USD (Universal Scene Description) was created by Pixar to enable artists using a variety of desktop applications to collaborate. You can open a USD in one application, make your changes and save the file, then give it to someone using a different application, where they can open and make changes to that file, as well. Multiple users can also work on the same file from different locations at the same time.

Supported File Formats

There are the different supported USD file formats:

• usd via ATF (Automated Test Framework)
• .usda is an API (Application Programming Interface) that can be opened in a text editor, such as Notepad++, and edited
• .usdc are binary files and begin with the hex values 5058522D55534443 or PXR-USDC in asci
• .usdz is a zipped file

Supported USD Content

This is a list of what will be supported in the USD:

• Geometry (Tessellated only) - Support for importing and exporting tessellated geometry data only in and out of VRED to work with creative ecosystem tools like Maya, Blender, etc., as well as Alias and VRED.

• Graph structure and node names - Maintain data organization for the application of choice

• Materials (Diffuse colors only) - Support for basic diffuse color export only

• Cameras - Support for basic camera import and export, including the following:

  • Camera transformation (i.e, from at and up)

  • F-Stop

  • Near/Far clipping plane

  • Type (perspective/orthographic)

  • Sensor size

  • Field of view

  • Name

  • Focal length

  • Principal point offset

  • For USD, only horizontal Field of View (mode) is supported

    Note:

    Camera constraints are not taken into account.

• Lights - Support for basic light import and export.

  • Image Textures - Imported and exported image textures are supported (only the texture file) and UV mappings.

• Animation - Support for basic animation import and export to support working with the creative ecosystem. This includes the import of polygon mesh keyframe animations.

• Metadata - Support for exporting metadata.