GDC 2025 Session Viewer
The Universal Scene Description (USD) Roundtables
Robin-Yann Storm (Tool UX & Workflow Designer, Freelance)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Visual Arts
Format: Roundtable
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: Advanced
USD stands for 'Universal Scene Description', and it is a 3D file format Pixar created over a span of many years and movies, and was released open source to the public in 2016. Although technically it is more of an API than a file format, which is an ongoing discussion into the terminology and use of USD.
In this session, attendees can gather to talk about USD. Come and meet, discuss, and find out what everyone has been doing with USD.
Questions can be submitted during the roundtable. For example, these may include topics such as:
1. What are issues you have bumped into when implementing USD into your pipeline?
2. What would be required for USD to be more widely adopted?
3. How can studios, and vendors, best share Schemas?
Questions can be oriented towards technical issues, design, and artistic workflows, with one day having a larger focus on artistic workflows, and the other having a larger focus on technical issues.
Takeaway
Attendees will share their experiences, challenges, and successes with USD. They can expect to leave with information shared by other studios who have used USD, and real world experiences from other teams, that they can then apply to their own thought process around USD, as well as in their own implementations of USD.
Intended Audience
This roundtable is intended for anyone with an interest in USD. This could be programmers, technical artists, designers, but also producers and technical directors who are looking into how USD is used, and what the pros and cons are that those in the industry have experienced with USD.