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

All subtopics
Posts under Spatial Computing topic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

How to prevent system windows occlusion when using OcclusionMaterial
We use SceneReconstructionProvider to detect meshes in the surrounding environment and apply an OcclusionMaterial to them. // Assuming `entity` represents one of the detected mesh in the environment entity.components.set(ModelComponent( mesh: mesh, materials: [OcclusionMaterial()] )) While this correctly occludes entities placed in the immersive space, it also occludes system windows. This becomes problematic when a window is dragged into an occluded area (before or after entering the immersive space), preventing interaction with its elements. In some cases, it also makes it impossible to focus on the window’s drag handle, since this might become occluded as well after moving the window nearby. More generally, system windows can be occluded when they come into proximity with a model that has OcclusionMaterial applied. I'm aware of a change introduced in visionOS 2 regarding how occlusions interact with UI elements (as noted in the release notes). I believe this change was intended to ensure windows do not remain visible when opened in another room. However, this also introduces some challenges, as described in the scenario above. Is there a way to prevent system window occlusion while still allowing entities to be occluded by environmental features? Perhaps not using OcclusionMaterial at all? Development environment: Xcode 16.2, macOS 15.2 Run-time configuration: visionOS 2.2 and 2.3
2
2
327
Feb ’25
CameraFrameProvider distortion correction
Hi, I'm trying to correct the lens distortion in frames provided by Enterprise API camera frame provider. The frames provided seem to have only in/extrinsics info, but not the distortion lookup table. Is there some magic setting, or function to do that (I can't seem to find anything like this)? Or is there a way to use AVCameraCalibrationData together with provider?
2
0
407
Mar ’25
CompositorServices Or RealityKit
I have been concentrating on developing the visionOS application. While I am currently quite familiar with RealityKit, CompositorServices has also captured my attention. I have not yet acquired knowledge of CompositorServices. Could you please clarify whether it is essential for me to learn CompositorServices? Additionally, I would appreciate it if you could provide insights into the advantages of RealityKit and CompositorServices.
2
0
768
Mar ’25
Apply mesh to real world people.
As far as I know, Apple hasn’t opened access to the Vision Pro camera for developers yet, so I’m trying to find possible workarounds within the current capabilities. I’m wondering if there’s any way to apply a mesh to a person in the scene in Vision Pro, or if there’s an alternative approach to roughly detect a human shape in front of the user?
2
0
106
Apr ’25
visionOS: Unable to programmatically close child WindowGroup when parent window closes
Hi , I'm struggling with visionOS window management and need help with closing child windows programmatically. App Structure My app has a Main-Sub window hierarchy: AWindow (Home/Main) BWindow (Main feature window) CWindow (Tool window - child of BWindow) Navigation flow: AWindow → BWindow (switch, 1 window on screen) BWindow → CWindow (opens child, 2 windows on screen) I want BWindow and CWindow to be separate movable windows (not sheet/popover) so users can position them independently in space. The Problem CWindow doesn't close when BWindow closes by tapping the X button below the app (next to the window bar) User clicks X on BWindow → BWindow closes but CWindow remains CWindow becomes orphaned on screen Can close CWindow programmatically when switching BWindow back to AWindow App launch issue After closing both windows, CWindow is remembered as last window Reopening app shows only CWindow instead of BWindow User gets stuck in CWindow with no way back to BWindow I've Tried Environment dismissWindow in cleanup but its not working. // In BWindow.swift .onDisappear { if windowManager.isWindowOpen("cWindow") { dismissWindow(id: "cWindow") } } My App Structure Code Now // in MyNameApp.swift @main struct MyNameApp: App { var body: some Scene { WindowGroup(id: "aWindow") { AWindow() } WindowGroup(id: "bWindow") { BWindow() } WindowGroup(id: "cWindow") { CWindow() } } } // WindowStateManager.swift class WindowStateManager: ObservableObject { static let shared = WindowStateManager() @Published private var openWindows: Set<String> = [] @Published private var windowDependencies: [String: String] = [:] private init() {} func markWindowAsOpen(_ id: String) { markWindowAsOpen(id, parent: nil) } func markWindowAsClosed(_ id: String) { openWindows.remove(id) windowDependencies[id] = nil } func isWindowOpen(_ id: String) -> Bool { let isOpen = openWindows.contains(id) return isOpen } func markWindowAsOpen(_ id: String, parent: String? = nil) { openWindows.insert(id) if let parentId = parent { windowDependencies[id] = parentId } } func getParentWindow(of childId: String) -> String? { let parent = windowDependencies[childId] return parent } func getChildWindows(of parentId: String) -> [String] { let children = windowDependencies.compactMap { key, value in value == parentId ? key : nil } return children } func setNextWindowParent(_ parentId: String) { UserDefaults.standard.set(parentId, forKey: "nextWindowParent") } func getAndClearNextWindowParent() -> String? { let parent = UserDefaults.standard.string(forKey: "nextWindowParent") UserDefaults.standard.removeObject(forKey: "nextWindowParent") return parent } func forceCloseChildWindows(of parentId: String) { let children = getChildWindows(of: parentId) for child in children { markWindowAsClosed(child) NotificationCenter.default.post( name: Notification.Name("ForceCloseWindow"), object: nil, userInfo: ["windowId": child] ) forceCloseChildWindows(of: child) } } func hasMainWindowOpen() -> Bool { let mainWindows = ["main", "bWindow"] return mainWindows.contains { isWindowOpen($0) } } func cleanupOrphanWindows() { for (child, parent) in windowDependencies { if isWindowOpen(child) && !isWindowOpen(parent) { NotificationCenter.default.post( name: Notification.Name("ForceCloseWindow"), object: nil, userInfo: ["windowId": child] ) markWindowAsClosed(child) } } } } // BWindow.swift struct BWindow: View { @Environment(\.dismissWindow) private var dismissWindow @ObservedObject private var windowManager = WindowStateManager.shared var body: some View { VStack { Button("Open C Window") { windowManager.setNextWindowParent("bWindow") openWindow(id: "cWindow") } } .onAppear { windowManager.markWindowAsOpen("bWindow") } .onDisappear { windowManager.markWindowAsClosed("bWindow") windowManager.forceCloseChildWindows(of: "bWindow") } .onChange(of: scenePhase) { oldValue, newValue in if newValue == .background || newValue == .inactive { windowManager.forceCloseChildWindows(of: "bWindow") } } } } // CWindow.swift import SwiftUI struct cWindow: View { @ObservedObject private var windowManager = WindowStateManager.shared @State private var shouldClose = false var body: some View { // Content } .onDisappear { windowManager.markWindowAsClosed("cWindow") NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver( self, name: Notification.Name("ForceCloseWindow"), object: nil ) } .onChange(of: scenePhase) { oldValue, newValue in if newValue == .background { } } .onAppear { let parent = windowManager.getAndClearNextWindowParent() windowManager.markWindowAsOpen("cWindow", parent: parent) NotificationCenter.default.addObserver( forName: Notification.Name("ForceCloseWindow"), object: nil, queue: .main) { notification in if let windowId = notification.userInfo?["windowId"] as? String, windowId == "cWindow" { shouldClose = true } } } .onChange(of: shouldClose) { _, newValue in if newValue { dismissWindow() } } } The logs show everything executes correctly, but CWindow remains visible on screen. Questions Why doesn't dismissWindow(id:) work in cleanup scenarios? Is there a proper way to create a window relationships like parent-child relationships in visionOS? How can I ensure main windows open on app launch instead of tool windows? What's the recommended pattern for dependent windows in visionOS? Environment: Xcode 16.2, visionOS 2.0, SwiftUI
2
0
347
Aug ’25
How to trigger other effects using hoverEffect?
I’m facing an issue while using CustomHoverEffect. In my view, there is a long title, which causes the title to be truncated. When the user hovers over it, the title should scroll. Although I have already implemented the scrolling effect, I am unsure how to trigger the scroll on hover. How should I approach this?
2
0
374
Feb ’25
spatial-backdrop feature available yet?
In WWDC25 session What’s new for the spatial web, the presenter showed creating an immersive environment for a web page by adding to the page's HEAD section <link rel="spatial-backdrop" href="office.usdz" environmentmap="lighting.hdr"> My first attempt failed, and I am trying to track down why. Before I search all the potential failure paths, I wanted to ask the community, Is this feature available in the latest visionOS 26 beta? I haven't seen anyone talk about their use of the feature yet.
2
0
232
Aug ’25
Is it possible to live render CMTaggedBuffer / MV-HEVC frames in visionOS?
Hey all, I'm working on a visionOS app that captures live frames from the left and right cameras of Apple Vision Pro using cameraFrame.sample(for: .left/.right). Apple provides documentation on encoding side-by-side frames into MV-HEVC spatial video using CMTaggedBuffer: Converting Side-by-Side 3D Video to MV-HEVC My question: Is there any way to render tagged frames (e.g. CMTaggedBuffer with .stereoView(.leftEye/.rightEye)) live, directly to a surface in RealityKit or Metal, without saving them to a file? I’d like to create a true stereoscopic (spatial) live video preview, not just render two images side-by-side. Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated!
2
0
248
Aug ’25
Ground shadow and visibility
Hey, I'm building an interior design app In Vision OS 2.0. I'm fetching the planes detected by ARKit and I then proceed to add them with an "OcclusionMaterial" to make sure my object are occluded accordingly. However, I'm facing two problems with this: The ground shadows are completely disabled as soon as an occlusion material is added, even if I inset the planes doing the occlusion. I've looked into this: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/shadergraph/realitykit/shadow-receiving-occlusion-surface-(realitykit) but when I tried to use it, it behaved exactly as "OcclusionMaterial". The planes are also occluding all windows (mines and the system ones), which is a behavior I'd like to avoid. I only want to occluded the Entity I added. Is there a way to achieve this? Thanks in advance
2
1
486
Jan ’25
How to configure Spatial Audio on a Video Material?, Compile error.
I've tried following apple's documentation to apply a video material on a Model Entity, but I have encountered a compile error while attempting to specify the Spatial Audio type. It is a 360 video on a Sphere which plays just fine, but the audio is too quiet compared to the volume I get when I preview the video on Xcode. So I tried tried to configure audio playback mode on the material but it gives me a compile error: "audioInputMode' is unavailable in visionOS audioInputMode' has been explicitly marked unavailable here RealityFoundation.VideoPlaybackController.audioInputMode)" https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/videomaterial/ Code: let player = AVPlayer(url: url) // Instantiate and configure the video material. let material = VideoMaterial(avPlayer: player) // Configure audio playback mode. material.controller.audioInputMode = .spatial // this line won’t compile. VisionOS 2.4, Xcode 16.4, also tried Xcode 26 beta 2. The videos are HEVC MPEG-4 codecs. Is there any other way to do this, or is there a workaround available? Thank you.
2
0
240
Jul ’25
RealityKit fullscreen layer
Hi! I'm currently trying to render another XR scene in front of a RealityKit one. Actually, I'm anchoring a plane to the head with a shader to display for left/right eye side-by-side images. By default, the camera has a near plane so I can directly draw at z=0. Is there a way to change the camera near plane? Or maybe there is a better solution to overlay image/texture for left/right eyes? Ideally, I would layer some kind of CompositorLayer on RealityKit, but that's sadly not possible from what I know. Thanks in advance and have a good day!
2
0
315
Jul ’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!
2
0
249
Jul ’25
Tracking geographic locations in AR - Sample App Code
Hello, I was looking back into downloading the Tracking geographic locations in AR sample app from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/arkit/tracking-geographic-locations-in-ar Unfortunately the Download links to the .zip of the DisplayingAPointCloudUsingSceneDepth sample project. The exact same issue occurs when trying to download the sample code from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/ARKit/creating-a-fog-effect-using-scene-depth Wondering if those links are deliberately broken because of possible deprecations. Thanks to any Apple Engineer willing to look into that.
2
0
443
Feb ’25
Combining ARKit Face Tracking with High-Resolution AVCapture and Perspective Rendering on Front Camera
Subject: Combining ARKit Face Tracking with High-Resolution AVCapture and Perspective Rendering on Front Camera Message: Hello Apple Developer Community, We’re developing an application using the front camera that requires both real-time ARKit face tracking/guidance and the capture of high-resolution still images via AVCaptureSession. Our goal is to leverage ARKit’s depth and face data to render a captured image from another perspective post-capture, maintaining high image quality. Our Approach: Real-Time ARKit Guidance: Utilize ARKit (e.g., ARFaceTrackingConfiguration) for continuous face tracking, depth, and scene understanding to guide the user in real time. High-Resolution Capture Transition: At the moment of capture, we plan to pause the ARKit session and switch to an AVCaptureSession to take a high-resolution image. We assume that for a front-facing image, the subject’s face is directly front-on, and the relative pose between the face and camera remains the same during the transition. The only variation we expect is a change in distance. Our intention is to minimize the delay between the last ARKit frame and the high-res capture to maintain temporal consistency, assuming that aside from distance, the face-camera relative pose remains unchanged. Post-Processing Perspective Rendering: Using the last ARKit face data (depth, pose, and landmarks) along with the high-resolution 2D image, we aim to render the scene from another perspective. We want to correct the perspective of the 2D image using SceneKit or RealityKit, leveraging the collected ARKit scene information to achieve a natural, high-quality rendering from a different viewpoint. The rendering should match the quality of a normally captured high-resolution image, adjusting for the difference in distance while using the stored ARKit data to correct perspective. Our Questions: Session Transition Best Practices: What are the recommended best practices to seamlessly pause ARKit and switch to a high-resolution AVCapture session on the front camera How can we minimize user movement or other issues during this brief transition, given our assumption that the face-camera pose remains largely consistent except for distance changes? Data Integration for Perspective Rendering: How can we effectively integrate stored ARKit face, depth, and pose data with the high-res image to perform accurate perspective correction or rendering from another viewpoint? Given that we assume the relative pose is constant except for distance, are there strategies or APIs to leverage this assumption for simplifying the perspective transformation? Perspective Correction with SceneKit/RealityKit: What techniques or workflows using SceneKit or RealityKit are recommended for correcting the perspective of a captured 2D image based on ARKit scene data? How can we use these frameworks to render the high-resolution image from an alternative perspective, while maintaining image quality and fidelity? 4. Pitfalls and Guidelines: What common pitfalls should we be aware of when combining ARKit tracking data with high-res capture and post-processing for perspective rendering? Are there performance considerations, recommended thresholds for acceptable temporal consistency, or validation techniques to ensure the ARKit data remains applicable at the moment of high-res capture? We appreciate any advice, sample code references, or documentation pointers that could assist us in implementing this workflow effectively. Thank you!
2
0
753
Jan ’25
How to request several models simultaneously
I am using HelloPhotogrammetry in Xcode I can make one model with something like HelloPhotogrammetry.main([path_to_folder_of images, path_to_output/model.usdz, "-d", "medium", "-o", "unordered", "-f", "high" ]) But how would I request several models simultaneously? I only want to vary the detail. [ ("/Users/you/Desktop/model_medium.usdz", detail: .medium), ("/Users/you/Desktop/model_full.usdz", detail: .full), ("/Users/you/Desktop/model_raw.usdz", detail: .raw ]
2
0
97
Apr ’25
Tracking multiple ImageAnchor simultaneously on VisionOS
Using the example code posted here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/visionOS/tracking-images-in-3d-space I can register multiple ReferenceImage s with a ImageTrackingProvider, but only one updates at a time - to have realtime updating, I can only have one ImageAnchor in my field of view at a time. Is it possible to track multiple imageAnchors at the same time in the same field of view? As in having several ImageAnchor's tracked and entities updated to the transforms of the anchor in the same frame/moment from the Apple Vision Pro?
2
1
248
Nov ’25
Volumetric window not sharing in SharePlay session for VisionOS
I've been struggling with this for far too long so I've decided to finally come here and see if anyone can point me to the documentation that I'm missing. I'm sure it's something so simple but I just can't figure it out. I can SharePlay our test app with my brother (device to device) but when I open a volumetric window, it says "not shared" under it. I assume this will likely fix the video sharing problem we have as well. Everything else works so smooth but SharePlay has just been such a struggle for me. It's the last piece to the puzzle before we can put it on the App Store.
2
0
128
Sep ’25