Pixar, Adobe, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK), and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), along with the Joint Development Foundation (JDF), a Linux Foundation affiliate, have joined forces to create the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD).
This collaborative effort aims to advance and standardise Pixar's Universal Scene Description (USD) technology, bringing together industry leaders to promote its development, evolution, and growth.
USD is a cutting-edge 3D scene description technology developed by Pixar Animation Studios.
It has gained recognition for its ability to facilitate artistic expression and streamline the production of cinematic content.
OpenUSD, an open-source version of USD, has already proven its versatility in various industries beyond film, visual effects and animation.
The alliance's primary goal is to enhance the capabilities of OpenUSD and promote greater interoperability across a wide range of 3D tools and data.
By doing so, developers and content creators will be able to collaborate more effectively on large-scale 3D projects, leading to the creation of an extensive array of 3D-enabled products and services.
To achieve this, the alliance will develop detailed written specifications for OpenUSD, facilitating wider adoption and integration by other standards bodies.
The Linux Foundation's JDF has been chosen as the host for the project, ensuring efficient and effective development while providing a pathway to recognition through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
AOUSD will serve as the primary forum for industry collaboration, allowing companies and organisations to contribute to the definition of enhancements to the technology. The alliance invites a diverse range of stakeholders to participate actively in shaping the future of OpenUSD.
Comments from the industry leaders
Steve May, chief technology officer at Pixar and chairperson of AOUSD, expressed the significance of USD: "Universal Scene Description was invented at Pixar and is the technological foundation of our state-of-the-art animation pipeline.
“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."
Apple's vice president of the Vision Products Group, Mike Rockwell, stated: "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."
Guy Martin, director of open source and standards at NVIDIA, stressed the potential of OpenUSD to tackle various industrial and digital content creation challenges: "OpenUSD gives 3D developers, artists, and designers the complete foundation to tackle large-scale industrial, digital content creation, and simulation workloads with broad multi-app interoperability."
With the collaboration of these industry giants, the Alliance for OpenUSD is set to play a pivotal role in the standardisation and development of 3D technologies, enabling an even more expansive and interconnected 3D ecosystem for creators and innovators worldwide.