Studying the Universal Scene Description (USD) file format from a Digital Twin Convergence Perspective

Studying the Universal Scene Description (USD) file format from a Digital Twin Convergence Perspective

This paper reevaluates Pixar's Universal Scene Description (USD) as far more than a file format, framing it as a shared data fabric for both VFX and industrial digital-twin workflows. First, we dissect USD's layered scene graph and non-destructive referencing, showing how these mechanisms replace ad-hoc file exchanges with a single, version-safe collaboration space. Second, controlled benchmarks and blockbuster case studies confirm tangible gains in VFX pipelines: faster artist iteration, cross-department asset sharing without version clashes, and smaller storage footprints even as scene scale grows. Third, the same composition model adapts seamlessly to NVIDIA Omniverse, where engineers stream live sensor data, run GPU-accelerated simulations, and update factory- or city-scale twins in near real time-while still using familiar film-production tools. Collectively, these results position USD as a unifying layer that bridges entertainment production and industrial engineering. The study offers practitioners a cloud-ready adoption roadmap and gives researchers a reproducible benchmark for large-scale 3D data interchange, opening new avenues in graphics, HCI, and digital-twin research.