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Omniverse Realtime Viewer

NVIDIAOfficialCreated by NVIDIA Omniverse

  • Skill
  • Tool integration
  • Software development
  • Apache-2.0
  • Medium risk
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From the author

Use as the top-level router for Omniverse Realtime Viewer USD apps, XR delivery, SPG GPU processing, stylized rendering, and focused viewer reference documents.
— the description by NVIDIA Omniverse

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

The Omniverse Realtime Viewer skill acts as a central routing and architectural framework for developing USD-based 3D viewer applications. It provides a structured approach to composing rendering, scene state, and delivery mechanisms, ensuring that developers can integrate OVRTX rendering, OVStage scene management, and various UI or streaming adapters effectively. The skill emphasizes a modular architecture where the viewer runtime, UI/input adapters, and delivery systems are decoupled, allowing for consistent behavior across local and streamed environments.

What it does

  • Provides a routing architecture for USD viewer apps, XR delivery, and GPU-accelerated rendering.
  • Defines the separation of concerns between viewer runtime, UI adapters, and delivery systems.
  • Offers guidance on integrating OVRTX for high-fidelity 3D rendering.
  • Establishes conventions for camera interaction, scene state management, and input handling.
  • Supports the implementation of specialized features like stylized rendering and CAE/CFD visualization.
  • Provides protocols for agent-to-UI communication and scene control.

When to use it

  • When starting the development of a new USD-based realtime viewer application.
  • When integrating advanced rendering features like stylized visualization or AOV switching.
  • When building XR or spatial editing capabilities into an existing Omniverse application.
  • When you need to standardize the architecture for local and streamed viewer deployments.
  • When implementing chat-driven scene control or agent-based inspection of a 3D scene.

Advantages

  • Promotes a clean, modular architecture that separates rendering logic from UI and transport.
  • Ensures consistent behavior across different delivery methods, such as local windows or WebRTC streaming.
  • Provides clear paths for extending functionality without disrupting the core viewer runtime.
  • Facilitates the integration of complex simulation and visualization data into the viewer.
  • Standardizes conventions for scene state, selection, and camera control.

Usage examples

“How do I set up a basic USD viewer application using the Omniverse Realtime Viewer architecture?”
The agent will guide you to start with the viewer app reference, resolve dependencies, and implement the core runtime owner to manage the OVStage and OVRTX renderer.
“I need to add stylized rendering to my existing viewer. Where should I start?”
The agent will direct you to the stylized visualization references to implement the required USD/Lua/CUDA nodes within your existing runtime owner.
“How can I enable an AI agent to control the viewer scene?”
The agent will point to the A2UI Scene Copilot reference to implement an operation interface that allows the agent to send commands through the existing runtime owner.
“How do I switch between different render outputs like beauty and depth in my viewer?”
The agent will explain how to use the AOV switching reference to map RenderVars and update the RenderProduct's orderedVars through the runtime owner.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/nvidia/omniverse-realtime-viewer/download

  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip omniverse-realtime-viewer.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by NVIDIA Omniverse

<!-- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved. -->

<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 -->

Omniverse Realtime Viewer

Build responsive USD viewers by composing OVRTX rendering, OVStage scene state, and the delivery/UI libraries appropriate to the app. Use this package for viewer architecture and interaction; use each selected SDK's upstream guidance for installation and exact release-specific APIs.

Start With The App

  1. When delivery is explicit, select its recipe through references/routing.md and follow its current phase. Otherwise start with references/usd-viewer-app/README.md. For an existing app, keep its architecture and read only the references for the requested change. Broad app, conventions and UI catalogs are lookups as needed.

  2. Resolve the selected libraries through references/dependencies/README.md. Preserve the project's manifest unless an upgrade is requested.

  3. Build a working frame and camera interaction in the chosen shell, then add the requested capabilities. Read references/conventions.md for shared input, camera, selection, and protocol conventions.

  4. Use references/viewer-ux-workflow/README.md for broader interface design. Loading, selection feedback, errors, and input responsiveness belong in the first working app, alongside rendering.

  5. Validate the actual delivery path with references/validation.md. A browser screenshot does not validate a native window or a different transport.

Architecture

OwnerResponsibility
Viewer runtimeOwn the live OVStage, publication clock, OVRTX renderer, scene changes, and render stepping.
UI and input adapterDisplay frames and copied app state; send user intent to the runtime owner.
Storage/query/simulation workersPerform their assigned work and return results through the selected integration boundary.
Delivery adapterPresent locally or stream through ovstream; respect frame ownership and backpressure.

Use OVRTX for USD/3D rendering. Browser apps display its WebRTC video; local apps present its output through their native shell. A missing GPU means rendering is unverified, not a reason to substitute a browser 3D renderer.

Keep viewer cameras, settings, effects, and transient edits in app-owned session or runtime state so the source USD stays intact. Serialize scene mutation and render stepping through the runtime owner. Read references/ovstage-ovrtx-integration/README.md for that loop, then the population or data-plane references when implementing scene loading or attribute writes.

Keep expensive loading and metadata work off the UI and render threads. Keep transport details behind a delivery adapter so camera, selection, properties, and loading state can be reused across local and streamed shells.

Add Capabilities As Needed

Use references/routing.md to select camera/picking, scene management, render settings, cloud assets, simulation, editor tools, deployment, or CAE/CFD visualization. Read the selected capability's implementation flow and its linked contract; the full reference catalog is not a prerequisite for a first frame.

For simulation, use the routing reference's Simulation Ecosystem section plus references/realtime-sim-integration/README.md. For UI-driven forces or control, add references/interaction-round-trip/README.md.

For example scenes, use references/usd-sample-data/README.md. When a runtime failure needs diagnosis, use references/troubleshooting/README.md and the selected SDK's matching release guidance before changing the architecture.

Solid Modeling: Upstream First

For usd-brep, exact BRep, solid modeling, kernel failures, CAD topology, or BrepArray questions, first read references/dependencies/README.md → USD BRep. Follow the owning repository's current agent guidance, skills, operation docs, and package API before selecting local integration references. Discover the upstream router rather than assuming skill names or directory layouts remain fixed. Upstream owns modeling semantics, schema rules, tuning, and diagnostics; this package owns OVRTX display, worker handoff, selection mapping, and publication timing.

GPU Processing And Stylized Viewers

For custom GPU processing, chained outputs and lens sampling, read references/spg-processing/README.md. For toon, ink, technical/X-Ray styles, geometry strokes or full wireframe, continue to references/stylized-visualization/implementation.md. Its USD/Lua/CUDA starting node and geometry/depth/composite build sequence work with the selected viewer recipe; use references/stylized-visualization/style-recipes.md for the preset math and references/stylized-visualization/README.md for supporting contracts. Implement the result inside the existing OVRTX/runtime owner and deliver the published processed output. These instructions do not require a sample checkout or a prior stylized-rendering implementation.

For an optional usd-brep geometry source, first read references/dependencies/README.md → USD BRep and the owning repository's current agent guidance, skills, and operation docs; then read references/stylized-visualization/usd-brep-source.md for the display boundary.

XR Viewers

For headsets, immersive viewers, or spatial editors, start with references/xr-viewer-recipe/README.md. Resolve SDK setup and contracts through references/dependencies/ovxr.md; the library owns OpenXR lifecycle and frame submission. For controllers, hands, navigation, or scene tools, add references/xr-spatial-input/README.md and references/ovxr-python-interactions/README.md. For projection-integrated UI, read references/ovxr-composition-ui/README.md and references/ovxr-composition-ui-validation/README.md.

Files

references/electron-shm-viewer/architecture-project.md

Electron SHM Architecture And Project

Global Rules

  • Use packages, libraries, and deployment references from the focused references selected for the project.

  • ovrtx is the only renderer. Do not render USD, meshes, materials, lights, cameras, or scene graphs in Electron.

  • WebGL is allowed only for pixel upload/blit from a server-rendered frame into a texture. It is not a scene renderer in this architecture.

  • Keep the process boundary explicit: Python server process on one side, Electron main/preload/renderer processes on the other.

  • Send binary pixels through SHM. Send app state through JSON event_type/payload messages.

  • Do not send frame pixels through JSON, base64, screenshots, or generic Electron IPC payloads.

  • Set OVRTX_SKIP_USD_CHECK=1 before importing ovrtx or constructing ovrtx.Renderer.

  • One render loop thread owns renderer.step(), stage reset/load, render product setup, and live write_attribute() calls.

  • Use fixed server render resolution and UI-side letterboxing. Treat live resize as advisory unless the app intentionally reloads render products.

Read These Skills

Reference focused references instead of duplicating their full contracts:

NeedRead
Renderer construction, step(), LdrColor, AOVs, omni:xform writesovrtx-rendering
Camera, RenderProduct, RenderVar, RenderSettings, inline root/session stagestage-loading
Shared JSON event_type/payload protocol and message namesstreaming-messages
Orbit, pan, zoom, fit, finite camera matrices, drag thresholdviewer-input-routing, camera-controls
Native click picking, pickability, and selectable prim stateviewer-input-routing, object-selection
Hierarchy, properties, variants, bounds, root prim detectionstage-hierarchy
WebGL texture upload, BGRA/RGBA conversion, blit shader, canvas sizingwebgl-shm-transport

Important distinction: reuse the message envelope and event names from streaming-messages, but do not inherit its transport assumptions. In this path React pointer events cross the preload bridge and become local JSON app messages over the SHM control channel.

When to Use This vs Other Paths

You want...Use...
Small Python desktop viewer with ovui widgetslocal-viewer
React desktop UI and no Python runtimetauri-local-viewer
React desktop UI with Python ovrtx sidecarThis skill
Browser client outside the desktop hoststreaming-viewer-recipe
Initial architecture routingstreaming-vs-local

Choose Electron + SHM when:

  • The app runs on the same machine as the NVIDIA GPU.

  • Existing Python ovrtx server code should be reused.

  • React/shared UI components are required.

  • A process boundary is useful for restart, crash isolation, or dependency separation.

  • Raw local frame transfer matters more than simplest packaging.

Avoid Electron + SHM when:

  • A minimal local viewport is enough; use local-viewer.

  • A single native binary without Python is required; use tauri-local-viewer.

  • The client is not on the desktop host; use streaming-viewer-recipe.

  • A full editor shell is requested; route through streaming-vs-local.

Architecture Overview

Python ovrtx server process
  -> owns ovrtx.Renderer and USD/pxr query state
  -> calls renderer.step()
  -> writes BGRA/RGBA frames into POSIX shared memory
  -> sends/receives JSON app events over ovstream SHM control channel

Electron main process
  -> starts or attaches to Python server
  -> loads N-API addon wrapping libovstream_shm_client.so
  -> uses WaitFrame async worker on libuv thread pool
  -> forwards SharedArrayBuffer frame handles to renderer
  -> exposes narrow preload API through contextBridge

React renderer process
  -> useShmBackend.ts implements ViewerBackend
  -> reuses shared UI components
  -> uploads SharedArrayBuffer pixels to WebGL texture
  -> sends UI commands as JSON app messages

The binary path and app-state path must stay separate:

  • Binary pixels: ovrtx frame -> SHM server -> SHM client addon -> SharedArrayBuffer -> WebGL texture upload.

  • App state: React/preload -> Electron main/addon -> SHM control channel -> Python message_router.py, then responses/events back through the same JSON envelope.

Project Skeleton

Use this shape unless the host repo already has an equivalent convention:

electron-shm-usd-viewer/
  requirements.txt or pyproject.toml
  package.json
  server/
    app.py
    config.py
    runtime.py
    renderer_runtime.py
    scene_loader.py
    shm_server.py
    message_router.py
    command_queue.py
    camera_controller.py
    selection_controller.py
    render_settings.py
    scene_manager.py
    stage_queries.py
    settings_store.py
  electron/
    main.ts
    preload.ts
    pythonSidecar.ts
    shmClient.ts
    lifecycle.ts
    ipc.ts
    native/
      binding.gyp or CMakeLists.txt
      src/
        addon.cc
        shm_client.cc
        wait_frame_worker.cc
        frame_header.h
  frontend/
    src/
      App.tsx
      backend/
        ViewerBackend.ts
        useShmBackend.ts
        messages.ts
        frameTypes.ts
      viewport/
        ShmViewport.tsx
        webglBlit.ts
        letterbox.ts
      components/
        SceneTree.tsx
        PropertyPanel.tsx
        Toolbar.tsx
        RenderSettingsPanel.tsx
        StatusBar.tsx
  assets/samples/
  data/viewer-settings.json

Stable ownership:

  • server/app.py sets env, constructs runtime, starts SHM, enters render loop, and shuts down cleanly.

  • server/renderer_runtime.py owns ovrtx renderer, active render product, AOV selection, frame extraction, stage reset/load, and live attribute writes.

  • server/shm_server.py owns ovstream SHM server lifecycle, frame publish, control-channel send/receive, attach/detach state, and cleanup.

  • server/message_router.py decodes JSON, validates payloads, dispatches commands, and sends responses. Slow USD queries should not run in transport callbacks.

  • electron/main.ts owns app lifecycle, BrowserWindow, sidecar startup, and the native addon instance.

  • electron/preload.ts exposes only the viewer API, never raw Node or native objects.

  • frontend/src/backend/useShmBackend.ts adapts preload calls to the shared ViewerBackend interface.

  • frontend/src/viewport/webglBlit.ts owns texture upload and drawing only.

Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Needs Python, Needs Node.js

The author says: Orchestrator skill. Downstream focused references may require NVIDIA GPUs, ovrtx, ovstream, ovui, OpenUSD, Python, Node/React, Tauri, Electron, C++, or cloud GPU deployment access depending on the selected viewer path.

Security

What our scanner noticed· Medium risk

  • Large base64-encoded blobs
  • Instructions that use the network

A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.

Attribution and licence

Created by
NVIDIA Omniverse
Publisher
NVIDIA (Official)
Source
NVIDIA/skills · skills/omniverse-realtime-viewer · commit fce3cca
Licence
Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE-APACHE)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
Synced

AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by NVIDIA Omniverse or NVIDIA.

Download ZIP

The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download omniverse-realtime-viewer.zip