Connect Overview¶
What is NVIDIA Omniverse™ Connect?¶
NVIDIA has built extensions and additional software layers on top of the open-source USD distribution that allow DCC tools and compute services to communicate easily with each other through the Omniverse Nucleus DB. Those extensions and additions and the application plugins that make use of them are collectively known as NVIDIA Omniverse™ Connect.
NVIDIA Omniverse™ Connect libraries allow client applications to connect to the Nucleus DB and to publish and subscribe to individual assets and full worlds. For typical existing DCC tools, most of the work in creating a proper plug-in to NVIDIA Omniverse™ is to establish a two-way synchronization between the scene representation in the USD library and whatever scene representation the tool uses internally. For applications that natively rely on the USD library, no such synchronization is necessary.
With any needed synchronization in place, a DCC plugin will use the NVIDIA Omniverse™ Connect libraries to apply externally received updates and publish internally generated changes as necessary. The NVIDIA Omniverse™ Connect libraries make this particularly easy. As the application makes changes to its USD representation of the scene, NVIDIA Omniverse™ Connect uses the built-in USD notification mechanisms to keep track of all the local changes since the last publishing event. When requested by the application, the NVIDIA Omniverse™ Connect libraries will construct a file-by-file set of differences and publish them to the Nucleus DB where they will then be forwarded to all subscribers.
Connecting to Omniverse¶
Multiple Ways to Interact – Many in Real-Time, with Automated Material Conversion
Connectivity |
Description |
Examples |
|---|---|---|
Bi-Directional |
Real-time updates are shared between
participating applications after a single
export/import. Material conversion supported.
|
|
Uni-Directional |
Real-time updates from DCC application are
reflected in OV. Changes in OV are not
shared with host application. Material
conversion supported.
|
|
Export/Import |
Common formats via direct import or
third-party app conversion to USD. Often,
materials are manually converted.
|
Export: FBX, GLB, glTF, OBJ, USD, USDZ
Import: Alembic, E57, IGES, LXO, MD5, STEP
|
Omni-Drive |
OmniDrive capable DCC apps allow for USD
or Texture export. Similar to
uni-directional, but no connector required.
|
Substance Designer, Photoshop,
Blender. CityEngine, ZBrush…
|
Installing Connectors¶
Installing Connectors is done via the Omniverse Launcher. Simply navigate to the Exchange Tab then select Connectors, then choose a connector you would like to install. Be aware, the host application must be present. Finally, select Install and provided you have a valid installation the host application the process will begin. The documentation on next steps then continues in the documentation related to the installed connector.
Please see Launcher Documentation for instructions on Installing Connectors.