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I spent a ton of time in 2022 looking for people adopting USD for game development and came up with nada. It's popular in vfx but nobody in gaming seems to be a

by pnw 3y ago

I spent a ton of time in 2022 looking for people adopting USD for game development and came up with nada. It's popular in vfx but nobody in gaming seems to be adopting it in any way I could find. Has that changed since?

joeyrideout 3y ago
RealityKit (iOS & visionOS AR/VR/3D library) makes use of USD. Native apps and games for the Vision Pro will also use USD, alongside their new implementation of Entity Component System (ECS).
- ladberg 3y ago
  Yes, but using .reality files is better for stuff like games in RealityKit. For example it would contain a GPU-ready texture instead of a jpeg (and a lot of other differences), so it's more in-line with how assets are typically loaded in games.
  - dagmx 3y ago
    Generally it never makes sense to use interchange formats for a runtime use. Take the predominant game development format: FBX. It’s used strictly for interchange not runtime. The use of USD is exactly the same. You’d compile it into a runtime friendly format that benefits your specific runtime.
jsheard 3y ago
It's early days for USD in gamedev, but Remedy is using it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI2pyzTOvaQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI2pyzTOvaQ
- pnw 3y ago
  Interesting find, thanks!
ninepoints 3y ago
USD isn't usable as a last-mile format, so many game engines still use internal formats that facilitate fast edit-time to last-mile format conversion and compression, mainly as a point of pragmatism. There is some slow adoption of USD, but given that the main drivers of the format are from VFX, it's understandable that it will take some time for game devs to embrace USD fully.
raincole 3y ago
USD and FBX/glTF serve very different purposes and can't replace each other.
asutekku 3y ago
Epic has started the work to implement it into Unreal Engine and various tools have started adopting it as well. All this within the last two years or so
edflsafoiewq 3y ago
What would you use USD for in gamedev?

by pnw 3y ago

joeyrideout 3y ago

RealityKit (iOS & visionOS AR/VR/3D library) makes use of USD. Native apps and games for the Vision Pro will also use USD, alongside their new implementation of Entity Component System (ECS).

ladberg 3y ago
Yes, but using .reality files is better for stuff like games in RealityKit. For example it would contain a GPU-ready texture instead of a jpeg (and a lot of other differences), so it's more in-line with how assets are typically loaded in games.
- dagmx 3y ago
  Generally it never makes sense to use interchange formats for a runtime use. Take the predominant game development format: FBX. It’s used strictly for interchange not runtime. The use of USD is exactly the same. You’d compile it into a runtime friendly format that benefits your specific runtime.

jsheard 3y ago

It's early days for USD in gamedev, but Remedy is using it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI2pyzTOvaQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI2pyzTOvaQ

pnw 3y ago
Interesting find, thanks!

ninepoints 3y ago

USD isn't usable as a last-mile format, so many game engines still use internal formats that facilitate fast edit-time to last-mile format conversion and compression, mainly as a point of pragmatism. There is some slow adoption of USD, but given that the main drivers of the format are from VFX, it's understandable that it will take some time for game devs to embrace USD fully.

raincole 3y ago

USD and FBX/glTF serve very different purposes and can't replace each other.

asutekku 3y ago

Epic has started the work to implement it into Unreal Engine and various tools have started adopting it as well. All this within the last two years or so

edflsafoiewq 3y ago

What would you use USD for in gamedev?