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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How to trigger other effects using hoverEffect?
I’m facing an issue while using CustomHoverEffect. In my view, there is a long title, which causes the title to be truncated. When the user hovers over it, the title should scroll. Although I have already implemented the scrolling effect, I am unsure how to trigger the scroll on hover. How should I approach this?
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353
Feb ’25
Run to Device( on WLAN)?
Is it possible to use a local wifi router connecting Vision Pro and Mac for developing? I tried from Unity and Xcode. From Unity, the host app wouldn't open without WIFI (internet connection) From Xcode, I can see the Vision Pro paired, but while try to run there's no device listed. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot, /Ruiying
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264
Jan ’25
Misaligned visionOS Simulator Home Position
Using Xcode v26 Beta 6 on macOS v26 Beta 25a5349a When pressing on the home button of the visionOS simulator, I am not positioned in the middle of the room like would normally be. This occurred when moving a lot in the space to find an element added to an ImmersiveSpace. How to resolve: restart simulator device. See attached the pictures of the visionOSSimulatorCorrectHomePosition and the visionOSSimulatorMisallignedHomePosition.
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874
Sep ’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
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
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
TextComponent on iOS/macOS pixelated when viewed from short distance
Hello, I've been tinkering a bit with TextComponent. Based on the docs it seems like this component should always render sharp and nice text, no matter how close the user gets: RealityKit dynamically adjusts the backing size to a value that results in high-fidelity text at its current location. And it does on visionOS, but on iOS and macOS the text gets pixelated when I get close to it, as if its just rendering it once as a plain image texture. Can anyone tell me if this is expected behavior or a bug? Here two screenshots for comparison (iPhone and Vision Pro): Thanks!
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Aug ’25
Building a custom render pipeline with RealityKit
Hello experts, and question seekers, I have been trying to get Gaussian splats working with RealityKit, however it seems not to work out for me. The library I use for Gaussian splatting: https://github.com/scier/MetalSplatter My idea was to use the renderers provided by RealityKit (aka RealityRenderer) https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/realityrenderer and the renderer provided by MetalSplatter (aka. SplatRenderer) https://github.com/scier/MetalSplatter/blob/main/MetalSplatter/Sources/SplatRenderer.swift Then with a custom render pipeline, I would be able to compose the outputs of the renderers, enabling the possibility, for example to build immersive scenery with realistic environment scans, as Gaussian splats, and RealityKit to provide the necessary features to build extra scenery around Gaussian splats, eg. dynamic 3D models inside Gaussian splats. However the problem is, as of now I am not able to do that with the current implementation of RealityRenderer. It seems to be, that first RealityRenderer is supposed to be an API, just to render colour information onto a texture, which in first glance might be useful, but misses important information, such as for example depth, and stencil information. Second issue is, even with that in mind, currently I am not able to execute RealityRenderer.updateAndRender, due to the following error messages: Could not resolve material name 'engine:BuiltinRenderGraphResources/Common/realityRendererBackground.rematerial' in bundle at '/Users//Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices//data/Containers/Bundle/Application//.app'. Loading via asset path. exiting spatial tracking service update thread because wait returned 37” I was able to build a custom Metal view with UIViewRepresentable, MTKView, and MTKViewDelegate, enabling me to build a custom rendering pipeline, by utilising some of the Metal developer workflows. Reference: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/metal-developer-workflows/ Inside draw(in view: MTKView), in a class derived by MTKViewDelegate: guard let currentDrawable = view.currentDrawable else { return } let realityRenderer = try! RealityRenderer() try! realityRenderer.updateAndRender(deltaTime: 0.0, cameraOutput: .init(.singleProjection(colorTexture: currentDrawable.texture)), whenScheduled: { realityRenderer in print("Rendering scheduled") }, onComplete: { RealityRenderer in print("Rendering completed") }) Can you please tell me, what I am doing wrong? Is there any solution, that enables me to use RealityKit with for example Gaussian splats? Any help is greatly appreciated. All the best, Ethem Kurt
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742
Feb ’25
visionOS: Unable to programmatically close child WindowGroup when parent window closes
Hi , I'm struggling with visionOS window management and need help with closing child windows programmatically. App Structure My app has a Main-Sub window hierarchy: AWindow (Home/Main) BWindow (Main feature window) CWindow (Tool window - child of BWindow) Navigation flow: AWindow → BWindow (switch, 1 window on screen) BWindow → CWindow (opens child, 2 windows on screen) I want BWindow and CWindow to be separate movable windows (not sheet/popover) so users can position them independently in space. The Problem CWindow doesn't close when BWindow closes by tapping the X button below the app (next to the window bar) User clicks X on BWindow → BWindow closes but CWindow remains CWindow becomes orphaned on screen Can close CWindow programmatically when switching BWindow back to AWindow App launch issue After closing both windows, CWindow is remembered as last window Reopening app shows only CWindow instead of BWindow User gets stuck in CWindow with no way back to BWindow I've Tried Environment dismissWindow in cleanup but its not working. // In BWindow.swift .onDisappear { if windowManager.isWindowOpen("cWindow") { dismissWindow(id: "cWindow") } } My App Structure Code Now // in MyNameApp.swift @main struct MyNameApp: App { var body: some Scene { WindowGroup(id: "aWindow") { AWindow() } WindowGroup(id: "bWindow") { BWindow() } WindowGroup(id: "cWindow") { CWindow() } } } // WindowStateManager.swift class WindowStateManager: ObservableObject { static let shared = WindowStateManager() @Published private var openWindows: Set<String> = [] @Published private var windowDependencies: [String: String] = [:] private init() {} func markWindowAsOpen(_ id: String) { markWindowAsOpen(id, parent: nil) } func markWindowAsClosed(_ id: String) { openWindows.remove(id) windowDependencies[id] = nil } func isWindowOpen(_ id: String) -> Bool { let isOpen = openWindows.contains(id) return isOpen } func markWindowAsOpen(_ id: String, parent: String? = nil) { openWindows.insert(id) if let parentId = parent { windowDependencies[id] = parentId } } func getParentWindow(of childId: String) -> String? { let parent = windowDependencies[childId] return parent } func getChildWindows(of parentId: String) -> [String] { let children = windowDependencies.compactMap { key, value in value == parentId ? key : nil } return children } func setNextWindowParent(_ parentId: String) { UserDefaults.standard.set(parentId, forKey: "nextWindowParent") } func getAndClearNextWindowParent() -> String? { let parent = UserDefaults.standard.string(forKey: "nextWindowParent") UserDefaults.standard.removeObject(forKey: "nextWindowParent") return parent } func forceCloseChildWindows(of parentId: String) { let children = getChildWindows(of: parentId) for child in children { markWindowAsClosed(child) NotificationCenter.default.post( name: Notification.Name("ForceCloseWindow"), object: nil, userInfo: ["windowId": child] ) forceCloseChildWindows(of: child) } } func hasMainWindowOpen() -> Bool { let mainWindows = ["main", "bWindow"] return mainWindows.contains { isWindowOpen($0) } } func cleanupOrphanWindows() { for (child, parent) in windowDependencies { if isWindowOpen(child) && !isWindowOpen(parent) { NotificationCenter.default.post( name: Notification.Name("ForceCloseWindow"), object: nil, userInfo: ["windowId": child] ) markWindowAsClosed(child) } } } } // BWindow.swift struct BWindow: View { @Environment(\.dismissWindow) private var dismissWindow @ObservedObject private var windowManager = WindowStateManager.shared var body: some View { VStack { Button("Open C Window") { windowManager.setNextWindowParent("bWindow") openWindow(id: "cWindow") } } .onAppear { windowManager.markWindowAsOpen("bWindow") } .onDisappear { windowManager.markWindowAsClosed("bWindow") windowManager.forceCloseChildWindows(of: "bWindow") } .onChange(of: scenePhase) { oldValue, newValue in if newValue == .background || newValue == .inactive { windowManager.forceCloseChildWindows(of: "bWindow") } } } } // CWindow.swift import SwiftUI struct cWindow: View { @ObservedObject private var windowManager = WindowStateManager.shared @State private var shouldClose = false var body: some View { // Content } .onDisappear { windowManager.markWindowAsClosed("cWindow") NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver( self, name: Notification.Name("ForceCloseWindow"), object: nil ) } .onChange(of: scenePhase) { oldValue, newValue in if newValue == .background { } } .onAppear { let parent = windowManager.getAndClearNextWindowParent() windowManager.markWindowAsOpen("cWindow", parent: parent) NotificationCenter.default.addObserver( forName: Notification.Name("ForceCloseWindow"), object: nil, queue: .main) { notification in if let windowId = notification.userInfo?["windowId"] as? String, windowId == "cWindow" { shouldClose = true } } } .onChange(of: shouldClose) { _, newValue in if newValue { dismissWindow() } } } The logs show everything executes correctly, but CWindow remains visible on screen. Questions Why doesn't dismissWindow(id:) work in cleanup scenarios? Is there a proper way to create a window relationships like parent-child relationships in visionOS? How can I ensure main windows open on app launch instead of tool windows? What's the recommended pattern for dependent windows in visionOS? Environment: Xcode 16.2, visionOS 2.0, SwiftUI
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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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233
Aug ’25
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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346
Aug ’25
spatial-backdrop feature available yet?
In WWDC25 session What’s new for the spatial web, the presenter showed creating an immersive environment for a web page by adding to the page's HEAD section <link rel="spatial-backdrop" href="office.usdz" environmentmap="lighting.hdr"> My first attempt failed, and I am trying to track down why. Before I search all the potential failure paths, I wanted to ask the community, Is this feature available in the latest visionOS 26 beta? I haven't seen anyone talk about their use of the feature yet.
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201
Aug ’25
RealityKit fullscreen layer
Hi! I'm currently trying to render another XR scene in front of a RealityKit one. Actually, I'm anchoring a plane to the head with a shader to display for left/right eye side-by-side images. By default, the camera has a near plane so I can directly draw at z=0. Is there a way to change the camera near plane? Or maybe there is a better solution to overlay image/texture for left/right eyes? Ideally, I would layer some kind of CompositorLayer on RealityKit, but that's sadly not possible from what I know. Thanks in advance and have a good day!
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299
Jul ’25
How to configure Spatial Audio on a Video Material?, Compile error.
I've tried following apple's documentation to apply a video material on a Model Entity, but I have encountered a compile error while attempting to specify the Spatial Audio type. It is a 360 video on a Sphere which plays just fine, but the audio is too quiet compared to the volume I get when I preview the video on Xcode. So I tried tried to configure audio playback mode on the material but it gives me a compile error: "audioInputMode' is unavailable in visionOS audioInputMode' has been explicitly marked unavailable here RealityFoundation.VideoPlaybackController.audioInputMode)" https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/videomaterial/ Code: let player = AVPlayer(url: url) // Instantiate and configure the video material. let material = VideoMaterial(avPlayer: player) // Configure audio playback mode. material.controller.audioInputMode = .spatial // this line won’t compile. VisionOS 2.4, Xcode 16.4, also tried Xcode 26 beta 2. The videos are HEVC MPEG-4 codecs. Is there any other way to do this, or is there a workaround available? Thank you.
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235
Jul ’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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813
Jan ’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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227
Jul ’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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489
Feb ’25