OpenUSD Standard Alliance takes shape

NVIDIA has helped form the OpenUSD Alliance, a group dedicated to establishing and promoting the Open Universal Scene Description (USD) as a standard for 3D graphics. The alliance includes several notable companies in the entertainment and technology industries, including Pixar (who originated the technology in 2012), Apple, Adobe, and Autodesk.

One of the main goals in forming this alliance is to create improved collaboration and workflow efficiency in 3D projects.

USD is a file format for describing 3D scenes and is already used by several major companies in the film and game industries. The article specifically mentions the more AEC-specific use of digital twins which is a feature set the NVIDIA Omniverse is pursuing as a way to gain a foothold in our industry. I assume this will also play a large role in spatial computing, which to me, is going to be a boon for decentralized team collaboration on architectural projects.

NVIDIA:

One unique capability of OpenUSD is its layering system, which lets users collaborate in real time without stepping on each other’s toes. For example, one artist can model a scene while others create the lighting for it.

Read more about it here.