USD and the VFX Reference Platform

[Nick Cannon]

As mentioned in the CY2025 thread, the Working Group believes that the best choice for the community is to allow USD to iterate quickly rather than add it to the Platform. 

The primary goal of the VFX Reference Platform is to address versionitis. Products are only included in the Platform if we believe that the compatibility benefits of having a common annual target for the product outweigh the downsides of preventing studios and vendors from using whatever version they choose. 

In the case of USD, we recognize there are version compatibility challenges but believe the downsides of slowing adoption & advancement are greater than the benefits of improving compatibility.

We would very much appreciate feedback from the community about this, specifically in two areas:

1. If you think the benefits of USD's inclusion in the Platform outweigh the downsides then we'd love to hear why.
2. USD compatibility is not just about binary compatibility of software releases, but also other factors including schema. If you are experiencing compatibility challenges with USD we are keen to hear about it.

The USD team continues to be a great partner to the VFX Reference Platform Working Group and we'll collate and share your feedback to inform the work of both teams.

As always, to provide feedback please either reply to this thread or respond privately to the Working Group by emailing feedback at vfxplatform.com.

Thank you,

Nick