We're using RealityKit to create a science education AR app for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS.
In the WWDC25 session video "Bring your SceneKit project to RealityKit" https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/288 at 8:15, it's explained that when using RealityKit, RealityView should be used in all cases, whereas in the past, SceneKit required SCNView, SceneView, or ARSCNView, depending on an app's requirements.
Because the initial development of our app on iOS predates iOS 18's RealityView, our app currently uses ARView to render RealityKit AR content on iOS and iPadOS.
Is it recommended that we migrate to RealityView, or can we safely continue using our existing ARView implementation? We'd prefer to avoid unnecessary development cost.
If migrating from ARView to RealityView is recommended, what specific benefits should we expect from this transition?
Thank you.
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I've loaded a ShaderGraphMaterial from a RealityKit content bundle and I'm attempting to access the initial values of its parameters using getParameter(handle:), but this method appears to always return nil:
let shaderGraphMaterial = try await ShaderGraphMaterial(named: "MyMaterial", from: "MyFile")
let namedParameterValue = shaderGraphMaterial.getParameter(name: "myParameter")
// This prints the value of the `myParameter` parameter, as expected.
print("namedParameterValue = \(namedParameterValue)")
let handle = ShaderGraphMaterial.parameterHandle(name: "myParameter")
let handleParameterValue = shaderGraphMaterial.getParameter(handle: handle)
// Expected behavior: prints the value of the `myParameter` parameter, as above.
// Observed behavior: prints `nil`.
print("handleParameterValue = \(handleParameterValue)")
Is this expected behavior?
Based on the documentation at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/shadergraphmaterial/getparameter(handle:) I'd expect getParameter(handle:) to return the value of the parameter, just as getParameter(name:) does.
I've tested this on iOS 18.5 and iOS 26.0 beta 2.
Assuming this getParameter(handle:) works as designed, is the following ShaderGraphMaterial extension an appropriate workaround, or can you recommend a better approach?
Thank you.
public extension ShaderGraphMaterial {
/// Reassigns the values of all named material parameters using the handle-based API.
///
/// This works around an issue where, at least as of RealityKit 26.0 beta 2 and
/// earlier, `getParameter(handle:)` will always return `nil` when used to read the
/// initial value of a shader graph material parameter read using
/// `ShaderGraphMaterial(named:from:in:)`, whereas `getParameter(name:)` will work
/// as expected.
private mutating func copyNamedParametersToHandles() {
for parameterName in self.parameterNames {
if let value = self.getParameter(name: parameterName) {
let handle = ShaderGraphMaterial.parameterHandle(name: parameterName)
do {
try self.setParameter(handle: handle, value: value)
} catch {
assertionFailure("Cannot set parameter value")
}
}
}
}
}
Topic:
Graphics & Games
SubTopic:
RealityKit
Tags:
RealityKit
Reality Composer Pro
Shader Graph Editor
visionOS
TL;DR: RealityKit and Reality Composer Pro aren't forward or backward compatible with each other, and the resulting error message is terse and unhelpful. (FB14828873)
So far, I've been sticking with Xcode 16.4 for development and only using Xcode 26.0 beta experimentally.
Yesterday, I used xcode-select to switch to Xcode 26.0 beta 3 to test it, but I forgot to switch back.
Consequently, this morning I unintentionally used the future Reality Composer Pro (the version included with Xcode 26) to make a small change to a USD file.
Now I realize that if I'm unlucky, it's possible Reality Composer Pro may have silently introduced a small change into the USD file that may make RealityKit fail to read the file on iOS 18 and visionOS 2, which in the past has resulted in hours of debugging to track down the source of the failure, often a single line in the USD file that RealityKit can't communicate to me other than with the error "the operation couldn't be completed".
As an analogy, this situation is as if, during regular development (not involving Reality Composer Pro), Xcode didn't warn you about specific API version conflicts, but instead failed with a generic error message, without highlighting the line in your Swift file that was the source of the error.
During regular use, RealityKit generates an excessive amount of internal logging that is not actionable by third party developers. When developing an iOS RealityKit/ARKit app, this makes the Xcode console challenging to use for regular work.
(FB19173812)
See screenshots below.
Xcode does have an option for filtering out logging from specific SDKs, but enabling this feature to suppress the logging of RealityKit and related SDKs like PHASE is something developers have to do dozens of times each day. After a year of developing a RealityKit app, this process becomes frustrating.
If SDKs like Foundation, UIKit, and SwiftUI generated as much logging as RealityKit and related SDKs, Xcode's console would be unusable.
Is there any way to disable the logging of RealityKit and PHASE permanently?
Thank you for any help you provide.
In visionOS, is there a way to temporarily hide the window close/position handle at the bottom of a window?
The Safari app does this, so it must be possible.
In RealityKit in visionOS 1.0 I'm perplexed that PhysicallyBasedMaterial and CustomMaterial have faceCulling properties but ShaderGraphMaterial does not.
Is there some way to achieve front face culling in a shader graph without creating a separate mesh with reversed triangle vertex indices?
Topic:
Graphics & Games
SubTopic:
RealityKit
Tags:
RealityKit
visionOS
Reality Composer Pro
Shader Graph Editor
In iOS 18.0, UICollectionView/scrollToItem(at:at:animated:) causes UICollectionView to scroll with an awkward stuttered animation at about 4 frames per second on the device.
This behavior is not observed in iOS 15, 16, or 17.
I submitted FB13986989 about this issue 6 weeks ago when I first observed it in iOS 18 beta 1, but I have not received a response.
The issue has not been fixed in iOS 18.0 beta 2, 3, or 4.
Is this a known issue? Does Apple intend to fix it?
Assuming Apple has not prioritized fixing this bug, could a UIKit engineer suggest a workaround?
My app relies on scrollTo working properly and now looks awful on iOS 18.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide.
On App Store Connect, when a new TestFlight build is uploaded, it's no longer possible to add a group to the build. (FB14892147)
I've seen this error message for 2+ hours.
Other developers are reporting this issue: https://x.com/manuel_kehl/status/1826678066392793188
Apple's developer system status page doesn't report an outage: https://developer.apple.com/system-status/
Thank you for investigating this issue.
Topic:
App Store Distribution & Marketing
SubTopic:
TestFlight
Tags:
App Store
App Store Connect
TestFlight
In my app, I have an ARView that has cameraMode set to nonAR.
I occasionally hide the ARView when it is not needed and reveal it again later.
While the ARView is hidden, I'd like to pause the animation to save iPhone battery life. I'd also like to do this when I know that animation in my scene has paused and the contents of the view, although still visible, is static.
This was possible using SceneKit, but I can't seem to find an equivalent way to do it using RealityKit.
At least as of iOS 18, a hidden ARView with an empty scene appears to use approximately 30% of the CPU.
How can I pause ARView so that it won't use the battery unnecessarily?
Thank you for considering this question.
My experience has been that ModelEntity(named:in:) can be used to load a USD file with a simple structure consisting of entities and model entities, and, critically, it will flatten the entity hierarchy down to a single ModelEntity, presumably reducing the number of draw calls.
However, can anyone verify that the following is true?
If ModelEntity(named:in:) is used to load a USD file from a RealityKit content bundle, it may fail when the USD file contains more complex data, such as shader graph material definitions, or perhaps for some other reason. I am not sure.
AND the error that ModelEntity(named:in:) throws in this case is
Cannot load RealityKitContent entity: Failed to find resource with name "<name>" in bundle
which would literally suggest that the file does not exist, instead of what I assume the error actually is, which is "the file exists but its entity hierarchy could not be flattened to a single ModelEntity" ?
Is that an accurate description of the known behavior of ModelEntity:named:in:)?
I understand that I could use Entity(named:in:) instead, without the flattening feature. My question is really more about the seemingly misleading error message.
Thank you for any clarification you can provide.
I'm watching the session video "What's new in Xcode 26" and when I try out the new #Playground macro (in the context of a local package in my project) I see only this activity indicator for about 10-15 minutes:
Eventually I do see this error:
Despite the error, my local package does not import SwiftUI and has no dependencies other than Foundation.
I checked the Xcode 26 release notes and I don't see this issue mentioned.
A clean build of my project takes 55 seconds. Is it expected behavior that #Playground would require 10+ minutes to spin up?
Is there anything I can to do make the new #Playground macro work correctly?
Thank you.
I recently added pushWindow to my app, and I discovered that in visionOS 26.2 RC (23N301), pushWindow followed by dismissWindow no longer works as expected.
Specifically, if the user moves the pushed window, then when the pushed window is later dismissed, the parent window's position isn't aligned with the pushed window's new position. Its original position is restored instead.
Curiously, the bug only happens when an app is launched from the visionOS home view, and not when an app is launched from Xcode. It also doesn't happen in the visionOS 26.2 simulator.
Another interesting detail is that while the parent window is hidden, if the user long-presses the Digital Crown and then dismisses the pushed window, the parent window's position seems to be immune from the Digital Crown scene reorientation. It's restored to its original real world position.
Demo video: https://youtu.be/zR3t2ON3Wz0
I've submitted feedback as FB21287011 with a sample app and detailed repro steps.
Has anyone else encountered this issue already and figured out a workaround? It would be nice if I could get pushWindow to work correctly in my app.
Thanks everybody! 😀
I posted https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/809481 yesterday about an issue I discovered with pushWindow in visionOS 26.2 RC, but today I discovered a second problem with pushWindow.
If window A calls pushWindow to present window B, and the user pins window B to a wall, the following unexpected behaviors are observed:
Window B spontaneously disappears.
If the user re-launches the (still running) app from the visionOS home view, both window A and window B appear simultaneously. I assume only window B should be visible at this point, since window A pushed window B.
If the user closes window B, it's now impossible to present window B again. Calls to pushWindow appear to be ignored.
If the user force-quits the app and relaunches it, and pushWindow is called again, window B appears, but window A remains visible.
I also noticed this surprising behavior:
This broken state of pushWindow behavior now affects all other apps on the system that may call pushWindow in the future, not just the app whose pushed window was pinned above.
A workaround is to reboot the device, and then the system will behave as expected until the next time the user pins a pushed window.
Does visionOS 2 still prompt the user with a permission alert when a full immersive space is presented?
In visionOS 1, the first time an app presented an immersive space, the user was prompted with an alert to grant permission. openImmersiveSpace would return an error code if the user opted not to grant permission. In visionOS 1, it was important to handle this case correctly.
In visionOS 1, the Settings > Developer menu had an option to reset the immersive user's space permission prompting state so developers could test this interaction flow.
In visionOS 2, I no longer see the full immersive space permissions alert. I can't remember if I saw it once, the first time visionOS 2.0 beta was installed, or if I never saw it at all. The Settings > Developer menu no longer has an option to reset the permission prompting state. I can't find any way to test the interaction flow in my app to make sure that it will work correctly for users.
Does visionOS 2 no longer ask for full immersive space permission at all? I can't find this change documented anywhere.
If visionOS 2 does prompt the user for permission, is there any way to reproduce and test this interaction flow so I can make sure my app handles it correctly?
Thanks for taking the time to answer this question.
I've installed Xcode 26.0 beta (17A5241e), and if I select my project from the Welcome to Xcode dialog, Xcode crashes.
I've attempted this 10 times with the same result each time.
What should I do?
Thank you.