Hi Apple Team,
We noticed the following exciting changelog in the latest macOS 26 beta:
A new algorithm significantly improves PhotogrammetrySession reconstruction quality of low-texture objects not captured with the ObjectCaptureSession front end. It will be downloaded and cached once in the background when the PhotogrammetrySession is used at runtime. If network isn’t available at that time, the old low quality model will be used until the new one can be downloaded. There is no code change needed to get this improved model. (145220451)
However after trying this on the latest beta and running some tests we do not see any differences on objects with low textures such as single coloured surfaces. Is there anything we are missing? the machine is definitely connected to the internet but we have no way of knowing from the logs if the new model is being used?
thanks
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I got more than 1 TB Immersive videos, and I want to play from them. Is there a way I can connect a ssd to Vision Pro via developer strap? Or is it possible to connect to a 10G Ethernet ad, and then using Ethernet to connect to a disk/NAS and attach the drive via ip?
Hello,
Let me ask you a question about Apple Immersive Video.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/07/new-apple-immersive-video-series-and-films-premiere-on-vision-pro/
I am currently considering implementing a feature to play Apple Immersive Video as a background scene in the app I developed, using 3DCG-created content converted into Apple Immersive Video format.
First, I would like to know if it is possible to integrate Apple Immersive Video into an app.
Could you provide information about the required software and the integration process for incorporating Apple Immersive Video into an app?
It would be great if you could also share any helpful website resources.
I am considering creating Apple Immersive Video content and would like to know about the necessary equipment and software for producing both live-action footage and 3DCG animation videos.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m planning to play Apple Immersive Video as a background in the app. In doing so, I would also like to place some 3D models as RealityKit entities and spatial audio elements.
I’m also planning to develop the visionOS app as a Full Space Mixed experience. Is it possible to have an immersive viewing experience with Apple Immersive Video in Full Space Mixed mode? Does Apple Immersive Video support Full Space Mixed?
I’ve asked several questions, and that’s all for now. Thank you in advance!
How do you force quit apps on the Vision Pro simulator?
I've read online you can double press the digital crown on a real Vision Pro device but there is no such button on the simulator. So far I've tried
Pressing the home button twice (⇧⌘H)
Pressing the Siri button twice (⌥⇧⌘H)
None of them works
I'm on Xcode 15.0 beta 5 (15A5209g) & visionOS 1.0 beta 2 (21N5207e)
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
Hi I know it's possible to play equirectangular VR180 video either SBS or MV-HEVC. And for fisheye video, the only way I know is to convert it into an AIVU for playback.
Is there any way to directly play fisheye video using AVPlayer? Thanks a lot!
After adding TextComponents to my Entities on visionOS, I have observed that visualBounds will ignore the TextComponents.
Documentation states that it should render a rounded rectangle mesh. These mashes are visible on the device, but not visible in the debugger ("Capture Entity Hierarchy") and ignored by visualBounds.
Am I missing something?
static func makeDirection(_ direction: Direction) -> Entity {
let text = Entity()
text.name = direction.rawValue
text.setScale(SIMD3(repeating: 5), relativeTo: nil)
text.transform.rotation = direction.rotation
text.components.set(direction.textComponent)
return text
}
My workaround is to add a disabled ModelEntity and take its bounds 😬
Spatial photo in RealityView has a default corner radius. I made a parallel effect with spatial photos in ScrollView(like Spatial Gallery), but the corner radius disappeared on left and right spatial photos. I've tried .clipShape and .mask modifiers, but they did't work. How to clip or mask spatial photo with corner radius effect?
When assigning a ManipulationComponent to an Entity SceneEvents.WillRemoveEntity will be called for that Entity.
Expected Behavior: the Entity is not (even if temporarily) removed from the Scene and no SceneEvents will be triggered as a result of assigning a ManipulationComponent.
FB20872220
We've recently discovered that our app crashes on startup on the latest visionOS 2.0 beta 5 (22N5297g) build. In fact, the entire field of view would dim down and visionOS would then restart, showing the Apple logo. Interestingly, no app crash is reported by Xcode during debug.
After investigation, we have isolated the issue to a specific USDZ asset in our app. Loading it in a sample, blank project also causes visionOS to reliably crash, or become extremely unresponsive with rendering artifacts everywhere.
This looks like a potentially serious issue. Even if the asset is problematic, loading it should not crash the entire OS. We have filed feedback FB14756285, along with a demo project. Hopefully someone can take a look. Thanks!
Posting this here in case this information is helpful to other developers:
As of visionOS 26.3 beta 1, onWorldRecenter has two significant issues: (FB21557639)
Memory Leak: When onWorldRecenter is assigned to a RealityView within an ImmersiveSpace, it appears to retain a strong reference to the view's internal SwiftUI context. When the immersive space is dismissed, the view's @State objects will not be deallocated. Also, each time the immersive space view's body is executed, additional state storage will be allocated and leaked.
Multiple Callbacks: When the user long-presses the Digital Crown, the onWorldRecenter closure will be called multiple times, once for each past view body execution, including those of immersive space views that have been previously dismissed.
Although these issues seem to be most prevalent when onWorldRecenter is used with an ImmersiveSpace, they may also occur in the context of a WindowGroup under certain circumstances.
It's possible to work around this problem by moving onWorldRecenter to an empty overlay view within the app's primary WindowGroup and forwarding the world recenter events to ImmersiveSpace views through a notification system, coupled with a debouncer as an extra precaution.
Hello,
A lot of the RealityKit APIs (Ex. LowLevelMesh, LowLevelTexture, etc.) are marked with MainActor so they needed to be accessed on the main thread.
This creates issues when we need to perform expensive GPU related operations since now we need to perform those on the main thread. This results in bottlenecks and hangs in our application. We would like to use a multi-threaded approach to solve these problems which is difficult to do here. We are constantly streaming data whether the app is just appearing or the user is interacting with our application so we need to be able to perform these operations on a separate thread.
Any advice on how to achieve this using RealityKit?
Thank you.
Game Controller Input Limitations in visionOS Volumetric Windows
Hello Apple Developer Community,
I'm developing a game for visionOS and have encountered significant limitations with game controller input when using volumetric windows (WindowGroup with .volumetric style). I'd appreciate clarification on whether this is expected behavior and any guidance on best practices.
🧩 Issue Summary
When using a DualSense controller with a volumetric window in visionOS, only a subset of controller inputs are available to the app. The remaining inputs appear to be reserved by the system for UI navigation.
✅ Working Inputs (Volumetric Window)
D-Pad (all directions)
L3 (left thumbstick button click)
R3 (right thumbstick button click)
Menu button
Options button
❌ Not Working Inputs (Volumetric Window)
Left thumbstick analog movement (used for UI scrolling instead)
Right thumbstick analog movement (used for UI scrolling instead)
Face buttons (Cross, Circle, Square, Triangle / A, B, X, Y)
Shoulder buttons (L1, R1)
Triggers (L2, R2)
Key observation: When moving the left thumbstick in a volumetric window, the window's UI scrolls vertically instead of sending input to my app's GameController handlers. Similarly, face buttons seem to be reserved for system UI interactions.
⚙️ Implementation Details
I'm using the standard GameController framework:
Connect to controller via GCController.controllers()
Access extendedGamepad profile
Set up valueChangedHandler and pressedChangedHandler for all inputs
Handlers confirmed registered via logging
Working inputs (D-Pad, L3, R3) trigger immediately and consistently
Non-working inputs (thumbsticks, face buttons) never trigger
🧠 Critical Finding: ImmersiveSpace Works Perfectly
When testing the exact same code in an ImmersiveSpace (.mixed immersion style), all controller inputs work perfectly:
✅ Both thumbsticks provide full analog input
✅ All face buttons trigger their handlers
✅ All shoulder buttons and triggers work correctly
✅ 100% success rate with no intermittent issues
This suggests the issue isn't with my code, but rather how visionOS handles controller input differently between Volumetric Windows and ImmersiveSpace.
🧪 Test Environment
I created a minimal test project (Controller-Playground) to isolate the issue:
A simple ControllerTester class that registers all GameController handlers
A visual UI showing real-time input state
No game logic, RealityKit physics, or other complexity
Results
In volumetric window: Only D-Pad, L3, R3, Menu, Options work
In ImmersiveSpace: All inputs work perfectly
This confirms the limitation exists at the visionOS platform level, not in app code.
🧰 Attempted Workarounds
I tried the following without success:
Setting GCSupportsControllerUserInteraction = false in Info.plist
Setting UIRequiresFullScreen = true
Changing window styles (.plain, .volumetric)
Polling vs. handler-based input approaches
Various threading models (MainActor, separate thread)
Result: The only way to enable full controller support is to switch to ImmersiveSpace.
❓ Questions for Apple
Is this input reservation behavior in volumetric windows intended and documented?
Are game controllers expected to have limited functionality in volumetric windows while full functionality is reserved for ImmersiveSpace?
Is there a way to request full controller input access in a volumetric window, or is ImmersiveSpace the only option for complete controller support?
Where can I find official documentation about controller input differences between window types?
Are there any APIs or configuration options to disable system controller shortcuts in volumetric windows?
🎯 Impact
This limitation has a significant effect on game design and architecture:
Volumetric windows offer a multitasking-friendly, less immersive experience
ImmersiveSpace provides full controller support but may be more immersive than some games require
Games that only need basic D-Pad and button input can work fine in volumetric windows
Games requiring analog sticks or face buttons must currently use ImmersiveSpace
It would be very helpful if Apple could clarify or reference existing documentation regarding controller input handling in different visionOS window types. If such documentation doesn't exist yet, it might be valuable to include this information in future developer guides or best-practice documents.
🕹 Current Workaround
For now, I'm using:
D-Pad for character movement (digital 8-direction)
R3 (right stick click) as a substitute for the "X" button
This setup allows the game to function within a volumetric window, though full controller support still requires ImmersiveSpace.
📄 Request
If this is expected behavior, I may have simply missed the relevant documentation — could you please point me to any existing resources that explain this design?
If there isn't one yet, it would be great if future visionOS documentation could:
Clearly outline controller input behavior across window types
Provide guidance on when to use Volumetric Windows vs. ImmersiveSpace for games
Consider adding an API option to request full controller access when appropriate
If this is not expected behavior, I'm happy to file a detailed bug report with sample code.
💻 System Information
visionOS: Latest Simulator
Xcode: Latest version
Controller: Sony DualSense
Framework: GameController (standard extendedGamepad profile)
Test project: Minimal reproducible example available
Thank you for any clarification or guidance you can provide. This information would be valuable for many developers working on visionOS games.
Hi guys,
I noticed that Apple created a really engaging visual effect for browsing spatial videos in the app. The video appears embedded in glass panel with glowing edges and even shows a parallax effect as you move around. When I tried to display the stereo video using RealityView, however, the video entity always floats above the panel.
May I ask how does VisionOS implement this effect? Is there any approach to achieve this effect or example code I can use in my own code.
Thanks!
In visionOS, I'm trying to create an immersive environment which would feature several spheres in which immersive movies are visible. I'm starting from a sample code which creates a sphere, sets an immersive movie as its material, and opens it as an immersive environment. This works fine.
But if I create a sphere in an open immersive environment using Reality Composer Pro and sets its material to an immersive movie, I can see the movie on the sphere while I move outside of it but if I try to get inside the sphere, it disappears. What would be the right way of doing this ?
Hi I have a monitoring app, that will take input video from uvc and process it using Metal, and eventually get a MTLTexture.
The problem I'm facing is I have to convert MTLTexture to CGImage then call TextureResource.replace, which is super slow. Metal processing speed is same as input frame rate(50pfs), but MTLTexture -> CGImage -> TextureResource only got 7fps...
Is there any way I can make it faster?
Topic:
Spatial Computing
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Media Player
Frameworks
Media Accessibility
Core Media
let component = GestureComponent(DragGesture())
iOS: ☑️
visionOS: ❌
This bug from beta to public, please fix it.
We seen to have found an issue when using the pushWindow action on visionOS. The issue occurs if the app is backgrounded then reopened by selecting the apps icon on the home screen. Any window that is opened via the pushWindow action is then dismissed. We've been able to replicate the issue in a small sample project.
Replication steps
Open app
Open window via the push action
Press the digital crown
On the home screen select the apps icon again
The pushed window will now be dismissed.
There is a sample project linked here that shows off the issue, including a video of the bug in progress
Happy new year to all!
I have created an iOS app that also runs on Apple Vision Pro.
On iOS, when you activate the fileImporter modal, you can swipe down the modal in iOS to dismiss.
However, in visionOS, this same modal CANNOT be swiped down to cancel/dismiss. If you are drilled deep into a file hierarchy, you have to navigate back to the top level to tap X to dismiss.
Is there a way to add swipe down to the visionOS implementation of fileImporter, or any other workaround so the user doesn't have to navigate back to the top to dismiss?
Again, this is not a visionOS app but an iOS app compatible for use in Vision Pro.
Thanks!
For visionOS 2.0+, it has been announced the object tracking feature. Is there any support for PolySpatial in Unity or is it only available in Swift and Xcode?