Digital experiences require more and more 3D virtual worlds, where users can immerse themselves and interact together in applications of the metaverse. Faced with a growing need for 3D content, the barrier of technological standards immediately emerges, where each vendor tends to impose its own solution, making interoperability problematic both in terms of content and developers. Of course, software professionals cannot know all languages and file formats out there.
After examining the main trends that characterize software engineering, we meet again Paolo Emilio Selva, Principal Engineer of Weta Fx, and dean of the VFX (visual effects) industry, after having also gained experience in the field of HMI (human- machine interface) and in the generation of urban systems.
On more than one occasion you have shown yourself to be an advocate of open standards in the VFX industry, where does this stance come from?
Selva: Having products from different vendors in production pipelines makes interoperability complex at the core. This is an eternal problem, which anyone who has worked on a project at least once has certainly had the opportunity to know. This happens for various reasons but the main cause is due to the difficulty of defining and using an open standard.
If a production foresees the creation of a scene in Maya, a subsequent integration in Houdini and a new modification in Maya, there is no linear transparency, as the closed standards of the two software involve continuous phases of importing and exporting the related files to 3D scenes.
By creating specific tools, in production we can at least partially remedy the problem, but in fact it remains a useless complication, for a series of procedures that should already be made much simpler at the base, by adopting common standards.
Every day the VFX industry, and likewise that of video games and the entire enterprise environment, produces a great deal of material that could contribute to the definition of an open standard, managed and coordinated by a responsible subject, as has always been the case with projects open source.
Very often, however, some open projects, even interesting ones, are not known to exist and developers end up re-creating what, in addition to having already been done in the past, would also have been publicly available for download and use. The community in this sense is not very united, there are various groups that tend not to always talk to each other.
What are the main initiatives currently useful for promoting and defining open standards in the various application fields of the 3D computer graphics industry?
Selva: I would tend to mention two. I don’t mean to say that they are more important than others, but I know them from having been directly involved. The first is an Autodesk initiative, based on two events: film advisory board and videogame advisory board, where representatives of the most important companies meet to discuss and share various ideas and contents, in the context of some round tables. These are very exciting events, which however remain tied to the technologies of a single vendor. Whether it’s Autodesk, Foundry, Clarisse or others, what emerges from the expert meeting remains aimed at solving the problem of the vendor, not of the entire industry, which is what is most needed right now.
An initiative that instead aims to directly promote the creation and adoption of open standards for the creation of 3D content is promoted by the Academy Software Foundation, also known as ASWF, organized by the same academy that awards the Oscars for cinema every year .
ASWF is a consortium initiative, so there is no reference vendor. All big companies that choose to join ASWF contribute to the creation of open standards. In recent years, the OpenColorIO, OpenCue, OpenEXR, OpenVDB formats have already been defined, and are now commonly used in computer graphics applications.
This discourse starts from the entertainment industry, with the activity of the VFX and gaming companies, but by now it also fully concerns the enterprise sphere, as demonstrated by the growing diffusion of the digital twin in the context of digital manufacturing. Not to mention the standards of the 3D web.
How would you define an open standard?
Selva: The possibility of speaking the same language in a technological context. In many cases the companies themselves have an interest in defining an open standard, which it makes no sense to maintain entirely. It is advisable to distribute it so that everyone can contribute to its development and take advantage of the work of the community. The initial creation of an open standard has costs which, following this logic, can easily be amortized over time, thanks to the continuous return of contents and activities by students and professionals all over the world.
Many open source projects have governance issues, as evidenced by vulnerabilities in the software that are overlooked due to poor oversight. How can this problem be overcome in the case of open standards for the 3d industry?
Selva: The forums and consortia that deal with open software standards have a guardian of the code, who assimilates the contents of the community and organizes them in the official versions of the open software, to which everyone can freely access.
There must always be a responsible party, who evaluates the changes and integrates them into the official code. Organizations like ASWF also deal with this aspect. Each foundation has its own structure, where generally there are a few people employed full-time on the project, who are regularly paid for their work, plus many volunteers.
We talk often, actually less lately, about the metaverse. What do you think about it and what do you think will be the open standards that will allow you to create your interactive applications?
Selva: Today everyone has their own opinion on the metaverse, just as there are many definitions of it. I believe they are all correct because at the moment it doesn’t seem at all clear to me what should be done in the metaverse. Is it something in 3D on the web? Is it wearing a Prada dress in Call of Duty? According to this logic, everything can be metaverse. I would rather say that we are looking at the metaverse in an exploratory phase, waiting to define its real applications.
USD could become the go-to language for 3D content in the metaverse. It goes in that direction and the Khronos consortium, which includes the main companies of the 3D industry, has set up a dedicated project: the Metaverse Standards Forum.
Without adopting common rules and standard languages for all content creators, I believe that more than a metaverse we risk producing another Second Life, which is something totally different, as well as devoid of innovation. It’s time to experiment, there really is nothing defined today. We need to start adopting benchmarks, otherwise we’ll end up producing just a bunch of interactive applications with nothing new.
An example of a true metaverse is, in my opinion, the digital twin, of which we are beginning to see various applications in the industrial field, with systems that are already born following that specific type of logic. These are innovative systems that capitalize on a technological heritage that is the result of many years of implementation, even if at the moment the presence of a single vendor seems to prevail. Such applications will in any case be the future, at least in the case of big industry.
For the rest we are witnessing a considerable hype, which looks more like a novelty on which many throw themselves with an exclusively speculative intent, without solid foundations. Such experiences will not last long.
What are the main advantages for companies that decide to implement an open standard in their development processes?
Selva: An open standard is something that we can imagine as 80% the same for everyone, with some proprietary technology remaining. This allows, for example, to hire a developer by training him only on that 20% which concerns the specific company.
In this way, the audience of available candidates is broadened, as all those who intend to approach the world of development professionally will tend to be trained on the standards in force already during their course of study, perfecting their knowledge during their first work experiences.
By choosing to adopt open technologies, a company no longer relies only on its developers, but can take advantage of the content and activity of a huge community. This translates into decidedly lower costs and times for projects, with a greater drive towards innovation determined by many factors, including a series of greater skills available.
If we think in terms of innovation, the adoption of open standards can also constitute an access point for companies, an enabling element, to start experimenting with the applications of the metaverse.
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