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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/python-shm-server.md

Electron SHM Python Server

Python Server Runtime

The Python server is the source of truth for renderer and USD state:

  • current stage URL/path and root prim path

  • ovrtx.Renderer

  • live OVStage/session state, ordinals, and renderer publication when selected

  • active render product and AOV

  • camera controller

  • selection, hover, native pick-query state, and selection outline groups

  • stage hierarchy/property query helpers

  • render settings and persisted viewer settings

  • SHM frame publisher and JSON message router

Startup order:

set OVRTX_SKIP_USD_CHECK=1
configure OVRTX_BIN_PATH/library path if needed
import ovrtx
construct the current renderer/runtime
initialize OVStage/session state if selected
initialize USD query subprocess if needed
initialize ovstream SHM server
register JSON control callbacks
load initial stage or enter idle state
warm up until first valid frame when a stage exists
enter one render loop

Render loop shape:

while running:
    command_queue.drain()
    if not scene_loaded:
        wait_for_command()
        continue
    camera_controller.update(dt)
    renderer_runtime.write_camera_if_needed()
    frame = renderer_runtime.step_display_frame(dt)
    if frame is not None:
        shm_server.publish_frame(frame)

Critical server invariants:

  • Only the render loop calls ovrtx load/reset/step/write APIs.

  • When OVStage is selected, only the same runtime owner advances ordinals, write floors, renderer attachment, and publication.

  • Callbacks decode messages and enqueue work.

  • FrameNotReady is recoverable; keep the latest good frame visible.

  • Repeated non-recoverable render failures should stop stepping and emit a JSON error event until the next successful stage load.

  • Scene loading must pause stepping, reset or reload the ovrtx stage, rebuild viewer camera/render products/render vars, clear stale selection, pending pick-query state, and selection outline groups, and resume only after a valid frame.

  • Never mutate the user USD file for viewer camera, render products, render vars, settings, or selection metadata.

  • Keep pxr queries and OVPhysX USD population outside this parent process unless the exact ABI/import path is verified. A failed PhysX.attach_ovstage probe should select the bounded worker path, not parent-process OVPhysX population.

Use stage-loading for exact open_usd() / open_usd_from_string() stage details and ovrtx-rendering for frame extraction and live write contracts.

SHM Server Contract

Use ovstream's SHM server type for local shared memory. Check the selected release through the ovstream dependency route. Server.start() takes a ServerConfig object; a dictionary is not accepted:

import os
os.environ.setdefault("OVRTX_SKIP_USD_CHECK", "1")

import ovstream

ovstream.initialize()
server = ovstream.Server(server_type=ovstream.ServerType.SHM)
server.on_message = on_message
server.start(ovstream.ServerConfig(
    shm_stream_name=shm_name, width=width, height=height,
))

Requirements:

  • one SHM server instance per viewer runtime

  • one named SHM session per active viewer

  • binary publish API for complete BGRA/RGBA frames

  • JSON control channel for event_type/payload messages

  • explicit close/shutdown on process exit

  • generated session names such as ov-usd-viewer-<pid>-<nonce>

  • cleanup only for stale segments owned by this app

Pass the final SHM name to Electron through CLI args, environment, or a readiness JSON line on stdout:

{"event_type":"shmReady","payload":{"name":"ov-usd-viewer-1234","width":1920,"height":1080,"protocol":1}}

Do not scrape logs for connection data. Keep logs on stderr or structured files.

Frame Header And Pixels

The app-owned frontend IPC payload starts with a 16-byte little-endian header. This is not ovstream_frame_t or an SDK wire-layout definition:

byte 0..3    uint32 width
byte 4..7    uint32 height
byte 8..15   uint64 sequence
byte 16..N   BGRA8 pixel data, tightly packed, width * height * 4 bytes

Frontend parsing:

const header = new DataView(buffer, 0, 16);
const width = header.getUint32(0, true);
const height = header.getUint32(4, true);
const sequence = Number(header.getBigUint64(8, true));
const pixels = new Uint8Array(buffer, 16, width * height * 4);

Sequence rules:

  • increment once per published display frame

  • drop duplicate or older frames in React

  • allow gaps

  • use sequence for display freshness and stats, not app state

Pixel rules:

  • Frame payload is BGRA8 unless both sides explicitly negotiate RGBA8.

  • LdrColor is the default display AOV.

  • If ovrtx outputs RGBA and SHM publishes BGRA, convert once on the server.

  • If SHM publishes BGRA and WebGL uploads RGBA, convert into reusable renderer-owned staging memory.

  • Do not convert in place on shared memory that the server can overwrite.

  • If a BGRA WebGL upload extension is available, use it and skip conversion.

  • When exposing AOV switching, handle current single-tensor and multi-tensor render vars. Select the named image tensor for composite outputs, read params separately, and treat image tensors as channel-last (H x W x C).

BGRA to RGBA conversion:

function bgraToRgbaInPlace(words: Uint32Array) {
  for (let i = 0; i < words.length; i += 1) {
    const p = words[i];
    words[i] = (p & 0xff00ff00) | ((p & 0xff) << 16) | ((p >>> 16) & 0xff);
  }
}

Validate width, height, sequence, and byte length before creating texture upload views. Drop invalid frames and request reconnect rather than drawing corrupted memory.

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