Integrate iOS device camera and motion features to produce augmented reality experiences in your app or game using ARKit.

ARKit Documentation

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Current Apple Forum about ARKit and visionOS
Recently, questions about ARKit/visionOS seem to be being asked in the Apple forum by internal Apple engineers. Inexperienced and untested makeshift features are being offered, putting average but experienced developers in a difficult position. They are unable to react and get something useful from the posts. Apple needs to review the situation.
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Sep ’25
How to best manage ARKitSession in concurrent code
I have a visionOS app where I instantiate ARKitSession and various providers (HandTrackingProvider and WorldTrackingProvider) in my appModel. That way, I can pass these providers to a Task which runs a gRPC server for sending the data from these providers to a client. When the users enters the immersive space of the app, the ARKitSession will run the providers if they are not running already. I am now trying to implement the AccessoryTrackingProvider with the PSVR sense controllers but it does not fit with my current framework because the controllers may not be connected when the ARKitSession.run function is called. So I need to find a new place to start the session. My question is, if I already have a session which is running the hand and world tracking providers, can I start another session to run the accessory tracking? Should they all be running on the same session? Is there a way to stop the session and restart it when the controllers are connected? When I tried this, I get an error that says "It is not possible to re-run a stopped data provider (<ar_hand_tracking_provider_t: " but if I instantiate a new HandTrackingProvider, then the one that got passed to the gRPC task would no longer be the one running in the new session. Any advice on how best to manage the various providers and ARKit sessions would be greatly appreciated.
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2w
visionOS 3d interactions like the native keyboard when no longer observed in passthrough
While using apple's vision pro, we noticed that we can continue to use the visionOS keyboard when we no longer actually see it in passthrough. In other words, when we focus on a field to type, visionOS displays the keyboard for us in such a way that we actually see it. Then, we noticed if we look away a little bit, either up, or down, or left, or right, in such a way that the keyboard is no longer visible by us in the passthrough, the keyboard still remains responsive to taps from our fingers at the location where it is. It seems the keyboard remains functional and responsive to taps even though we can no longer observe/see it. We are trying to figure out how to implement similar functionality in our app whereby the user can continue to manipulate a 3d entity when the user can no longer actually observe it in passthrough (like the visionOS keyboard appears to allow). I assume the visionOS keyboard has this functionality thanks to the downward facing sensors on the hardware that allow hand tracking even though the hands can no longer be observed by the user. That is likely how we can rest our hands on our lap is still be able to interact with visionOS. How can we implement a similar functionality for 3D entities? Is there a way to tap in, or to allow hand tracking, from those toward facing cameras? Is it possible to manipulate a 3D entity when it is no longer observed by the user for example when they shift their attention somewhere else in the field of vision? How does the visionOS keyboard achieve this?
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ARKit / visionOS - handtracking with 3D objects attached on hand
I use ARKit's hand tracking to attach a 3D model of a remote control to the left hand. The user is supposed to press buttons on the remote control. In the Vision Pro settings, I have removed the left hand from Hands & Eye Tracking. Only the right hand is used. The problem now is that the left hand appears and the 3D model of the remote control fades out. I want the remote control to be completely visible. The user should feel like they really have the remote control in their hand. Can I prevent the fading out?
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1w
Attaching VideoMaterial to DockingRegion
I have a VideoMaterial inside a RealityView and want to attach this to a DockingRegion inside an immersive environment. It appears that adding the VideoMaterial entity as a child of the docking region somewhat works, but there are no lighting effects (specular, diffuse) from the playing video. So essentially, how can you add a VideoMaterial to a DockingRegion and achieve the same reflections/behavior as using AVPlayerViewController. The latter is not an option as I need custom controls.
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Dec ’24
raycast during RoomCaptureSession
I created an app where the user: first scans a room using RoomCaptureView (RoomPlan) then taps on physical elements (objects, walls...) using an ARView to record some 3d positions I can handle taps in an ARView using a UITapGestureRecognizer and the ARView raycast(from:, allowing:, alignment:) method. This works fine, so I thought I could do the same using the ARView used by RoomCaptureView., so the user can scan a room and record some 3d positions at the same time. Sadly, this approach does not work, as the raycast method always returns nil. What I actually need is mapping a tap on screen to a real-world position during RoomCaptureSession. Does anyone know how to do this?
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605
Nov ’24
Image Anchoring Not Working Outside Reality Composer/Reality Composer Pro
Hi everyone, I’m having trouble with image anchoring when working on a project in Reality Composer and Reality Composer Pro. Here’s the issue: 1. What I’m Trying to Achieve: I want to create an AR scene where an object anchors to an image I provide. I don't want to create an app for this but just use the USDZ File the Scene creates. The USDZ File then should be viewable via the various integrations of AR Quick Look across the Apple Ecosystem. The image anchoring works perfectly when I preview the scene inside Reality Composer using AR mode. 2. The Problem: When I export the project (tried both USDZ and Reality formats) and open it on my iPhone using the Files app (which uses AR Quick Look), the image anchoring no longer works. The object doesn’t anchor to the provided image as expected. It just anchors to the first plane it recognizes and not the image. 3. What I’ve Tried: Exporting the scene in USDZ format. Exporting the scene in Reality format. Both formats result in the same issue: no image anchoring outside of the Reality Composer environment. Trying different images but all resulting in same manor that the image anchoring is not working Tried different iOS Version but resulting in the same issue 4. Current Setup: Reality Composer Pro version: 2.0 iPhone model: iPhone 13 Pro iOS version: 18.1. 5. What I Need Help With: Is there a way to ensure image anchoring works in exported files when opened via AR Quick Look? Do I need to configure something specific during the export process? Are there limitations in AR Quick Look that prevent image anchoring from functioning correctly? Do i need to create an app to make this work? I’d appreciate any advice or insights from the community. If anyone has experience with similar issues or knows of a workaround, please let me know! Thanks in advance, Mav
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676
Dec ’24
Vision - Time travel door
Hello All, We're going to do a scene now, kind of like a time travel door. When the user selects the scene, the user passes through the door to show the current scene. The changes in the middle need to be more natural. It's even better if you can walk through an immersive space... There is very little information now. How can I start doing this? Is there any information I can refer to thanks
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Dec ’24
ARView vs RealityView (iOS, iPadOS)
I have been digging through the docs and the developer videos, and I have noticed a mention to RealityView having som potential limitations with anchors and world tracking. However, I haven’t been able to locate my answers. Does anyone know (or point me to) if RealityView supports everything ARView does, and if not what are the difference? I was fooling around with RealityView today with a simple plane anchor, and the stability of that anchor didn’t seem to be as steady as I recall ARView being In the past on iPhone. I’m trying to determine if I should be rolling over into RealityView or stay with ARView on this little educational project. I would imagine the answer is to go RealityView, but I want to make sure I’m not setting myself up for failure based on any current limitations For anchors and world data.
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Jan ’25
How to get the floor plane with Spatial Tracking Session and Anchor Entity
In the WWDC session titled "Deep dive into volumes and immersive spaces", the developers discussed adding a Spatial Tracking Session and an Anchor Entity to detect the floor. They then glossed over some important details. They added a spatial tap gesture to let the user place content relative to the floor anchor, but they left a lot of information. .gesture( SpatialTapGesture( coordinateSpace: .immersiveSpace ) .targetedToAnyEntity() .onEnded { value in handleTapOnFloor(value: value) } ) My understanding is that an entity has to have input and collision components for gestures like this to work. How can we add a collision to an AnchorEntity when we don't know its size or shape? I've been trying for days to understand what is happening here and I just don't get it. It is even more frustrating that the example project that Apple released does not contain any of these features. I would like to be able Detect the floor plane Get the position/transform of the floor plane Add a collider to the floor plane Enable collisions and physics on the floor plane Enable gestures on the floor plane It seems to me that the Anchor Entity is placed as an entirely arbitrary position. It has absolutely no relationship to the rectangle with the floor label that I can see in the Xcode visualization. It is just a point, not a plane or rect that I can use. I've tried manually calculating the collision shape after the anchor is detected, but nothing that I have tried works. I can't tap on the floor with gestures. I can't drop entities onto the floor. I can't seem to do ANYTHING at all with this floor anchor other than place entity at the totally arbitrary location somewhere on the floor. Is there anyway at all with Spatial Tracking Session and Anchor Entity to get the actual plane that was detected? struct FloorExample: View { @State var trackingSession: SpatialTrackingSession = SpatialTrackingSession() @State var subject: Entity? @State var floor: AnchorEntity? var body: some View { RealityView { content, attachments in let session = SpatialTrackingSession() let configuration = SpatialTrackingSession.Configuration(tracking: [.plane]) _ = await session.run(configuration) self.trackingSession = session let floorAnchor = AnchorEntity(.plane(.horizontal, classification: .floor, minimumBounds: SIMD2(x: 0.1, y: 0.1))) floorAnchor.anchoring.physicsSimulation = .none floorAnchor.name = "FloorAnchorEntity" floorAnchor.components.set(InputTargetComponent()) floorAnchor.components.set(CollisionComponent(shapes: .init())) content.add(floorAnchor) self.floor = floorAnchor // This is just here to let me see where visinoOS decided to "place" the floor anchor. let floorPlaced = ModelEntity( mesh: .generateSphere(radius: 0.1), materials: [SimpleMaterial(color: .black, isMetallic: false)]) floorAnchor.addChild(floorPlaced) if let scene = try? await Entity(named: "AnchorLabsFloor", in: realityKitContentBundle) { content.add(scene) if let subject = scene.findEntity(named: "StepSphereRed") { self.subject = subject } // I can see when the anchor is added _ = content.subscribe(to: SceneEvents.AnchoredStateChanged.self) { event in event.anchor.generateCollisionShapes(recursive: true) // this doesn't seem to work print("**anchor changed** \(event)") print("**anchor** \(event.anchor)") } // place the reset button near the user if let panel = attachments.entity(for: "Panel") { panel.position = [0, 1, -0.5] content.add(panel) } } } update: { content, attachments in } attachments: { Attachment(id: "Panel", { Button(action: { print("**button pressed**") if let subject = self.subject { subject.position = [-0.5, 1.5, -1.5] // Remove the physics body and assign a new one - hack to remove momentum if let physics = subject.components[PhysicsBodyComponent.self] { subject.components.remove(PhysicsBodyComponent.self) subject.components.set(physics) } } }, label: { Text("Reset Sphere") }) }) } } }
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Jan ’25
Combining ARKit Face Tracking with High-Resolution AVCapture and Perspective Rendering on Front Camera
Subject: Combining ARKit Face Tracking with High-Resolution AVCapture and Perspective Rendering on Front Camera Message: Hello Apple Developer Community, We’re developing an application using the front camera that requires both real-time ARKit face tracking/guidance and the capture of high-resolution still images via AVCaptureSession. Our goal is to leverage ARKit’s depth and face data to render a captured image from another perspective post-capture, maintaining high image quality. Our Approach: Real-Time ARKit Guidance: Utilize ARKit (e.g., ARFaceTrackingConfiguration) for continuous face tracking, depth, and scene understanding to guide the user in real time. High-Resolution Capture Transition: At the moment of capture, we plan to pause the ARKit session and switch to an AVCaptureSession to take a high-resolution image. We assume that for a front-facing image, the subject’s face is directly front-on, and the relative pose between the face and camera remains the same during the transition. The only variation we expect is a change in distance. Our intention is to minimize the delay between the last ARKit frame and the high-res capture to maintain temporal consistency, assuming that aside from distance, the face-camera relative pose remains unchanged. Post-Processing Perspective Rendering: Using the last ARKit face data (depth, pose, and landmarks) along with the high-resolution 2D image, we aim to render the scene from another perspective. We want to correct the perspective of the 2D image using SceneKit or RealityKit, leveraging the collected ARKit scene information to achieve a natural, high-quality rendering from a different viewpoint. The rendering should match the quality of a normally captured high-resolution image, adjusting for the difference in distance while using the stored ARKit data to correct perspective. Our Questions: Session Transition Best Practices: What are the recommended best practices to seamlessly pause ARKit and switch to a high-resolution AVCapture session on the front camera How can we minimize user movement or other issues during this brief transition, given our assumption that the face-camera pose remains largely consistent except for distance changes? Data Integration for Perspective Rendering: How can we effectively integrate stored ARKit face, depth, and pose data with the high-res image to perform accurate perspective correction or rendering from another viewpoint? Given that we assume the relative pose is constant except for distance, are there strategies or APIs to leverage this assumption for simplifying the perspective transformation? Perspective Correction with SceneKit/RealityKit: What techniques or workflows using SceneKit or RealityKit are recommended for correcting the perspective of a captured 2D image based on ARKit scene data? How can we use these frameworks to render the high-resolution image from an alternative perspective, while maintaining image quality and fidelity? 4. Pitfalls and Guidelines: What common pitfalls should we be aware of when combining ARKit tracking data with high-res capture and post-processing for perspective rendering? Are there performance considerations, recommended thresholds for acceptable temporal consistency, or validation techniques to ensure the ARKit data remains applicable at the moment of high-res capture? We appreciate any advice, sample code references, or documentation pointers that could assist us in implementing this workflow effectively. Thank you!
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Jan ’25
Tracking geographic locations in AR - Sample App Code
Hello, I was looking back into downloading the Tracking geographic locations in AR sample app from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/arkit/tracking-geographic-locations-in-ar Unfortunately the Download links to the .zip of the DisplayingAPointCloudUsingSceneDepth sample project. The exact same issue occurs when trying to download the sample code from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/ARKit/creating-a-fog-effect-using-scene-depth Wondering if those links are deliberately broken because of possible deprecations. Thanks to any Apple Engineer willing to look into that.
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428
Feb ’25
Entity HoverEffect Fired When inside Another Entity Collider
Hi folks, I’m new to Vision Pro stack, still trying to learn all the nuances. Here is a problem I can’t seem to find an answer. I placed entity A( a small .02 radius sphere) inside entity B( size:.1 box). Both entities have HoverEffectComponent, and both inputcomponent is set to .direct. Entity A is NOT a child of Entity B. When I direct touch Entity B, I noticed that Entity A’s hover effect is fired as well. This only happens if Entity A‘s position is inside Entity B. The gesture that is only targeted at Entity A doesn’t work either. I double checked Entity A collider which sits inside entity B collider, my direct touch shouldn’t have trigger its hove effect. Having one collider inside another seems to produce unpredictable behavior? Thanks in advance 🙏🙏🙏 Context: I’m trying to create an invisible bound around Entity A, so when my hand approaches the bound to grab Entity A, a nice spotlight hover effect would fire first on the bound before hand reaching entity A.
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329
Feb ’25
Difference in ARKit plane detection from iPhone 8 to iPhone 15
I am developing an ARKit based application that requires plane detection of the tabletop at which the user is seated. Early testing was with an iPhone 8 and iPhone 8+. With those devices, ARKit rapidly detected the plane of the tabletop when it was only 8 to 10 inches away. Using iPhone 15 with the same code, it seems to require me to move the phone more like 15 to 16 inches away before detecting the plane of the table. This is an awkward motion for a user seated at a table. To validate that it was not necessarily a feature of my code, I determined that the same behavior results with Apple's sample AR Interaction application. Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, have suggestions to improve the situation?
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Feb ’25
how to convert mlmodel to reference object?
Hello, I have downloaded and run the sample object tracking app for visionos. Now I'm working on my own objects for tracking. I have made a model using Create ML using images of my object. However, I cannot see how to convert the Create ML output file (xxx.mlmodel) into a reference object like the files in the sample project. is there a tool for converting them? TIA
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338
Feb ’25
When to use an AnchorEntity or HandTrackingProvider in VisionOS
As I understand it there are two ways I can track a hand, or a joint, in RealityKit: either, create an AnchorEntity, for example AnchorEntity(.hand(.left, location: .palm)) or, set up an ARSession with a HandTrackingProvider ( a lot more code which I haven't repeated here). Assuming this is correct, when would I want to use one over the other?
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401
Mar ’25
Person Occlusion on the Vision Pro
I am currently creating an app where two people share an instance of an immersive space so that they are able to point to certain things in the immersive space. Right now, other people are hidden behind the immersive space, and even with people awareness enabled for everything, people are still too difficult to see. I've found this documentation (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/arkit/occluding-virtual-content-with-people) which describes what I want to do, but it is only listed as working on iOS an iPadOS. Is there anything similar to this that will work on VisionOS?
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119
Mar ’25