Discuss spatial computing on Apple platforms and how to design and build an entirely new universe of apps and games for Apple Vision Pro.

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Ornaments in Presentations
We can add ornaments to popovers shown by PresentationComponent, but I’m not sure if we should. While working on the editor for entities in a Volume-based app, I had the idea to add ornaments to the presented views. The entire app exists inside a volume. A user can tap a item to present a popoverUI to edit it. This is displayed using the new PresentationComponent in visionOS 26. Ornaments have a new attachment anchor option this year: .parent(). .ornament(attachmentAnchor: .parent(.top), ornament: {...}) This works well in the Simulator. We can add ornaments around this popover view just like we would with a window. Unfortunately, when I run this on device I get a different experience. Any part of the ornament that overlaps with the popover content isn’t rendered correctly. Sometimes it entirely disappears, other times it becomes partially transparent. We could use content alignment to try to make sure the ornament doesn’t overlap the popover content. .ornament(attachmentAnchor: .parent(.top), contentAlignment: .bottom, ornament: {...}) This works sometimes–but not all the time. It’s not clear if this is a bug or not, because I’m not sure if we are even supposed to be able to use ornaments in this way. Here is my hierarchy: An app opens as a Volume Volume presenting a RealityView, with its own ornament using .scene() anchor Multiple Entities with Presentation Component show an edit view The view uses .parent() anchor to add ornaments. What makes me unsure is that other methods for drawing UI in RealityView don’t seem to work with ornaments. For example, if I add an attachment to show a view with the ornament–even when I use the .parent() anchor–the ornament is anchor to the volume, not the attachment view. So what do we think? Is this a rendering bug? Are ornaments intended to work with attachments and presentations?
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358
Aug ’25
Is it possible to live render CMTaggedBuffer / MV-HEVC frames in visionOS?
Hey all, I'm working on a visionOS app that captures live frames from the left and right cameras of Apple Vision Pro using cameraFrame.sample(for: .left/.right). Apple provides documentation on encoding side-by-side frames into MV-HEVC spatial video using CMTaggedBuffer: Converting Side-by-Side 3D Video to MV-HEVC My question: Is there any way to render tagged frames (e.g. CMTaggedBuffer with .stereoView(.leftEye/.rightEye)) live, directly to a surface in RealityKit or Metal, without saving them to a file? I’d like to create a true stereoscopic (spatial) live video preview, not just render two images side-by-side. Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated!
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249
Aug ’25
ECS and array of gestures
Hi, I am creating an ECS. With this ECS I will need to register several DragGesture. Question: Is it possible to define DragGestures in ECS? If yes, how do we do that? If not, what is the best way to do that? Question: Is there a "gesture" method that takes an array of gestures as a parameter? I am interested in any information that can help me, if possible with an example of code. Regards Tof
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469
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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352
Feb ’25
VisionPro camera frame rate
Hi, I'm working with CameraFrameProvider from Enterprise API. Is it always capped at 30fps, or is there something I can switch to get more? I assume it is capped at 30, so let me cram in additional question here :). If I'd get a developer strap and attach an external camera capable of doing >30fps, will I get the full stream, or some other limitation will kick in?
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118
Apr ’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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758
Jan ’25
Partial Occlusion Material
I am looking for a material that functions in the same way that Occlusion Material does, except that it only partially occludes whatever is behind it. One way that I have thought of doing this was to change the opacity of the entity that was covered in Occlusion Material, however this did not change anything. Please let me know if this is possible.
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137
Apr ’25
RealityKit System update and timing
Hi, I'm playing now with hand tracking. I want to get position of hand inside a system update function. I was not sure if transform I'm getting from hand attached AnchorEntity (with trackingMode: .predicted) would give same results as handAnchors(at:) from hand tracking provider, so I started to read them both and compare. For handAnchors i tried using context.scene.timebase.sourceTimebase!.sourceClock!.time.seconds and CACurrentMediaTime() as timestamp source. They seem to use exactly same clock, so that doesn't matter, but: for some reason update handler is always called twice with same context.deltaTime, but first time the query finds 0 entities, second time it finds them all. The query is the standard EntityQuery(where: .has(MyComponent.self)) and in update (matching: Self.query, updatingSystemWhen: .rendering). Here's part of logs: System update called, entity count: 0, dt: 0.01000458374619484, absTime: 4654.222593541 System update called, entity count: 11, dt: 0.01000458374619484, absTime: 4654.22262525 System update called, entity count: 0, dt: 0.009999999776482582, absTime: 4654.249390875 System update called, entity count: 11, dt: 0.009999999776482582, absTime: 4654.249425 accounting for the double update calling I started to calculate time delta of absolute time between calls and they're most of the time much bigger, or much smaller than advertised by system's context.deltaTime, only sometimes they kind of match, for example: system: (dt: 0.01000458374619484) scene : (dt: 0.021419291667371) (absTime: 4654.222628125001) and the very next call system: (dt: 0.010009 166784584522) scene : (dt: 0.0013097083328830195) (absTime: 4654.223937833334) but sometimes system: (dt: 0.009999999776482582) scene : (dt: 0.009 112249999816413) (absTime: 4654.351299 166668) Shouldn't those be more or less equal, or am I missing something? In the end it seems that getting hand position from AnchorEntity and with handAnchors(at:) gives kind of same results, but at different time points, so I'd love to understand what's the correct way to use them and why time flows differently :). --Edit-- P.S. Had to put spaces everywhere in logs between "9" and "1", otherwise post was blocked due to "sensitive content" :D
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May ’25
Accessing pupil diameter in visionOS
Previously I had developed software using SMI eye trackers, both screen mounted and their mobile glasses, for unique therapeutic and physiology applications. Sadly, after SMI was bought by Apple, their hardware and software have been taken off the market and now it is very difficult to get secondhand-market systems. The Apple Vision Pro integrates the SMI hardware. While I can use ARKit to get gaze position, I do not see a way to access information that was previously made accessible on the SMI hardware, particularly: dwell time and pupil diameter information. I am hopeful (or asking) to see that if a user has a properly set up Optic ID and would opt-in if, either on the present or a future version of visionOS, it might be possible to get access to the data streams for dwell times and pupil diameter. Pupil diameter is particularly important as it is a very good physiological measure of how much stress a person is encountering, which is critical to some of the therapeutic applications that formerly we used SMI hardware. Any ideas, or, if this is not possible, proposing this to the visionOS team would be appreciated!
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251
Jul ’25
Enterprise API with Education Account
Hello, I am trying to develop an app that broadcasts what the user sees via Apple Vision Pro. I am a graduate student studying at the university. And I have two problems, If I want to use passthrough in screen capture (in VisionOS), do I have to join Apple Developer Enterprise Program to get Enterprise API? and Can I buy Apple Developer Enterprise Program (Enterprise API) with my university account? Have any of you been able to do this? Thank you
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242
Jul ’25
Unexpected Behavior in Entity Movement System When Using AVAudioPlayer in visionOS Development
I am currently developing an app for visionOS and have encountered an issue involving a component and system that moves an entity up and down within a specific Y-axis range. The system works as expected until I introduce sound playback using AVAudioPlayer. Whenever I use AVAudioPlayer to play sound, the entity exhibits unexpected behaviors, such as freezing or becoming unresponsive. The freezing of the entity's movement is particularly noticeable when playing the audio for the first time. After that, it becomes less noticeable, but you can still feel it, especially when the audio is played in quick succession. Also, the issue is more noticable on real device than the simulator // // IssueApp.swift // Issue // // Created by Zhendong Chen on 2/1/25. // import SwiftUI @main struct IssueApp: App { var body: some Scene { WindowGroup { ContentView() } .windowStyle(.volumetric) } } // // ContentView.swift // Issue // // Created by Zhendong Chen on 2/1/25. // import SwiftUI import RealityKit import RealityKitContent struct ContentView: View { @State var enlarge = false var body: some View { RealityView { content, attachments in // Add the initial RealityKit content if let scene = try? await Entity(named: "Scene", in: realityKitContentBundle) { if let sphere = scene.findEntity(named: "Sphere") { sphere.components.set(UpAndDownComponent(speed: 0.03, minY: -0.05, maxY: 0.05)) } if let button = attachments.entity(for: "Button") { button.position.y -= 0.3 scene.addChild(button) } content.add(scene) } } attachments: { Attachment(id: "Button") { VStack { Button { SoundManager.instance.playSound(filePath: "apple_en") } label: { Text("Play audio") } .animation(.none, value: 0) .fontWeight(.semibold) } .padding() .glassBackgroundEffect() } } .onAppear { UpAndDownSystem.registerSystem() } } } // // SoundManager.swift // LinguaBubble // // Created by Zhendong Chen on 1/14/25. // import Foundation import AVFoundation class SoundManager { static let instance = SoundManager() private var audioPlayer: AVAudioPlayer? func playSound(filePath: String) { guard let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: filePath, withExtension: ".mp3") else { return } do { audioPlayer = try AVAudioPlayer(contentsOf: url) audioPlayer?.play() } catch let error { print("Error playing sound. \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } // // UpAndDownComponent+System.swift // Issue // // Created by Zhendong Chen on 2/1/25. // import RealityKit struct UpAndDownComponent: Component { var speed: Float var axis: SIMD3<Float> var minY: Float var maxY: Float var direction: Float = 1.0 // 1 for up, -1 for down var initialY: Float? init(speed: Float = 1.0, axis: SIMD3<Float> = [0, 1, 0], minY: Float = 0.0, maxY: Float = 1.0) { self.speed = speed self.axis = axis self.minY = minY self.maxY = maxY } } struct UpAndDownSystem: System { static let query = EntityQuery(where: .has(UpAndDownComponent.self)) init(scene: RealityKit.Scene) {} func update(context: SceneUpdateContext) { let deltaTime = Float(context.deltaTime) // Time between frames for entity in context.entities(matching: Self.query, updatingSystemWhen: .rendering) { guard var component: UpAndDownComponent = entity.components[UpAndDownComponent.self] else { continue } // Ensure we have the initial Y value set if component.initialY == nil { component.initialY = entity.transform.translation.y } // Calculate the current position let currentY = entity.transform.translation.y // Move the entity up or down let newY = currentY + (component.speed * component.direction * deltaTime) // If the entity moves out of the allowed range, reverse the direction if newY >= component.initialY! + component.maxY { component.direction = -1.0 // Move down } else if newY <= component.initialY! + component.minY { component.direction = 1.0 // Move up } // Apply the new position entity.transform.translation = SIMD3<Float>(entity.transform.translation.x, newY, entity.transform.translation.z) // Update the component with the new direction entity.components[UpAndDownComponent.self] = component } } } Could someone help me with this?
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361
Feb ’25
RoomCaptureSession with ARSCNView crashes when scanning multiple hotspots across different rooms
We're developing an iOS application that integrates RoomCaptureSession with ARSCNView for room scanning. Our implementation differs from the standard RoomCaptureView because we need custom UI guidance with 3D dots placed in the scanning environment to guide users through the capture process. Bug Description: The application crashes when users attempt to scan multiple rooms or apartments in sequence. The crash specifically occurs with the following pattern: User successfully scans first room with multiple hotspots (working correctly) User stops scanning, moves to a new room In the new room, first 1-2 hotspots work correctly Application crashes when attempting to scan additional hotspots Technical Details: Error: SLAM Anchor assertion failure in SlamAnchor.cpp:37 : HasValidPose() Crash occurs in Thread 27 with CAPIDetectionOutputFwdNode Error suggests invalid positioning when placing AR anchors Steps to Reproduce: Start room scan Complete multiple hotspot captures in first room Stop scanning Start new room scan Capture 1-2 hotspots successfully Attempt additional hotspot captures -> crashes Attempted Solutions: Implemented anchor cleanup between sessions Added position validation before anchor placement Implemented ARSession error handling Added proper thread management for AR operations Environment: Device: iPhone 14 Pro (LiDAR equipped) iOS Version: 18.1.1 (22B91) Testing through TestFlight Crash Log Details: Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000 Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY Triggered by Thread: 27 Thread 27 Crashed: 0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00000001f0cc91d4 __pthread_kill + 8 1 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x0000000228e12ef8 pthread_kill + 268 2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00000001a86bbad8 abort + 128 3 AppleCV3D 0x0000000234d71a28 cv3d::vio::capi::SlamAnchor::SlamAnchor Question: Is there a recommended approach for handling multiple room captures with custom ARSCNView integration? The standard RoomCaptureView implementation doesn't show this behavior, but we need the custom guidance functionality that ARSCNView provides. Crash Log Code and full crash logs can be provided if needed.
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656
Feb ’25
Control mirroring of Apple Vision Pro on any devices ?
Hi ! I'm new on this forum, so if I need to update this post to have more info, or anything else, please let me know. I'm using the Apple Vision Pro to develop some app (with unity). To demonstrate what the user see on the headset, I would like to mirror the view on a device (an iPad in this case). I managed to do this without any issue. My problem is that, in the Vision Pro, I have an interface that the user can interact with. But I would like to be able to manage myself the interface on the iPad. What I mean is that the user can (or can't, doesn't matter) see the interface in the headset, and the interface is controlled by myself on the iPad. Is there any way to do this ? Is this a question I should ask on unity's forum ? (I don't think so, because it should be related to the mirroring function non ?)
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356
Mar ’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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418
Mar ’25
ARKit sessionInterruptionEnded never called in Window Mode.
Hi 26 beta guys, I have apps using ARKit. In iPadOS 26 beta, ARKit stops working after switching to other apps. how to: Enable WindowMode in iPadOS 26 Launch my app and start ARSession Switch to another app (preference app, etc.) Switch back to my app AR stops updating camerafeed. I debug printed ARSessionDelegate, and found that after sessionWasInterrupted was called, sessionInterruptionEnded was never called. sessionInterruptionEnded is called if WindowMode disabled. Is this just a bug for 26 beta? I suspect there is similar problem with non-AR camera. Any idea?
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117
Jun ’25