Chaos (formerly known as the Chaos Group) has joined the Alliance for OpenUSD. For those readers who are not aware of the Alliance for OpenUSD, the group represents software and hardware vendors advocating for the advancement of USD as an open global standard for 3D content digital workflows. (more on AOUSD below).
Chaos
Chaos is the world’s largest 3D visualization software company with prominent 3D applications, including V-Ray, Enscape, and Corona renderer, to name the most important applications.
The Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) only recently emerged as an organization, and its mission is dedicated to fostering the growth, evolution, development, and standardization of OpenUSD (an open Universal Scene Description) — an open open-source software platform for collaboratively constructing animated 3D scenes and rising format in industries such as VFX and AEC.
How USD functions in the 3D industry. (Image: Chaos and AOUSD) Click to enlarge.
Lack of true interoperability in 3D CAD and animation industries hinders the creation process as multi-party collaborations working across diverse digital tools struggle to move geometry and non-geometry 3D scene data between software applications. This is where an OpenUSD format comes into play.
MORE: Pixar, Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, and NVIDIA Form Alliance for OpenUSD
Developed originally by Disney’s Pixar, USD has been advanced as a standard by both Apple and Pixar for years. However, NVIDIA’s use of the USD standard as part of its NVIDIA Omniverse has furthered its popularity.
Thanks to the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD), soon, software developers and content creators alike will be better positioned to compose, describe, and simulate large-scale 3D projects, advancing the market availability of USD-enabled products and services. A key benefit of USD is that collaborators can stay working in their best-in-class 3D tools yet work with others in different best-in-class 3D tools all working on the same 3D scenes. This can have substantial productivity impacts in multiple 3D industries.
Chaos and OpenUSD
For over 20 years, Chaos has been building market-leading 3D visualization software tools for the AEC, VFX, and product design industries. Since 2021, Chaos has supported USD in its production renderers, including V-Ray for Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, SideFXHoudini, and Solaris.
The Chaos group offers the Alliance for OpenUSD 20 plus years of insight into the archviz and manufacturing industries, which will benefit USD’s advancement in both.
The Roadmap for the Advancement of OpenUSD by the Alliance. (click to enlarge)
“Being a member of AOUSD allows us to participate in the creation of the specifications for USD and related projects, which is of huge importance to our customers,” said Vladimir Koylazov, Co-Founder and Head of Innovation at Chaos. “Taking part in the alliance will also help us to continue improving our products as we gain a forum to discuss in detail changes requested by both our own development teams and our customers. We are looking forward to exchanging ideas and discussing challenges with all the members of AOUSD.”
Chaos’ Alliance Role
As part of the Alliance, Chaos will collaborate and work with experts from some of the most influential 3D companies in the world, who have united together to make 3D more accessible. This work will advance the cause of data interoperability for end users, over the needs of data silos that benefit software developers and do little for end users.
The net result is Chaos products will, in the future, have even better interop between themselves and non-Chaos products, so users can share and dynamically update assets no matter where they start in the creative process.
To learn more about Chaos, visit here. To learn more about the Alliance for OpenUSD, visit them at the link.
Architosh Analysis and Commentary
Last December, the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) unveiled a roadmap for core USD specification and a collaborative ecosystem. The Alliance’s two-year roadmap maps out the path to becoming an international, multi and cross-industry standard for data interoperability (interop) across disparate 3D scenes, environments, and assets. From their announcement:
“The AOUSD mission is to promote greater interoperability of 3D tools and data, enabling developers and content creators – including all of us at Pixar – to describe, compose, and simulate large-scale projects and build an ever-widening range of 3D-enabled products and services,” said Steve May, Chief Technology Officer at Pixar and Chairperson of AOUSD. “The new roadmap shared today shows the progress the alliance is making and unveils milestones and planned expansions over the next year to ensure interoperability and collaboration.”
AOUSD will lay the core foundation specifications from within their working group, building guides and rules for software developers to follow. The final approval of the core specification will be completed by the end of 2025.
Recent new members of the Alliance, include not just Chaos but Epic Games, Cesium, Foundry, Hexagon, IKEA, Lowe’s, Meta, OTOY, SideFX, Spatial, and Unity. Additionally, the Khronos Group has announced a new relationship as a liaison to foster better support within the larger community.