Benzinga | Aug 10, 2021 11:40AM EDT

UPDATE: NVIDIA Announces New Integrations With Blender, Adobe

SIGGRAPH--NVIDIA today announced a major expansion of NVIDIA Omniverse(tm) -- the world's first simulation and collaboration platform that is delivering the foundation of the metaverse -- through new integrations with Blender and Adobe that will open it to millions more users.



Blender, the world's leading open-source 3D animation tool, will now have Universal Scene Description (USD) support, enabling artists to access Omniverse production pipelines. Adobe is collaborating with NVIDIA on a Substance 3D plugin that will bring Substance Material support to Omniverse, unlocking new material editing capabilities for Omniverse and Substance 3D users.

NVIDIA Omniverse makes it possible for designers, artists and reviewers to work together in real time across leading software applications in a shared virtual world from anywhere. Professionals at over 500 companies, including SHoP Architects, South Park and Lockheed Martin, are evaluating the platform. Since the launch of its open beta in December, Omniverse has been downloaded by over 50,000 individual creators.

"NVIDIA Omniverse connects worlds by enabling the vision of the metaverse to become a reality," said Richard Kerris, vice president of the Omniverse development platform at NVIDIA. "With input from developers, partners and customers, we're advancing this revolutionary platform so that everyone from individuals to large enterprises can work with others to build amazing virtual worlds that look, feel and behave just as the physical world does."

The metaverse is an immersive and connected shared virtual world. In it, artists can create one-of-a-kind digital scenes, architects can create beautiful buildings and engineers can design new products for homes. These creations can then be taken into the physical world after they have been perfected in the digital world.

"Lots of companies are, and have been, talking about the metaverse, but NVIDIA is one of the few that is actually delivering on its promise," said Jon Peddie, noted author, consultant and founder of Jon Peddie Research. "NVIDIA brings a broader understanding of the needs of designers of all types and has many of the tools they can use -- for free. The NVIDIA Omniverse platform has the potential to transform nearly every industry by making truly collaborative, creative innovation possible in a common virtual space for the first time."