Generated banner for Omniverse Realtime Viewer
Generated logo for Omniverse Realtime Viewer

Omniverse Realtime Viewer

OpenAIOfficialCreated by NVIDIA OmniverseDistributed by OpenAI

  • Skill
  • Meta (authoring, orchestration, planning, memory)
  • Software development
  • Apache-2.0
  • Medium risk

From the author

Use as the top-level router for Omniverse Realtime Viewer USD app requests 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 orchestrator for developing USD-based viewer applications. It provides a structured approach to selecting implementation recipes, enforcing architectural conventions, and managing dependencies. By utilizing a set of focused reference documents, it guides developers through the lifecycle of building, configuring, and validating viewer applications, ensuring consistent behavior across different delivery paths such as local workstations or streaming environments.

What it does

  • Routes development requests to specific implementation recipes based on the target delivery path.
  • Enforces architectural rules for USD rendering, stage management, and UI integration.
  • Provides guidance on camera selection, input handling, and viewport interaction.
  • Standardizes the integration of AOV switching and render product configuration.
  • Facilitates the capture of validation evidence for viewer readiness.
  • Maintains separation between user-provided USD files and application-specific session state.

When to use it

  • When initiating the development of a new USD viewer application within the Omniverse ecosystem.
  • When determining the appropriate delivery path for a viewer, such as local native or streaming.
  • When needing to implement consistent camera, selection, or UI behavior across viewer projects.
  • When integrating advanced rendering features like AOV switching into an existing viewer.

Advantages

  • Ensures architectural consistency across diverse viewer implementations.
  • Provides a clear, modular path for adding specific capabilities like input routing or data display.
  • Promotes clean separation of concerns between stage data and viewer-owned state.
  • Standardizes the validation process for consistent delivery.

Usage examples

“I need to build a browser-based viewer for USD files.”
The agent will route you to the streaming viewer recipe, providing guidance on WebRTC stream setup, UI integration, and viewport interaction.
“How do I implement AOV switching in my local USD viewer?”
The agent will provide the AOV switching reference, detailing how to map render vars and update the display state on the server.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/openai/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

This is the top-level entry point for the Omniverse Realtime Viewer skill package. It is self-contained: all required routing, conventions, and validation guidance live in the selected references.

Use the focused reference documents as implementation recipes. This file chooses the right recipes and preserves the architectural rules that must hold across all generated viewer apps.

Instructions

Start by classifying the requested viewer, then read only the references needed for that delivery path and feature set. Implement the render path first, layer interaction and UI behavior on top of it, and finish by capturing validation evidence from references/validation.md.

Read Order

  1. Read references/routing.md to choose the delivery path and focused references.

  2. Read references/conventions.md before implementing camera, input, selection, viewport, streaming protocol, scene loading, or environment behavior.

  3. For broad viewer requests, read references/usd-viewer-app/README.md.

  4. If the delivery path is unclear, read references/streaming-vs-local/README.md.

  5. If the prompt includes layout, panels, controls, inspectors, status, or UX, read references/viewer-ux-workflow/README.md and then the focused viewer UI references. This applies to React/WebRTC, Tauri, Electron, ovui, ovwidgets, and Dear ImGui apps; "frontend" means user-facing UI, not only browser UI.

  6. For viewport interaction, read references/viewer-input-routing/README.md before references/camera-controls/README.md, references/native-picking-selection/README.md, or references/object-selection/README.md.

  7. Read only the focused capability references needed for the requested app.

  8. Use references/validation.md to capture review evidence before handoff.

Non-Negotiables

  • Use ovrtx for all USD and 3D rendering.

  • Browser apps display an ovstream WebRTC video stream plus UI. The browser does not render USD geometry.

  • Do not substitute WebGL, Three.js, Babylon.js, PlayCanvas, A-Frame, model-viewer, react-three-fiber, glTF browser viewers, or other client-side 3D renderers.

  • If local validation cannot run because the GPU/runtime environment is absent, scaffold the ovrtx path and document the runtime requirement. Do not add a browser-renderer fallback.

  • Keep user USD files unmodified. Viewer cameras, render products, render vars, settings, selection metadata, and runtime state belong in session/composite layers or app state.

  • Keep one owner for renderer.step(), stage mutation, native picking, selection writes, and live attribute writes.

  • Keep dependency acquisition in references/dependencies/README.md and deployment choices in references/cloud-deployment/README.md; do not duplicate package locations or deployment setup.

Focused Reference Families

  • Entry points and recipes: references/usd-viewer-app/README.md, references/streaming-viewer-recipe/README.md, references/ovui-local-viewer-recipe/README.md, references/streaming-vs-local/README.md, references/electron-shm-viewer/README.md, references/ovwidgets-editor-shell/README.md.

  • Rendering and stage: references/ovrtx-rendering/README.md, references/stage-loading/README.md, references/stage-management/README.md, references/render-settings/README.md, references/aov-switching/README.md, references/stage-hierarchy/README.md, references/stage-queries/README.md, references/stage-attribute-reads/README.md, references/prim-transform-safety/README.md, references/usd-sample-data/README.md.

  • Delivery and runtime: references/streaming-server/README.md, references/streaming-client/README.md, references/streaming-messages/README.md, references/streaming-lifecycle/README.md, references/local-viewer/README.md, references/tauri-local-viewer/README.md, references/cpp-native-viewer/README.md, references/headless-shm-cli/README.md, references/viewer-backend-interface/README.md, references/webgl-shm-transport/README.md.

  • Viewer UI/UX: references/viewer-ux-workflow/README.md, references/viewer-layout-patterns/README.md, references/viewer-control-patterns/README.md, references/viewer-data-view-patterns/README.md, references/viewer-feedback-status/README.md.

  • Interaction: references/viewer-input-routing/README.md, references/camera-controls/README.md, references/object-selection/README.md, references/native-picking-selection/README.md, references/selection-feedback/README.md, references/selection-animation/README.md, references/transform-manipulator/README.md, references/gl-viewport-overlay/README.md, references/ovui-library/README.md, references/prim-pick-effects/README.md, references/prim-info-display/README.md, references/viewport-overlays/README.md.

  • Infrastructure: references/dependencies/README.md, references/windows-native-setup/README.md, references/cloud-assets/README.md, references/cloud-deployment/README.md, references/troubleshooting/README.md.

Build Workflow

  1. Classify the prompt by delivery path, target user, required capabilities, runtime environment, validation needs, and explicit constraints.

  2. Select a small reference set. Start with the recipe or routing reference, then add focused capabilities such as camera, picking, hierarchy, properties, render settings, transform tools, cloud assets, or deployment.

  3. Read selected references before writing app code. Follow their build order, import order, data-channel contracts, and renderer ownership rules.

  4. Implement the core render path first, then input routing and camera, then selection and data panels, then scene/settings features, then packaging or deployment.

  5. Treat the selected references as the behavior contract for API shape, compatibility, and generated project structure.

  6. Capture validation evidence before calling the viewer ready.

Examples

  • For a browser viewer request, use the streaming recipe references plus camera, picking, hierarchy, properties, render settings, and stream-status references.

  • For a local workstation viewer request, use the local or native delivery references plus renderer setup, stage loading, viewport input, and validation.

Completion Checklist

  • Selected references match the user's intent and delivery path.

  • No code path uses a browser-side 3D renderer for USD.

  • The generated app has one clear owner for render stepping and stage mutation.

  • User USD files remain untouched by viewer-owned session data.

  • Camera, input, selection, scene loading, and stream behavior follow references/conventions.md.

  • Setup/build/run results and visual interaction evidence are captured with references/validation.md.

Files

references/stage-attribute-reads/README.md

Stage Attribute Reads

Triggers

Use this skill for requests mentioning read_attribute, read_array_attribute, attribute reads, USD attribute values, DLPack, GPU destinations, read_attribute_async, or array attributes.

Use this when inspector panels, query services, or effects need current runtime attribute values from ovrtx 0.3.

For ovrtx attribute query behavior, DLPack behavior, or release-specific read APIs not covered here, read references/dependencies for acquisition guidance and supplemental dependency documentation.

Choose The Read API

APIShapeUse
Renderer.read_attribute()One value per primScalar, vector, matrix, token/path-id-like values.
Renderer.read_array_attribute()Variable-length tensor per primArrays such as points, normals, faceVertexCounts.
Renderer.read_attribute_async()One value per prim, non-blocking enqueueAvoid blocking message/input callbacks.
Renderer.read_array_attribute_async()Variable-length arrays, non-blocking enqueueLarge mesh arrays or background inspector reads.

Use stage-queries first when you do not know whether an attribute exists or whether it is scalar or array.

Scalar Reads

read_attribute() returns a DLPack-compatible tensor with one value per prim:

import numpy as np

paths = ["/World/Cube"]
tensor = renderer.read_attribute("omni:xform", paths)
xforms = np.from_dlpack(tensor).reshape(len(paths), 4, 4)

For scalar numeric or matrix inspector fields, convert to a JSON-safe copy before sending over a data channel:

def read_json_scalar(renderer, attr_name: str, paths: list[str]):
    tensor = renderer.read_attribute(attr_name, paths)
    return np.from_dlpack(tensor).copy().tolist()

Array Reads

read_array_attribute() returns a dict keyed by prim path. Each value is a DLPack-compatible tensor, and lengths may differ per prim:

arrays = renderer.read_array_attribute("points", ["/World/MeshA", "/World/MeshB"])
for path, tensor in arrays.items():
    points = np.from_dlpack(tensor)
    preview = points[:1000].copy().tolist()

Use arrays for geometry payloads only when the UI truly needs them. For most inspectors, report counts, dtype, shape, and a capped preview.

GPU Destinations

read_attribute() accepts a preallocated DLPack-compatible dest. This supports GPU reads without staging through CPU memory:

import warp as wp

paths = ["/World/Cube", "/World/Sphere"]
dest = wp.empty((len(paths), 4, 4), dtype=wp.float64, device="cuda:0")

tensor = renderer.read_attribute(
    "omni:xform",
    paths,
    dest=dest,
    cuda_stream=cuda_stream_handle,
)
xforms = wp.from_dlpack(tensor)

When cuda_stream is provided, ovrtx coordinates with that stream before and after writing dest, and forwards the stream to the DLPack producer where supported. If no stream/event is provided, the caller must ensure dest is ready before the read and must synchronize before consuming it elsewhere.

Use cuda_event when the read should wait on a CUDA event before writing into dest:

tensor = renderer.read_attribute(
    "inputs:Fader",
    [effect_layer_path],
    dest=dest,
    cuda_event=cuda_event_handle,
)

read_array_attribute() does not take dest; it allocates one returned tensor per prim.

Async Flow

Async reads use the operation plus pending-fetch pattern:

op = renderer.read_attribute_async("omni:xform", paths)
pending = op.wait(timeout_ns=5_000_000_000)
if pending is None:
    return None

tensor = pending.fetch(timeout_ns=100_000_000)
if tensor is None:
    return None

xforms = np.from_dlpack(tensor).copy()

Array async reads follow the same lifecycle:

op = renderer.read_array_attribute_async("points", mesh_paths)
pending = op.wait(timeout_ns=5_000_000_000)
arrays = pending.fetch(timeout_ns=100_000_000) if pending is not None else None

Do not access the value until both wait() and fetch() have succeeded.

Inspector Pattern

from ovrtx import AttributeFilterMode

def inspect_attrs(renderer, path: str, names: list[str]) -> dict:
    descriptors = renderer.query_prims(
        attribute_filter_mode=AttributeFilterMode.SPECIFIC,
        attribute_names=names,
    ).get(path, {})

    values = {}
    for name, desc in descriptors.items():
        if desc.is_array:
            tensor = renderer.read_array_attribute(name, [path])[path]
            values[name] = np.from_dlpack(tensor)[:1000].copy().tolist()
        else:
            tensor = renderer.read_attribute(name, [path])
            values[name] = np.from_dlpack(tensor).copy().tolist()
    return values

Keep pxr fallback for variant sets, relationship targets, and USD metadata until native APIs expose those fields directly as user-readable values.

Gotchas

  • Native reads return runtime attribute values; they do not replace USD composition services such as variant-set editing.

  • read_attribute() is for scalar attributes: one fixed-shape value per prim.

  • read_array_attribute() is for variable-length arrays and returns a dict, not a stacked tensor.

  • Keep DLPack-backed views scoped. Take .copy() before storing values beyond the mapping/tensor lifetime or sending them to another thread.

  • For GPU dest, keep the destination tensor alive until the read completes and any consumer has synchronized.

  • Query descriptors first when a missing attribute would otherwise become an exception path in UI code.

See also: stage-queries, stage-hierarchy, prim-info-display, ovrtx-rendering.

Requirements and compatibility

Written for: OpenAI Codex

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.

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
OpenAI (Official)
Distributed by
OpenAI
Source
openai/plugins · plugins/nvidia/skills/omniverse-realtime-viewer · commit d420d13
Licence
Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (written by AutoGineer)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
Synced

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

Download ZIP

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