Develop metaverse 3D graphics standards, form alliances with giants such as Apple, Nvidia, and Pixar | OpenUSD | Giants
On August 1st local time, five major companies in the US 3D content industry, Apple, Nvidia, Pixar, Adobe, and Autodesk, jointly established the OpenUSD Alliance. OpenUSD technology is the foundation of NVIDIA Omniverse platform and may one day become the 3D graphics standard for the metaverse.
OpenUSD is an open data format developed by Pixar Animation Studios, allowing teams to collaborate on large-scale 3D workflows and share information on 3D objects and environments that can be used in AR and VR projects.
The OpenUSD Alliance will develop written specifications detailing the features of OpenUSD. This will improve the compatibility of OpenUSD, expand its adoption, integration, and implementation scope, and enable other standardization organizations to also be included in this specification. The Joint Development Foundation under the Linux Foundation has been selected as the custodian for this project, which will promote open, efficient, and effective OpenUSD specification development and provide a pathway to obtain certification from the International Organization for Standardization.
Steve May, Chief Technology Officer of Pixar and Chairman of the OpenUSD Alliance, said, "OpenUSD is based on Pixar's years of research and application in film production. We opened the project in 2016, and now OpenUSD's influence is not limited to the fields of movies, visual effects, and animation, but also extends to other industries that increasingly rely on 3D data for media exchange."
Nvidia has long used OpenUSD as the foundation for its Omniverse platform, particularly committed to supporting the industrial metaverse through the concept of digital twins. Omniverse is a platform that supports real-time collaboration and simulation, allowing artists and engineers to design and reconstruct virtual worlds on a large scale in a virtual way.
Guy Martin, Director of Open Source and Standards at Nvidia, said, "OpenUSD provides a complete foundation for 3D developers, artists, and designers with extensive multi application interoperability to support large-scale industrial and digital content creation and simulation work. The alliance brings a unique opportunity to accelerate OpenUSD's global collaboration by establishing formal standards across industries and taking measures to help achieve the digitalization of the 3D world and industry."
The interoperability mentioned by Martin, also known as interoperability, refers to the ability of different computer systems, networks, operating systems, and applications to work together and share information.
OpenUSD will also find a place in the virtual reality and augmented reality markets, as Apple recently released a powerful new head display Vision Pro and its vision OS operating system. Mike Rockwell, Vice President of Apple's Visual Products Group, said, "Apple has always been an active contributor to USD development, as it is an important technology for the groundbreaking VisionOS platform and the new Reality Composer Pro development tool. OpenUSD will help accelerate the development of next-generation AR experiences from art creation to content delivery, and promote an increasing number of spatial computing applications."
Several companies did not specifically discuss the "metaverse" at the press conference, but they are promoting one of the key features of the open metaverse - by promoting greater interoperability between 3D tools and data, the alliance will enable developers and content creators to describe, write, and simulate large-scale 3D projects, and build a continuously expanding range of 3D products and services.