RenderStream - Omniverse RTX Renderer Integration

RenderStream RTX enables real-time rendering of USD scenes in NVIDIA Omniverse, streamed to Disguise media servers via the RenderStream protocol.

NVIDIA Omniverse RTX™ Renderer is a scalable photo-real renderer offering physically accurate rendering with real-time performance. It offers high-quality ray-tracing capabilities for film, TV, commercials, and live visuals applications.

Scenes can be built in NVIDIA’s Omniverse Composer and Kit App for use within Designer and streamed via LED.

This guide covers installation, scene setup, exposed parameters, and integration with Designer.

Demo video

Watch online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_dgIYRIiSE

Requirements

Hardware

Component	Minimum	Recommended
GPU	NVIDIA RTX series	RTX 4000+ series
VRAM	8 GB	16+ GB
RAM	32 GB	64 GB

Software

Software	Version
Windows	10/11 (64-bit)
NVIDIA Driver	537.70 or newer
Disguise Designer	With RenderStream support (system requirements)

For Disguise hardware, see product compatibility and hardware OS images.

Download the installer

To request the download, please contact the Product team at product-team@disguise.one.

Project setup

1. Install the RenderStream-RTX plugin

Extract the RenderStream-RTX.zip package into a folder under the RenderStream Projects folder on the Disguise server:

RenderStream Projects\
└── RenderStream-RTX\
    ├── open_usd.exe
    ├── edit_usd.exe
    ├── rs_open_usd.json
    ├── kit\
    ├── apps\
    ├── exts\
    └── scripts\

Once extracted, open_usd will appear as an available asset in Designer.

2. Configure the file association

Set edit_usd.exe as the default application for .usd, .usda, and .usdc files. This allows you to double-click any USD file to open it in the editor for scene setup.

Supported USD formats

Extension	Description
.usd	Binary or ASCII USD
.usda	ASCII USD (human-readable)
.usdc	Binary USD (crate format)
.usdz	Zipped USD archive

3. Launch the scene

Launch edit_usd.exe.

Note

The first time you launch edit_usd.exe, Windows Defender Firewall prompts for network access. Allow it on both Private and Public networks so Designer can communicate with the renderer.

4. Set up the scene for RenderStream

Arrange the scene content in the USD.

5. Arranging the camera

The plugin uses a camera at /World/RS_Cam as the streaming viewpoint. If your scene already contains a prim at that exact path (a camera named RS_Cam under /World), the plugin adopts its saved transform as the starting view. If no such prim exists, the plugin creates one at the scene origin, which may not frame your content.

To control the default framing, in edit_usd.exe position the viewport to frame your scene’s content, then use Create from View to add a new camera. The new camera is created with a default name, so rename it to RS_Cam in the Property panel — this places it at /World/RS_Cam where the plugin expects to find it. Save the scene.

Camera tracking data from Designer (position, rotation, focal length, focus distance, aperture) is applied each frame relative to this saved USD transform.

The Koenigsegg Ragnarok scene in edit_usd.exe after creating an RS_Cam camera positioned to frame the car.

6. Expose any controllable parameters

In the Kit editor (edit_usd.exe)

1. Open your scene with edit_usd.exe.
2. Select a prim in the Stage panel (e.g. a mesh, light, or xform).
3. In the Property panel, expand the RenderStream Exposed Parameters section.
4. Check the box next to any attribute you want to control from Designer.
5. Save the scene.

Checked attributes appear as controllable values in Designer’s RenderStream Layer properties once the scene is running.

7. Register the scene

Saving a scene in edit_usd.exe adds it to rs_open_usd.json, the registry Designer reads to populate its Scene dropdown.

1. Open a USD file with edit_usd.exe. This launches the Omniverse editor UI for scene preview and setup. No RenderStream connection is required.
2. Save the scene. The scene is automatically registered in rs_open_usd.json and will appear in Designer’s scene dropdown.

Tip

Omniverse offers four save options. Collect As is the safest choice when packaging a scene for delivery to a Disguise media server, as it gathers all referenced files into a single portable folder.

Option	What it does	Best for
Save	Writes changes to the current file; references unchanged	Editing in place
Save As	Writes to a new path; references unchanged (may break if dependencies are relative)	Renaming or branching within the same folder
Save Flattened	Resolves all references into one self-contained USD; no external dependencies	Locked-down distribution; upstream files can no longer be edited live
Collect As	Copies the scene plus all referenced files into a new folder with rewritten relative paths	Production delivery — portable and still layered

Tip

For VRAM-constrained machines, prefer Assembly-level USD files over top-level World files where the source pack provides them — they reference a subset of the scene and load with a much smaller GPU memory footprint. Combined with Save Flattened, this is a useful pattern when validating a workflow on hardware below the recommended GPU tier.

Note: Scene files can live anywhere on disk — rs_open_usd.json records each scene’s absolute path. You can edit the registry directly to add or remove scenes; it lives next to open_usd.exe.

Scene registry format

{
    "majorVersion": 2,
    "minorVersion": 0,
    "engineName": "RenderStreamRtx",
    "engineVersion": "107.3.0",
    "pluginVersion": "0.2.0",
    "channels": ["RS_Cam"],
    "schema": [
        {
            "name": "MyScene",
            "path": "C:\\Scenes\\my_scene.usd",
            "parameters": []
        }
    ]
}

8. Designer project setup

Note

Mesh mapping requires the D3D11 GPU texture path. If GPU interop initialisation fails, the plugin falls back to CPU memory transfer. Perspective and Spatial continue to work, but Mesh does not.

1. Create a new RenderStream Layer in Designer.
2. Select open_usd as the asset.
3. Configure a mapping type. All mapping types are supported.
4. Select a registered scene from the scene dropdown. Do not leave as Default.
5. Adjust the exposed parameters as needed.
6. Press Start to start the Workload.

To use the viewport preview mode, add --gui as a custom argument in the Engine Settings of the RenderStream Layer.

9. Select the Renderer mode

A built-in RenderMode dropdown is automatically exposed to Designer with four selectable modes. RTX Realtime is recommended for interactive ICVFX use cases.

Mode	Description
RTX Realtime (default)	Omniverse RTX Renderer’s RTX Real-Time 2.0 mode
RTX Path Tracing	Omniverse RTX Renderer’s RTX Interactive (Path Tracing) mode
RTX Iray	RTX Accurate (Iray) mode
Pixar Storm	Pixar Storm mode

Note

For more information on the RTX Render modes, see NVIDIA RTX Renderer documentation

Launch modes

RenderStream RTX supports three launch modes:

Command	Mode	Description
open_usd.exe scene.usd	Headless	Window hidden, for production use with Designer
open_usd.exe scene.usd --gui	Viewport	Borderless fullscreen viewport for preview
edit_usd.exe scene.usd	Editor	Full Omniverse UI for scene setup, no RenderStream

With the setup complete, you can now verify your connection by testing against the sample scenes and asset packs below.

Assembly versions

Assembly versions in NVIDIA Omniverse organise complex 3D scenes by aggregating smaller, individual components (sub-assets) into a cohesive, structured USD (Universal Scene Description) stage.

For example, the Restaurant Pack has a variety of scenes and camera views. Each scene is also available as assembly versions which are smaller, with a single scene component only.

The assembly_Restaurant.usd scene in edit_usd.exe. Omniverse Hub update notifications appear in green on the top right of the screen. By clicking on it, you can download the update.

The assembly_Restaurant.usd scene streaming live in Designer.

Sample packs

Sample assets can be downloaded from: https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/usd/latest/usd_content_samples/downloadable_packs.html

From the Residential Lobby Pack.

From the Sample Scenes Asset Pack.

From the Sample Industrial Asset Pack.

Car asset from the Sample Scenes Asset Pack.

Custom Car Scene.

Changelog

Version 0.2.0

• Mesh mapping and Tiles as split strategy is supported
• Asset Discovery has been updated to only show entry files after scene registration
• Headless mode (default) and Viewport mode (--gui) replaced the previous editing UI
• Restructured render loop to partially resolve graphics stutter when moving camera

Version 0.1.12

• Resolved framerate fraction timeout issue

Version 0.1.1

• Kit app now gracefully exits when RenderStream sends quit signal • Gizmos visibility preference now persists across sessions

Version 0.1

• First beta release of RenderStream-RTX