That is a good if heavy article on the file format.
USD has been about for a while. It was made Open Source in 2016. I have seen Blender has been working on facilitating it.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/files/import_export/usd.html#
I am sure USD is good and useful in many areas but that Blender info page shows it has limitations, perhaps understandably. I doubt it will replace .blend files, just enable export import to USD.
I think .usd is already supported by Blender. And have been for quite a while if I’m not mistaken.
I heard a lot of people getting really hyped by .usd. But somehow it didn’t gather enough traction yet, despite all the effort.
I think it’s intend to only be used for data exchange between aps. But despite there being technically better formats for 3d models exchange (IIRC even gltf is better than fbx from technical point of view) I somehow always export in .fbx 
I thought that .fbx was more a - de facto - standard. But maybe, because lot’s of people are using it.
Does this USD solve problems people have with exporting to Unity, Unreal?
This link is a better introduction:
today announced the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) to promote the standardization, development, evolution, and growth of Pixar’s Universal Scene Description technology.
Ah today they announced this alliance to keep working on it.
Yes, de facto standard. Those are hardest to root out, as they did become de facto standards for a reason…
I’m not sure really. I’m actually not sure what more (at least for static meshes) one would need aside from what fbx already does. Maybe shader compatibility? Edit: and maybe better handling of different coordinate systems and units between different apps, though Blender+fbx can handle it well (but you have to know/think about it → a solution that ‘just works’, without you even realizing the differences might be good, but idk if USD does that).
Both Unity and Unreal have usd support. Unity as an experimental package that you have to install, Unreal (I think) has it built in by default. I just went through submission process with Unity though, and for static meshes you have to use: .fbx, .dae, .abc, or .obj file types. So at least on the level of asset store packages - USD seems not to be supported even.
Could be, that is based on physics. Animation is the same.
As I reed the docs it is also about project workflow and process.
Which is more complex than only using Blender.
Interesting stuff.
Blender is also busy with the new international GPU standards, forgot the name.
No more CUDA, Open API, …
I’ve downloaded a kitchen USD demo from …? I forgot.
Loaded into Blender. The scaling was wrong. A single floor tile was 33 meters in size.
It has a truckload of usable assets too!
ah, browser history is your friend:
Ah, I was hoping that stuff like that would be handled correctly by a format that strives to replace them all. Wonder if this is format limitation though or just Blender’s implementation of the format issue…
It does look nice!