The Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) has announced a roadmap that outlines its plan to establish OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description) as an international standard for interoperability in 3D scene and environment descriptions.
This two-year roadmap is a strategic initiative aimed at making OpenUSD a recognized standard, with the Core Specification working group playing a crucial role. This group will define the structure and interpretation of low-level data, ensuring that OpenUSD remains portable and interoperable across different software platforms and devices.
Steve May, Chief Technology Officer at Pixar and Chairperson of AOUSD, stated, “The new roadmap shared today illustrates the progress the alliance is making and reveals milestones and planned expansions over the next year to ensure interoperability and collaboration.”
New Members and Collaborations
As part of its growth, AOUSD has welcomed 12 new general members, including notable companies such as Cesium, Chaos, Epic Games, Foundry, Hexagon, IKEA, Lowe’s, Meta, OTOY, SideFX, Spatial, and Unity.
Additionally, AOUSD has established a liaison relationship with the Khronos Group to align OpenUSD with the widely adopted glTF open standard for 3D assets. This collaboration aims to enhance compatibility between OpenUSD and glTF, preventing unnecessary incompatibilities and facilitating seamless interoperability between the two technologies.
Neil Trevett, President of The Khronos Group and VP of Developer Ecosystems at NVIDIA, remarked, “The Khronos Group warmly welcomes AOUSD to the community of open standard organizations. We look forward to close cooperation so that Khronos standards, including glTF, can support and synergize with AOUSD’s mission for the benefit of the industry.”
Industry Support
Other key players in the industry have also voiced their support for AOUSD and the effort to standardize OpenUSD. Amir Frenkel, VP of XR Tech at Meta, emphasized that “building key interoperability for the metaverse will require an industry-wide focus on common standards, formats, and protocols. The Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) can help drive the collaboration necessary to make this possible, and Meta is committed to this work. Creators, developers, and companies will benefit from the technologies and experiences made possible by open standards for 3D content.”
Sebastien Miglio, VP of Product Management and Engineering at Epic Games, added, “Epic Games recognizes the importance of USD in establishing standards for 3D content, virtual worlds, and the open metaverse. We are excited to support the Alliance for OpenUSD in its mission to standardize USD, which will elevate the technology to new levels of standardization, improve interoperability with other tools, and accelerate innovation across industries.”
These endorsements reflect the industry’s recognition of AOUSD’s mission and the potential advantages of standardizing OpenUSD.