AOUSD: Alliance for OpenUSD
The members of the AOUSD Steering Committee will deliver speeches on August 6th at the Open Source Day of the Academy Software Foundation and at the Autodesk Vision Series SIGGRAPH conference.
AOUSD will provide an important platform for enhancing technical definition and promoting larger industry collaboration, inviting more companies and institutions to join and participate in shaping the future of OpenUSD.
The OpenUSD Alliance (AOUSD) was jointly announced by Pixar, Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, NVIDIA, and the Linux Foundation. It aims to standardize, develop, iterate, and advance the universal scene description technology called OpenUSD, which was originally created by Pixar.
Next, the OpenUSD Alliance will establish written specifications that clearly define the features of OpenUSD. This will improve OpenUSD's compatibility, encourage broader adoption, integration, and implementation, and enable other standardization organizations to include OpenUSD in their specifications. The Linux Foundation's Joint Development Foundation (JDF) has been selected to support the open, efficient, and effective development of the OpenUSD specifications and drive the project toward certification by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
OpenUSD, created by Pixar Animation Studios, is a high-performance 3D scene description technology that brings strong interoperability to various tools, data, and workflows. It is well-known in the industry for supporting collaborative artistic expression and enhancing efficiency in movie content production. Its powerful features and flexibility make it an ideal content platform to accommodate new industry and application demands.
Pixar stated, "The universal scene description invented by Pixar provides the technical foundation for our advanced animation production process. OpenUSD is built upon years of research and practical use in Pixar's movie-making. We opened the project's source code in 2016, and now its impact extends beyond movies, visual effects, and animation into other industries that increasingly rely on 3D data for media fusion. With the establishment of AOUSD, we are excited to announce the next thrilling step: OpenUSD technology will continue to evolve and achieve international standards status."
Apple is particularly interested in the development of OpenUSD for AR experiences. In the press release, Apple specifically mentioned AR and received commentary from Mike Rockwell, Vice President of the Vision Products Group. He said, "OpenUSD will help accelerate the next generation of AR experiences, which are crucial for the groundbreaking visionOS platform and the new developer tool, Reality Composer Pro. We look forward to developing it as a widely accepted standard."
The OpenUSD Alliance seeks to standardize the 3D ecosystem by advancing the capabilities of OpenUSD for open universal scene descriptions. The team aims to deepen the interoperability of 3D tools and data and empower developers and content creators to describe, create, and simulate large-scale 3D projects, thereby establishing a growing range of 3D products and services.
Mike Rockwell, Vice President of the Vision Products Group at Apple, added, "From artistic creation to content delivery and the creation of more and more spatial computing applications, OpenUSD will help accelerate the next generation of AR experiences. Apple has made positive contributions to USD's development, and this technology is crucial for the groundbreaking visionOS platform and the new developer tool, Reality Composer Pro. We look forward to developing it as a widely accepted standard."