Issue with Asset Path Resolution (Absolute vs Relative) After Docker Restart in Isaac Sim

Omniverse Isaac Sim
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1

Isaac Sim Version

5.1.0
5.0.0
4.5.0
4.2.0
4.1.0
4.0.0
4.5.0
2023.1.1
2023.1.0-hotfix.1
Other (please specify):

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04
Ubuntu 22.04
Ubuntu 20.04
Windows 11
Windows 10
Other (please specify):

GPU Information

  • Model: 4070 / 3080
  • Driver Version:

Topic Description

Detailed Description

I’m encountering an issue with asset path handling in Isaac Sim when running inside Docker. My workflow involves working with a large .usda scene that references many assets. Occasionally, the Docker container crashes, and after restarting it, I notice unexpected behavior with asset paths:

  • All asset paths that were originally set as absolute paths are automatically changed to relative paths.

  • When using certain assets that internally reference other assets via relative paths, the secondary assets often fail to load properly.

  • Each attempt to reload the scene results in assets being loaded differently, but still incorrectly.

In general, there seems to be instability with how Isaac Sim resolves relative vs. absolute paths for assets (both directly referenced and indirectly referenced), particularly when running inside Docker.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Restart the Docker container.

  2. Load a large .usda scene where all assets use absolute paths.

  3. Observe asset path changes or failed asset loading (difficult to reproduce consistently).

Error Messages

There is not any logged error message on the console in Isaac Sim

Screenshots or Videos

01
01782×1043 263 KB

Additional Information

What I’ve Tried

We have tried to test it on different machines but was very hard to reproduce it.

Related Issues

N/A

Additional Context

It seems that Isaac Sim (particularly when running in Docker) is very sensitive to how relative paths are handled. I’ve personally had a lot of difficulties with this. For example, we have some locally downloaded assets that we want to reference, but managing those paths becomes confusing, and the simulator often loads unexpected or incorrect assets.

As shown in the attached screenshots, I opened the same .usda scene three times in a row, and each time Isaac Sim loaded different assets.

2

Hi. Can you verify if this issue also happens when running the Workstation version of Isaac Sim?

Usually, there should not be any changes to the asset itself when loading it in Isaac Sim. Please also check if the files have been saved correctly especially when using volume mounts.

3

Hi
Thanks for your fast feedback.
We have tested also on the Workstation of Isaac Sim. Replacing the absolute path with relative path, could not be reproduced. However, the problem about loading wrong asset that internally referred by an asset on the scene, still happening and very easy to reproduce.
When we open an .usda file as scene for the first time, everything is loaded correctly, however, when we open it for second time or more, the internal assets are not loaded correctly:

image
image1920×1080 375 KB

Here is the log:

[20.201s] rclpy loaded
2025-10-13T11:55:52Z [20,568ms] [Warning] [usdrt.population.plugin] using high frequency span is disabled
2025-10-13T11:55:52Z [20,610ms] [Warning] [omni.fabric.plugin] Warning: attribute viewportHandle not found for bucket id b

2025-10-13T11:55:52Z [20,720ms] [Warning] [carb] Acquiring non optional plugin interface which is not listed as dependency: [carb::dictionary::ISerializer v1.1] (plugin: carb.dictionary.serializer-json.plugin), by client: carb.scenerenderer-rtx.plugin. Add it to CARB_PLUGIN_IMPL_DEPS() macro of a client.
[20.809s] app ready
2025-10-13T11:55:55Z [23,523ms] [Warning] [usdrt.hydra.fabric_scene_delegate.plugin] using high frequency span is disabled
2025-10-13T11:55:55Z [23,523ms] [Warning] [usdrt.hydra.fabric_scene_delegate.plugin] using high frequency span is disabled
2025-10-13T11:55:55Z [23,524ms] [Warning] [usdrt.hydra.fabric_scene_delegate.plugin] using high frequency span with attrs is disabled
2025-10-13T11:55:55Z [23,676ms] [Warning] [usdrt.hydra.fabric_scene_delegate.plugin] using high frequency span is disabled
2025-10-13T11:55:55Z [23,677ms] [Warning] [usdrt.hydra.fabric_scene_delegate.plugin] using high frequency span is disabled
[23.952s] Isaac Sim Full App is loaded.
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,144ms] [Warning] [omni.graph.core.plugin] Could not find node type interface for 'isaacsim.asset.gen.conveyor.IsaacConveyor'
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,160ms] [Warning] [usdrt.hydra.fabric_scene_delegate.plugin] using high frequency span with attrs is disabled
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,244ms] [Warning] [usdrt.hydra.fabric_scene_delegate.plugin] using high frequency span with attrs is disabled
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,246ms] [Warning] [omni.fabric.plugin] getAttributeCount called on non-existent path /World/Robots/ur20_04/wrist_1_link/visuals/wrist1
2025-10-13T11:56:21Z [49,246ms] [Warning] [omni.fabric.plugin] getTypes called on non-existent path /World/Robots/ur20_04/wrist_1_link/visuals/wrist1
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,047ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Metal_Painted_White_Glossy_A.mdl(16,7): C109 'physical_name' has not been declared; did you mean 'display_name'?
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,047ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Metal_Painted_White_Glossy_A.mdl(16,7): C188 annotation '::anno::physical_name' will be ignored
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,087ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Metal_Rough_A.mdl(16,7): C109 'physical_name' has not been declared; did you mean 'display_name'?
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,087ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Metal_Rough_A.mdl(16,7): C188 annotation '::anno::physical_name' will be ignored
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,211ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Metal_Painted_White_Rough_A.mdl(16,7): C109 'physical_name' has not been declared; did you mean 'display_name'?
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,211ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Metal_Painted_White_Rough_A.mdl(16,7): C188 annotation '::anno::physical_name' will be ignored
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,253ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/opaque__metal__painted_gray_matte_a.mdl(16,7): C109 'physical_name' has not been declared; did you mean 'display_name'?
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,253ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/opaque__metal__painted_gray_matte_a.mdl(16,7): C188 annotation '::anno::physical_name' will be ignored
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,300ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Steel_A.mdl(16,7): C109 'physical_name' has not been declared; did you mean 'display_name'?
2025-10-13T11:56:24Z [52,300ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Steel_A.mdl(16,7): C188 annotation '::anno::physical_name' will be ignored
2025-10-13T11:56:25Z [52,986ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Metal_Glossy_A.mdl(16,7): C109 'physical_name' has not been declared; did you mean 'display_name'?
2025-10-13T11:56:25Z [52,986ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Metal_Glossy_A.mdl(16,7): C188 annotation '::anno::physical_name' will be ignored
2025-10-13T11:56:25Z [53,112ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Chrome_A.mdl(15,7): C109 'physical_name' has not been declared; did you mean 'display_name'?
2025-10-13T11:56:25Z [53,112ms] [Warning] [rtx.neuraylib.plugin] [MDLC:COMPILER]   1.0   MDLC   comp warn : file:/data/Assets/Isaac/5.0/NVIDIA/Assets/DigitalTwin/Materials/Base/Metals/Chrome_A.mdl(15,7): C188 annotation '::anno::physical_name' will be ignored
2025-10-13T11:56:28Z [55,896ms] [Error] [gpu.foundation.plugin] Failed to read texture file .\textures\color_121212.hdr or file is empty
2025-10-13T11:56:28Z [55,896ms] [Error] [rtx.scenedb.plugin] Failed to upload DomeLight texture .\textures\color_121212.hdr
4

Update:
We’ve noticed that whenever the “Save As” function is used, all assets with absolute paths are automatically converted to relative paths.

This behavior occurs across all versions of Isaac Sim that we’ve tested — both on workstation installations and within Docker containers.

It’s also easy to reproduce; we’ve tested it multiple times and the issue happens consistently in all cases.