[2503.07197] Effective and Efficient Masked Image Generation Models

Computer Science > Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition arXiv:2503.07197 (cs) [Submitted on 10 Mar 2025 (v1), last revised 1 Mar 2026 (this version, v3)] Title:Effective and Efficient Masked Image Generation Models Authors:Zebin You, Jingyang Ou, Xiaolu Zhang, Jun Hu, Jun Zhou, Chongxuan Li View a PDF of the paper titled Effective and Efficient Masked Image Generation Models, by Zebin You and 5 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Although masked image generation models and masked diffusion models are designed with different motivations and objectives, we observe that they can be unified within a single framework. Building upon this insight, we carefully explore the design space of training and sampling, identifying key factors that contribute to both performance and efficiency. Based on the improvements observed during this exploration, we develop our model, referred to as \textbf{eMIGM}. Empirically, eMIGM demonstrates strong performance on ImageNet generation, as measured by Fréchet Inception Distance (FID). In particular, on ImageNet $256\times256$, with similar number of function evaluations (NFEs) and model parameters, eMIGM outperforms the seminal VAR. Moreover, as NFE and model parameters increase, eMIGM achieves performance comparable to the state-of-the-art continuous diffusion model REPA while requiring less than 45\% of the NFE. Additionally, on ImageNet $512\times512$, eMIGM outperforms the strong continuous diffusion model EDM2. Code is avai...