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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ARKit Face Tracking works in total darkness?
I’ve seen, mainly in discussions with AIs, that ARFaceTrackingConfiguration uses the same technology as Face ID and therefore should work in complete darkness. However, I haven’t been able to achieve this. Does anyone know if this is actually true? I'm using an iPhone 16 to test, and the Face ID works well in darkness.
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0
118
Feb ’26
Animation handling on Scene change
I work on a game where I use timeline animations in Reality Composer Pro. The game runs in an immersive space, but can be paused where I then move the whole level root entity from the immersive space to another RealityView in a Window Group. When the player continues I do it exactly the other way around to move the level root from the window group back to my immersive space RealityView. And it seems like all animations get automatically stopped and restarted when the scene gets changed. The problem is, it does not resume where it stopped before, it completely starts again from where it stopped and therefore, has for example a wrong y offset as visible in the picture. For example in the picture, the yellow sphere loops the following animation: 0 to 100 100 to -100 -100 to 0 If I now pause the game (and basically switch scenes), the previous animation gets stopped and restarted at position y = 100. So now it loops: 100 to 200 200 to 0 0 to 100 I already tried all kind of setups - like: Setting the animations relative to root, parent, local Using behaviors (on Added to Scene, on Notification) And finally even by accessing the availableAnimations directly and saving the playback controller of the animation There I saw, if I manually trigger the following code before switching the scene, everything works as expected: Button("Reset") { animationPlaybackController.time = 0 animationPlaybackController.pause() animationPlaybackController.stop(blendOutDuration: 0.00001) } But if I use time = 0 with .stop() directly, the time = 0 seems to be ignored and I get the same behavior as before that it stops in a wrong y offset, hence my assumption that animations get stopped and invalidated once they change the scene. I tried to call the code manually on ImmersiveSpace.onDisappear, WindowGroup.onAppear and different kind of SceneEvents subscriptions, but unfortunately nothing worked. So am I doing something wrong in general or is there a way to fix this?
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0
113
Apr ’25
With manipulation component, once you let go, how to prevent the entity from disappearing while animating it back into the volume
So with the new ManipulationComponent, we can choose "stay" and then if you drag it out of your volume, once you let go it will instantly disappear. We can "animate" it back to inside the volume, eg.: content.subscribe(to: ManipulationEvents.WillRelease.self) { event in Entity.animate( .easeInOut(duration: 1), body: { event.entity.position = [0, 0.2, 0] }, completion: {} ) }, Howeve,r for the duration that it travels outside of the volume it's invisible the whole time. In this apple video, it seems to be visible when dragging and when letting go, but perhaps that's not a volume they're dragging it out of? https://youtu.be/VtenPKrvPOU?si=y1zoZOs2IMyDzOm6&t=1748 Does anyone know how to keep the entity visible even when after letting the entity go while you animate it back towards inside of your volume?
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1
987
Jan ’26
visionOS 3d interactions like the native keyboard when no longer observed in passthrough
While using apple's vision pro, we noticed that we can continue to use the visionOS keyboard when we no longer actually see it in passthrough. In other words, when we focus on a field to type, visionOS displays the keyboard for us in such a way that we actually see it. Then, we noticed if we look away a little bit, either up, or down, or left, or right, in such a way that the keyboard is no longer visible by us in the passthrough, the keyboard still remains responsive to taps from our fingers at the location where it is. It seems the keyboard remains functional and responsive to taps even though we can no longer observe/see it. We are trying to figure out how to implement similar functionality in our app whereby the user can continue to manipulate a 3d entity when the user can no longer actually observe it in passthrough (like the visionOS keyboard appears to allow). I assume the visionOS keyboard has this functionality thanks to the downward facing sensors on the hardware that allow hand tracking even though the hands can no longer be observed by the user. That is likely how we can rest our hands on our lap is still be able to interact with visionOS. How can we implement a similar functionality for 3D entities? Is there a way to tap in, or to allow hand tracking, from those toward facing cameras? Is it possible to manipulate a 3D entity when it is no longer observed by the user for example when they shift their attention somewhere else in the field of vision? How does the visionOS keyboard achieve this?
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341
Nov ’25
How to mix Animation and IKRig in RealityKit
I want an AR character to be able to look at a position while still playing the characters animation. So far, I managed to manually adjust a single bone rotation using skeletalComponent.poses.default = Transform( scale: baseTransform.scale, rotation: lookAtRotation, translation: baseTransform.translation ) which I run at every rendering update, while a full body animation is running. But of course, hardcoding single joints to point into a direction (in my case the head) does not look as nice, as if I were to run some inverse cinematic that includes, hips + neck + head joints. I found some good IKRig code in Composing interactive 3D content with RealityKit and Reality Composer Pro. But when I try to adjust rigs while animations are playing, the animations are usually winning over the IKRig changes to the mesh.
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537
Aug ’25
Reality Kit Scene
Hi, I’m wondering whether RealityKit has its own scene management system, since it uses ARView (backed by ARKit) to present AR content. Does RealityKit manage scenes independently, or does it rely entirely on ARKit’s scene handling? Thank you.
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158
Feb ’26
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.
1
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290
Nov ’25
Immersive environment learning material
I really love the immersive environments, but I don’t have experience with creating them. Do you have resources or tutorials you can recommend for creating these from scratch? I’ve seen the sample projects and videos, but they usually start in the middle, assuming you already have the assets created.
1
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88
Jul ’25
Draw An Outline Around a Model Entity
Hi, Is there a resource or sample code about how to draw an outline around a mesh in RealityKit? Typically, this is useful for visualizing a selection, like in Reality Composer Pro. How to achieve such effect? A shader material? A post-process effect in ARView or RealityRenderer? Methods such as duplicating the entity mesh, scaling it, and using material.faceCulling = .front did not look good in my experiments. Thank you.
1
0
545
Feb ’26
Do you retain a reference to your content events in RealityView?
Do you retain a reference to your content (RealityViewContent) events? For example, the Manipulation Events docs from Apple use _ to discard the result. In theory the event should keep working while the content is alive. _ = content.subscribe(to: ManipulationEvents.WillBegin.self) { event in event.entity.components[ModelComponent.self]?.materials[0] = SimpleMaterial(color: .blue, isMetallic: false) } _ = content.subscribe(to: ManipulationEvents.WillEnd.self) { event in event.entity.components[ModelComponent.self]?.materials[0] = SimpleMaterial(color: .red, isMetallic: false) } We could store these events in state. I've seen this in a few samples and apps. @State var beginSubscription: EventSubscription? ... beginSubscription = content.subscribe(to: ManipulationEvents.WillBegin.self) { event in event.entity.components[ModelComponent.self]?.materials[0] = SimpleMaterial(color: .blue, isMetallic: false) } The main advantage I see is that we can be more explicit about when we remove the event. Are there other reasons to keep a reference to these events?
1
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594
Sep ’25
Need to rotate child of a 3D mesh
I am creating a vision pro app with a 3D model, it has a mesh hierarchy of head, hands, feet etc. I want the character to look towards the camera, but am not able to access head of character through sceneKit nor reality kit. when I try to print names of the child meshes, it only prints till the character, it does iterate through all the body parts. Can anyone help?
1
0
232
Sep ’25
Low-latency live streaming using APMP Wide FoV
Is it possible to achieve sub-second end-to-end latency when displaying live streaming video using APMP (Apple Projected Media Profile) with Wide FoV? APMP supports HLS playback, but my understanding is that standard HLS introduces several seconds of latency. I would like to know whether APMP (especially Wide FoV) supports Low-Latency HLS, or if there are inherent limitations that make sub-second latency impractical. If APMP is not suitable for this use case, are there any recommended alternatives within AVFoundation or related frameworks for rendering wide-FoV live video with very low latency? Thank you for any insights.
1
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499
Jan ’26
How to Renew visionOS Enterprise API Entitlements?
How can I renew visionOS Enterprise API? I've spent so much time contacting Apple Developer Support. They said they don't know the renewal process either and are "checking with the internal operations team" - but it's been 2 months with no updates. The official documentation (https://aninterestingwebsite.com/documentation/visionOS/building-spatial-experiences-for-business-apps-with-enterprise-apis#Request-the-entitlements) says: "The license file comes with an expiration date, so you need to renew it before then to ensure your entitlements continue to function." But it doesn't explain HOW to renew. When I asked Apple Support about this, they told me: "After Apple approves your app for one or more entitlements, you receive a license file, along with additional instructions." But I never received any instructions when I was first approved, and I still don't know how to renew. There's also no direct way to contact the Enterprise API team. Now my visionOS Enterprise API license has been expired for 2 months. I submitted a renewal request, but I still haven't heard anything back. Is it normal to take more than 2 months for approval? Any advice or shared experiences would be really helpful. Thanks!
1
0
509
Jan ’26
CustomMaterial disable unlit tone mapping
Hi, since iOS 18 UnlitMaterial and ShaderGraphMaterial have the option to disable tone mapping, e.g via https://aninterestingwebsite.com/documentation/realitykit/unlitmaterial/init(applypostprocesstonemap:) Is it possible to do the same for CustomMaterial? I tried initializing a CustomMaterial based on an UnlitMaterial where tone mapping is disabled, like so: let unlitMat = UnlitMaterial(applyPostProcessToneMap: false) let customMaterial = try CustomMaterial( from: unlitMat, surfaceShader: surfaceShader, geometryModifier: geometryModifier ) but that does not seem to work. The colors of my texture still look altered in comparison to a plain UnlitMaterial or a ShaderGraphMaterial where its disabled. Any hints? Thank you!
1
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145
Jun ’25
How can I create 180-degree apple immersive videos using game engine
How can I create 180-degree apple immersive videos using game engine
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
292
Activity
Nov ’25
VideoDockingRegion avplayer video plays through all object
Hi, I'm trying to place an object in front of AVPlayer that is docked in VideoDockingRegion, but when launched in immersive space, the video passes through the objects placed in front of. How do I make sure these objects are visible? image for reference
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
123
Activity
Apr ’25
ARKit Face Tracking works in total darkness?
I’ve seen, mainly in discussions with AIs, that ARFaceTrackingConfiguration uses the same technology as Face ID and therefore should work in complete darkness. However, I haven’t been able to achieve this. Does anyone know if this is actually true? I'm using an iPhone 16 to test, and the Face ID works well in darkness.
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
118
Activity
Feb ’26
Apple Vision Pro AirDrop signal to MAC is unstable
Hope to achieve stable transmission And the colors are different. The colors in the glasses are not consistent with the colors projected on the screen.
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
105
Activity
Apr ’25
Animation handling on Scene change
I work on a game where I use timeline animations in Reality Composer Pro. The game runs in an immersive space, but can be paused where I then move the whole level root entity from the immersive space to another RealityView in a Window Group. When the player continues I do it exactly the other way around to move the level root from the window group back to my immersive space RealityView. And it seems like all animations get automatically stopped and restarted when the scene gets changed. The problem is, it does not resume where it stopped before, it completely starts again from where it stopped and therefore, has for example a wrong y offset as visible in the picture. For example in the picture, the yellow sphere loops the following animation: 0 to 100 100 to -100 -100 to 0 If I now pause the game (and basically switch scenes), the previous animation gets stopped and restarted at position y = 100. So now it loops: 100 to 200 200 to 0 0 to 100 I already tried all kind of setups - like: Setting the animations relative to root, parent, local Using behaviors (on Added to Scene, on Notification) And finally even by accessing the availableAnimations directly and saving the playback controller of the animation There I saw, if I manually trigger the following code before switching the scene, everything works as expected: Button("Reset") { animationPlaybackController.time = 0 animationPlaybackController.pause() animationPlaybackController.stop(blendOutDuration: 0.00001) } But if I use time = 0 with .stop() directly, the time = 0 seems to be ignored and I get the same behavior as before that it stops in a wrong y offset, hence my assumption that animations get stopped and invalidated once they change the scene. I tried to call the code manually on ImmersiveSpace.onDisappear, WindowGroup.onAppear and different kind of SceneEvents subscriptions, but unfortunately nothing worked. So am I doing something wrong in general or is there a way to fix this?
Replies
0
Boosts
0
Views
113
Activity
Apr ’25
With manipulation component, once you let go, how to prevent the entity from disappearing while animating it back into the volume
So with the new ManipulationComponent, we can choose "stay" and then if you drag it out of your volume, once you let go it will instantly disappear. We can "animate" it back to inside the volume, eg.: content.subscribe(to: ManipulationEvents.WillRelease.self) { event in Entity.animate( .easeInOut(duration: 1), body: { event.entity.position = [0, 0.2, 0] }, completion: {} ) }, Howeve,r for the duration that it travels outside of the volume it's invisible the whole time. In this apple video, it seems to be visible when dragging and when letting go, but perhaps that's not a volume they're dragging it out of? https://youtu.be/VtenPKrvPOU?si=y1zoZOs2IMyDzOm6&t=1748 Does anyone know how to keep the entity visible even when after letting the entity go while you animate it back towards inside of your volume?
Replies
1
Boosts
1
Views
987
Activity
Jan ’26
visionOS 3d interactions like the native keyboard when no longer observed in passthrough
While using apple's vision pro, we noticed that we can continue to use the visionOS keyboard when we no longer actually see it in passthrough. In other words, when we focus on a field to type, visionOS displays the keyboard for us in such a way that we actually see it. Then, we noticed if we look away a little bit, either up, or down, or left, or right, in such a way that the keyboard is no longer visible by us in the passthrough, the keyboard still remains responsive to taps from our fingers at the location where it is. It seems the keyboard remains functional and responsive to taps even though we can no longer observe/see it. We are trying to figure out how to implement similar functionality in our app whereby the user can continue to manipulate a 3d entity when the user can no longer actually observe it in passthrough (like the visionOS keyboard appears to allow). I assume the visionOS keyboard has this functionality thanks to the downward facing sensors on the hardware that allow hand tracking even though the hands can no longer be observed by the user. That is likely how we can rest our hands on our lap is still be able to interact with visionOS. How can we implement a similar functionality for 3D entities? Is there a way to tap in, or to allow hand tracking, from those toward facing cameras? Is it possible to manipulate a 3D entity when it is no longer observed by the user for example when they shift their attention somewhere else in the field of vision? How does the visionOS keyboard achieve this?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
341
Activity
Nov ’25
How to mix Animation and IKRig in RealityKit
I want an AR character to be able to look at a position while still playing the characters animation. So far, I managed to manually adjust a single bone rotation using skeletalComponent.poses.default = Transform( scale: baseTransform.scale, rotation: lookAtRotation, translation: baseTransform.translation ) which I run at every rendering update, while a full body animation is running. But of course, hardcoding single joints to point into a direction (in my case the head) does not look as nice, as if I were to run some inverse cinematic that includes, hips + neck + head joints. I found some good IKRig code in Composing interactive 3D content with RealityKit and Reality Composer Pro. But when I try to adjust rigs while animations are playing, the animations are usually winning over the IKRig changes to the mesh.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
537
Activity
Aug ’25
Reality Kit Scene
Hi, I’m wondering whether RealityKit has its own scene management system, since it uses ARView (backed by ARKit) to present AR content. Does RealityKit manage scenes independently, or does it rely entirely on ARKit’s scene handling? Thank you.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
158
Activity
Feb ’26
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.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
290
Activity
Nov ’25
There some limitations if I open a spatial photo with Quick Look when an immersive space is on?
When viewing an immersive space and I open a spatial photo in Quick Look, which hides the entire app interface to show the photo. Is there a memory limit? If the inmersive space is not active, the application keep the interface.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
194
Activity
Jun ’25
Does RealityKit support mesh based animation?
I have a mesh based animation 3D model, that means every frame it’s a new mesh. I import it into RealityView, but can’t play it‘s animation, RealityKit tells me this model has no animations by using print(entity.availableAnimations).
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
675
Activity
Aug ’25
Immersive environment learning material
I really love the immersive environments, but I don’t have experience with creating them. Do you have resources or tutorials you can recommend for creating these from scratch? I’ve seen the sample projects and videos, but they usually start in the middle, assuming you already have the assets created.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
88
Activity
Jul ’25
Draw An Outline Around a Model Entity
Hi, Is there a resource or sample code about how to draw an outline around a mesh in RealityKit? Typically, this is useful for visualizing a selection, like in Reality Composer Pro. How to achieve such effect? A shader material? A post-process effect in ARView or RealityRenderer? Methods such as duplicating the entity mesh, scaling it, and using material.faceCulling = .front did not look good in my experiments. Thank you.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
545
Activity
Feb ’26
Is it possible to create immersive video totally from virtual scene
hi guys, I'm working in VFX industry and I've got the question that, is it possible to create immersive video directly from virtual scene created in DCC software like maya, rendered into footage, then coded into immersive video, and finally play in in vision pro? thanks.
Replies
1
Boosts
1
Views
730
Activity
Sep ’25
Do you retain a reference to your content events in RealityView?
Do you retain a reference to your content (RealityViewContent) events? For example, the Manipulation Events docs from Apple use _ to discard the result. In theory the event should keep working while the content is alive. _ = content.subscribe(to: ManipulationEvents.WillBegin.self) { event in event.entity.components[ModelComponent.self]?.materials[0] = SimpleMaterial(color: .blue, isMetallic: false) } _ = content.subscribe(to: ManipulationEvents.WillEnd.self) { event in event.entity.components[ModelComponent.self]?.materials[0] = SimpleMaterial(color: .red, isMetallic: false) } We could store these events in state. I've seen this in a few samples and apps. @State var beginSubscription: EventSubscription? ... beginSubscription = content.subscribe(to: ManipulationEvents.WillBegin.self) { event in event.entity.components[ModelComponent.self]?.materials[0] = SimpleMaterial(color: .blue, isMetallic: false) } The main advantage I see is that we can be more explicit about when we remove the event. Are there other reasons to keep a reference to these events?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
594
Activity
Sep ’25
Need to rotate child of a 3D mesh
I am creating a vision pro app with a 3D model, it has a mesh hierarchy of head, hands, feet etc. I want the character to look towards the camera, but am not able to access head of character through sceneKit nor reality kit. when I try to print names of the child meshes, it only prints till the character, it does iterate through all the body parts. Can anyone help?
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
232
Activity
Sep ’25
Low-latency live streaming using APMP Wide FoV
Is it possible to achieve sub-second end-to-end latency when displaying live streaming video using APMP (Apple Projected Media Profile) with Wide FoV? APMP supports HLS playback, but my understanding is that standard HLS introduces several seconds of latency. I would like to know whether APMP (especially Wide FoV) supports Low-Latency HLS, or if there are inherent limitations that make sub-second latency impractical. If APMP is not suitable for this use case, are there any recommended alternatives within AVFoundation or related frameworks for rendering wide-FoV live video with very low latency? Thank you for any insights.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
499
Activity
Jan ’26
How to Renew visionOS Enterprise API Entitlements?
How can I renew visionOS Enterprise API? I've spent so much time contacting Apple Developer Support. They said they don't know the renewal process either and are "checking with the internal operations team" - but it's been 2 months with no updates. The official documentation (https://aninterestingwebsite.com/documentation/visionOS/building-spatial-experiences-for-business-apps-with-enterprise-apis#Request-the-entitlements) says: "The license file comes with an expiration date, so you need to renew it before then to ensure your entitlements continue to function." But it doesn't explain HOW to renew. When I asked Apple Support about this, they told me: "After Apple approves your app for one or more entitlements, you receive a license file, along with additional instructions." But I never received any instructions when I was first approved, and I still don't know how to renew. There's also no direct way to contact the Enterprise API team. Now my visionOS Enterprise API license has been expired for 2 months. I submitted a renewal request, but I still haven't heard anything back. Is it normal to take more than 2 months for approval? Any advice or shared experiences would be really helpful. Thanks!
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
509
Activity
Jan ’26
CustomMaterial disable unlit tone mapping
Hi, since iOS 18 UnlitMaterial and ShaderGraphMaterial have the option to disable tone mapping, e.g via https://aninterestingwebsite.com/documentation/realitykit/unlitmaterial/init(applypostprocesstonemap:) Is it possible to do the same for CustomMaterial? I tried initializing a CustomMaterial based on an UnlitMaterial where tone mapping is disabled, like so: let unlitMat = UnlitMaterial(applyPostProcessToneMap: false) let customMaterial = try CustomMaterial( from: unlitMat, surfaceShader: surfaceShader, geometryModifier: geometryModifier ) but that does not seem to work. The colors of my texture still look altered in comparison to a plain UnlitMaterial or a ShaderGraphMaterial where its disabled. Any hints? Thank you!
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
145
Activity
Jun ’25