3D-Info is a lightweight open-source viewer for USD scenes
Originally posted on 19 August 2024, and updated with details of 3D-Info 0.2.27.
French movie industry trade body the CST (Higher Technical Commission for Sound and Images) has released 3D-Info, a lightweight open-source viewer for USD files.
The tool is intended to be an easy way for non-technically minded artists to view scenes in Universal Scene Description format, without the need to open a DCC application.
A key technology in VFX, animation, virtual production and game development
Developed in-house at Pixar, and open-sourced in 2016, the Universal Scene Description has become a key part of VFX, animation and game development pipelines.
The USD file format, which enables high-level scene data to be exchanged between software tools, is now supported by nearly every major DCC application.
An intuitive alternative to UsdView for viewing and editing USD scenes
Although the USD framework comes with its own native viewer, UsdView, 3D-Info is intended to be an intuitive – and, ultimately, fuller featured – alternative.
In an interview with 3dvf.com, project owner Frédéric Fermon describes the inspiration for 3D-Info as open-source video tag and metadata viewer MediaInfo.
“The idea came when I was looking for a way to comprehensively understand the 3D assets I had on hand without having to open a DCC [application],” he said.
“I remembered [MediaInfo, which] is regularly used by my colleagues in mastering, and I wanted a similar tool for 3D.”
Currently a simple scene viewer, but intended to become a fuller-featured application
The current beta, 3D-Info 0.2.25, focuses primarily on displaying and navigating USD scenes: according to Fermon, it should render scenes in a visually identical way to UsdView.
However, the CST ultimately aims to make 3D-Info a fuller-featured professional tool: functionality listed on the project roadmap includes adjusting lighting, shading and cameras, and inspecting scene data and the object hierarchy.
The developers also intend to add asset review and collaboration functionality, including the option to add comments and send them to collaborators.
The roadmap is being guided by the CST’s partner studios, animation firm Loops Creative Studio and film and virtual production facility Plateau Virtuel, which use USD in production.
Updated 6 September 2024: The CST has just released 3D-Info 0.2.27: a sizeable update that adds an animation system to the viewer.
Users can now play back animations defined in a USD scene, with the option to loop animation.
License and system requirements
3D-Info 0.2.27 is available as an executable for Windows and Ubuntu 20.04 Linux. The software is in beta.
The source code is available under an Apache 2.0 license.
Read more about 3D-Info on the project’s Trello roadmap
Download free USD viewer 3D-Info from the project’s GitLab repository
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