Alliance for OpenUSD Announces Core Specification 1.0: The Universal Language For Building 3D Worlds

The production-ready open standard aims to end 3D data fragmentation and ensure high-performance composition for planet-scale world-building across animation, digital twins, and simulation.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — December 17, 2025 — Today, the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) announced the first OpenUSD Core Specification, now available as an open standard for 3D content creation and data interchange. A critical milestone and the culmination of years of intensive collaboration, this core specification establishes a universal language for the 3D ecosystem, enabling interoperability across simulation, digital twins, and world-building.

"The Core Specification is the definitive syntax for describing how virtual worlds are brought to life at scale," said Aaron Luk, Core Specification Working Group Chair for AOUSD and Director of Product Management at NVIDIA. “It ensures that every tool can speak the same language while focusing on what it does best. This allows the ecosystem to massively expand via true native interoperability across domains.”

A Production-Proven Foundation

From blockbuster films to industrial digital twins and physical AI simulation, 3D content drives the modern economy, yet fragmented workflows and incompatible data formats have long hindered progress. To solve the persistent challenge of exchanging complex scenes, Pixar developed OpenUSD over 25 years through four generations of production tools, officially open-sourcing the project in 2016 after proving its capabilities on Finding Dory.

Formed in 2023, AOUSD has dedicated itself to fostering the standardization and growth of this technology. The Core Specification 1.0 defines the foundational data models and logic that underpin the system, ensuring developers can build software with consistent, predictable behavior. This rigorous standardization process has improved the technology itself, helping to optimize the original code while establishing a stable platform for the future.

Core Specification 1.0 serves multiple critical functions:

• Definitive Reference: Acts as the official guide for all future AOUSD projects, providing canonical documentation for all higher-level specifications.
• Testing Framework: Establishes clear baseline compliance and testing to ensure software is truly compatible.
• Enabling Innovation: Enables independent projects to be built with confidence.
• Foundation for Growth: Sets the stage for specialized, domain-specific standards in Geometry, Materials, and Physics currently in development.

Unifying the Global 3D Economy

The ratification of Core Specification 1.0 was validated through the rigorous contributions of AOUSD founders and industry leaders spanning the media, technology, and design sectors, including Adobe, Apple, Amazon, Autodesk, Bright Machines, Chaos, DigitalFish, Esri, Foundry, Lucasfilm, Meta, NVIDIA, Pixar, PTC, SideFX, Sony, and Trimble. 

This specification fundamentally changes how organizations approach 3D content longevity, enabling them to lower integration costs and protect long-term investments by building on a foundation that no single vendor controls. 

This shift toward professional-grade reliability is driving adoption across the global economy, championed by manufacturing and automotive leaders Hexagon, PTC, Renault, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, and Siemens; retail powerhouses Amazon, IKEA, Lowe’s; creative giant Epic Games; and geospatial innovators like Cesium and Esri.

Momentum and Roadmap: Predictable Evolution

Having successfully completed a thorough intellectual property review process and technical evaluation by the Technical Advisory Committee, Core Specification 1.0 fulfills the goals set out in the initial roadmap first announced in 2023. This momentum continues as AOUSD working groups, interest groups, and liaison groups gathered during this year’s AOUSD Summit to discuss new roadmap initiatives and domain-specific breakthroughs.

"This specification enables stakeholders to implement independently compliant tools, opening the door to industries that will only engage with published and ratified standards," noted Steve May, AOUSD Chairperson and Chief Technology Officer at Pixar. "It's the critical first step toward ISO standardization and broader international recognition."

The working group is already advancing Core Specification 1.1 for 2026, which will include animation features, scaling capabilities for massive and complex scenes, and refined guidelines for testing software compliance.

Availability

Starting today, developers can access the Core Specification, sample implementations, and compliance tools and provide feedback on forum.aousd.org for the working group to incorporate into the 1.1+ roadmap.

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About the Alliance of OpenUSD

The Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) is an open organization dedicated to fostering the interoperability of 3D content through OpenUSD to enable developers and content creators to more easily describe, compose, and simulate large-scale 3D projects. The Alliance brings together a diverse and inclusive community to provide an open forum for collaborative development and discussion around the standardization, development, and growth of OpenUSD.