Pixar, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and NVIDIA, together with the Joint Development Foundation (JDF), have formed the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) to promote the standardisation, development, evolution, and growth of Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD) technology.
The alliance aims to standardise the 3D ecosystem by advancing OpenUSD to enable developers and content creators to describe, compose, and simulate large-scale 3D projects and build an ever-widening range of 3D-enabled products and services.
Created by Pixar Animation Studios, OpenUSD is a high-performance 3D scene description technology that offers robust interoperability across tools, data, and workflows. Known for its ability to collaboratively capture artistic expression and streamline cinematic content production, its power and flexibility make it an ideal content platform to embrace the needs of new industries and applications.
“With the announcement of AOUSD, we signal the exciting next step: the continued evolution of OpenUSD as a technology and its position as an international standard,” said Steve May, Chief Technology Officer of Pixar and Chairperson of AOUSD.
The alliance will develop written specifications detailing the features of OpenUSD to enable greater compatibility and wider adoption, integration, and implementation, and allows inclusion by other standards bodies into their specifications.
An affiliate of the Linux Foundation, JDF was chosen to house the project as it will enable open, efficient, and effective development of OpenUSD specifications, while providing a path to recognition through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
AOUSD will also provide the primary forum for the collaborative definition of enhancements to the technology by the greater industry. The alliance invites a broad range of companies and organisations to join and participate in shaping the future of OpenUSD.
“Leveraging a common 3D data representation during the creative process multiplies the value brought by each package and device. OpenUSD was created to be one of these ‘multipliers’ and we are excited to see a diverse group of companies joining together to support this innovative and open technology,” said Guido Quaroni, Senior Director of Engineering, 3D&I at Adobe.
“OpenUSD will help accelerate the next generation of AR experiences, from artistic creation to content delivery, and produce an ever-widening array of spatial computing applications. Apple has been an active contributor to the development of USD, and it is an essential technology for the groundbreaking visionOS platform, as well as the new Reality Composer Pro developer tool,” said Mike Rockwell, Vice President of Apples’s Vision Products Group.
“Whether you’re building CG worlds or digital twins or looking ahead to the 3D web, content creators need a cohesive way to collaborate and share data across tools, services, and platforms. Autodesk is excited to support the Alliance for OpenUSD as it drives 3D interoperability for visual effects, animation, and beyond, and supports our vision to help customers design and make a better world,” said Gordon Bradley, Fellow of Media & Entertainment at Autodesk.
“This alliance is a unique opportunity to accelerate OpenUSD collaboration globally by building formal standards across industries and initiatives to realize 3D worlds and industrial digitalisation,” said Guy Martin, Director of Open Source and Standards at NVIDIA.
Image: Iconic OpenUSD scene “the Pixar kitchen” from clay render (left) to
full-render (right).
Entelechy Asia 