode Seeking in Autoregressive Video Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.26811/) (2026)
- [Zing-0.5: Toward Playable Worlds with Real-Time Joint Action and Text Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.17909/) (2026)
- [WorldMind: Decoupled Game World Model for State-Aware NPC Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21439/) (2026)
- [RECAP-Forcing: Retaining Content Appearances for Long Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.26671/) (2026)
- [Magpie: Real-Time World Renderer for Interactive Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.27168/) (2026)
- [Astronex-World 1.0: Real-Time Interactive World Model Foundation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.20034/) (2026)
- [ForgeWM: Progressive Causal Training for Few-Step Action-Conditioned Video World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.14022/) (2026)
- [EditStream: A Unified Autoregressive Framework for Interactive Video Generation and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21424/) (2026)
- [Salt++: Context-Aligned Post-Training for Few-Step Streaming Multimodal Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.36995/) (2026)
- [Closing the Loop: Training-Free Revisit Consistency for Autoregressive Generative Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.21848/) (2026)
- [Do Video Generators Track the World Across Segments? A Benchmark and Method for World-State Reasoning in Video Continuation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.03673/) (2026)
- [AuK Technical Report: An Open-Source Foundational Model for Speech Generation and Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.08936/) (2026)
- [WorldCrafter: Consistent Video World Model with Implicit 3D-aware Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24984/) (2026)
- [GameDirector: Decoupling Gameplay Logic from Rendering for Player-Configurable Game World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.25652/) (2026)
- [Precise Editing and Flexible Referencing for Interactable Worlds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.34470/) (2026)
- [DuoMatching: Joint-Marginal Distribution Matching for Few-Step Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.03543/) (2026)
- [InfinityEdit: Infinite Video Editing with a Lightweight Edit-Ignition Adapter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.20910/) (2026)
- [LiveVVT: High-Fidelity Video Virtual Try-On in Real Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.26714/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Real-time interactive video generation requires low-latency, streaming, and controllable rollout. Existing autoregressive (AR) diffusion distillation methods have achieved strong results in the chunk-wise 4-step regime by distilling bidirectional base models into few-step AR students, but they remain limited by coarse response granularity and non-negligible sampling latency. In this paper, we study a more aggressive setting: frame-wise autoregression with only 1--2 sampling steps. In this regime, we identify the initialization of a few-step AR student as the key bottleneck: existing strategies are either target-misaligned, incapable of few-step generation, or too costly to scale. We propose Causal Forcing++, a principled and scalable pipeline that uses causal consistency distillation (causal CD) for few-step AR initialization. The core idea is that causal CD learns the same AR-conditional flow map as causal ODE distillation, but obtains supervision from a single online teacher ODE step between adjacent timesteps, avoiding the need to precompute and store full PF-ODE trajectories. This makes the initialization both more efficient and easier to optimize. The resulting pipeline, ours, surpasses the SOTA 4-step chunk-wise Causal Forcing under the textitframe-wise 2-step setting by 0.1 in VBench Total, 0.3 in VBench Quality, and 0.335 in VisionReward, while reducing first-frame latency by 50% and Stage 2 training cost by ~4×. We further extend the pipeline to action-conditioned world model generation in the spirit of Genie3. Project Page: https://github.com/thu-ml/Causal-Forcing and https://github.com/shengshu-ai/minWM .