NVIDIA expands the application of USD, an open source and extensible language for the 3D world.

NVIDIA announced in a special speech at the recent SIGGRAPH that it has unveiled extensive initiatives to develop USD (Universal Scene Description) into the foundation of the open metaverse and 3D internet.

NVIDIA announced that it plans to pursue a multi-year roadmap to extend the capabilities of USD beyond visual effects in the fields of architecture, engineering, manufacturing, scientific computing, robotics, and industrial digital twins by collaborating with Pixar, the inventor of USD, as well as Adobe, Autodesk, Siemens, and other major companies.

NVIDIA announced updates including international character support that allows all users to participate in USD regardless of nationality or language, geospatial coordinate support that enables city- and planet-scale digital twins, and real-time streaming of IoT data for the development of digital twins that can be synchronized with the real world.

In addition, to accelerate USD development and adoption, open USD compatibility testing and certification suite (CertificaThe development of the tion Suite was also announced. This allows developers to freely test USD builds and verify that they have produced the expected results.

Rev Lebaredian, VP of Omniverse Simulation Technology at NVIDIA, said, “USD will provide 3D artists, designers, and developers beyond media and entertainment with the ability to collaborate through various workflows and applications when building virtual worlds. We are working with our partner community and investing to ensure USD can become the foundation for more areas, including architecture, manufacturing, and robotics.”

NVIDIA has launched a free resource collection built with the purpose of opening up virtual world building for users without 3D expertise, providing hundreds of on-demand tutorials, documentation, developer tools, and more, including thousands of USD.

Steve May, Chief Technology Officer at Pixar Animation Studios, stated, "USD is the cornerstone of the Pixar pipeline. USD is rapidly growing as an open-source framework not only for VFX and animation but now across industrial, design, and scientific applications." "NVIDIA's contribution will be a significant advantage across the industry in advancing USD as an open foundation for a fully interoperable 3D platform," he said.

NVIDIA also announced that it would invest in building USD plugins, ranging from the 3D software ecosystem to NVIDIA Omniverse™, a platform for connecting and building virtual worlds based on USD.

"Dirk Didsacalou, CTO of Siemens Digital Industries, said, 'Siemens and NVIDIA are collaborating to enable the industrial metaverse, where the future of design, engineering, and collaboration will unfold. We are pleased to support USD on the Siemens Accelerator Platform and plan to collaborate with NVIDIA on next-generation formats.'"

NVIDIA said that it is adopting USD as a metaverse language in the media, gaming, robotics, industrial automation, retail, and grocery sectors, including Kroger and Volvo Cars.