Hi Apple Developer Forums,
I'm developing a visionOS video streaming app that uses a custom immersive cinema experience with RealityKit. I have a question about enabling video reflections in an immersive environment.
My Current Implementation
I'm using VideoMaterial with AVPlayer to display video on a ModelEntity plane in an immersive space:
// Create screen mesh let screenMesh = MeshResource.generatePlane( width: VideoTheater.screenWidth, height: VideoTheater.screenHeight, cornerRadius: 0.0 ) let screenEntity = ModelEntity(mesh: screenMesh)
// Apply VideoMaterial with AVPlayer screenEntity.model?.materials = [VideoMaterial(avPlayer: player)]
The video renders correctly in the immersive space, but I don't see any video reflections on surrounding surfaces.
Apple's Documentation Approach
According to the documentation at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/visionos/enabling-vid eo-reflections-in-an-immersive-environment, the recommended approach uses:
- AVPlayerViewController for video playback
- dockingRegion modifier to specify where the video should appear
- The system automatically handles reflections
My Question
Is using AVPlayerViewController with dockingRegion the only way to get video reflections in an immersive environment? Or is it possible to enable reflections when using VideoMaterial directly with RealityKit's ModelEntity?
My app requires a custom immersive cinema experience with:
- Custom screen positioning and scaling
- Danmaku (bullet comments) overlay
- Custom gesture controls
- HDR/Dolby Vision support
Switching to AVPlayerViewController would require significant architectural changes, so I'd prefer to keep my current VideoMaterial approach if reflections can be enabled somehow.
If VideoMaterial cannot produce reflections, are there any alternative approaches to achieve diffuse video reflections with a custom RealityKit setup?
Environment
- visionOS 2.x
- RealityKit
- AVPlayer with custom resource loader (for DASH streams)
Thank you for any guidance!