Improvements for realistic glass materials in Reality Composer Pro 3?

I have a question about material authoring improvements in Reality Composer Pro 3, especially for transparent or refractive PBR materials.

In Reality Composer Pro 2, I found it difficult to create convincing glass-like materials. For example, the available Shader Graph nodes seemed limited for this use case, and I could not find common controls or nodes that are often useful for glass and crystal materials, such as Fresnel-style effects or more direct refraction-related controls.

I would like to understand whether Reality Composer Pro 3 has improved this area.

Specifically:

  1. Does Reality Composer Pro 3 provide better support for realistic glass, crystal, acrylic, or transparent PBR materials?

  2. Are there new Shader Graph nodes or material controls that help with Fresnel-style edge reflections, angle-dependent transparency, or similar effects?

  3. Does Reality Composer Pro 3 support index of refraction / IOR controls for transparent or refractive materials?

  4. Is there any supported way to create real refraction or physically plausible transmission for glass-like materials in RCP 3?

  5. If true refraction or IOR control is not supported, what is the recommended approach for creating convincing glass, crystal, or polished transparent materials for visionOS apps?

  6. Are there any sample projects, documentation pages, or WWDC sessions that show the recommended material setup for glass-like surfaces in Reality Composer Pro 3?

My goal is to create visually believable glass and crystal-style materials inside the standard visionOS / RealityKit rendering pipeline, preferably using supported RCP material tools rather than unsupported shader workarounds.

Any guidance on the current capabilities and recommended workflow in Reality Composer Pro 3 would be appreciated.

Answered by Graphics and Games Engineer in 891549022

Unfortunately, our rendering pipeline doesn't currently support refraction, so I suspect that it will be difficult for you to replicate the look you are trying to achieve. I would encourage you to file a feature request for this on Feedback Assistant.

Unfortunately, our rendering pipeline doesn't currently support refraction, so I suspect that it will be difficult for you to replicate the look you are trying to achieve. I would encourage you to file a feature request for this on Feedback Assistant.

Also been filing feedback on this for a while — FB9381211 (filed 2021, still open), referencing the USD Preview Surface ior spec.

For what it's worth on iOS: I've been faking refraction by grabbing the camera texture and doing a screen-space UV sample with an offset based on the surface normal. Works for the passthrough background, but the obvious limitation is it doesn't refract other virtual entities sitting behind the glass — the camera frame doesn't contain them.

Would love to see first-party support for proper transmission as well!

Improvements for realistic glass materials in Reality Composer Pro 3?
 
 
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