titleWorldStream: Streaming Interactive 3D Worlds with Hierarchical Planning and Persistent State
authorsXiaoxiao Ma, Weiyang Jin, Yanwen Ma, Haoran Li, Zhixiang Wei, Songchun Zhang, Yaowei Li, Junhao Zhuang, Zeyue Xue, Yuming Li, Zheming Fu, Haoyang Huang, Nan Duan, Feng Zhao
date2026-10-20
venuearXiv (preprint, not peer reviewed)
idarXiv:2610.28827
upvotes11 (Hugging Face Daily Papers, 2026-11-01)
linksabs pdf hf code
primerWorld models
abstractWe present WorldStream, an open-ended 3D world model with three simultaneous capabilities: it extends playable terrain beyond any pre-specified map, acts on open-ended language in the running world, and restores visited places with their edits. A hierarchical planner over a typed decision model emits structured decision state: Macro fixes settlement, ecology, transport, and hydrological structure across a group of tiles; Micro specializes that contract into tile semantics under measured terrain and accepted neighbor commitments. Deterministic local code compiles accepted plans into terrain, roads, settlements, vegetation, and entities. Streaming separates their reach: plans run ahead along the predicted corridor, compilation only where movement will soon need it, geometry behind the user released. One world record retains plans, seeds, object identities and mutable state, boundary commitments, and edits by attribute, revised as the user advances and edits; returning tiles recompile from it. The same record grounds interaction: the model acts on existing entities, including stateful NPCs that update as they act, edits the present region, or attaches intent to unplanned regions. Together they yield a world expanding under bounded budgets, connected across independently planned tiles, and interactive.

cite

@misc{ma2026worldstream,
  title={WorldStream: Streaming Interactive 3D Worlds with Hierarchical Planning and Persistent State},
  author={Xiaoxiao Ma and Weiyang Jin and Yanwen Ma and Haoran Li and Zhixiang Wei and Songchun Zhang and Yaowei Li and Junhao Zhuang and Zeyue Xue and Yuming Li and Zheming Fu and Haoyang Huang and Nan Duan and Feng Zhao},
  year={2026},
  eprint={2610.28827},
  archivePrefix={arXiv},
  url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.28827}
}