Pixar describes USD as the “first open-source software that can robustly and scalably interchange 3D scenes” while incorporating various assets, sources, and animations. The animation company notes that it has applications in the metaverse as well, calling it a “fundamental requirement” for people creating content in the metaverse.

The timing of this announcement is particularly interesting, as it comes just months before Apple is set to release its Vision Pro mixed reality headset. Mike Rockwell, Apple’s vice president of the vision products group, says in the press release that OpenUSD should “help accelerate the next generation of AR experiences,” adding that it could also be used with visionOS — the Vision Pro’s operating system.

“Apple has been an active contributor to the development of USD, and it is an essential technology for the groundbreaking visionOS platform, as well as the new Reality Composer Pro developer tool,” Rockwell says. “We look forward to fostering its growth into a broadly adopted standard.”

The OpenUSD FAQ page notes that many applications within the industry’s 3D content creation pipeline, such as those for modeling, shading, animation, and lighting, are often tailored for those specific applications and cannot be read or edited using other software. To solve this issue, the alliance aims to provide a common language for defining, packaging, assembling, and editing 3D data interchangeably at scale.

The project will be housed in Linux’s Joint Development Foundation to enable “open, efficient, and effective development” of OpenUSD specifications and help the project to be recognized by the International Organization for Standardization.