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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Auto Rig Pro Mixamo Animation to RC Pro
Hi! I have been struggling with this for a little while and most of what I've found has not helped much. I hope to find more success here. Essentially, I have a model I've made in Blender. I rigged it using Auto Rig Pro, and I've also used ARP to add a Mixamo animation to it. That all works fine in Blender. However, when I try to import this model into RCP, I don't get the animation. The "default subtree animation" is completely empty. I attribute this to my lack of experience in this field but here's what I've attempted thus far: Pushing the Mixamo keyframes into an NLA strip. I'm pretty sure this is the correct line of action, but I'm definitely not doing something right. Baking the animation (?) I've made sure that I have animation checked when I export the model! Any ideas or reference projects would be lovely. I haven't really found much that has pushed me in the right direction. This project is, unfortunately, kind of time sensitive, so I would appreciate help ASAP. Thank you and let me know if I can add anymore context!
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Can not remove final World Anchor
I’ve been having some issues removing anchors. I can add anchors with no issue. They will be there the next time I run the scene. I can also get updates when ARKit sends them. I can remove anchors, but not all the time. The method I’m using is to call removeAnchor() on the data provider. worldTracking.removeAnchor(forID: uuid) // Yes, I have also tried `removeAnchor(_ worldAnchor: WorldAnchor)` This works if there are more than one anchor in a scene. When I’m down to one remaining anchor, I can remove it. It seems to succeed (does not raise an error) but the next time I run the scene the removed anchor is back. This only happens when there is only one remaining anchor. do { // This always run, but it doesn't seem to "save" the removal when there is only one anchor left. try await worldTracking.removeAnchor(forID: uuid) } catch { // I have never seen this block fire! print("Failed to remove world anchor \(uuid) with error: \(error).") } I posted a video on my website if you want to see it happening. https://stepinto.vision/labs/lab-051-issues-with-world-tracking/ Here is the full code. Can you see if I’m doing something wrong? Is this a bug? struct Lab051: View { @State var session = ARKitSession() @State var worldTracking = WorldTrackingProvider() @State var worldAnchorEntities: [UUID: Entity] = [:] @State var placement = Entity() @State var subject : ModelEntity = { let subject = ModelEntity( mesh: .generateSphere(radius: 0.06), materials: [SimpleMaterial(color: .stepRed, isMetallic: false)]) subject.setPosition([0, 0, 0], relativeTo: nil) let collision = CollisionComponent(shapes: [.generateSphere(radius: 0.06)]) let input = InputTargetComponent() subject.components.set([collision, input]) return subject }() var body: some View { RealityView { content in guard let scene = try? await Entity(named: "WorldTracking", in: realityKitContentBundle) else { return } content.add(scene) if let placementEntity = scene.findEntity(named: "PlacementPreview") { placement = placementEntity } } update: { content in for (_, entity) in worldAnchorEntities { if !content.entities.contains(entity) { content.add(entity) } } } .modifier(DragGestureImproved()) .gesture(tapGesture) .task { try! await setupAndRunWorldTracking() } } var tapGesture: some Gesture { TapGesture() .targetedToAnyEntity() .onEnded { value in if value.entity.name == "PlacementPreview" { // If we tapped the placement preview cube, create an anchor Task { let anchor = WorldAnchor(originFromAnchorTransform: value.entity.transformMatrix(relativeTo: nil)) try await worldTracking.addAnchor(anchor) } } else { Task { // Get the UUID we stored on the entity let uuid = UUID(uuidString: value.entity.name) ?? UUID() do { try await worldTracking.removeAnchor(forID: uuid) } catch { print("Failed to remove world anchor \(uuid) with error: \(error).") } } } } } func setupAndRunWorldTracking() async throws { if WorldTrackingProvider.isSupported { do { try await session.run([worldTracking]) for await update in worldTracking.anchorUpdates { switch update.event { case .added: let subjectClone = subject.clone(recursive: true) subjectClone.isEnabled = true subjectClone.name = update.anchor.id.uuidString subjectClone.transform = Transform(matrix: update.anchor.originFromAnchorTransform) worldAnchorEntities[update.anchor.id] = subjectClone print("🟢 Anchor added \(update.anchor.id)") case .updated: guard let entity = worldAnchorEntities[update.anchor.id] else { print("No entity found to update for anchor \(update.anchor.id)") return } entity.transform = Transform(matrix: update.anchor.originFromAnchorTransform) print("🔵 Anchor updated \(update.anchor.id)") case .removed: worldAnchorEntities[update.anchor.id]?.removeFromParent() worldAnchorEntities.removeValue(forKey: update.anchor.id) print("🔴 Anchor removed \(update.anchor.id)") if let remainingAnchors = await worldTracking.allAnchors { print("Remaining Anchors: \(remainingAnchors.count)") } } } } catch { print("ARKit session error \(error)") } } } }
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May ’25
Is SceneKit depricated ?
Hi everyone! I am working on AR app and wanted to implement object occlusion because it removes drift pretty much from the object. This working great with RealityKit sample But I am unable to replicate such behaviour it with scenekit. Because scenekit does not offer object occlusion. Can we say scenekit is getting depricated, and we should re-write app in RealityKit (which is obviously a big task)?
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Nov ’25
Logitech Muse API?
Hello, I've pre-ordered the Logitech Muse with hopes of developing with it, but have yet to find any documentation relating to the capabilities it will have/any APIs that will be available to take advantage of the Muse. Is anyone aware of what might become available? Thank you in advance.
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139
Oct ’25
Exporting .reality files from Reality Composer Pro
I've been using the MacOS XCode Reality Composer to export interactive .reality files that can be hosted on the web and linked to, triggering QuickLook to open the interactive AR experience. That works really well. I've just downloaded XCode 15 Beta which ships with the new Reality Composer Pro and I can't see a way to export to .reality files anymore. It seems that this is only for building apps that ship as native iOS etc apps, rather than that can be viewed in QuickLook. Am I missing something, or is it no longer possible to export .reality files? Thanks.
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Jul ’25
Blender to Reality Composer Pro 2.0 to SwiftUI + RealityKit visionOS Best Practices
Hi, I'm very new to 3D and am currently porting a SwiftUI iOS app to visionOS 2.0. I saw WWDC24 feature Blender in multiple spatial videos, and have begun integrating Blender models and animations into my VisionOS app (I would also like to integrate skeletons and programmatic rigging, more on that later). I'm wondering if there are “Best Practices” for this workflow - from Blender to USD to RCP 2.0 to visionOS 2 in Xcode. I’ve cobbled together the following that has some obvious holes: I’ve been able to find some pre-rigged and pre-animated models online that can serve as a great starting point. As a reference, here is a free model from SketchFab - a simple rigged skeleton with 6 built in animations: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/skeleton-character-low-poly-8856e0138f424d68a8e0b40e185951f6 When exporting to USD from Blender, I haven’t been able to export more than one animation per USD file. Is there a workflow to export multiple animations in a single USDC file, or is this just not possible? As a temporary workaround, here is a python script I’ve been using to loop through all Blender animations, and export a model for each animation: import bpy import os # Set the directory where you want to save the USD files output_directory = “/path/to/export” # Ensure the directory exists if not os.path.exists(output_directory): os.makedirs(output_directory) # Function to export current scene as USD def export_scene_as_usd(output_path, start_frame, end_frame): bpy.context.scene.frame_start = start_frame bpy.context.scene.frame_end = end_frame # Export the scene as a USD file bpy.ops.wm.usd_export( filepath=output_path, export_animation=True ) # Save the current scene name original_scene = bpy.context.scene.name # Iterate through each action and export it as a USD file for action in bpy.data.actions: # Create a new scene for each action bpy.context.window.scene = bpy.data.scenes[original_scene].copy() new_scene = bpy.context.scene # Link the action to all relevant objects for obj in new_scene.objects: if obj.animation_data is not None: obj.animation_data.action = action # Determine the frame range for the action start_frame, end_frame = action.frame_range # Export the scene as a USD file output_path = os.path.join(output_directory, f"{action.name}.usdc") export_scene_as_usd(output_path, int(start_frame), int(end_frame)) # Delete the temporary scene to free memory bpy.data.scenes.remove(new_scene) print("Export completed.") I have also been able to successfully export rigging armatures as a single Skeleton - each “bone” showing getting imported into Reality Composer Pro 2.0 when exporting/importing manually. I would like to have all of these animations available in a single scene to be used in a RealityView in visionOS - so I have placed all animation models in a RCP scene and created named Timeline Action animations for each, showing the correct model and hiding the rest when triggering specific animations. I apply materials/textures to each so they appear the same, using Shader Graph. Then in SwiftUI I use notifications (as shown here - https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/756978) to trigger each RCP Timeline Action animation from code. Two questions: Is there a better way than to have multiple models of the same skeleton - each with a different animation - in a scene to be able to trigger multiple animations? Or would this require recreating Blender animations using skeleton rigging and keyframes from within RCP Timelines? If I want to programmatically create custom animations and move parts of the skeleton/armatures - do I need to do this by defining custom components in RCP, using IKRig and define movement of each of the “bones” in Xcode? I’m looking for any tips/tricks/workflow from experienced engineers or 3D artists that can create a more efficient/optimized workflow using Blender, USD, RCP 2 and visionOS 2 with SwiftUI. Thanks so much, I appreciate any help! I am very excited about all the new tools that keep evolving to make spatial apps really fun to build!
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Apr ’25
Xcode 26 - extremely long time to open immersive space
The issue reproducible with empty project. When you run it and tap "Open immersive space" it takes a couple of minutes to respond. The issue only reproducible on real device with debugger attached. Reproducible other developers too (not specific to my environment). Issue doesn't exists in Xcode 16. Afer initial long delay subsequent opens works fine. Console logs: nw_socket_copy_info [C1:2] getsockopt TCP_INFO failed [102: Operation not supported on socket] nw_socket_copy_info getsockopt TCP_INFO failed [102: Operation not supported on socket] Failed to set dependencies on asset 9303749952624825765 because NetworkAssetManager does not have an asset entity for that id. void * _Nullable NSMapGet(NSMapTable * _Nonnull, const void * _Nullable): map table argument is NULL PSO compilation completed for driver shader copyFromBufferToTexture so=0 sbpr=256 sbpi=16384 ss=(64, 64, 1) p=70 sc=1 ds=0 dl=0 do=(0, 0, 0) in 1997 XPC connection interrupted <<<< FigAudioSession(AV) >>>> audioSessionAVAudioSession_CopyMXSessionProperty signalled err=-19224 (kFigAudioSessionError_UnsupportedOperation) (getMXSessionProperty unsupported) at FigAudioSession_AVAudioSession.m:606 Failed to load item AXCodeItem<0x14706f250> [Rank:6000] SpringBoardUIServices [AXBundle name:/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle/SpringBoardUIServices] [Platforms and Targets:{ iOS = SpringBoardUIServices; } Framework] [Excluded: (null)]. error: Error Domain=AXLoading Code=0 "URL does not exist: file:///System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=URL does not exist: file:///System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle} Failed to load item AXCodeItem<0x14706f250> [Rank:6000] SpringBoardUIServices [AXBundle name:/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle/SpringBoardUIServices] [Platforms and Targets:{ iOS = SpringBoardUIServices; } Framework] [Excluded: (null)]. error: Error Domain=AXLoading Code=0 "URL does not exist: file:///System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=URL does not exist: file:///System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle} [b30780-MRUIFeedbackTypeButtonWithBackgroundTouchDown] Playback timed out before completion (after 3111 ms) Failed to set dependencies on asset 7089614247973236977 because NetworkAssetManager does not have an asset entity for that id.
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Oct ’25
PSVR2 controller button quirks
I have an open Feedback conversation with Apple on this topic, but I am curious if others have run into this, or want to try out my sample code in their set up. there are two API’s for reading controller buttons, axis, and D pads: GCPhysicalInputProfile and GCControllerLiveInput. There are inconsistencies in behaviour between the two of them. Apple recommends we use GCControllerLiveInput, however, there are some capabilities on these controllers that are only accessible through GCPhysicalInputProfile, as I’ll discuss below. PSVR2 R2/L2 buttons, a.k.a. triggers, have force input analogue values. These can only be accessed on GCPhysicalInputProfile PSVR2 thumbstick direction values are read through “axes” on GCPhysicalInputProfile, but only “dpads” on GCControllerLiveInput on both GCPhysicalInputProfile and GCControllerLiveInput, All pressed events of all buttons are fired properly using generic aliases ( Trigger, Grip ,Menu, Right Thumbstick, Left Thumbstick, Right Button A & B (Circle & Cross), Left Button A&B (Triangle and Square) ). Apple reserves the system button as the equivalent of a home button for the OS. on GCPhysicalInputProfile, touch events are fired when the button is also pressed, but not for only touches. on GCControllerLiveInput , Touch events only works for the following buttons: Left Thumbstick, Right Thumbstick, Right Button A (Circle), and Right Button B (Cross). But Right Button B touch event isn’t labelled correctly, it fires as the Right Button A event. I observed this inside ALVR which uses a polling based approach to event processing: https://github.com/alvr-org/alvr-visionos/blob/17b5968f9d894944b53e97134b39dfce0993302a/ALVRClient/WorldTracker.swift#L301 To simplify to see this on a very simple app, I used the Apple example TrackingAccessories application: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/ARKit/tracking-accessories-in-volumetric-windows I’ve attached the code that replaces the AccessoryTrackingModel class. I added code that prints out what is touched/pressed, see the trackAllConnectedSpatialControllers method: https://github.com/svrc/TrackingAccessories
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RealityKit / visionOS – Memory not released after dismissing ImmersiveSpace with USDZ models
Hi everyone, I’m encountering a memory overflow issue in my visionOS app and I’d like to confirm if this is expected behavior or if I’m missing something in cleanup. App Context The app showcases apartments in real scale using AR. Apartments are heavy USDZ models (hundreds of thousands of triangles, high-resolution textures). Users can walk inside the apartments, and performance is good even close to hardware limits. Flow The app starts in a full immersive space (RealityView) for selecting the apartment. When an apartment is selected, a new ImmersiveSpace opens and the apartment scene loads. The scene includes multiple USDZ models, EnvironmentResources, and dynamic textures for skyboxes. When the user dismisses the experience, we attempt cleanup: Nulling out all entity references. Removing ModelComponents. Clearing cached textures and skyboxes. Forcing dictionaries/collections to empty. Despite this cleanup, memory usage remains very high. Problem After dismissing the ImmersiveSpace, memory does not return to baseline. Check the attached screenshot of the profiling made using Instruments: Initial state: ~30MB (main menu). After loading models sequentially: ~3.3GB. Skybox textures bring it near ~4GB. After dismissing the experience (at ~01:00 mark): memory only drops slightly (to ~2.66GB). When loading the second apartment, memory continues to increase until ~5GB, at which point the app crashes due to memory pressure. The issue is consistently visible under VM: IOSurface in Instruments. No leaks are detected. So it looks like RealityKit (or lower-level frameworks) keeps caching meshes and textures, and does not free them when RealityView is ended. But for my use case, these resources should be fully released once the ImmersiveSpace is dismissed, since new apartments will load entirely different models and textures. Cleanup Code Example Here’s a simplified version of the cleanup I’m doing: func clearAllRoomEntities() { for (entityName, entity) in entityFromMarker { entity.removeFromParent() if let modelEntity = entity as? ModelEntity { modelEntity.components.removeAll() modelEntity.children.forEach { $0.removeFromParent() } modelEntity.clearTexturesAndMaterials() } entityFromMarker[entityName] = nil removeSkyboxPortals(from: entityName) } entityFromMarker.removeAll() } extension ModelEntity { func clearTexturesAndMaterials() { guard var modelComponent = self.model else { return } for index in modelComponent.materials.indices { removeTextures(from: &modelComponent.materials[index]) } modelComponent.materials.removeAll() self.model = modelComponent self.model = nil } private func removeTextures(from material: inout any Material) { if var pbr = material as? PhysicallyBasedMaterial { pbr.baseColor.texture = nil pbr.emissiveColor.texture = nil pbr.metallic.texture = nil pbr.roughness.texture = nil pbr.normal.texture = nil pbr.ambientOcclusion.texture = nil pbr.clearcoat.texture = nil material = pbr } else if var simple = material as? SimpleMaterial { simple.color.texture = nil material = simple } } } Questions Is this expected RealityKit behavior (textures/meshes cached internally)? Is there a way to force RealityKit to release GPU resources tied to USDZ models when they’re no longer used? Should dismissing the ImmersiveSpace automatically free those IOSurfaces, or do I need to handle this differently? Any guidance, best practices, or confirmation would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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4d
Accessing LiDAR Depth Data and Scene Reconstruction on Apple Vision Pro
Hello, I'm developing a visionOS application for Apple Vision Pro that aims to scan unknown physical objects, capture their 3D data (such as meshes or point clouds), and export them as 3D models. Ideally, I'd also like to visualize these reconstructions in real-time within the headset. This functionality is similar to what's available in Reality Composer on iPad and iPhone, but I'm seeking to implement it natively on Vision Pro. I've reviewed the visionOS documentation but haven't found clear guidance on accessing LiDAR depth data or performing scene reconstruction. Specifically, I'm interested in: 1.Accessing LiDAR or depth data from Vision Pro's sensors. 2.Utilizing ARKit's scene reconstruction capabilities on visionOS. 3.Exporting captured 3D data as models (e.g., USDZ or OBJ formats). Are there APIs or frameworks in visionOS that support these features?
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128
May ’25
visionOS plane anchor rotation and wall direction are inconsistent
I have a problem with the wall plane detection using visionOS/ARKit: I am using ARKitSession's PlaneDetectionProvider detection.wall in the space of visionOS. I recorded the position and rotation information of the first detected plane, but found that the rotation value will be facing when the user starts the space. There is a deviation in different directions. That is to say, even if the plane is located on the same wall, the rotation quaternion will be different. I hope that no matter from which direction the user enters the scan, the real direction of the wall can be correctly obtained so that the virtual content can be accurately aligned with the wall. I have tried to use anchor.originFromAnchorTransform or Transform.rotation directly, but the rotation value is still affected by the user's initial orientation. In addition, I would like to know whether the user's initial orientation will affect the location information. If so, please provide a solution. Thank you!
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502
Sep ’25
How to Achieve Volumetric Lighting (Light Shafts) in RealityKit on visionOS?
Hello everyone, I am currently developing an experience for visionOS using RealityKit and I would like to achieve volumetric light effects, such as visible light rays or shafts through fog or dust. I found this GitHub project: https://github.com/robcupisz/LightShafts, which demonstrates the kind of visual style I am aiming for. I would like to know if there is a way to create similar effects using RealityKit on visionOS. So far, I have experimented with DirectionalLight, SpotLight, ImageBasedLight, and custom materials (e.g., additive blending on translucent meshes), but none of these approaches can replicate the volumetric light shaft look shown in the repository above. Questions: Is there a recommended technique or workaround in RealityKit to simulate light shafts or volumetric lighting? Is creating a custom mesh (e.g., cone or volume geometry with gradient alpha and additive blending) the only feasible method? Are there any examples, best practices, or sample projects from Apple or other developers that showcase a similar visual style? Any advice or hints would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
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864
Aug ’25