
What is Universal Scene Description?
Universal Scene Description is an extensible framework and ecosystem for describing, composing, simulating, and collaborating within 3D worlds. Originally developed by Pixar Animation Studios, USD, also referred to as OpenUSD, is more than a file format. It’s an open-source 3D scene description used for 3D content creation and interchange among different tools. Its incredible power and versatility has made it an industry standard, not only in the visual effects community, but also in architecture, design, robotics, manufacturing, and other industries.
Get Started With OpenUSD and Omniverse
USD at NVIDIA
USD (or OpenUSD) is the foundation for NVIDIA Omniverse™, a composable computing platform for building USD-based 3D workflows and applications. Omniverse connects a wide variety of content creation tools to each other and to our real-time NVIDIA RTX™ ray tracing technology.
NVIDIA has expanded on USD by developing new tools, integrating technologies, and providing samples and tutorials. This includes working with an ecosystem of partners–including Pixar, Adobe, Apple and Autodesk–to evolve USD as it becomes one of the building blocks and the language of the metaverse.
This playable tech demo showcases the power of RTX technology on the Omniverse platform. The NVIDIA Racer RTX demo was created by a distributed team of NVIDIA Omniverse artists and developers using USD assets, along with real-time ray tracing, DLSS 3, and NVIDIA® PhysX®. The result is an interactive physics-accurate simulation featuring the most realistically rendered RC cars ever.
Alliance for OpenUSD
Pixar, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and NVIDIA have formed AOUSD, an open, non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the standardization, development, evolution, and growth of OpenUSD.
Visit the Website
Explore USD Pre-Built Libraries and Tools
Try USDView from the Omniverse Launcher
USDView, developed by Pixar, is a useful tool for loading, visualizing, and introspecting USD files. It's one of the best ways to start exploring Universal Scene Description and NVIDIA provides USDView pre-built and configured to get you started right away. Download USDView from the Omniverse Launcher and check out the USDView documentation to learn more.
Get Started with Omniverse
Download USD Pre-Built Libraries and Tools
The USD libraries are only available in source form from Pixar, and building USD can be quite an adventure. To get you started, you can download pre-built libraries, including the accompanying USD Toolset.
Download the usd-core Python Package on PyPI
The usd-core package is also available if you want to experiment with the USD Python API or if you only need the core USD features for reading and writing USD stages and layers. USD comes pre-built and it's just a "pip install" away.
Download from PyPI
USD 23.05, Python 3.10 for Linux
USD 23.02, Python 3.10 for Windows
USD 23.02, Python 3.10 for Linux
USD 22.11, Python 3.7 for Windows
USD 22.11, Python 3.7 for Linux
USD 22.08, Python 3.7 for Windows
USD 22.08, Python 3.7 for Linux
USD 22.05b, Python 3.7 for Windows
USD 22.05b, Python 3.7 for Linux
USD 21.05, Python 3.6 for Windows
USD 21.05, Python 3.6 for Linux
USD 21.02, Python 3.6 for Windows
USD 21.02, Python 3.6 for Linux
USD 20.11, Python 3.6 for Windows
USD 20.11, Python 3.6 for Linux
USD 20.11, Python 2.7 for Windows
USD 20.11, Python 2.7 for Linux
USD 20.08, Python 3.6 for Windows
USD 20.08, Python 3.6 for Linux
USD 20.08, Python 2.7 for Windows
USD 20.08, Python 2.7 for Linux
USD 20.05, Python 3.6 for Windows
USD 20.05, Python 3.6 for Linux
USD 20.05, Python 3.7 for OSX
USD 20.05, Python 2.7 for Windows
USD 20.05, Python 2.7 for Linux
USD 20.05, Python 2.7 for OSX
Learn Universal Scene Description
Universal Scene Description for Developers Series: Watch this introductory series by Aaron Luk, a founding developer of Pixar USD and senior engineering manager for NVIDIA Omniverse, to learn about the four USD superpowers developers can leverage to unlock new possibilities in 3D workflows.
Watch the Series
OpenUSD Learning
Become an OpenUSD developer by taking these first steps and following the NVIDIA OpenUSD learning content.

Discover two ways of learning about Universal Scene Description. Our guided learning includes an OpenUSD learning path, courses, as well as written and video tutorials that guide you from start to finish as an introduction to OpenUSD. Our independent learning contains foundational knowledge in the form of whitepapers, manuals, and video demonstrations that you can explore at your own pace.
Start Your Guided Learning Start Your Independent Learning
Self-Paced USD Courses

Getting Started with USD for 3D Collaborative Workflows
Learn how to generate a scene using human-readable Universal Scene Description ASCII (.USDA) files. You’ll be able to create your own scenes within the USD framework, and you’ll also have a strong foundation to use it in Omniverse and applications such as Maya, Unity, and Unreal Engine.
Take the Self-Paced Course

Essentials of USD in Omniverse
Learn about data modeling using Prims, attributes, relationships, and custom schemas and composition for scene assembly and collaboration. The course includes a hands-on portion that utilizes the USD Python API to experiment with the fundamental concepts of USD.
Take the Self-Paced Course
View the Latest USD Tutorials
Download USD Sample Assets
Free and open-source USD samples are available for download through NVIDIA Omniverse and partner sites.
Try RunUSD, the OpenUSD validation service, to ensure your USD tools and applications are compatible with a range of OpenUSD versions and configurations.

SimReady Warehouse Assets
Download Omniverse to get the latest SimReady (or Simulation-ready) USD assets.
Download Omniverse
USD Attic Sample
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Download Omniverse

AECO Demo Packs
Download Omniverse to access these five unique AECO worlds. They include source data from Autodesk Revit, Autodesk 3ds Max, McNeel Rhino and Grasshopper, Trimble SketchUp, and ArcGIS CityEngine.
Download Omniverse
Pixar’s Kitchen Set
Review and accept Pixar’s license agreement before downloading the file.
Download From Pixar
Animal Logic - USD ALab
The USD ALab dataset is the Animal Logic interpretation and implementation of real-world production and pipeline concepts. There are three downloads available, including textures and baked procedurals.
Download from Animal Logic

Intel® - 4004 Moore Lane
Download this open-source USD asset from the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF).
Download from ASWFCreate With Material Definition Language in USD

USD is agnostic about the way material properties are represented. NVIDIA is working to let artists author materials for cinema-quality rendering using an automated process that produces simpler but still high-quality shaders in real time.
To achieve this, NVIDIA has developed an open-source, GPU-friendly Material Definition Language (MDL) with an associated distiller that simplifies shaders for preview and virtual reality (VR) applications. The NVIDIA MDL SDK has been adopted by many application developers, including Adobe®, ChaosGroup, and Epic’s Unreal Engine.
To advance MDL-based workflows, we’ve also created a specification for referencing MDL in USD and have developed Omniverse plug-ins.
Learn More About MDL Learn More About MDL Schema Learn More About SDK NVIDIA MDL SDK documentation

MDL material examples
Find Additional Resources
USD and Hydra Resources
Documentation and References

Videos and Learning

OpenUSD Developer Program
Announcing the NVIDIA developer program that will give you access to curated OpenUSD resources, samples, and RunUSD, the OpenUSD content validation service. Sign up and be notified at launch.