Nvidia Corp. today released into general availability a free version of its hyper-realistic 3D graphics collaboration platform Omniverse, along with a number of new improvements.

During an address during CES 2022, Nvidia also announced new developments for the platform, including the addition of Nucleus Cloud, a “one-click to collaborate feature,” new support for 3D model marketplaces, the addition of an AI-powered virtual face animation app and additional Omniverse Connectors.

Omniverse allows graphics artists, designers, engineers and others to collaborate remotely to create realistic, complex simulations in virtual environments. Using the platform, teams can operate together remotely and iterate on extremely large projects without stepping on each other’s toes. It’s especially useful during the pandemic when workers are less likely to be in the office.

The platform is also part of Nvidia’s vision of the “metaverse,” an array of interconnected and interoperable virtual worlds for industry, entertainment, socialization and business. These worlds will depend on 3D graphics modeling, simulation and the tools that make building virtual worlds possible.

“In much the same way the internet gave way to the World Wide Web, a connected consistent environment, with which people can build businesses, communicate, entertain, et cetera, all made possible because the underlying plumbing was made consistent with HTML,” Richard Kerris, vice president of the Omniverse platform, said during a press briefing. “The same will happen with these connected virtual worlds.”

The way Omniverse does this is by using Universal Scene Description, a specialized file format that helps provide that “consistent plumbing” that Kerris believes will be central for interconnecting virtual worlds and metaverse applications. The format, pioneered by Pixar, is now a standard 3D model format for numerous modeling applications and virtual worlds meaning it can be used seamlessly by developers, engineers and artists.

Since Omniverse’s release in beta test mode last year, it has been downloaded by more than 100,000 creators. Nvidia also released an enterprise-ready version of the platform in November, which is available as a paid subscription for professional users.

Today’s announcement puts Omniverse’s capabilities at the fingertips of individual creators for free.

With the addition of Nucleus Cloud, users will be able to share large 3D scenes easily in the cloud with a single click. That makes collaboration much easier because project scene sizes can be so large that they would take hours to transfer. When stored in the cloud, by contrast, teams can work on the same scene and have changes reflected to the project without the need to upload or download it for each modification.

Omniverse also added a large number of assets in the USD format that can be found directly in the Omniverse Launcher. These assets are free and can be dragged and dropped immediately into any new project allowing creators to get started faster. Thousands of assets have been donated from TurboSquid by ShutterStock, CGTrader and Sketchfab. More are on the way.

Virtual face animation using artificial intelligence makes it easy to create characters that sync their lip movements to audio using Audio2Face. This new software can be used with a pre-recorded audio track or real-time audio. Additionally, Nvidia said it supports Epic’s Unreal Engine high-fidelity “digital human” virtual character MetaHuman project, making it even easier to animate visually realistic people for gaming and entertainment.

With this release, Omniverse also expanded its number of Connectors, which are two-way connections with other software that allow changing of models in Omniverse and vice-versa in connected applications. The new update added e-on software’s VUE, an all-in-one digital nature and terrain modeling application, and PlantFactory, a vegetation modeling application for foliage as small as twigs or as big as redwood trees.

Omniverse is free starting today to individual users as part of a plan to widen the tool’s audience and continue to help standardize the formats the virtual worlds use in order to make them easier to use, more interoperable and beneficial to users, said Kerris.

“We kind of look at [Omniverse] in the same context as an operating system, the idea that the platform benefits all and that the rising tide lifts all ships,” Kerris explained. “We believe down the road there will be many avenues for commerce in these virtual worlds whether it is to be microservice selling, custom connectors or other things to enhance your workflow. There is an entire economy coming in these virtual worlds that’s much larger than what’s being done in the physical world.”

Image: Nvidia