Don't Settle at the Mode! Mitigating Diversity Collapse in Pretrained Flow Models via Feature Self-Guidance
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Abstract (arXiv)
State-of-the-art flow models generate stunning images from text or image prompts. However, they suffer from diversity collapse when generating multiple samples under the same conditioning. Existing methods address this issue via either latent guidance, which has limited effectiveness, or sample selection, which relies on external reward models that incur significant inference-time overhead. In this work, we introduce an efficient, training-free self-guidance mechanism to mitigate diversity collapse without requiring additional reward models. Specifically, we disperse the internal features of the flow model during batch generation with feature self-guidance. Further, to keep the features close to the manifold, we introduce a manifold regularization step that projects these dispersed features back onto the data manifold, ensuring diverse generation without sacrificing alignment with the input conditions. Our method integrates seamlessly as a plug-and-play module into pretrained flow models, adding only a marginal inference cost. Experiments demonstrate significant improvements in diversity while preserving fidelity across several conditional flow models, including multi-step and few-step text-to-image, depth-to-image, and reference image generation.
Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 63 of its 68 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 25 Jun 2026.
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63 of 68 references.
References · 63
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38 more
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- 2026SubFlow: Sub-mode Conditioned Flow Matching for Diverse One-Step Generation
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- 2024Self-Guidance: Boosting Flow and Diffusion Generation on Their Own