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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/stage-management/README.md

Stage Management

Use this reference for opening, switching, reloading, and composing USD scenes while preserving viewer settings and keeping the interface responsive.

Scene owner and UI state

One runtime owner coordinates the stage, renderer attachment, current source, stage generation, and committed ordinal. UI and transport send commands and receive copied state; they do not own stage handles.

Keep the active scene interactive while downloading assets or gathering metadata. Track a requested load ID separately from the active stage generation; only the latest scene-replacement request may proceed to the renderer handoff. Additive edits remain ordered commands. At handoff, disable scene interactions and retain the last displayed frame while replacing the runtime stage. Tag picks and queries with the active generation so late results cannot update the new scene's inspector or selection.

The server's current scene is authoritative on startup and reconnect. Send it with initial state (for example, openStageResult) and let the client update its selector. Deduplicate requests for the already-loaded source; an explicit reload bypasses that check. This avoids loading the dropdown default on every reconnect.

Compose the source

Keep display labels separate from source paths. Preserve relative asset resolution in local files or cloud caches; see stage-loading and cloud-assets.

Populate viewer cameras, RenderProducts, RenderVars, and non-destructive settings from a wrapper/session source. Live edits go through the application-owned OVStage. ovstage-population owns the operation choices: a fresh Stage for full replacement, reference handles for additive content, and publication after each composition change.

Replace a scene

Run the transition through the runtime owner, between render steps:

  1. Assign a load request ID and show progress without changing the active scene.

  2. Resolve the source and gather required metadata, including source up-axis and units for wrapper composition through stage-loading. Keep pxr metadata work in its worker process; return copied bounds, paths, and hierarchy data. A failed download or metadata request leaves the current scene available.

  3. Confirm this is still the latest request, then begin the renderer handoff: snapshot persistent camera/settings state, invalidate the old generation, and disable scene interactions. Finish pending renderer/consumer work and release old queries, mappings, bindings, picks, and selection state. Detach consumers before destroying the old Stage to bound peak scene memory.

  4. Create a fresh Stage, populate the composed source, wait for completion, and advance its write floor. Attach it to the renderer using ovstage-ovrtx-integration.

  5. Restore validated viewer settings and the selected camera policy. Publish these writes and rebuild stage-specific dictionaries and feature state.

  6. Render the first valid frame, then publish scene success, hierarchy, and selection state to the UI. On failure, report the load error and allow retry; do not step an unattached or incompletely initialized renderer.

This sequence preserves the displayed image during runtime population, after download and metadata work have finished. Continuing to interact with the old scene during that final population phase requires an extra live Stage and an explicit memory budget.

Population and renderer attachment are serialized with rendering. In particular, do not mutate the attached stage while step() or step_async() is in flight. renderer.step(..., ordinal=N) consumes the committed publication; a separate update_from_stage(N) is needed only for pre-step renderer queries.

Keep loading responsive

Use asynchronous population and return control to the application's event loop between polls. Start the app-owned load job once, with a fresh Stage for scene replacement:

op = population.open_usd_async(stage, composite_path, ordinal=ordinal)

Poll on later runtime ticks; keep displaying the last owned frame meanwhile:

# Population operations have their own wait API; do not use stage.wait_op().
# wait(timeout=0) returns None while pending and raises OvstageError on failure.
if op is not None and op.wait(timeout=0) is not None:
    stage.advance_write_floor(ordinal).wait()
    op = None  # Stop polling/publication after this job completes.
    # Continue attachment and first-frame work on the runtime owner.

Route an enqueue, population, or publication exception to the load-error path and stop ticking that job. Do not attach or render the incomplete stage.

Do not report success merely because an operation was enqueued. Complete the publication and first-frame handoff. A superseded load may finish in the background, but its generation must not replace the latest requested scene.

State across scenes

StateScene-switch policy
Render settingsKeep validated app preferences; reapply them through the new session/runtime stage.
CameraChoose fit, preserve, or an authored stage camera with fit fallback.
Selection and inspectorClear old paths and native selection groups immediately.
Hierarchy and boundsRebuild from the new scene; use its detected root/default prim rather than assuming /World.
Queries, path dictionaries, pick IDs, animation bindingsRecreate for the new Stage.
Optional pick effectsDrop old bookkeeping; capture new baselines without overwriting authored material values.
Available AOVsRediscover valid outputs for the new scene and preserve the selection only if available.

Store viewer preferences outside the user USD asset unless saving edits is part of the requested product. Sanitize restored camera values and fit when the new scene cannot use the previous target or distance.

Reload uses the same full replacement path, including generation invalidation. Removing one additive asset uses its reference handle and an apply/publish cycle, retaining the rest of the scene.

Verify the transition

Switch between scenes with different roots, sizes, and materials; reload the current scene; then try an invalid source. Check first-frame readiness, camera fit, settings persistence, cleared selection, and recovery from failure. For streamed viewers, reconnect and confirm the client adopts the active scene without starting another load.

See render-settings, camera-controls, and selection-feedback for feature behavior.

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

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Download ZIP

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