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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A Summary of the WWDC25 Group Lab - visionOS
At WWDC25 we launched a new type of Lab event for the developer community - Group Labs. A Group Lab is a panel Q&A designed for a large audience of developers. Group Labs are a unique opportunity for the community to submit questions directly to a panel of Apple engineers and designers. Here are the highlights from the WWDC25 Group Lab for visionOS. I saw that there is a new way to add SwiftUI View attachments in my RealityView, what advantages does this have over the old way? Attachments can now be added directly to your entities with ViewAttachmentComponent. The removes the need to declare your attachments upfront in your RealityView initializer and then add those attachments as child entities. The new approach provides greater flexibility. Canyon Crosser and Petite Asteroids both utilize the new approach. ManipulationComponent looks really cool! Right now my app has a series of complicated custom gestures. What gestures does it handle for me exactly, and are there any situations where I should prefer my own custom gestures? ManipulationComponent provides natural interaction with virtual objects. It seamlessly handles translation and rotation. You can easily add manipulation to a SwiftUI view like Model3D with the manipulable view modifier. The new Object Manipulation API is great for most apps, and is a breeze to implement, but sometimes you might want a more custom feel, and that’s ok! Custom gestures are still fully supported for that scenario. I saw that there is a new API to also access the right main camera. What can I do with this? Correct, in visionOS 26, you can access the left and right main cameras. You can even access them simultaneously as a stereo pair. Camera access still requires a managed entitlement and an enterprise license, see Accessing the main camera for more details about those requirements. More computer vision and machine learning use-cases are unlocked with access to both cameras, we are excited to see what you will do! What do I need to do to add spatial accessory input for my app? First, use the GameController framework to establish a connection with the spatial accessory, and then listen for events from the controller. Then, you can use either RealityKit, ARKit, or a combination of both to track the accessory, anchor virtual content to it, and fine tune the accessory interaction with the content in your app. For more details, check out Discovering and tracking spatial game controllers and styli. By far, the most difficulty with implementing visionOS apps is SwiftUI window management…placing, opening, closing, etc. Are there any improvements to window management in visionOS 26? Yes! We recommend watching Set the scene with SwiftUI in visionOS. You can use the defaultLaunchBehavior to choose whether a particular window is presented (or suppressed) at launch. You can also prevent a window like a secondary toolbar from launching as the initial window using .restorationBehavior(.disabled). Adopting best practices for persistent UI provides a great overview of SwiftUI window management on visionOS. As for placing windows, there is still no API for an app to specify the placement of its windows other than relative placement. If that is a feature you are interested in, please file an enhancement request for it using Feedback Assistant! How to get access to the Enterprise API? First, request the entitlement and license through your Apple Developer or enterprise account. Once these have been granted, include the license and entitlement in your project. Then you can build, test, and distribute as an in-house app.
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Jul ’25
[visionOS] How to render side-by-side stereo video?
I want to render a 3d/stereoscopic video in an Apple Vision Pro window using RealityKit/RealityView. The video is a left-right stereo. The straight forward approach would be to spawn a quad, and give it a custom Shader Graph material, which has a CameraIndexSwitch. The CameraIndexSwitch chooses between the right texture vs the left texture. https://i.sstatic.net/XawqjNcg.png The issue I have here is that I have to extract the video frames from my AVSampleBufferVideoRenderer. This should work ok, but not if I'm playing FairPlay content. So, my question is, how to render stereo FairPlay videos in a SwiftUI RealityView?
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Aug ’25
Lidar sensor does not work on some Iphone 13 Pro
I am experience problem with three iPhone 13 Pro. They are reporting the lowest quality for all points in the depthmap from the Lidar sensor. The readings I get are unusable. If it was just one phone I would consider it a faulty sensor, but in this case it is three phones that gives the same result. I have other iPhone 13 Pro that works as expected. Have any else experienced a similar behavior? I am using iOS 18.4.1 https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avdepthdata/depthdataquality
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May ’25
How to programmatically update Model Position Offset of GeometryModifier?
is it possible to dynamically update ModelPositionOffset of GeometryModifier with a depth map image? in my code I set up the parameter for "DepthMapTexture" universal input node and tried setting the depth map for depthTextureResource. I have 2 DrawableQueues. One for setting InputTexture, and one for setting DepthMapTexture. This only shows the part that concerns setting DepthMapTexture this is where I define the plane entity. and this is the shader graph what I noticed with GeometryModifier is that, the depthMap image has to be same as input image's dimensions. and when I applied this material to usdz file, with pre-assigned image and depth map from RCP, and loaded that Entity from code, depth map was applied correctly. what I am unsure is that if it is impossible to define a model entity from code, apply ShaderGraphMaterial from RCP, and dynamically update the image used in GeometryModifier. Maybe I'm missing something when defining Entity, something that allows geometric modifications?
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Mar ’25
PhotogrammetrySession Polygon Count Limit – How Is It Determined by Hardware?
Hi Apple Team, I’m working on a human portrait scanning application using PhotogrammetrySession, and I’ve been very impressed by the results. Thank you for building such a powerful and accessible photogrammetry solution into macOS! I do, however, have a question regarding mesh detail limitations on different Mac hardware configurations. When using PhotogrammetrySession.Request.Detail.custom and trying to set maximumPolygonCount = 1000000, I see the following log message: Clamped max poly count: 1000000 to device limit. 250000 is used. This is on an M1 Max with 32 GB RAM. I’m aware that PhotogrammetrySession.limits can report values like maximumInputImageDimension and maximumNumberOfInputImages, but I haven’t found documentation on how the maximumPolygonCount is determined, and what hardware specs influence it. Is it tied more to: • GPU performance (e.g. neural/graphics cores)? • CPU architecture? • Memory size or bandwidth? • Or is it fixed per SoC generation? I’d love to understand what kind of hardware upgrades (e.g. moving to M4 Pro or increasing RAM) could allow me to increase mesh complexity and generate more detailed models. Any insights would be greatly appreciated—and if this is covered in upcoming WWDC sessions or documentation, I’d be happy to tune in. Thanks in advance! KitCheng
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May ’25
How to add visual thickness to a glass background view
Hi guys, In visionOS, when using a ZStack decorated with .glassBackgroundEffect(), you can see the 3D glass background from the front, but when viewed from the side, the view appears to have no thickness. However, I noticed that in an app built by Apple, when viewing a glass background view from the side, it appears to have thickness. I tried adding .frame(depth:) to a glass background view, but it appears as two separate layers spaced by the depth value. My question is: Is there a view modifier that adds visual thickness to a glass background view, as shown in the picture? Or, if not, how should I write a custom view modifier to achieve this effect? Thanks!
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May ’25
How to obtain video streams from the digital space included in VisionPro after applying for the "Enterprise API"?
After implementing the method of obtaining video streams discussed at WWDC in the program, I found that the obtained video stream does not include digital models in the digital space or related videos such as the program UI. I would like to ask how to obtain a video stream or frame that contains only the physical world? let formats = CameraVideoFormat.supportedVideoFormats(for: .main, cameraPositions:[.left]) let cameraFrameProvider = CameraFrameProvider() var arKitSession = ARKitSession() var pixelBuffer: CVPixelBuffer? var cameraAccessStatus = ARKitSession.AuthorizationStatus.notDetermined let worldTracking = WorldTrackingProvider() func requestWorldSensingCameraAccess() async { let authorizationResult = await arKitSession.requestAuthorization(for: [.cameraAccess]) cameraAccessStatus = authorizationResult[.cameraAccess]! } func queryAuthorizationCameraAccess() async{ let authorizationResult = await arKitSession.queryAuthorization(for: [.cameraAccess]) cameraAccessStatus = authorizationResult[.cameraAccess]! } func monitorSessionEvents() async { for await event in arKitSession.events { switch event { case .dataProviderStateChanged(_, let newState, let error): switch newState { case .initialized: break case .running: break case .paused: break case .stopped: if let error { print("An error occurred: \(error)") } @unknown default: break } case .authorizationChanged(let type, let status): print("Authorization type \(type) changed to \(status)") default: print("An unknown event occured \(event)") } } } @MainActor func processWorldAnchorUpdates() async { for await anchorUpdate in worldTracking.anchorUpdates { switch anchorUpdate.event { case .added: //检查是否有持久化对象附加到此添加的锚点- //它可能是该应用程序之前运行的一个世界锚。 //ARKit显示与此应用程序相关的所有世界锚点 //当世界跟踪提供程序启动时。 fallthrough case .updated: //使放置的对象的位置与其对应的对象保持同步 //世界锚点,如果未跟踪锚点,则隐藏对象。 break case .removed: //如果删除了相应的世界定位点,则删除已放置的对象。 break } } } func arkitRun() async{ do { try await arKitSession.run([cameraFrameProvider,worldTracking]) } catch { return } } @MainActor func processDeviceAnchorUpdates() async { await run(function: self.cameraFrameUpdatesBuffer, withFrequency: 90) } @MainActor func cameraFrameUpdatesBuffer() async{ guard let cameraFrameUpdates = cameraFrameProvider.cameraFrameUpdates(for: formats[0]),let cameraFrameUpdates1 = cameraFrameProvider.cameraFrameUpdates(for: formats[1]) else { return } for await cameraFrame in cameraFrameUpdates { guard let mainCameraSample = cameraFrame.sample(for: .left) else { continue } self.pixelBuffer = mainCameraSample.pixelBuffer } for await cameraFrame in cameraFrameUpdates1 { guard let mainCameraSample = cameraFrame.sample(for: .left) else { continue } if self.pixelBuffer != nil { self.pixelBuffer = mergeTwoFrames(frame1: self.pixelBuffer!, frame2: mainCameraSample.pixelBuffer, outputSize: CGSize(width: 1920, height: 1080)) } } }
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Apr ’25
Build Vision Pro failed
`error: [xrsimulator] Component Compatibility: EnvironmentLightingConfiguration not available for 'xros 1.0', please update 'platforms' array in Package.swift error: [xrsimulator] Exception thrown during compile: compileFailedBecause(reason: "compatibility faults") error: Tool exited with code 1
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Jul ’25
Adding reference image failed in VisionPro
I am using ARKit to detect image in visionPro. However I met some question about adding the reference image. Some of my images can not be added correctly sometimes. (As you can see in the picture above, the 'orange' can not be added correctly, but the 'cup' can). However, sometimes they will be added without any problem. I do not know why it will happen. And I want they all be added steadily.
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Mar ’25
I need to loop my videoMaterial.
I need to loop my videoMaterial and I don't know how to make it happen in my code. I have included an image of my videoMaterial code. Any help making this happen with be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Christopher
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Jun ’25
Spatial-backdrop standards process
Apple's WWDC video What’s new for the spatial web says the spatial-backdrop markup may change as it goes through the standards process (at 27:26 mark). I have started adding spatial-backdrops to web pages, so I want to keep an eye out for status updates by Apple and follow the standards progress. Is there any place I can keep an eye on this standards process? Has Apple announced any feature updates or news on spatial-backdrops?
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Nov ’25
Can't establish spatial connection after visionOS update
After updating to visionOS 26.2 Beta 2 (and Beta 3), I'm unable to establish a spatial connection to Vision Pro. This was working fine before the update. To test, I've created a fresh spatialApp project from the Xcode template with zero modifications, but I'm hitting the same issue - the Vision Pro is discovered but won't connect. Am I forgetting to update the config somewhere? Any ideas what might be causing this and how to fix it? Thanks! Warning: -[NSWindow makeKeyWindow] called on <NSWindow: 0xa1f811900> windowNumber=1b9 which returned NO from -[NSWindow canBecomeKeyWindow]. ((processConfiguration != nil && configuration != nil) || (processConfiguration == nil && configuration == nil)) - /AppleInternal/Library/BuildRoots/4~CBS0ugAIF7BrQZjLe6r0lhPXO4GJmNDTovxYoV0/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/ExtensionKit/ExtensionKit/Source/HostViewController/Internal/EXHostSessionDriver.m:80: `processConfiguration` and `configuration` must be both non-nil or both nil Unable to obtain a task name port right for pid 415: (os/kern) failure (0x5) CCContextDeviceGroup.mm(291):+[CCContextDeviceGroup checkBinaryArchivesForDevice:withBundle:]: Failed to find any binary shader archive
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Nov ’25
ARDepthData.confidenceMap only returns low confidence on certain devices
A few users have recently reported no longer being able to capture point clouds using our app, specifically on iPhone 15 Pro devices. We recently found an in-house device that exhibits this behavior and found that the confidenceMap contains only low confidence values, regardless of the environment being captured. Our app uses a higher confidence threshold; setting the threshold to a lower value produces noisy results as expected, so that is a non-viable option. Other LiDAR based apps have been tested with this device and the results are the same. No points, or noisy point clouds in apps that allow a lower confidence threshold setting. On devices that exhibit this behavior the "Displaying a point cloud using scene depth" Apple sample app can be used to visualize the issue. First reports of this new behavior occurred as early as iOS 18.4. Looking for recommendations on which team(s) at Apple to reach out to with these findings since the behavior manifests on only a small sample of devices.
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Jun ’25
Is there any way, I can use the Object Tracking applications on an iOS (iPhone) AR App.
I have been referencing the Object Tracking Tutorial from WWDC 2024 on Vision OS, how Create ML is used to create a reference object, and we can track them in the ARSession. I am looking forward to building this feature on an AR app for iPhone, I am using iPhone 13 Pro Max. I have created couple of reference objects from the Create ML.
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Mar ’25
Convert entity to image
VisionPro 开发,XCode,我想在窗口中找到一个显示模型的图片。这个模型可以改变它的材料,它不是唯一的形象,它正在改变。如何将此模型转换为图像
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Apr ’25
mipmapsMode trade-off?
I am building a 360 photo viewer in VisionOS 26. Which allows the user to choose a 2 by 1 jpg and then renders it with a sphere mesh entity. And I use: TextureResource(contentsOf: url, options: options). I noticed two situations here in terms of mipmaps options. When setting "mipmapsMode: .none": The graphic quality within the "gaze area" looks sharp and clear The two poles (top and bottom) are perfectly rendered Massive shimmer around the "gaze area" When setting "mipmapsMode: .allocateAndGenerateAll": The graphic looks slightly blurrier than in ".none" within the "gaze area" The two poles are very blurry and hard to recognize the texture Much less shimmer around the "gaze area" My question would be: Is there a way to have the perfect graphic quality in ".none" without the massive shimmer? Thank you! Screenshots: mipmapsMode: .none mipmapsMode: .allocateAndGenerateAll
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Oct ’25
AVPlayer stutters when using AVPlayerItemVideoOutput
We’re trying to build a custom player for Unity. For this, we’re using AVPlayer with AVPlayerItemVideoOutput to get textures. However, we noticed that playback is not smooth and the stream often freezes. For testing, we used this 8K video: https://deovr.com/nwfnq1 The video was played using the following code: @objc public func playVideo(urlString: String) { guard let url = URL(string: urlString) else { return } let pItem = AVPlayerItem(url: url) playerItem = pItem pItem.preferredForwardBufferDuration = 10.0 let pixelBufferAttributes: [String: Any] = [ kCVPixelBufferPixelFormatTypeKey as String: kCVPixelFormatType_420YpCbCr8BiPlanarVideoRange, kCVPixelBufferMetalCompatibilityKey as String: true, ] let output = AVPlayerItemVideoOutput( pixelBufferAttributes: pixelBufferAttributes ) pItem.add(output) playerItemObserver = pItem.observe(\.status) { [weak self] pItem, _ in guard pItem.status == .readyToPlay else { return } self?.playerItemObserver = nil self?.player.play() } player = AVPlayer(playerItem: pItem) player.currentItem?.preferredPeakBitRate = 35_000_000 } When AVPlayerItemVideoOutput is attached, the video stutters and the log looks like this: 🟢 Playback likely to keep up 🟡 Buffer ahead: 4.08s | buffer: 4.08s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 4.08s | buffer: 4.08s 🟡 Buffer ahead: -0.07s | buffer: 0.00s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 2.94s | buffer: 3.49s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 2.50s | buffer: 4.06s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.74s | buffer: 4.30s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 0.74s | buffer: 4.30s 🟠 Playback may stall 🛑 Buffer empty 🟡 Buffer ahead: 0.09s | buffer: 4.30s 🟠 Playback may stall 🟠 Playback may stall 🛑 Buffer empty 🟠 Playback may stall 🟣 Buffer full 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.41s | buffer: 1.43s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.41s | buffer: 1.43s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.07s | buffer: 1.43s 🟣 Buffer full 🟡 Buffer ahead: 0.47s | buffer: 1.65s 🟠 Playback may stall 🛑 Buffer empty 🟡 Buffer ahead: 0.10s | buffer: 1.65s 🟠 Playback may stall 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.99s | buffer: 2.03s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.99s | buffer: 2.03s 🟣 Buffer full 🟣 Buffer full 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.41s | buffer: 2.00s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 0.68s | buffer: 2.27s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 0.09s | buffer: 2.27s 🟠 Playback may stall 🛑 Buffer empty 🟠 Playback may stall When we remove AVPlayerItemVideoOutput from the player, the video plays smoothly, and the output looks like this: 🟢 Playback likely to keep up 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.94s | buffer: 1.94s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.94s | buffer: 1.94s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.22s | buffer: 2.22s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.05s | buffer: 3.05s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.12s | buffer: 4.12s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.18s | buffer: 5.18s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 0.72s | buffer: 5.72s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.27s | buffer: 7.28s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 2.09s | buffer: 3.03s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 4.16s | buffer: 6.10s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 6.66s | buffer: 7.09s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 5.66s | buffer: 7.09s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 4.66s | buffer: 7.09s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 4.02s | buffer: 7.45s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 3.62s | buffer: 8.05s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 2.62s | buffer: 8.05s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 2.49s | buffer: 3.53s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 2.43s | buffer: 3.38s 🟡 Buffer ahead: 1.90s | buffer: 3.85s We’ve tried different attribute settings for AVPlayerItemVideoOutput. We also removed all logic related to reading frame data, but the choppy playback still remained. Can you advise whether this is a player issue or if we’re doing something wrong?
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Oct ’25