Integrate iOS device camera and motion features to produce augmented reality experiences in your app or game using ARKit.

ARKit Documentation

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Human Body joint tracking in VisionOS
The goal is to achieve precise joint tracking for clinical assessment. The Doctor is wearing the AVP and observing the Patients movement. Do you have any recommended best practices for integrating real-time joint tracking and displaying them on the patient within visionOS? We attempted to use VNHumanBodyPose3DObservation, which theoretically should work, but we are unable to display the detected joints in an Immersive Space for real-time validation. This makes it difficult for the doctor to ensure accurate tracking and if possible a photo or video of the Range of Motion assessment would be needed for the patient record. Are there alternative methods to achieve precise real-time joint tracking without requiring main camera access (com.apple.developer.arkit.main-camera-access.allow)?
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Mar ’25
Person Occlusion on the Vision Pro
I am currently creating an app where two people share an instance of an immersive space so that they are able to point to certain things in the immersive space. Right now, other people are hidden behind the immersive space, and even with people awareness enabled for everything, people are still too difficult to see. I've found this documentation (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/arkit/occluding-virtual-content-with-people) which describes what I want to do, but it is only listed as working on iOS an iPadOS. Is there anything similar to this that will work on VisionOS?
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138
Mar ’25
ARKit Planes do not appear where expected on visionOS
I'm using ARKitSession and PlaneDetectionProvider to detect planes. I have a basics process to create an entity for each detected plane. Each one will get a random color for the material. Each plane is sized based on the bounds of the anchor provided by ARKit. let mesh = MeshResource.generatePlane( width: anchor.geometry.extent.width, depth: anchor.geometry.extent.height ) Then I'm using this to position each entity. entity.transform = Transform(matrix: anchor.originFromAnchorTransform) This seems to be the right method, but many (not all) planes are not where they should be. The sizes look OK, but the X and Y positions off. Take this large green plane on the wall. It should span the entire wall, but it is offset along the X position so that it is pushed to the left from where the center of the anchor is. When I visualize surfaces using the Xcode debugging tools, that tool reports the planes where I'd expect them to be. Can you see what I'm getting wrong here? Full code below struct Example068: View { @State var session = ARKitSession() @State private var planeAnchors: [UUID: Entity] = [:] @State private var planeColors: [UUID: Color] = [:] var body: some View { RealityView { content in } update: { content in for (_, entity) in planeAnchors { if !content.entities.contains(entity) { content.add(entity) } } } .task { try! await setupAndRunPlaneDetection() } } func setupAndRunPlaneDetection() async throws { let planeData = PlaneDetectionProvider(alignments: [.horizontal, .vertical, .slanted]) if PlaneDetectionProvider.isSupported { do { try await session.run([planeData]) for await update in planeData.anchorUpdates { switch update.event { case .added, .updated: let anchor = update.anchor if planeColors[anchor.id] == nil { planeColors[anchor.id] = generatePastelColor() } let planeEntity = createPlaneEntity(for: anchor, color: planeColors[anchor.id]!) planeAnchors[anchor.id] = planeEntity case .removed: let anchor = update.anchor planeAnchors.removeValue(forKey: anchor.id) planeColors.removeValue(forKey: anchor.id) } } } catch { print("ARKit session error \(error)") } } } private func generatePastelColor() -> Color { let hue = Double.random(in: 0...1) let saturation = Double.random(in: 0.2...0.4) let brightness = Double.random(in: 0.8...1.0) return Color(hue: hue, saturation: saturation, brightness: brightness) } private func createPlaneEntity(for anchor: PlaneAnchor, color: Color) -> Entity { let mesh = MeshResource.generatePlane( width: anchor.geometry.extent.width, depth: anchor.geometry.extent.height ) var material = PhysicallyBasedMaterial() material.baseColor.tint = UIColor(color) let entity = ModelEntity(mesh: mesh, materials: [material]) entity.transform = Transform(matrix: anchor.originFromAnchorTransform) return entity } }
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Apr ’25
How to Achieve Realistic Colors and Textures in LiDAR Scanning with Swift
Hello, I'm developing a LiDAR-based scanning app using Swift, where I can successfully perform scans and export the results as .obj files. My goal is to have the scan's colors and textures closely resemble real-world visuals as captured by the camera, similar to the results shown in this repository. In the referenced repository, the result is demonstrated with a single screenshot, but I want to display the textures and colors throughout the entire scanning process, not just at the final result. To clarify, I'm not focused on scanning individual objects but rather larger environments like rooms, houses, or outdoor spaces such as streets. Here’s what I’m aiming for: Realistic colors and textures that match what the camera sees during the scan. Continuous texture rendering during the scanning process, not just in the final exported model. Could anyone share guidance, sample code, or point me to relevant documentation to achieve this? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
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May ’25
Transparent Material Turning into Occlusion Material
I am trying to create an object in immersive space that is partially transparent (~50% opacity). I have implemented this in a few different ways including creating a model entity and setting its opacity component to 0.5, and creating a custom material with blending set to a transparent opacity of 0.5. These both work partially, as they behaved as intended for many cases, but seemingly randomly would act like occlusion material and block any other immersive content behind them, showing the real world instead. Some notes: I am using RealityKit to render the semi-transparent object and an opaque object that is behind the semi-transparent object. I am using VisionOS 2.1, and am updating the location of the semi-transparent object often. Both objects are ModelEntities. I would appreciate any guidance on how to implement this. Please let me know if there are any other questions.
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168
May ’25
ARKit sessionInterruptionEnded never called in Window Mode.
Hi 26 beta guys, I have apps using ARKit. In iPadOS 26 beta, ARKit stops working after switching to other apps. how to: Enable WindowMode in iPadOS 26 Launch my app and start ARSession Switch to another app (preference app, etc.) Switch back to my app AR stops updating camerafeed. I debug printed ARSessionDelegate, and found that after sessionWasInterrupted was called, sessionInterruptionEnded was never called. sessionInterruptionEnded is called if WindowMode disabled. Is this just a bug for 26 beta? I suspect there is similar problem with non-AR camera. Any idea?
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Jun ’25
Projecting a Cube with a Number in ARKit
I'm a novice in RealityKit and ARKit. I'm using ARKit in SwiftUI to show a cube with a number as shown below. import SwiftUI import RealityKit import ARKit struct ContentView : View { var body: some View { return ARViewContainer() } } #Preview { ContentView() } struct ARViewContainer: UIViewRepresentable { typealias UIViewType = ARView func makeUIView(context: UIViewRepresentableContext<ARViewContainer>) -> ARView { let arView = ARView(frame: .zero, cameraMode: .ar, automaticallyConfigureSession: true) arView.enableTapGesture() return arView } func updateUIView(_ uiView: ARView, context: UIViewRepresentableContext<ARViewContainer>) { } } extension ARView { func enableTapGesture() { let tapGestureRecognizer = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(handleTap(recognizer:))) self.addGestureRecognizer(tapGestureRecognizer) } @objc func handleTap(recognizer: UITapGestureRecognizer) { let tapLocation = recognizer.location(in: self) // print("Tap location: \(tapLocation)") guard let rayResult = self.ray(through: tapLocation) else { return } let results = self.raycast(from: tapLocation, allowing: .estimatedPlane, alignment: .any) if let firstResult = results.first { let position = simd_make_float3(firstResult.worldTransform.columns.3) placeObject(at: position) } } func placeObject(at position: SIMD3<Float>) { let mesh = MeshResource.generateBox(size: 0.3) let material = SimpleMaterial(color: UIColor.systemRed, roughness: 0.3, isMetallic: true) let modelEntity = ModelEntity(mesh: mesh, materials: [material]) var unlitMaterial = UnlitMaterial() if let textureResource = generateTextResource(text: "1", textColor: UIColor.white) { unlitMaterial.color = .init(tint: .white, texture: .init(textureResource)) modelEntity.model?.materials = [unlitMaterial] let id = UUID().uuidString modelEntity.name = id modelEntity.transform.scale = [0.3, 0.1, 0.3] modelEntity.generateCollisionShapes(recursive: true) let anchorEntity = AnchorEntity(world: position) anchorEntity.addChild(modelEntity) self.scene.addAnchor(anchorEntity) } } func generateTextResource(text: String, textColor: UIColor) -> TextureResource? { if let image = text.image(withAttributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: textColor], size: CGSize(width: 18, height: 18)), let cgImage = image.cgImage { let textureResource = try? TextureResource(image: cgImage, options: TextureResource.CreateOptions.init(semantic: nil)) return textureResource } return nil } } I tap the floor and get a cube with '1' as shown below. The background color of the cube is black, I guess. Where does this color come from and how can I change it into, say, red? Thanks.
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163
Jul ’25
Keyboard Tracking
Hi! I'm currently experimenting on Apple Vision Pro with hand and head anchors. Is there a way to get an anchor linked to the apple magic keyboard (as the detection is already done to display inputs at the top)? Thanks in advance, Have a good day!
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649
Jul ’25
Perspective problem
Hi, I called it "perspective problem", but I'm not quite sure what it is. I have a tag that I track with builtin camera. I calculate its pose, then use extrinsics and device anchor to calculate where to place entity with model. When I place an entity that overlaps with physical object and start to look at it from different angles, the virtual object begins to move. Initially I thought that it's something wrong with calculations, or some image distortion closer to camera edges is affecting tag detection. To check, I calculated the position only once and displayed entity there, the physical tracked object is not moving. Now, when I move my head, so the object is more to the left, or right in my field of view, the virtual object becomes misaligned to the left, or right. It feels like a parallax effect, but distance from me to entity and to physical object are exactly the same. Is that expected, because of some passthrough correction magic? And if so, can I somehow correct it back, so the entity always overlaps with object? I'm currently on v26 beta 5. I also don't quite understand the camera extrinsics, because it seems that I need to flip it around X by 180 degrees to make it work in deviceAnchor * extrinsics.inverse * tag (shouldn't it be in same coordinates as all other RealityKit things?).
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255
Aug ’25
Rendering scene in RealityView to an Image
Is there any way to render a RealityView to an Image/UIImage like we used to be able to do using SCNView.snapshot() ? ImageRenderer doesn't work because it renders a SwiftUI view hierarchy, and I need the currently presented RealityView with camera background and 3D scene content the way the user sees it I tried UIHostingController and UIGraphicsImageRenderer like extension View { func snapshot() -> UIImage { let controller = UIHostingController(rootView: self) let view = controller.view let targetSize = controller.view.intrinsicContentSize view?.bounds = CGRect(origin: .zero, size: targetSize) view?.backgroundColor = .clear let renderer = UIGraphicsImageRenderer(size: targetSize) return renderer.image { _ in view?.drawHierarchy(in: view!.bounds, afterScreenUpdates: true) } } } but that leads to the app freezing and sending an infinite loop of [CAMetalLayer nextDrawable] returning nil because allocation failed. Same thing happens when I try return renderer.image { ctx in view.layer.render(in: ctx.cgContext) } Now that SceneKit is deprecated, I didn't want to start a new app using deprecated APIs.
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1.1k
Sep ’25
How to best manage ARKitSession in concurrent code
I have a visionOS app where I instantiate ARKitSession and various providers (HandTrackingProvider and WorldTrackingProvider) in my appModel. That way, I can pass these providers to a Task which runs a gRPC server for sending the data from these providers to a client. When the users enters the immersive space of the app, the ARKitSession will run the providers if they are not running already. I am now trying to implement the AccessoryTrackingProvider with the PSVR sense controllers but it does not fit with my current framework because the controllers may not be connected when the ARKitSession.run function is called. So I need to find a new place to start the session. My question is, if I already have a session which is running the hand and world tracking providers, can I start another session to run the accessory tracking? Should they all be running on the same session? Is there a way to stop the session and restart it when the controllers are connected? When I tried this, I get an error that says "It is not possible to re-run a stopped data provider (<ar_hand_tracking_provider_t: " but if I instantiate a new HandTrackingProvider, then the one that got passed to the gRPC task would no longer be the one running in the new session. Any advice on how best to manage the various providers and ARKit sessions would be greatly appreciated.
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236
Nov ’25
Access Main Camera not working in VisionOS 26.1
I downloaded the official sample project “Accessing the Main Camera”, but I found that it’s not able to retrieve the camera feed on visionOS 26.1. After checking the debug logs, it seems the issue is caused by the system being unable to find the expected format. I tested on a device running visionOS 2, and the camera feed worked correctly — but only when using the sample code from the visionOS 2 version, not the current one. I also noticed that some of the APIs have changed between versions. Has anyone managed to successfully access the camera feed on visionOS 26.1?
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802
Nov ’25
RealityView and Persistent World Data?
I was watching the Developer videos, and there was mention that RealityView handles persistent world data differently and also automatically for us. I am having an issue finding the material I need to get up to speed on that. In ARKit, I was able to place a model with the world data and recall that .map data. It even stored a reference image for the scene to help match the world data. I'm looking for the information on how to implement and work with those same features with RealityView, as it seems to be better/automatically integrated? I need help being pointed in the right direction. Sample code would be amazing.
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592
Feb ’25
VisionOS Main Camera Enterprise API: Development license into distribution for Business Store
Hello, We've been working for months now on an App for the Vision Pro. (it's been great btw!) We already have an App in the App Store for iOS, and have been migrating our platform from the Microsoft Hololens 2 to the AVP: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9NPPP031VHD1 We require the Main Camera access and already have gotten the Enterprise.license for development purposes. Unfortunately, we cannot publish our Business App (which uses an Enterprise API) under the same Name/Bundle ID as our iOS App because it would conflict with our current Distribution Method. We arrived at the conclusion that we need a new Enterprise.license under a different Bundle ID to create a new App for the Business Store. Has anyone been in the same boat as us, and tried to publish to the Business Store while already having an App in the Public App Store under the same name? We applied to get another license for distribution under another name (with "Pro" at the end), but it's been stuck in limbo for over a month now (probably because the new bundle ID doesn't have any track record). Anyhow, thanks for any help, we're open to suggestions as to how to proceed!
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473
Feb ’25
How to use `EnvironmentLightEstimationProvider` to capture a environment texture and apply it on an model entity?
I am a newby of spatial computing. Here I am learning how to use ARKit to capture the environment texture and apply it on a ModelEntity of RealityKit on Vision Pro. But I do not find a demo of how to use EnvironmentLightEstimationProvider. After checking the documentation, I also have some questions: EnvironmentProbeAnchor.environmentTexture is a MTLTexture, but EnvironmentResource needs a CGImage. How do I translate MTLTexture to CGImage(Forgive me that I do not know much about Metal or other framework, so It will be better if there is a code that I can copy and paste directly) It seems that the EnvironmentProbeAnchor can only get the light information around the device. But what should I do if I want get the light information around the ModelEntity so that I can apply the environment texture on it. It will be better if you can provide a code demo about how to use the new api. Thank you!
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603
Feb ’25