USDZ: Apple’s New File Format for Augmented Reality Explained

With iOS 12, a new file format will create unity for augmented reality developers and, ultimately, help end users enjoy their efforts.

By John Burek

In a dense WWDC keynote, Apple’s Craig Federighi highlighted a nuts-and-bolts development tool designed to make augmented reality (AR) a focal point from a content creator’s point of view: a common, open file format to unify the field.

In the same way that TXT files define word processing or JPGs define image files across a host of creative and distribution platforms, arching over the field (as opposed to, say, somewhat narrower DOCs or PSDs), the new USDZ file format aims to serve a similar function for AR — at least, across the Apple ecosystem.

USDZ stands for “Universal Scene Description.” The idea of a cross-application unification scheme for AR creation is a concept ripe for the times, as AR content is in need a single rallying point for both consumption on the consumer end and for creatives’ distribution and development efforts.

To that end, Apple worked with Pixar to create the format and with a host of key third parties, among them Adobe and Autodesk, on adoption. The idea: All of the assets for an AR scenario or environment are rendered in a single ZIP-style archive, as opposed to a folder structure or as a group of loose, nested sub-elements.

Though an archive, USDZ does not employ encryption or compression, retaining the quality of the original elements. The file format needs to be unpacked for editing tools to be able to access the contents. Indeed, Federighi said USDZ is akin to an “AR Quick Look,” in reference to the preview function in macOS.

Apple noted that USDZ content, upon the release of iOS 12, will be viewable in a range of Apple app environments, including Mail, Messages, and Safari, as well as in file browsers. The keynote demo showed a piece of USDZ-format content being placed in the News app, with a presenter manipulating and rotating the content manually within the app.

Of course, a huge player in the creator space for this kind of content is Adobe, and at the keynote, Adobe EVP and CTO Abhay Parasnis was on hand to buck up support for the USDZ format. He announced that USDZ will be supported natively across the whole Adobe Creative Cloud suite of applications. Also, he mentioned that Adobe will augment Creative Cloud with a new iOS app for designing AR experiences, letting creators bring in objects from around the rest of the CC suite to bear on AR projects. This would include the first instance of WYSIWYG AR editing.

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Originally published at www.pcmag.com.