WorldDraft: If Code Builds the World, Can Video Models Just Render It?

Zhiyu Hou, Wen-Jie Shu, Harold Haodong Chen, Weilin Ruan, Chenfei Liao +5

Multimodal coding agents decouple 4D world construction from visual generation, repurposing video models from world generators toward generative renderers. This division of labor raises a fundamental question: if code builds the world, can video models just render it? A reliable generative renderer hinges on two complementary criteria: (i) world preservation, retaining prescribed 4D kinematics and camera paths; and (ii) visual realization, persistently binding text-specified target attributes over time. To evaluate this capability, we introduce WorldDraft, a benchmark of $432$ strictly paired test cases across $48$ executable 4D world families spanning six dynamic challenge categories. Under a $3 \times 3$ factorial design, WorldDraft orthogonally crosses draft granularity (abstract proxy to previs) and appearance alignment (neutral to conflicting) under identical dynamics. Extensive evaluations across $12$ representative models reveal that: (I) world preservation and visual realization remain in stark operational tension; (II) richer draft scaffolding anchors structure but paradoxically impairs appearance fidelity; and (III) conflicting source cues trigger severe source leakage…