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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://mp-staging.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/cae-cfd-visualization/glyphs.md

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

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

Glyphs (Vector Arrows via UsdGeomPointInstancer)

Triggers

Use this reference to render a vector field as oriented glyphs representation (CaeVizGlyphsAPI). Trigger terms: glyphs, vector arrows, arrow glyphs, velocity arrows, UsdGeomPointInstancer, point instancer, orient by velocity, scale by field, cone/arrow prototype, quiver, hedgehog plot, show the flow direction, glyph the velocity field.

Scope: sampling a vector field at points and authoring one oriented, field-scaled, field-colored prototype per sample. Getting the field arrays is in data-and-operators.md; lighting/colormap material is in usd-authoring-and-materials.md; up-axis rotation is in coordinate-systems-and-up-axis.md. This is pure USD geometry — no new renderer path, no warp operator required (you already have the vectors).

For a portable smoke test, generate a small regular point grid with a known vector field (for example, circular flow around the origin). Assert that the authored arrays have matching instance counts and capture a rendered frame from the app's normal render path.

The shape of it

A UsdGeomPointInstancer places one prototype (an arrow — the simplest renderable is a UsdGeomCone with axis = "Z") at each sample point. Per instance you author:

  • point3f[] positions — the sample points (display up-axis).

  • int[] protoIndices — which prototype (all 0 for a single arrow prototype).

  • quath[] orientations — a half-precision quaternion (w, x, y, z) rotating the prototype's local axis (+Z for a Z-axis cone) onto the unit velocity direction.

  • float3[] scales — per-instance (girth, girth, length); grow length with |V|.

  • color3f[] primvars:displayColor (interpolation = "vertex") — one color per instance from the colormap of |V| (see caveat below).

  • rel prototypes = [ <path/to/Arrow> ] — the prototype prim(s), conventionally under a child Scope "proto" so they are not themselves drawn.

Building the per-instance arrays (numpy)

Sample the field (subsample for a legible glyph count — a few thousand), then compute the orientation quaternion from +Z to each velocity direction. This is a rotation about the axis z × v̂ by the angle acos(z · v̂), with a fallback axis for the (anti)parallel case.

import numpy as np

pos  = coords[sel]                       # (N,3) display up-axis (rotate Z-up→Y-up first)
vel  = V[sel]                            # (N,3) same rotation applied
mag  = np.linalg.norm(vel, axis=1)
vhat = vel / np.where(mag > 1e-12, mag, 1.0)[:, None]

z    = np.array([0.0, 0.0, 1.0])         # cone axis = "Z"
dot  = np.clip(vhat @ z, -1.0, 1.0)
axis = np.cross(np.broadcast_to(z, vhat.shape), vhat)
alen = np.linalg.norm(axis, axis=1)
axis = np.where(alen[:, None] > 1e-8,
                axis / np.where(alen[:, None] > 1e-8, alen[:, None], 1.0),
                np.array([1.0, 0.0, 0.0]))          # fallback for parallel/antiparallel
half = np.arccos(dot) * 0.5
quat = np.column_stack([np.cos(half), axis * np.sin(half)[:, None]])   # (N,4) w,x,y,z

diag   = float(np.linalg.norm(pos.max(0) - pos.min(0)))
girth  = diag * 0.006
length = girth * 2.0 + (mag / mag.max()) * (diag * 0.05)
scales = np.column_stack([np.full_like(length, girth),
                          np.full_like(length, girth), length])

Two things that bite:

  • orientations is quath (half float), component order (w, x, y, z) — real part first. Getting the order wrong points every arrow the wrong way.

  • Rotate the vectors, not just the points, into the display up-axis. If the solver data is Z-up and the scene is Y-up, apply the same (x, y, z) → (x, z, -y) to V that you apply to coords, or the arrows point in physically wrong directions (coordinate-systems-and-up-axis.md).

The USD (authored as a string, published through OVStage)

def PointInstancer "Glyphs"
{
    point3f[] positions = [ (x0,y0,z0), ... ]
    int[] protoIndices = [ 0, 0, ... ]
    quath[] orientations = [ (w,x,y,z), ... ]
    float3[] scales = [ (g,g,l), ... ]
    color3f[] primvars:displayColor = [ (r,g,b), ... ] (interpolation = "vertex")
    rel prototypes = [ </Session/Glyphs/proto/Arrow> ]
    def Scope "proto"
    {
        def Cone "Arrow" (prepend apiSchemas = ["MaterialBindingAPI"])
        {
            double height = 1.0
            double radius = 0.5
            uniform token axis = "Z"
            rel material:binding = </Session/Looks/GlyphMat>
        }
    }
}

Bind a UsdPreviewSurface whose diffuseColor reads the displayColor primvar (the same material pattern the surfaces use — see usd-authoring-and-materials.md). The path tracer renders unlit geometry black, so author a dome + distant light as usual. Note the primvar metadata (interpolation = "vertex") goes after the value, or the inline USDA fails to parse.

Per-instance color caveat (verified, still rough)

primvars:displayColor (interpolation = "vertex") sized to the instance count is delivered per instance and colors most glyphs correctly. In the reference render a subset of instances render magenta — ovrtx's missing-material fallback (magenta is not a viridis color) — accompanied by a benign Ill-formed SdfPath <> warning. Treat per-instance color as working but not yet hardened. If you hit the magenta fallback, options in order of preference:

  1. Bind the colormap material at the PointInstancer level as well as on the prototype.

  2. Fall back to a single constant color (interpolation = "constant", one RGB) and encode magnitude through scales length only — always robust.

  3. Split into a few PointInstancers, one per colormap band, each with a constant color.

Magnitude is always legible through arrow length regardless of the color path, so a constant-color instancer is a safe default when fidelity of per-instance color matters less than never showing a fallback.

Interactive updates

Glyph arrays are ordinary attributes on a persistent prim, so a moving cutting plane or a changed field updates them the same way streamlines do: prefer data-plane array writes (positions/orientations/scales/displayColor) over a structural rebuild — see driving-cae-viz-via-ovstage.md. As with curve widths, if the instance count changes, re-publish the arrays together at one ordinal; per-vertex metadata that goes stale against a new count is rejected by RTX.

See also

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

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