In a recent interview, Guy Martin, Vice President of the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) and Director of Open Source and Standards at NVIDIA, provided insights into the current state and future direction of the Alliance for Open Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD). As OpenUSD approaches its two-year anniversary this April, significant progress has been made in transforming this technology from its media and entertainment roots into a foundational standard for 3D content across multiple industries.

AOUSD is an organization focused on standardizing OpenUSD technology. As Martin explains, “AOUSD is essentially the organization responsible for standardizing OpenUSD technology, which we believe is the 3D equivalent of HTML in 2D. We consider it a foundational technology.”

The primary goal of AOUSD is to develop normative specifications that can eventually be submitted to international standards bodies like ISO, transforming OpenUSD from a de facto standard to an officially recognized one.

Since its inception, AOUSD has made remarkable progress, particularly with its core specification, “The biggest thing we’ve done in the last year is basically get our core specification—the foundation upon which all our other specifications will be built—and getting it to a point where it will be ratified by the end of 2025,” explains Martin.

This core specification will serve as the bedrock layer for other standards being developed in areas such as geometry, physics, and materials.

Expanding Beyond Media and Entertainment

One of the most significant developments for OpenUSD is its expansion beyond its original media and entertainment focus. The technology is now being adopted by manufacturing and industrial sectors. “What you’re seeing is USD technology expanding beyond its roots in media and entertainment. While it still holds significant value in that space, it is also moving into industrial and manufacturing sectors—a shift that is evident in the growing trend toward digital twins and the digitalization of physical assets,” says Martin.

Major organizations like Amazon and Rock Oil Automation have recently joined AOUSD, specifically to leverage USD for robotics and industrial applications.

The ‘HTML of 3D’: Democratizing 3D Content Creation

Martin draws a compelling parallel between HTML’s impact on 2D web content and USD’s potential for 3D, “If you look at what HTML did for the 2D space and the web, it created immense value. We’re now at a similar tipping point with USD and 3D, where you actually want to be able to look at all of the data that you bring in.”

Like HTML, USD functions as a container format that can reference and integrate data from other standards, making it particularly valuable for industries that need to incorporate diverse data types, such as architecture, engineering, and industrial manufacturing.

A particularly exciting development is the integration of AI with USD. Martin mentions that NVIDIA has developed “USD code,” which can generate scene descriptions based on natural language prompts, “We already have an example of this at NVIDIA, where we have USD code that can generate a scene upon request, outputting the relevant pieces of USD as Python snippets.”

This AI-assisted approach to generating USD content could potentially democratize 3D content creation in the same way that modern web development tools have made website creation more accessible.

New Governance Structures and Working Groups

AOUSD has implemented a new governance structure with the introduction of “interest groups” alongside the existing working groups. “Since we last spoke, we have introduced a new governance structure called interest groups. Early on, we recognized that many companies had valuable contributions to offer in areas I would describe as pre-standardization activities,” explains Martin.

These interest groups focus on requirements gathering and exploratory work that isn’t quite ready for formal standardization. Unlike working groups, interest groups allow non-members to participate as contributors at no cost, broadening stakeholder involvement.

Additionally, new working groups have been established, including a Physics group that is developing normative specifications for rigid body physics schemas and exploring deformable physics—critical components for advanced simulation in industrial settings.

For technical professionals, one of the most important aspects of AOUSD’s work is the formal standardization of OpenUSD. Martin explains the business value of this approach, “Once you enter a much broader ecosystem that includes highly regulated industries—such as medical, financial, and industrial manufacturing—there is not only a preference for standards but also significant business value in companies being able to say, ‘This is a great open-source project, but we are actually establishing a standard for it.'”

Formal standardization provides the stability and assurance that organizations need to invest in and build upon USD technology, particularly in regulated industries.

What’s in your pipeline

With the core specification on track for ratification by the end of 2025 and plans to eventually submit it to ISO, OpenUSD is positioned to become the definitive standard for 3D content representation and interchange. The expansion into new industries, coupled with innovations in AI integration and physics simulation, suggests that we’re witnessing the early stages of what could become as transformative for 3D content as HTML was for the web.

For developers, content creators, and technical decision-makers across industries, now is the time to begin exploring how OpenUSD might fit into future technology strategies and workflows.

Guest: Guy Martin
Organizations: Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) | NVIDIA