A note on AOUSD
”Last year, Pixar, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and NVIDIA announced the Alliance for OpenUSD, an organization to advance and proliferate the USD file format as the future standard for creating and distributing 3D content.”- Big tech companies are coming together to try and promote a universal standard for 3D modeling within VR and AR experiences.
The AOUSD (Alliance for Open Universal Scene Description) is an alliance started to promote the Universal Scene Description (USD) file format. This format allows you to compact complex 3D scenes and display them locally. It’s been called the “HTML of the metaverse” by NVIDIA, and would allow a leap forward in accessibility regarding 3D modeling. At least, such is the expectation.
Previously, a quintet of companies announced the launch of this alliance, but this year two more big contenders have joined. Microsoft and Sony, both big in the IT, videogame and general digital industries, have joined this alliance! Thus further promoting this format. A universal format would allow you to transfer these digital files between programs much easier. For example, you wouldn’t have to use only programs within the Adobe sphere, but could also branch out to different programs. I’m hoping Clip Studio Modeler and Blender would also support this file format, for example.
I believe this format could possibly allow me, for example, to really get into 3D model creation as well. It has interested me for a long time, but since texturing is such a hassle and the files needed are often huge, heavy and complex, it’s been tough with the tools at hand. Even the beefy laptop I’m writing this on (ASUS TUF A15) can hardly handle an exported FBX (References the deprecated Filmbox software) model being loaded in unity.
The world of AR and VR is exciting, and I look forward to what will develop and come from it. Maybe someday I’ll be able to make something within that sphere.
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