Create an MDL Material

If you want to create an MDL material, you can use the CreateMdlMaterialPrimCommand or the USD API to do the same. These snippets show how to create a Material prim and a Shader prim that reads from an MDL file. They also utilizes the sourceAsset:subIdentifier attribute to choose a specific material description from within the MDL file.

Omniverse Kit Commands

import omni.kit.commands

success, result = omni.kit.commands.execute('CreateMdlMaterialPrimCommand',
    mtl_url='OmniPBR.mdl', # This can be path to local or remote MDL
    mtl_name='OmniPBR', # sourceAsset:subIdentifier (i.e. the name of the material within the MDL)
    mtl_path="/World/Looks/OmniPBR" # Prim path for the Material to create.
)

USD API

from pxr import Sdf, UsdShade

mtl_path = Sdf.Path("/World/Looks/OmniPBR")
mtl = UsdShade.Material.Define(stage, mtl_path)
shader = UsdShade.Shader.Define(stage, mtl_path.AppendPath("Shader"))
shader.CreateImplementationSourceAttr(UsdShade.Tokens.sourceAsset)
# MDL shaders should use "mdl" sourceType
shader.SetSourceAsset("OmniPBR.mdl", "mdl")
shader.SetSourceAssetSubIdentifier("OmniPBR", "mdl")
# MDL materials should use "mdl" renderContext
mtl.CreateSurfaceOutput("mdl").ConnectToSource(shader.ConnectableAPI(), "out")
mtl.CreateDisplacementOutput("mdl").ConnectToSource(shader.ConnectableAPI(), "out")
mtl.CreateVolumeOutput("mdl").ConnectToSource(shader.ConnectableAPI(), "out")