Breaking Through PolySpatial's ~8k Object Limit – Seeking Alternative Approaches for Large-Scale Digital Twins
Confirmed: PolySpatial make Doubles MeshFilter Count – Hard Limit at ~8k Active Objects (15.9k Total)
Project Context & Research Goals
I’m developing an industrial digital twin application for Apple Vision Pro using Unity’s PolySpatial framework (RealityKit rendering in Unbounded_Volume mode). The scene contains complex factory environments with:
Production line equipment Many fragmented grid objects need to be merged.)
Dynamic product racks (state-switchable assets)
Animated worker avatars
To optimize performance, I’m systematically testing visionOS’s rendering capacity limits. Through controlled stress tests, I’ve identified a critical threshold:
Key Finding
When the total MeshFilter count reaches 15,970 (system baseline + 7,985 user-created objects × 2 due to PolySpatial cloning), the application crashes consistently. This suggests:
PolySpatial’s mirroring mechanism effectively doubles GameObject overhead
An apparent hard limit exists around ~8k active mesh objects in practice
Objectives for This Discussion
Verify if others have encountered similar limits with PolySpatial/RealityKit
Understand whether this is a:
Memory constraint (per-app allocation)
Render pipeline limit (Metal draw calls)
Unity-specific PolySpatial behavior
Explore optimization strategies beyond brute-force object reduction
Why This Matters
Industrial metaverse applications require rendering thousands of interactive objects . Confirming these limits will help our team:
Design safer content guidelines
Prioritize GPU instancing/LOD investments
Potentially contribute back to PolySpatial’s optimization
I’d appreciate insights from engineers who’ve:
Pushed similar large-scale scenes in visionOS
Worked around PolySpatial’s cloning overhead
Discovered alternative capacity limits (vertices/draw calls)
Delve into the world of graphics and game development. Discuss creating stunning visuals, optimizing game mechanics, and share resources for game developers.
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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.
I am using Unreal Engine 5.6 on a MacBook Pro with an M3 chip and macOS 15.5. I’ve installed Xcode and accepted the license, but Unreal is not detecting the latest Metal Shader Standard (Metal v3.0). The maximum version Unreal sees is Metal v2.4, even though the hardware and OS should support Metal 3.0. I’ve also run sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app and accepted the license via Terminal. Is there anything in Xcode settings, SDK availability, or system permissions that could be preventing access to Metal 3.0 features?"
Hi ,
My application meet below crash backtrace at very low repro rate from the public users, i do not see it relate to a specific iOS version or iPhone model. The last code line from my application is calling CAMetalLayer nextDrawable API.
I did some basic studying, suppose it may relate to the wrong CAMetaLayer configuration, like
frame property w or h <= 0.0
bounds property w or h <= 0.0
drawableSize w or h <= 0.0 or w or h > max value (like 16384)
Not sure my above thinking is right or not? Will the UIView which my CAMetaLayer attached will cause such nextDrawable crash or not ?
Thanks a lot
Main Thread - Crashed
libsystem_kernel.dylib
__pthread_kill
libsystem_c.dylib
abort
libsystem_c.dylib
__assert_rtn
Metal
MTLReportFailure.cold.1
Metal
MTLReportFailure
Metal
_MTLMessageContextEnd
Metal
-[MTLTextureDescriptorInternal validateWithDevice:]
AGXMetalA13
0x245b1a000 + 4522096
QuartzCore
allocate_drawable_texture(id<MTLDevice>, __IOSurface*, unsigned int, unsigned int, MTLPixelFormat, unsigned long long, CAMetalLayerRotation, bool, NSString*, unsigned long)
QuartzCore
get_unused_drawable(_CAMetalLayerPrivate*, CAMetalLayerRotation, bool, bool)
QuartzCore
CAMetalLayerPrivateNextDrawableLocked(CAMetalLayer*, CAMetalDrawable**, unsigned long*)
QuartzCore
-[CAMetalLayer nextDrawable]
SpaceApp
-[MetalRender renderFrame:] MetalRenderer.mm:167
SpaceApp
-[FrameBuffer acceptFrame:] VideoRender.mm:173
QuartzCore
CA::Display::DisplayLinkItem::dispatch_(CA::SignPost::Interval<(CA::SignPost::CAEventCode)835322056>&)
QuartzCore
CA::Display::DisplayLink::dispatch_items(unsigned long long, unsigned long long, unsigned long long)
QuartzCore
CA::Display::DisplayLink::dispatch_deferred_display_links(unsigned int)
UIKitCore
_UIUpdateSequenceRun
UIKitCore
schedulerStepScheduledMainSection
UIKitCore
runloopSourceCallback
CoreFoundation
__CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE0_PERFORM_FUNCTION__
CoreFoundation
__CFRunLoopDoSource0
CoreFoundation
__CFRunLoopDoSources0
CoreFoundation
__CFRunLoopRun
CoreFoundation
CFRunLoopRunSpecific
GraphicsServices
GSEventRunModal
UIKitCore
-[UIApplication _run]
UIKitCore
UIApplicationMain
When I take a frame capture of my application in Xcode, it shows a warning that reads "Your application created separate command encoders which can be combined into a single encoder. By combining these encoders you may reduce your application's load/store bandwidth usage."
In the minimal reproduction case I've identified for this warning, I have two render pipeline states: The first writes to the current drawable, the depth buffer, and a secondary color buffer. The second writes only to the current drawable.
Because these are writing to a different set of outputs, I was initially creating two separate render command encoders to handle the draws under each of these states.
My understanding is that Xcode is telling me I could only create one, however when I try to do that, I get runtime asserts when attempting to apply the second render pipeline state since it doesn't have a matching attachment configured for the second color buffer or for the depth buffer, so I can't just combine the encoders.
Is the only solution here to detect and propagate forward the color/depth attachments from the first state into the creation of the second state?
Is there any way to suppress this specific warning in Xcode?
Topic:
Graphics & Games
SubTopic:
Metal
Apple, please bring back SceneKit.
Hello
I would like to know how to combine 2 animations with RealityKit (one animation for the arms and one for the legs for example)
I saw this apple demo that seems to explain it but I don't understand at all how to do it...
Thanks
The sample code here, has code like:
// Create a display link capable of being used with all active displays
cvReturn = CVDisplayLinkCreateWithActiveCGDisplays(&_displayLink);
But that function's doc says it's deprecated and to use NSView/NSWindow/NSScreen displayLink instead. That returns CADisplayLink, not CVDisplayLink.
Also the documentation for that displayLink method is completely empty. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to add it to run loop, or what, after I get it.
It would be nice to get an updated version of this sample project and/or have some documentation in NSView.displayLink
Topic:
Graphics & Games
SubTopic:
Metal
Hello experts, I'm trying to implement a material with custom shader code, but I saw that visionOS doesn't allow you to inject custom Metal functions or use CustomMaterial like iOS/macOS, nor can you directly write Metal Shading Language (.metal) and use it through ShaderGraphMaterial. So my question is, if i want to implement your own shader code, how should i do it?
This week, I developed a small multiplatform RealityKit project. I also created a demo scene in Reality Composer Pro. Afterward, I imported the local package into the project. Running the project on macOS works perfectly. However, when I tried to run it on my iPhone, I encountered a permission error indicating that it couldn’t read the package. This seems unusual to me because I assumed that the dependency is bundled into the binary file. In an attempt to resolve the issue, I pushed the RCP package to GitHub, hoping it would work. Fortunately, everything compiles successfully now, but the loading time is significantly long, and the animations don’t play on tap gestures.
Could someone please help me identify the root cause of this problem?
Im new in the Mac area but for sure not UE. Windows is a long process to packaging but it could be done. All the documentation for Epic and from the internet is basically non existent with exactly how to package a project within UE. I have Xcode installed which makes sense, agreed to terms and install for MacOS, I've been able to make a project for several weeks now and want to package for a test run for my friends to play on Windows. Now I just get this in the log:
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): ERROR: Failed to finalize the .app with Xcode. Check the log for more information
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): Trace written to file /Users/rileysleger/Library/Logs/Unreal Engine/LocalBuildLogs/UBA-ProjectNightTerror-Mac-Development.uba with size 12.6kb
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): Total time in Unreal Build Accelerator local executor: 8.12 seconds
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): Result: Failed (OtherCompilationError)
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): Total execution time: 9.71 seconds
PackagingResults: Error: Failed to finalize the .app with Xcode. Check the log for more information
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): Took 9.77s to run dotnet, ExitCode=6
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): UnrealBuildTool failed. See log for more details. (/Users/rileysleger/Library/Logs/Unreal Engine/LocalBuildLogs/UBA-ProjectNightTerror-Mac-Development.txt)
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): AutomationTool executed for 0h 0m 10s
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): AutomationTool exiting with ExitCode=6 (6)
UATHelper: Packaging (Mac): RunUAT ERROR: AutomationTool was unable to run successfully. Exited with code: 6
PackagingResults: Error: AutomationTool was unable to run successfully. Exited with code: 6
PackagingResults: Error: Unknown Error
This absolutely makes no sense to me. Anyone have ideas?
We are seeing crashes in Xcode organizer. So far we are not able to reproduce them locally. They affect multiple app releases (some older, built with Xcode 15.x and newer built with Xcode 16.0). They only affect iOS 18.5.
Is there anything that changed in latest iOS? It's hard to tell what exactly is causing this crash because setting symbolic breakpoint on CA::Render::Image::new_image(unsigned int, unsigned int, unsigned int, unsigned int, CGColorSpace*, void const*, unsigned long const*, void (*)(void const*, void*), void*) triggers this breakpoint all the time, but not necessarily with exactly the previous stack frames matching the crash report.
Is it a known issue?
crash.crash
Thank you.
I want to use reality to create a custom material that can use my own shader and support Mesh instancing (for rendering 3D Gaussian splating), but I found that CustomMaterial does not support VisionOS. Is there any other interface that can achieve my needs? Where can I find examples?
Topic:
Graphics & Games
SubTopic:
RealityKit
I want to use reality to create a custom material that can use my own shader and support Mesh instancing (for rendering 3D Gaussian splating), but I found that CustomMaterial does not support VisionOS. Is there any other interface that can achieve my needs? Where can I find examples?
Topic:
Graphics & Games
SubTopic:
RealityKit
Is there any limitation in Vision Pro when loading scenes with large-scale models?
Test Case:
Asset: Composite USDA file containing 10 individual models (total triangles count: ~4.2M)
Simulator: Loads and renders correctly
Real Device:
Loads asset successfully but failure during rendering phase:
Environment abruptly dims
System spontaneously reboots
How can we resolve this issue?
Below are excerpted logs preceding the crash:
<<<< FigAudioSession(AV) >>>> audioSessionAVAudioSession_CopyMXSessionProperty signalled err=-19224 (kFigAudioSessionError_UnsupportedOperation) (getMXSessionProperty unsupported) at FigAudioSession_AVAudioSession.m:606
Attempted to add ornament: <MRUIPlatterOrnament: 0x10a658f00; _isInternal: YES; _displaceWindowChrome: NO; _canCaptureUI: NO; _isBeingRemoved: NO; contentAnchorPoint3D: "{0.5, 0.5, 0}"; position: <MRUIPlatterOrnamentRelativePosition: 0x105b68e70; anchorPoint: {0.5, 0.5, 1}>; rotation: "{{0, 0, 0}, 0}"; opacity: 1.000000; canFollowUser: YES; effectiveOffset: "{0, 0, 0}"; presentingViewController: 0x0; billboardingBehavior: 0x0; scalingBehavior: 0x0; relativeToParent: NO; nonHeritableDepthDisplacement: 0.000000; order: 0.000000; _window._determinedSize: {0, 0}; _window: (null)> to nil or non-supporting UIScene: <UIWindowScene: 0x10a8a0000; role: UISceneSessionRoleImmersiveSpaceApplication; persistentIdentifier: test.test:SFBSystemService-BA3A21A3-D1AB-42E2-8AF0-AE0AB83BE528; activationState: UISceneActivationStateUnattached>. No action taken.
Failed to set dependencies on asset 2823930584475958382 because NetworkAssetManager does not have an asset entity for that id.
apply fence tx failed (client=0x98490e18) [0x10000003 (ipc/send) invalid destination port]
Failed to commit transaction (client=0xa86516e2) [0x10000003 (ipc/send) invalid destination port]
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
Hello,
I'm getting this error when launching a SpriteKit Swift game in iOS 18+ on an iPhone 11 Pro, whose shell is partly damaged in the back:
CHHapticEngine.mm:1206 -[CHHapticEngine doStartWithCompletionHandler:]_block_invoke: ERROR: Player start failed: The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.CoreHaptics error 1852797029.)
Haptics do not work on this device, due to the damaged shell, so some error — which obviously occurs when calling start(completionHandler:) — is definitely expected; what is not expected is the main thread sometimes blocking for up to 5 seconds — although the method is not called from the main thread... the error itself is always displayed from some other secondary (system) thread. During this time, the main thread does not access the haptics engine at all; on average, it blocks once every four or five launches. In each launch (blocking or not), the 'nope' error is displayed ~5 seconds after trying to start the engine.
After going nuts with all kinds of breakpoints and instrumentation, I'm at a loss as to why the main thread would sometimes block...
Ideas, anyone?
Thank you,
D.
Description:
In the official visionOS 26 Hover Effect sample code project , I encountered an issue where the event.trackingAreaIdentifier returned by onSpatialEvent does not reset as expected.
Steps to Reproduce:
Select an object with trackingAreaID = 6 in the sample app.
Look at a blank space (outside any tracking area) and perform a pinch gesture .
Expected Behavior:
The event.trackingAreaIdentifier should return 0 when interacting with a non-tracking area.
Actual Behavior:
The event.trackingAreaIdentifier still returns 6, even after restarting the app or killing the process. This persists regardless of where the pinch gesture is performed
Hi,
What's the best way to handle drastic changes in scene charateristics with the new MTLFXTemporalDenoisedScaler?
Let's say a visible object of the scene radically changes its material properties. I can modify the albedo and roughness textures consequently. But I suspect the history will be corrupted. Blending visual information between the new frame and the previous ones might be a nonsense.
I guess the problem should be the same when objects appear or disappear instantly.
Is the upsacler manage these events for us (by lowering blending), or should we use the reactive or the denoise strength mask or something like that to handle them?
Hey all — I’ve been building out my first set of Game Center Achievements for a game I’m working on, and I’ve run into something odd with the image quality.
The specs say to upload icons at 512x512 or 1024x1024@2x. I’ve been uploading 1024x1024 PNGs (without explicitly naming them “@2x” since there’s only one upload slot), assuming that Game Center would just handle the scaling automatically — kind of like how a lot of things are getting more streamlined across platforms lately.
But in testing, the icons are showing up a bit blurry, especially in the Game Center interface. It’s not horrible, but it’s definitely softer than I expected — more like low-res than Retina.
All my test devices (outside the Simulator) are running iOS 26, so I’m also wondering if this might be a beta-related display bug?
Has anyone else run into this? Curious if I’m missing a best practice here, or if I really do need to ensure I’m uploading it with the @2x suffix, or maybe something else entirely?
Thanks!