NVIDIA / NVIDIA/simready-foundation

Feature Request: Newton/MuJoCo and VBD Physics Backend Support

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Dominant language
Python
Stars
88
Forks
18
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Summary

Add Newton/MuJoCo and VBD as first-class validated physics backends in simready-foundation.

Motivation

Newton is the designated next-generation physics backend in Isaac Sim and Isaac Lab, and it integrates MuJoCo Warp as its primary solver and supports VBD for deformables.
Developers transitioning from PhysX to Newton solvers are seeing issues since the assets validated against PhysX profiles can behave incorrectly when loaded into a Newton solver runtime.

For instance, there seem to be two structural properties of Newton/MuJoCo that are incompatible with the existing rules:

  • Actuator schema — Newton joints require mjc:gain / mjc:bias attributes (the MuJoCo force equation). The UsdPhysics.DriveAPI stiffness/damping attributes that PhysX consumes are silently ignored by Newton.
  • Articulation structure — MuJoCo expects a nested kinematic tree (child rigid bodies parented under parent rigid bodies). The flat articulation structure that PhysX uses is not valid for reduced-coordinate MuJoCo solvers.

Without backend-specific profiles in this repo, there is no automated way to validate that an asset is actually ready for Newton simulation before it enters a pipeline.

Requested Work

  • New MJC requirement rules covering the two structural differences above (actuator schema, articulation nesting), plus any MuJoCo-specific collider schema rules.
  • New feature variants — that swap in the MJC rules in place of their PhysX.
  • New profiles — that wire in the MJC feature variants. VBD is a solver selection within Newton (not a separate schema dialect).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No files or tests are named in the issue. Start by locating the existing PhysX requirement rules, feature variants, and profiles, then compare how they are wired together. Done means Newton/MuJoCo actuator and articulation requirements, relevant collider rules, and profiles using the new variants are validated; VBD remains a Newton solver selection.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
backend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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