Why Land of Assets Standardizes on glTF
Why Land of Assets chose glTF over USD as the backbone for their Master Asset approach to ensure long-term interchangeability.
Ben Houston • February 19, 2026 • 3 min read
Contributing to Three.js and the glTF standardization committee, then building 3D tools at Exocortex, ThreeKit, and Frantic Films, I’ve spent most of my career thinking about how 3D data moves. Across VFX pipelines and web-based product visualizers, the core challenge is almost always the same: interchangeability.
Today, at my new endeavor, "Land of Assets," we tackle the massive investment that goes into creating core visualization assets. Whether these 3D models are handcrafted by expert artists, generated by AI, or captured via scanning and photogrammetry, they represent a significant outlay of time and capital. To protect that investment, assets need to be future-proof. They must look excellent today and a decade from now, across any platform.
"Land of Assets" has standardized on glTF as the backbone of our Master Asset approach.
The Master Asset Concept#
A Master Asset is your single source of truth: a high-resolution asset with detailed meshes and high-res textures, something you can zoom in on and admire the craftsmanship.
You only want to pay to create this master asset once. But to guarantee it looks as intended forever, it must be stored in a broadly understood format. That format must prioritize broad compatibility over proprietary features.
glTF: The Distillation of Standards#
glTF is the distillation of standards. It doesn't push any one dimension of 3D technology. It represents the common denominator: what the industry collectively agrees on for shared 3D data.
Procedural geometry in Blender is a useful example. The node graphs handle complex, non-destructive workflows, but that proceduralism is not interchangeable with Unreal Engine, Maya, or a WebGL viewer. You won't find it in glTF. glTF prioritizes what every tool can read, so what you see in one is what you get in another.
A glTF Master Asset from Land of Assets, showing interchangeability in practice. Orbit and zoom:
Why Not USD#
Universal Scene Description (USD) is a fantastic format. In fact, at "Land of Assets," we do support exporting to USD for pipelines that explicitly require it. But we do not use it as our foundational Master Asset format.
Why? Because USD has become the "everything tool." Most Digital Content Creation (DCC) applications (Maya, 3ds Max, Katana, Modo) have written custom extensions to USD to save their proprietary features. You can write out a USD from Maya, load it back into Maya, and retain all of Maya's proprietary data.
However, if you take that Maya-flavored USD and drop it into Katana or Modo, those extensions won't work or will produce an asset that looks different. USD works well inside a specific, closed pipeline where everyone uses the exact same toolset. Its fragmented nature makes it a poor standard for cross-platform interchangeability. Standardize on glTF, not USD.
The Evolution of Standards#
Standards do evolve. As new technologies mature and achieve interoperability across the industry, they become part of the standard.
MaterialX is a node-based material interchange format that looks poised to become the new benchmark. It currently has support in several renderers and in Maya, but it’s still missing in 3ds Max and only partially implemented in Blender. Until it runs everywhere, it isn’t the universal standard. As the industry matures, glTF will adapt to integrate these proven technologies.
Until then, we rely on the current glTF specification. Standardizing on glTF keeps your Master Asset as the definitive version of your product, readable anywhere.
A high-resolution Master Asset is only useful if you can deliver it. Drop a massive file into an e-commerce viewer and you’ll pay for it in load times and bandwidth. The Land of Assets optimization pipeline handles that.
This post is also published on Land of Assets.