# Creating an immersive ar experience with audio Use sound effects and environmental sound layers to create an engaging AR experience. ## Overview This sample app uses SceneKit’s node-based audio API to associate environmental sounds with a virtual object that’s placed in the real world. Because audio is 3D positional in SceneKit by default, volume is automatically mixed based on the user’s distance from a node. ## Getting started - This sample code supports `Relocalization` and therefore, it requires ARKit 1.5 (iOS 11.3) or greater - ARKit is not available in the iOS Simulator - Building the sample requires Xcode 9.3 or later ## Run an AR session and place virtual content Before you can use audio, you need to set up a session and place the object from which to play sound. For simplicity, this sample runs a world tracking configuration and places a virtual object on the first horizontal plane that it detects. For more detail about this kind of session setup, see [Tracking and visualizing planes](/documentation/ARKit/tracking-and-visualizing-planes). The object placement approach in this sample is similar to the one demonstrated in [Placing objects and handling 3D interaction](/documentation/ARKit/placing-objects-and-handling-3d-interaction) ## Add 3D audio to the scene To play audio from a given position in 3D space, create an from an audio file. This sample loads the file from the bundle in `viewDidLoad`: ```swift // As an environmental sound layer, audio should play indefinitely audioSource.loops = true // Decode the audio from disk ahead of time to prevent a delay in playback audioSource.load() ``` Then, the audio source is configured and prepared: ```swift // As an environmental sound layer, audio should play indefinitely audioSource.loops = true // Decode the audio from disk ahead of time to prevent a delay in playback audioSource.load() ``` When you’re ready to play the sound, create an , passing it the audio source: ```swift // Create a player from the source and add it to `objectNode` objectNode.addAudioPlayer(SCNAudioPlayer(source: audioSource)) ``` > Note: For best results, use mono audio files. SceneKit’s audio engine uses panning to create 3D positional effects, so stereo audio sources produce less recognizable 3D audio effects. --- Copyright © 2026 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. | [Terms of Use](https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) | [Privacy Policy](https://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy)