Working to advance the Pixar-born 3D file framework, the AOUSD also rolled out its two-year roadmap and made friends with glTF.
Twelve more companies have joined the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) formed in August by Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, NVIDIA and Pixar. The Alliance is working to grow the Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) 3D file framework, which members advocate as a standard that could underpin 3D development across industries and applications.
The versatility of OpenUSD is reflected in the variety of industries represented by the newest members of the AOUSD: Cesium, Chaos, Epic Games, Foundry, Hexagon, Ikea, Lowe’s, Meta, OTOY, SideFX, Spatial and Unity.
“The AOUSD mission is to promote greater interoperability of 3D tools and data, enabling developers and content creators… to describe, compose, and simulate large-scale projects and build an ever-widening range of 3D-enabled products and services,” said Steve May in an AOUSD press release yesterday. May is the chairperson of AOUSD and the chief technology officer at Pixar, which created OpenUSD and open sourced the framework in 2016.
Many of the new Alliance members will help drive the adoption of OpenUSD in engineering applications. Developer Hexagon, for instance, sees the framework as facilitating collaboration among different 3D software platforms.
“By joining the alliance, we’re demonstrating our dedication to the advantages that OpenUSD provides our clients when linking with cloud-based platforms, including HxDR, Hexagon’s digital reality platform, Nexus, Hexagon’s manufacturing platform, and Nvidia Omniverse to build innovative solutions in their industries,” said Burkhard Boeckhem, CTO of Hexagon, in the AOUSD press release.
Other new members, like Meta, see OpenUSD as a key to delivering better virtual and augmented reality experiences.
“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 that’s needed to make this possible…. Creators, developers and companies will benefit from the technologies and experiences that will be made possible by open standards for 3D content,” said Amir Frenkel, VP XR Tech at Meta, in the press release.
AOUSD also revealed its two-year development roadmap and a announced a new liaison relationship with the Khronos Group, developer of the glTF 3D file format, to “maximize alignment and interoperability” between glTF and OpenUSD.
Beyond the two-year plan, AOUSD is interested in working with the ISO JTC1 PAS submission process to allow international adoption and recognition of the core specification, according to the AOUSD website. The ISO JTC1 is a joint technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
