Dense Semantic Matching with VGGT Prior

Abstract: Semantic matching aims to establish pixel-level correspondences between instances of the same category and represents a fundamental task in computer vision. Existing approaches suffer from two limitations: (i) Geometric Ambiguity: Their reliance on 2D foundation model features (e.g., Stable Diffusion, DINO) often fails to disambiguate symmetric structures, requiring extra fine-tuning yet lacking generalization; (ii) Nearest-Neighbor Rule: Their pixel-wise matching ignores cross-image invisibility and neglects manifold preservation. These challenges call for geometry-aware pixel descriptors and holistic dense correspondence mechanisms. Inspired by recent advances in 3D geometric foundation models, we turn to VGGT, which provides geometry-grounded features and holistic dense matching capabilities well aligned with these needs. However, directly transferring VGGT is challenging, as it was originally designed for geometry matching within cross views of a single instance, misaligned with cross-instance semantic matching, and further hindered by the scarcity of dense semantic annotations. To address this, we propose an approach that (i) retains VGGT's intrinsic strengths by reusing early feature stages, fine-tuning later ones, and adding a semantic head for bidirectional correspondences; and (ii) adapts VGGT to the semantic matching scenario under data scarcity through cycle-consistent training strategy, synthetic data augmentation, and progressive training recipe with aliasing artifact mitigation. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach achieves superior geometry awareness, matching reliability, and manifold preservation, outperforming previous baselines.