STEP-OPD lifts GenEval from 0.927 to 0.961

STEP-OPD raised DiffusionOPD’s GenEval score from 0.927 to 0.961, a 0.034 gain, according to the image-model distillation paper. The authors report that one unified student also surpassed its single-task teachers across compositional alignment, text rendering, and human preference, but the abstract does not disclose the training-cost trade-off. For teams watching diffusion models trade familiar generation mechanics for a different compute profile, the result is a reason to test model consolidation before operating a fleet of specialists—not evidence to retire those teachers yet.