Let’s go inside OpenUSD v24.05 and see what stands out!
The second release of OpenUSD in 2024 is now available. Below are some of the key features and improvements in OpenUSD v24.05 — thanks to the entire community who contributed to this release.
Access OpenUSD v24.05 Python libraries today by installing them via pip. All are welcome to provide feedback in the Alliance for OpenUSD community forums.
Full release notes are on GitHub.
MaterialX documentation
Achieving visual consistency and predictability across disparate renderers, software tools, and devices is complex. See how the AOUSD Materials Working Group and ASWF MaterialX Working Group are collaborating to build interoperability between MaterialX and OpenUSD.
Hydra 2.0 documentation
A developer guide for working with Hydra 2.0 is now available, along with illustrative code examples and an overview of the Hydra Scene Browser for ease of introspection and debugging of the Hydra pipeline in usdview. This guide helps accelerate testing and adoption of Hydra 2.0’s plugin points for proceduralism in production pipelines. Now, procedural behaviors whose inputs are defined in OpenUSD primitives and schemas can be implemented and executed with predictable results in any Hydra-compliant runtime via the methodologies outlined in this guide.
Namespace editing documentation
A new, more user-friendly guide is now available covering namespace editing concepts, how they relate to composition, and the Usd.NamespaceEditor API. This simplifies higher-level namespace editing facilities originally introduced in OpenUSD v24.03 for renaming and reparenting objects on the UsdStage. It includes best practices and caveats around pragmatic use of namespace editing, which is particularly critical to understand in comparison to other 3D file formats and DCCs that do not support composition.
Signs of life for “relocates” composition arc
OpenUSD v24.05 now includes initial low-level work towards supporting the “relocates” composition arc. “Relocates” allows content to non-destructively namespace edit objects across composition arcs in remote layerStacks. This means an object defined in a referenced layer that we may not practically be able to edit directly can be renamed or reparented in a referencing layer. This is a powerful feature that lets developers non-destructively restructure existing content for other contexts — for example, fitting an external provider’s source data to the conventions of their own pipeline. Relocates must be used with extra care, as it carries a steeper performance cost than other composition arcs. Future releases will provide more complete functionality and documentation.
iOS support
With this release, Core USD (i.e., non-imaging related libraries) can now be built for iOS, further expanding cross-platform support and the developer base for the OpenUSD ecosystem. See GitHub for more details.
Check out the full release notes on GitHub and feel free to provide feedback on the release here.
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