Discuss spatial computing on Apple platforms and how to design and build an entirely new universe of apps and games for Apple Vision Pro.

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Animations exported from Blender does not shoe in Reality Composer Pro
I made an animation in Blender using geometry nodes that I exported to USDC file (then I used Reality Converter to convert to USDZ) and I can see the animation when viewing from the finder but does not play after importing to RCP. Any idea how I can play the animation? Or can the animation be accessed through Xcode? Thanks!
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1.1k
Apr ’25
Portal crossing causes inconsistent lighting and visual artifacts between virtual and real spaces (visionOS 2.0)
Hello, I'm working with the new PortalComponent introduced in visionOS 2.0, and I've encountered some issues when transitioning entities between virtual and real-world spaces using crossingMode. Specifically: Lighting inconsistency: When CG content (ModelEntities with PhysicallyBasedMaterial) crosses the portal from virtual space into the real environment, the way light reflects on the objects changes noticeably. This causes a jarring visual effect, as the same material appears differently depending on the space it's in. Unnatural transition visuals: During the transition, the CG models often appear to "emerge from the wall," especially when crossing from virtual to real. This ruins the immersive illusion and feels visually unnatural. IBL adjustment attempts: I’ve tried adding an ImageBasedLightComponent to the world entity, and while it slightly improves the lighting consistency, the issue still remains to a noticeable degree. My goal is to create a seamless visual experience when CG entities cross between spaces, without sudden lighting shifts or immersion-breaking geometry reveals. Has anyone else experienced similar issues? Is there a recommended setup or workaround to better control lighting and visual fidelity when using crossingMode with portals in visionOS 2.0? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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Jul ’25
Vision OS: HUD mode windows
If I correctly understand, a new Enterprise API has been introduced In visionOS 26 allowing to fix windows to the user frame of reference, implementing a something like an "head up display", with the window tracking the user movements. Is this API only available to enterprise applications, and if so is there a plan to make it available for every kind of app?
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Jun ’25
Accessing pupil diameter in visionOS
Previously I had developed software using SMI eye trackers, both screen mounted and their mobile glasses, for unique therapeutic and physiology applications. Sadly, after SMI was bought by Apple, their hardware and software have been taken off the market and now it is very difficult to get secondhand-market systems. The Apple Vision Pro integrates the SMI hardware. While I can use ARKit to get gaze position, I do not see a way to access information that was previously made accessible on the SMI hardware, particularly: dwell time and pupil diameter information. I am hopeful (or asking) to see that if a user has a properly set up Optic ID and would opt-in if, either on the present or a future version of visionOS, it might be possible to get access to the data streams for dwell times and pupil diameter. Pupil diameter is particularly important as it is a very good physiological measure of how much stress a person is encountering, which is critical to some of the therapeutic applications that formerly we used SMI hardware. Any ideas, or, if this is not possible, proposing this to the visionOS team would be appreciated!
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Jul ’25
How To Move Camera with PS5 Game Controller
Hello again! So, I am trying my best to figure out how to get a simple, fully Immersive scene that is navigable via the PS5 controller to work on Vision Pro. I am even using ChatGPT (both externally AND in Xcode when it makes fix recommendations) however, I seem to be moving around in circles, having to constantly send error messages back to ChatGPT, then try the new "confirmed to work" fixed code, only to have more errors. I also have explicitly let the AI know that I'm using all the current betas, only to learn there has been lots of stuff deprecated (of course!). This is my initial query to ChatGPT: "How can I create a fully immersive VR experience for Apple Vision Pro, using a PS5 game controller to navigate the user via first person view through a 3d scene?" And then down the rabbit hole the past few days. Seriously, I thought AI was supposed to be helpful! LOL Per Xcode logs, I'm seeing thumbstick movement, but simply cannot get the camera to move. Is this even possible?! Is it a camera defined in Reality Composer Pro? Or, does it need to be defined outside. I'm trying to follow along with the AI, but it seems to go back and forth with different solutions. Here is the latest it's spitting out: __ Thanks for this super clear log — and you’re absolutely right: the gamepad input is working, CameraRoot is moving as expected… but your actual camera view is not changing. This strongly suggests the issue is that RealityKit is not using your custom camera (PerspectiveCameraComponent) for rendering the view. ⸻ 🔍 What’s happening Even though CameraRoot is moving (with correct logs), RealityKit will default to its own internal camera unless: 1. You explicitly assign your camera entity to be the one used, or 2. Your camera is the only one and RealityKit picks it up automatically. But in visionOS 2.0 / Xcode 26, there seems to be a bug or behavior change where RealityKit no longer auto-uses your custom PerspectiveCameraComponent in RealityView unless it’s: • properly set with content.camera, or • part of a .usda/Reality Composer camera hierarchy that’s already active. Unfortunately: 🟥 RealityView.camera = .entity(cameraRoot) ❌ Is no longer allowed (we confirmed this breaks with a type error) ⸻ ✅ The Reliable Workaround: Attach your camera to the Immersive scene itself Since we’re loading a .usda scene (Reality Composer Pro), here’s the most reliable path forward: ✔️ Option A: Embed your camera into the Reality Composer Pro scene 1. Open your Reality Composer Pro scene 2. Add a Camera entity directly in your Immersive.usda scene 3. Name it something like "PlayerCamera" 4. Position it at [0, 1.6, 0] 5. Leave it selected as the default camera Then in your Swift code: • Find the camera entity with .findEntity(named:) • Move that entity instead of creating a new one. ⸻ ✔️ Option B: Force RealityKit to use your custom camera (via transform parenting) Since direct camera assignment is unavailable, we can use a trick: Move the whole RealityView scene via a parent entity with a camera. But let’s go with Option A, since you’ve already got a Reality Composer Pro scene. __ Can any developer over there can make a suggestion on how to move forward? I JUST want to create a sandbox template so I can start exploring 3d scenes created in Maya and sent over to headset. I'll deal with animation next, but come on, why is this so difficult to get working? I'm not a programmer, but have been trying to wrap my head around Xcode and SwiftUI. This needs to be much simpler. Or, you need to provide us creatives with better sample templates and non programmer speak on how to set this up properly. Ideally, you HIRE us 3d professionals to work side by side with the programmers to help make these tools useable - especially Reality Composer Pro. Seriously, I am making a concerted effort to use the native tools, even though I would love to be porting Unreal Engine scenes over. If anyone can help point me in the right direction, coming from a 3D Creator/Animator/Modeler perspective, I, and my fellow peers in the XR/AR/VR community would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
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Jul ’25
Missing Properties in BillboardComponent
In an earlier beta, BillboardComponent had rotationAxis and upDirection properties which allowed more fine-grained control of how an entity rotates towards the camera. Currently, it is only possible to orient the z axis of the entity. Looking at the robot in the documentation, the rotation of its z axis causes its feet to lift off the ground. Before, it was possible to restrain the rotation to one axis (y, for example) so that the robot's feet stayed on the ground with billboard.upDirection = [0, 1, 0] billboard.rotationAxis = [0, 1, 0] Is there an alternative way to achieve this? Are these properties (or similar) coming back?
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Mar ’25
Can iOS and visionOS Devices Share the Same Spatial World in a Multiuser AR Session?
Hey everyone, I'm working on an object viewer where users can place objects in a real room using AR, and I want both visionOS (Apple Vision Pro) and iOS devices (iPad, iPhone) to participate in the same shared spatial experience. The idea is that a user with a Vision Pro can place an object, and peers using iPhones/iPads can see the same object in the same position in their AR view. I've looked into ARKit's Shared ARWorldMap and MultipeerConnectivity, but I'm not sure if this extends seamlessly to visionOS or if Apple has an official way to sync spatial data between visionOS and iOS devices. Has anyone tried sharing a spatial world between visionOS and iOS? Are there any built-in frameworks that allow for a shared multiuser AR session across these devices? If not, what would be the best way to sync object positions between them? Would love to hear if anyone has insights or experience with this! 🚀 Thanks!
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Mar ’25
Alternatives to SceneView
Hey there, since SceneView has been marked as „deprecated“ for SwiftUI, I‘m wondering which alternatives should be considered for the following situation: I have a SwiftUI app (for iOS and iPadOS) where users can view (with rotate, scale, move gestures) 3D models (USDZ) in a scene. The models will be downloaded from web backend and called via local URL paths. What I tested: I‘ve tried ARView in .nonAR mode, RealityView, however I didn‘t get the expected response -> User can rotate, scale the 3D models in a virtual space. ARView in nonAR mode still shows the object like in normal AR mode without camera stream. I tried to add Gestures to the RealityView on iOS - loading USDZ 3D models worked but the gestures didn’t). Model3D is only available for visionOS (that would be amazing to have it for iOS) I also checked QuickLook Preview however it works pretty strange via Filepicker etc, which is not the way how the user should load the 3D models in my app. Maybe I missed something, I couldn’t find anything which can help me. I‘m pretty much stucked adopting the latest and greatest frameworks/APIs in my App and taking the next steps porting my app to visionOS. Long story short 😃: Does someone have an idea what is the alternative to SceneView for USDZ 3D models? I appreciate your support!! Thanks in advance!
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Jul ’25
RealityKit Entity ComponentSet does not conform to Sequence?
Hello, I'm trying to view the components of an Entity I'm creating in RealityKit by reading from a USDZ file. I have the following code snippet in my app. if let appleEntity = try? Entity.loadModel(named: "apple_tile") { let c = appleEntity.components for comp in c { // <- compiler error here print(comp) } } The compiler error I'm receiving says "For-in loop requires 'Entity.ComponentSet' to conform to 'Sequence'". However, I thought this was the case, according to the documentation for Entity.ComponentSet? Curious if anyone else has had this problem. Running XCode 15.4, and my Swift version is xcrun swift -version swift-driver version: 1.90.11.1 Apple Swift version 5.10 (swiftlang-5.10.0.13 clang-1500.3.9.4) Target: x86_64-apple-macosx14.0
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Mar ’25
Create Anchor on Objects from 2D Data
We're developing a VisionOS application, where we would like to do product recognition (like food items). We have enterprise entitlements and therefore also main camera access for VisionOS. We send this live camera frames to a trained CoreML model where we will receive 2D coordinates from the model detection prediction. Now, we would like to create a 3D anchor on the detected items so it can be visible for user. The 3D anchor is going to be the class name of the detected item. How do we transform this 2D coordinate from the model prediction to a 3D anchor?
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785
Feb ’25
Unity on VisionOS development - best practice on structuring a project
Hello, I am experimenting with Unity to develop a mixed reality (MR) application for visionOS. I would like to understand the best approach for structuring my project: Should I build the entire experience in Unity (both Windows and Volumes)? Or is it better to create only certain elements (e.g., Volumes) in Unity while managing Windows separately in Xcode? Also, how well do interactions (e.g pinch, grab…) created in Unity integrate with Xcode? If I use the PolySpatial plugin, does that allow me to manage all interactions entirely within Unity, or would I still need to handle/integrate part of it in Xcode? What's worked best for you? Please let me know if you have any recommendations, Thanks!
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Apr ’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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Jul ’25
VisionOS Beta 3 spatial sculpting apple sample crash
Hello since updating to beta 3 the sculpting sample app doesn't work it crashes on running. seems to be something in AnchorEntity or AccessoryAnchoringSource Referenced from: <00B81486-1A74-30A0-B75B-4B39E3AF57DF> /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/3D2EBF59-19F0-4BF4-8567-6962AA36A2C6/delete.app/delete.debug.dylib Expected in: <BAA9B221-78A1-3B99-AA2F-B8DFCD179FC7> /System/Library/Frameworks/RealityFoundation.framework/RealityFoundation
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343
Jul ’25
RealityKit entity.write(to:) generates fatal protection error
My app for framing and arranging pictures from Photos on visionOS allows users to write the arrangements they create to .reality files using RealityKit entity.write(to:) that they then display to customers on their websites. This works perfectly on visionOS 2, but fails with a fatal protection error on visionOS 26 beta 1 and beta 2 when write(to:) attempts to write to its internal cache: 2025-06-29 14:03:04.688 Failed to write reality file Error Domain=RERealityFileWriterErrorDomain Code=10 "Could not create parent folders for file path /var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/81E1DDC4-331F-425D-919B-3AB87390479A/Library/Caches/com.GeorgePurvis.Photography.FrameItVision/RealityFileBundleZippingTmp_A049685F-C9B2-479B-890D-CF43D13B60E9/41453BC9-26CB-46C5-ADBE-C0A50253EC27." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Could not create parent folders for file path /var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/81E1DDC4-331F-425D-919B-3AB87390479A/Library/Caches/com.GeorgePurvis.Photography.FrameItVision/RealityFileBundleZippingTmp_A049685F-C9B2-479B-890D-CF43D13B60E9/41453BC9-26CB-46C5-ADBE-C0A50253EC27.} Has anyone else encountered this problem? Do you have a workaround? Have you filed a feedback? ChatGPT analysis of the error and my code reports: Why there is no workaround • entity.write(to:) is a black box — you cannot override where it builds its staging bundle • it always tries to create those random folders itself • you cannot supply a parent or working directory to RealityFileWriter • so if the system fails to create that folder, you cannot patch it 👉 This is why you see a fatal error with no recovery. See also feedbacks: FB18494954, FB18036627, FB18063766
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Jul ’25