Call of Duty: Warzone’s Caldera map is now a free USD data set
Activision has released the Caldera map from Call of Duty: Warzone, the free online Battle Royale game, as an open-source USD data set.
We think the asset, which can be imported into DCC apps like Blender, Houdini, Maya and UE5, is the first large real-world game data set to be open-sourced in this way.
The Caldera map inside the default UsdView USD viewer. It should also be possible to load the asset in other applications that support the USD file format.
An open-source USD data set based on a real multiplayer online game map
The asset is a version of Call of Duty: Warzone’s Caldera map, which was retired last year as Activision shut down the original Warzone to focus on Warzone 2.0.
Although it isn’t the original production data – it’s a “conversion of parts” of it to USD – Activision says that it “represents the scale and complexity” of current maps.
The asset contains data types representable as geometry, including both scene and collision geometry, but not materials or textures: a decision taken to keep file size down.
It comprises over 5 million meshes, 28 million primitives and one billion point instances, including those representing scene metadata such as lighting volumes.
Activision has also included in-game character pathing data showing how players behaved on the map.
A valuable resource for games artists, pipeline TDs and tools developers
As far as we’re aware, Caldera is the first real-world games asset of this scale to be open-sourced.
Previous large open-source USD data sets have been derived from VFX and feature animation projects, such as Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Moana island scene asset, and Animal Logic’s ALab.
Activision describes it as a “large interconnected scene with complicated parenting” and the “often implicit semantic relationships” typical of real production assets.
As well as testing production pipelines, potential use cases include developing games tools such as AI pathfinding systems.
It should also be a valuable resource for artists starting out in game development as a guide to the type and complexity of 3D assets that AAA studios expect in current titles.
License and system requirements
The Caldera data set is available in USD format, so it should be possible to import it into any DCC application that supports USD, like Blender, Houdini, Maya, Unity and UE5.
It is available under the custom Activision Non-Commercial Use License Agreement for non-commercial and research projects.
Read more about the Caldera USD data set on Activision’s blog
Download the free Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera USD data set from GitHub
(4GB download)
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