The Ultimate Guide to Turn glTF Files into Omniverse SimReady USD Content

The Graphics Library Transmission Format (glTF) is a 3D format designed to serve as the "JPEG for 3D" - a standard, lightweight last-mile delivery format, for use on the Web and in real-time scenarios. It is royalty-free, standardized, and available for use in nearly all popular 3D and other applications nowadays (including MS Office, but also Web renderers like ThreeJS or BabylonJS. It is a file format mostly used for interactive 3D, on the Web and elsewhere (e.g., in XR).

Omniverse supports various file formats. However, the native file format is USD, which is the officially recommended file format for best performance.

USD (Universal Scene Description) is the primary format for Omniverse SimReady data, it enables 3D assets to be used in simulation environments such as NVIDIA Omniverse, PhysX, and more. For this to work properly, USD assets must adhere to the USD standard, and ideally bring metadata that helps to inform downstream simulation use cases about various simulation-relevant properties of the 3D asset.

There are various ways to generate USD files, but especially when starting from non-simulation formats like glTF, it is not easy to perform a good conversion. Additional required steps might include material assignment (in case realistic materials are desired) and related steps like UV generation, but also metadata transfer from the original file to the final Omniverse SimReady USD asset.

With RapidPipeline, the process of generating NVIDIA Omniverse SimReady USD content from glTF files is easy:

1. Download RapidPipeline Twin Studio (free trial available), or one of the RapidPipeline 3D tool plugins.
2. Perform the conversion from glTF to USD. Store the resulting USD file, it's ready to use!
3. If you'd like to scale up the process, get in touch to acquire a license for the RapidPipeline 3D Processor CLI, a batch processing tool that turns your entire library of glTF files (or other files) into Omniverse SimReady USD content.

Here is the link for more details.

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