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Omniverse Realtime Viewer

OpenAIOfficialCreated by NVIDIA OmniverseDistributed by OpenAI

  • Skill
  • Meta (authoring, orchestration, planning, memory)
  • 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 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://mp-staging.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/camera-picker/README.md

Camera Picker

Purpose

Stages with multiple authored cameras (e.g., a warehouse with top-down, perspective, dock-level, and aisle views) should expose those cameras to the user via a simple dropdown. This skill implements the full round-trip: server enumerates cameras → frontend renders dropdown → user selects → server switches active camera → stream updates.

Triggers

Use when:

  • The stage contains two or more UsdGeom.Camera prims.

  • A user asks for a camera selector, camera picker, view switcher, or viewport dropdown.

  • Building a viewer that must support multiple viewpoints.

  • The camera-auto-select skill detected multiple cameras and the app should let users explore them.

Message Protocol

Server → Client: camera_list

Sent once after stage load (or stage switch) alongside or after push_initial_state:

{
  "event_type": "camera_list",
  "payload": {
    "cameras": [
      {
        "path": "/World/Cameras/Cam_Persp",
        "name": "Cam_Persp",
        "focalLength": 35.0
      },
      {
        "path": "/World/Cameras/Cam_TopDown",
        "name": "Cam_TopDown",
        "focalLength": 50.0
      },
      {
        "path": "/World/Cameras/Cam_DockLevel",
        "name": "Cam_DockLevel",
        "focalLength": 35.0
      },
      {
        "path": "/World/Cameras/Cam_Aisle",
        "name": "Cam_Aisle",
        "focalLength": 28.0
      }
    ],
    "activeCamera": "/World/Cameras/Cam_Persp"
  }
}
Client → Server: set_camera

User selects a different camera:

{
  "event_type": "set_camera",
  "payload": {
    "path": "/World/Cameras/Cam_TopDown"
  }
}
Server → Client: camera_changed

Confirms the switch (allows UI to sync if multiple clients are connected):

{
  "event_type": "camera_changed",
  "payload": {
    "activeCamera": "/World/Cameras/Cam_TopDown"
  }
}

Server Implementation

Enumerating Cameras
from pxr import Usd, UsdGeom


def get_camera_list(stage: Usd.Stage) -> list[dict]:
    """Return all authored cameras suitable for the picker."""
    cameras = []
    for prim in stage.Traverse():
        if prim.IsA(UsdGeom.Camera):
            cam = UsdGeom.Camera(prim)
            cameras.append({
                "path": str(prim.GetPath()),
                "name": prim.GetName(),
                "focalLength": cam.GetFocalLengthAttr().Get() or 50.0,
            })
    return cameras
Handling set_camera

When the server receives set_camera:

def handle_set_camera(self, payload: dict) -> None:
    camera_path = payload.get("path", "")
    prim = self.stage.GetPrimAtPath(camera_path)
    if not prim or not prim.IsA(UsdGeom.Camera):
        self.send_error(f"Invalid camera path: {camera_path}")
        return

    cam = UsdGeom.Camera(prim)
    xformable = UsdGeom.Xformable(prim)
    xform = xformable.ComputeLocalToWorldTransform(Usd.TimeCode.Default())

    # Option A: Copy authored camera transform to the session camera
    # This preserves orbit controls centered on where the camera looks.
    self._apply_camera_xform(xform, cam)

    # Option B: Switch the render product to point at the authored prim
    # self.renderer.set_active_camera(camera_path)

    self.active_camera = camera_path
    self.broadcast({
        "event_type": "camera_changed",
        "payload": {"activeCamera": camera_path},
    })


def _apply_camera_xform(self, xform, cam_schema) -> None:
    """Apply an authored camera's transform and lens to the session camera."""
    import numpy as np
    from pxr import Gf

    # Extract position and orientation
    eye = xform.ExtractTranslation()
    forward = xform.TransformDir(Gf.Vec3d(0, 0, -1)).GetNormalized()

    # Compute orbit parameters from the authored camera
    focal_length = cam_schema.GetFocalLengthAttr().Get() or 50.0

    # Set orbit camera to look from this position in the authored direction
    # Use a reasonable target distance based on focal length
    target_distance = focal_length * 0.5  # heuristic: longer lens = farther target
    target = eye + forward * target_distance

    self.orbit_camera.target = np.array([target[0], target[1], target[2]])
    self.orbit_camera.distance = target_distance
    # Recompute azimuth/elevation from the authored transform
    self.orbit_camera.set_from_eye_and_target(
        eye=np.array([eye[0], eye[1], eye[2]]),
        target=np.array([target[0], target[1], target[2]]),
    )

    # Update focal length on the render camera
    self.orbit_camera.focal_length = focal_length
Sending Camera List on Stage Load

In the stage load handler, after push_initial_state:

def on_stage_loaded(self, stage: Usd.Stage) -> None:
    # ... existing push_initial_state logic ...

    cameras = get_camera_list(stage)
    if cameras:
        from camera_auto_select import find_best_camera
        active = find_best_camera(stage) or cameras[0]["path"]
        self.active_camera = active
        self.broadcast({
            "event_type": "camera_list",
            "payload": {
                "cameras": cameras,
                "activeCamera": active,
            },
        })

Frontend Implementation (React)

CameraPicker Component
import React from "react";

interface CameraInfo {
  path: string;
  name: string;
  focalLength: number;
}

interface CameraPickerProps {
  cameras: CameraInfo[];
  activeCamera: string;
  onSelect: (path: string) => void;
}

export function CameraPicker({ cameras, activeCamera, onSelect }: CameraPickerProps) {
  if (cameras.length < 2) return null; // No picker needed for 0-1 cameras

  return (
    <div className="camera-picker">
      <label htmlFor="camera-select">Camera</label>
      <select
        id="camera-select"
        value={activeCamera}
        onChange={(e) => onSelect(e.target.value)}
      >
        {cameras.map((cam) => (
          <option key={cam.path} value={cam.path}>
            {formatCameraName(cam.name)} ({cam.focalLength}mm)
          </option>
        ))}
      </select>
    </div>
  );
}

function formatCameraName(name: string): string {
  // "Cam_TopDown" -> "Top Down", "Cam_Persp" -> "Persp"
  return name
    .replace(/^Cam_?/i, "")
    .replace(/([a-z])([A-Z])/g, "$1 $2")
    .replace(/_/g, " ")
    .trim() || name;
}
Wiring Into the App
function ViewerApp() {
  const [cameras, setCameras] = useState<CameraInfo[]>([]);
  const [activeCamera, setActiveCamera] = useState("");

  useEffect(() => {
    // Listen for camera_list from server
    stream.on("camera_list", (payload) => {
      setCameras(payload.cameras);
      setActiveCamera(payload.activeCamera);
    });

    stream.on("camera_changed", (payload) => {
      setActiveCamera(payload.activeCamera);
    });
  }, []);

  const handleCameraSelect = (path: string) => {
    stream.send({ event_type: "set_camera", payload: { path } });
  };

  return (
    <div className="viewer">
      <header className="toolbar">
        <CameraPicker
          cameras={cameras}
          activeCamera={activeCamera}
          onSelect={handleCameraSelect}
        />
      </header>
      <VideoViewport />
    </div>
  );
}
Styling

Place the picker in the toolbar/header bar alongside other controls (render settings, scene tree toggle, etc.). Keep it compact:

.camera-picker {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  gap: 8px;
}

.camera-picker select {
  padding: 4px 8px;
  border-radius: 4px;
  background: var(--surface-2);
  color: var(--text-primary);
  border: 1px solid var(--border);
  font-size: 13px;
}

.camera-picker label {
  font-size: 12px;
  color: var(--text-secondary);
  text-transform: uppercase;
  letter-spacing: 0.5px;
}

Behavior Rules

  1. Hide the picker when ≤1 camera exists. If the stage has zero or one camera, the dropdown adds no value. The camera-auto-select skill handles the default; no UI needed.

  2. Show the picker when ≥2 cameras exist. Even if auto-select picked a good default, the user should be able to explore other views.

  3. Include an "Orbit (free)" entry when the viewer supports free orbit mode. Selecting it returns to the user-controlled orbit camera without snapping to any authored camera:

    <option value="__orbit__">Free Orbit</option>

  4. Preserve orbit state on switch. When the user selects an authored camera, apply its transform to the orbit controller. The user can then orbit from that starting point. Switching cameras does not lock the viewport.

  5. Re-emit camera_list on stage switch. If the user loads a different stage, the old camera list is stale. Treat it like a fresh load.

  6. SHM/Electron path. Same message protocol over the SHM JSON channel. The Electron renderer handles camera_list and camera_changed identically to WebRTC.

Keyboard Shortcuts (Optional)

For power users, bind number keys to cameras:

KeyAction
1 – 9Switch to camera at that index in the list
0Free orbit mode

Only activate when the viewport has focus (not when typing in a text field).

Gotchas

  • Authored cameras may have different aspect ratios or clipping planes. When switching, update the render product resolution or adjust vertical aperture to match the stream aspect (see camera-controls skill).

  • Some stages nest cameras inside referenced assets (props). Filter to cameras that are direct children of a Cameras Xform or at the scene root to avoid showing internal asset cameras.

  • The orbit controller's set_from_eye_and_target must handle both Y-up and Z-up stages. Check UsdGeom.GetStageUpAxis().

See Also

  • camera-auto-select — picks the initial camera; picker shows the alternatives.

  • camera-controls — orbit, pan, zoom after a camera is chosen.

  • streaming-messages — message protocol patterns.

  • stage-loading — stage open lifecycle.

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)
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Download ZIP

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