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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Converting a Stop Motion Animation to usdz
Hello everyone, I've been trying for a few weeks now to convert a sequential series of meshes into a stop-motion animation in USDZ format. In Unreal Engine, I’ve already figured out how to transform the sequential series of individual meshes into a smooth animation using the node system and arrays. Unfortunately, the node system cannot be exported as a usdz animation logic in either Unreal or Blender. Because of this, I have tried several other methods to incorporate the animation logic. Here’s what I’ve tried so far: I attempted to create the animation in Blender with Render-/Viewports and mapping it to keyframes. However, in my experience, Viewports are not supported in the conversion. I tried aligning the vertices of individual objects and merging the frames using the Shrinkwrap modifier in Blender, then setting up a morph animation with keyframes. However, because the individual meshes are too different, this results in artifacts, and manually editing each mesh is too difficult for me to handle. I placed all individual meshes at the same position and animated them sequentially by scaling them from 0 to 100 in keyframes (Frame 1 is visible for 10 frames, then scales down at frame 11, while Frame 2 becomes visible at frame 11, and so on). I also adjusted the keyframes so that the scaling happens in a "constant" manner rather than the default Bezier or linear interpolation. I then converted this animation to .abc, and the result initially looked good. However, some information is lost when converting it with OpenUSD. The animation does not maintain its intended jump-like behavior in USDZ format, and instead, the scaling of individual files is visible in the animation. I tried using a Blender add-on (StepMotion), which allows the animation to be exported as .abc, but it can only be read in Blender or Unreal. Even in the preview, the animation is not displayed correctly, so converting the animation logic does not work either. 
Unfortunately, I have no alternative way to create the animation, as the individual frames have been provided to me as meshes. So far, I haven’t found a way to implement this successfully. I would be very grateful for any tips or ideas, as I am running out of options on how to make this work. Thanks in advance!
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Apr ’25
Entity HoverEffect Fired When inside Another Entity Collider
Hi folks, I’m new to Vision Pro stack, still trying to learn all the nuances. Here is a problem I can’t seem to find an answer. I placed entity A( a small .02 radius sphere) inside entity B( size:.1 box). Both entities have HoverEffectComponent, and both inputcomponent is set to .direct. Entity A is NOT a child of Entity B. When I direct touch Entity B, I noticed that Entity A’s hover effect is fired as well. This only happens if Entity A‘s position is inside Entity B. The gesture that is only targeted at Entity A doesn’t work either. I double checked Entity A collider which sits inside entity B collider, my direct touch shouldn’t have trigger its hove effect. Having one collider inside another seems to produce unpredictable behavior? Thanks in advance 🙏🙏🙏 Context: I’m trying to create an invisible bound around Entity A, so when my hand approaches the bound to grab Entity A, a nice spotlight hover effect would fire first on the bound before hand reaching entity A.
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345
Feb ’25
Having an issue with using a custom component with Reality Composer Pro
We have a project which is currently being built as a XCFramework. The framework contains a custom component to be used with entities in Reality Composer Pro. I have tried to se set the RCP Package.swift file to reference the framework package for the in the dependancies. Nothing that I do with the folder path to reference the code is working. Do I need to change the project to be using Swift source code instead of a XCFramework? The component needs to be in the framework as there is a class in the framework that works directly with the custom compoent. I am able to reference the XCFramework as a Swift Package with other projects.
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124
Apr ’25
Building a custom render pipeline with RealityKit
Hello experts, and question seekers, I have been trying to get Gaussian splats working with RealityKit, however it seems not to work out for me. The library I use for Gaussian splatting: https://github.com/scier/MetalSplatter My idea was to use the renderers provided by RealityKit (aka RealityRenderer) https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/realityrenderer and the renderer provided by MetalSplatter (aka. SplatRenderer) https://github.com/scier/MetalSplatter/blob/main/MetalSplatter/Sources/SplatRenderer.swift Then with a custom render pipeline, I would be able to compose the outputs of the renderers, enabling the possibility, for example to build immersive scenery with realistic environment scans, as Gaussian splats, and RealityKit to provide the necessary features to build extra scenery around Gaussian splats, eg. dynamic 3D models inside Gaussian splats. However the problem is, as of now I am not able to do that with the current implementation of RealityRenderer. It seems to be, that first RealityRenderer is supposed to be an API, just to render colour information onto a texture, which in first glance might be useful, but misses important information, such as for example depth, and stencil information. Second issue is, even with that in mind, currently I am not able to execute RealityRenderer.updateAndRender, due to the following error messages: Could not resolve material name 'engine:BuiltinRenderGraphResources/Common/realityRendererBackground.rematerial' in bundle at '/Users//Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices//data/Containers/Bundle/Application//.app'. Loading via asset path. exiting spatial tracking service update thread because wait returned 37” I was able to build a custom Metal view with UIViewRepresentable, MTKView, and MTKViewDelegate, enabling me to build a custom rendering pipeline, by utilising some of the Metal developer workflows. Reference: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/metal-developer-workflows/ Inside draw(in view: MTKView), in a class derived by MTKViewDelegate: guard let currentDrawable = view.currentDrawable else { return } let realityRenderer = try! RealityRenderer() try! realityRenderer.updateAndRender(deltaTime: 0.0, cameraOutput: .init(.singleProjection(colorTexture: currentDrawable.texture)), whenScheduled: { realityRenderer in print("Rendering scheduled") }, onComplete: { RealityRenderer in print("Rendering completed") }) Can you please tell me, what I am doing wrong? Is there any solution, that enables me to use RealityKit with for example Gaussian splats? Any help is greatly appreciated. All the best, Ethem Kurt
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765
Feb ’25
Using vision pro to detect distance to real life objects
Is it possible to detect distance from the vision pro to real live objects and people? I tried using scene.raycast to perform a raycast forward from the center of the viewport, but it doesn't seem to react to real life objects, only entities. I see mentioned here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/776807?answerId=829576022#829576022, that a raycast with scene reconstruction should allow me to measure that distance, as long as the object is non-moving. How could I accomplish that?
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Apr ’25
Enterprise API with Education Account
Hello, I am trying to develop an app that broadcasts what the user sees via Apple Vision Pro. I am a graduate student studying at the university. And I have two problems, If I want to use passthrough in screen capture (in VisionOS), do I have to join Apple Developer Enterprise Program to get Enterprise API? and Can I buy Apple Developer Enterprise Program (Enterprise API) with my university account? Have any of you been able to do this? Thank you
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237
Jul ’25
How to create a MultiplayerDelegate and use TabletopNetworkSession features?
When building a multiplayer Tabletop game, the documentation includes how to attach a custom TabletopNetworkSessionCoordinator, which could be used in addition to TabletopGame.MultiplayerDelegate. But so far, we have been unable to create these types of custom coordinators or have a delegate that works. Our current setup with our generic GroupActivity works by sending the session to TabletopGame's coordinateWithSession method (like in the current sample project), but we didn't find a way to access and control, for example, the arbiter, seats, player events, among other features mentioned on https://developer.apple.com/documentation/tabletopkit/tabletopnetworksession. Is correct to expect having access to the participants, messenger, or journal without having to maintain a parallel coordinator?   possibly we are missing something here; any suggestions?
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Apr ’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
Reality Composer to Reality Composer Pro?
I sketched a idea for a project in Reality Composer on my iPad, thinking when I had a chance to sit down I would work it up in Xcode. However, when I got back to my computer, I discovered I cannot open a file created in Reality Composer (or the exported Reality file) in Reality Composer Pro. Am I missing something obvious here, because this seems like a huge oversight. If anyone, can let me know how to open a file created in Reality Composer in Reality Composer Pro, I would greatly appreciate it. Partly, because there seems to be objects available in Reality Composer that are not in Reality Composer Pro. Thanks Stan
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Jun ’25
How to play blend shape animations or morph animations exported from blender in Vision Pro apps using Reality Kit
So I am exporting a .usdc file from blender that already has some morph animations. The animations play well in blender but when I export I cannot seem to play them in RealityKit or RCP. Entity.availableAnimations is an empty array. Not of the child objects in the entity hierarchy has an animation library component with it. Maybe I am exporting it wrong but I tried multiple combinations but doesn't seem to work. Here are my export settings in blender The original file I purchased is an FBX file that has the animation but when I try to directly get it in RealityConverter it doesn't seem to play animations.
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Jun ’25
How to get the floor plane with Spatial Tracking Session and Anchor Entity
In the WWDC session titled "Deep dive into volumes and immersive spaces", the developers discussed adding a Spatial Tracking Session and an Anchor Entity to detect the floor. They then glossed over some important details. They added a spatial tap gesture to let the user place content relative to the floor anchor, but they left a lot of information. .gesture( SpatialTapGesture( coordinateSpace: .immersiveSpace ) .targetedToAnyEntity() .onEnded { value in handleTapOnFloor(value: value) } ) My understanding is that an entity has to have input and collision components for gestures like this to work. How can we add a collision to an AnchorEntity when we don't know its size or shape? I've been trying for days to understand what is happening here and I just don't get it. It is even more frustrating that the example project that Apple released does not contain any of these features. I would like to be able Detect the floor plane Get the position/transform of the floor plane Add a collider to the floor plane Enable collisions and physics on the floor plane Enable gestures on the floor plane It seems to me that the Anchor Entity is placed as an entirely arbitrary position. It has absolutely no relationship to the rectangle with the floor label that I can see in the Xcode visualization. It is just a point, not a plane or rect that I can use. I've tried manually calculating the collision shape after the anchor is detected, but nothing that I have tried works. I can't tap on the floor with gestures. I can't drop entities onto the floor. I can't seem to do ANYTHING at all with this floor anchor other than place entity at the totally arbitrary location somewhere on the floor. Is there anyway at all with Spatial Tracking Session and Anchor Entity to get the actual plane that was detected? struct FloorExample: View { @State var trackingSession: SpatialTrackingSession = SpatialTrackingSession() @State var subject: Entity? @State var floor: AnchorEntity? var body: some View { RealityView { content, attachments in let session = SpatialTrackingSession() let configuration = SpatialTrackingSession.Configuration(tracking: [.plane]) _ = await session.run(configuration) self.trackingSession = session let floorAnchor = AnchorEntity(.plane(.horizontal, classification: .floor, minimumBounds: SIMD2(x: 0.1, y: 0.1))) floorAnchor.anchoring.physicsSimulation = .none floorAnchor.name = "FloorAnchorEntity" floorAnchor.components.set(InputTargetComponent()) floorAnchor.components.set(CollisionComponent(shapes: .init())) content.add(floorAnchor) self.floor = floorAnchor // This is just here to let me see where visinoOS decided to "place" the floor anchor. let floorPlaced = ModelEntity( mesh: .generateSphere(radius: 0.1), materials: [SimpleMaterial(color: .black, isMetallic: false)]) floorAnchor.addChild(floorPlaced) if let scene = try? await Entity(named: "AnchorLabsFloor", in: realityKitContentBundle) { content.add(scene) if let subject = scene.findEntity(named: "StepSphereRed") { self.subject = subject } // I can see when the anchor is added _ = content.subscribe(to: SceneEvents.AnchoredStateChanged.self) { event in event.anchor.generateCollisionShapes(recursive: true) // this doesn't seem to work print("**anchor changed** \(event)") print("**anchor** \(event.anchor)") } // place the reset button near the user if let panel = attachments.entity(for: "Panel") { panel.position = [0, 1, -0.5] content.add(panel) } } } update: { content, attachments in } attachments: { Attachment(id: "Panel", { Button(action: { print("**button pressed**") if let subject = self.subject { subject.position = [-0.5, 1.5, -1.5] // Remove the physics body and assign a new one - hack to remove momentum if let physics = subject.components[PhysicsBodyComponent.self] { subject.components.remove(PhysicsBodyComponent.self) subject.components.set(physics) } } }, label: { Text("Reset Sphere") }) }) } } }
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849
Jan ’25
Automatic Plane Measurements like in the Apple Measure App
I’m working on an iOS app that needs to measure the area of planes or surfaces, like the length and width of objects, just like the Apple Measure app does. I’ve been exploring ARKit, but I’m curious if there are any APIs or techniques that can help automate the process of detecting and measuring planes. Specifically, I’m looking for a way to automatically detect and measure planes (e.g., from a top-down view). For example: Measuring a box width and length. I have attached a screenshot and a video of the Apple Measure App doing it. Does Apple provide any tools or APIs for this, or are there any best practices I should know about? I’d love to hear from anyone who’s tackled something similar. Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BxM7fIbFxsCsYwY7w8ZxIeq_4WTGkkwA/view?usp=drive_link
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723
Jan ’25
Spatial Gallery App functionality
Similar to the visionOS Spatial Gallery app, I'm developing a visionOS app that will show spatial photos and videos. Is it possible to re-create the horizontal (or a vertical) scrolling functionality that shows spatial photos and spatial video previews? Does the Spatial Gallery app use private APIs to create this functionality? I've been looking at the Quick Look documentation and have been able to use the PreviewApplication to show a single preview, but do not see anything for a collection of files as the Spatial Gallery app presents in the scrolling view. Any insights or direction on how this may be done is greatly appreciated.
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155
Jun ’25
Difference in ARKit plane detection from iPhone 8 to iPhone 15
I am developing an ARKit based application that requires plane detection of the tabletop at which the user is seated. Early testing was with an iPhone 8 and iPhone 8+. With those devices, ARKit rapidly detected the plane of the tabletop when it was only 8 to 10 inches away. Using iPhone 15 with the same code, it seems to require me to move the phone more like 15 to 16 inches away before detecting the plane of the table. This is an awkward motion for a user seated at a table. To validate that it was not necessarily a feature of my code, I determined that the same behavior results with Apple's sample AR Interaction application. Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, have suggestions to improve the situation?
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503
Feb ’25