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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When running Unity applications in the shared space of visionOS, the Mask/RectMask2D of ScrollView does not function properly
Problem Description: I am developing an application that runs in the Shared Space on Apple Vision Pro using Unity. When using the UI ScrollView (Scroll View) component, I found that the Mask / RectMask2D does not function in the Shared Space. Scrolling content is not masked or cropped; it extends beyond the view boundary and is displayed directly. The same UI works correctly across platforms such as Unity Editor, iOS, and macOS, but the issue only occurs in the shared space of Vision Pro. Reproduction steps: Create a ScrollView in Unity. Add a Mask or RectMask2D to the viewport. Deploy the application to Apple Vision Pro and run it in Shared Space mode. Sliding content will not be clipped by the mask, and the masked area is entirely ineffective. Expected behavior: The content of ScrollView should be properly clipped by Mask / RectMask2D and should not render outside the mask boundary. Actual results: In the shared space of Vision Pro, the mask is ineffective, causing scrolling content to extend beyond the designated area and resulting in severe UI distortion. Environmental Information: Device: Apple Vision Pro Mode: Shared Space Unity Version: 6000.0.40f1 visionOS version: visionOS 26.0 Unity PolySpatial Version: 2.0.4 Impact This issue causes Unity UI to fail to display correctly on Vision Pro, preventing ScrollView from properly clipping content, which impacts the UI experience and interaction effects in practical applications. Expected Result: When running a Unity app in the shared space of visionOS, the Mask / RectMask2D of ScrollView functions correctly
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149
Dec ’25
ARFrame.sceneDepth not correctly registered with ARFrame.capturedImage for iPad Pro (6th Gen) for high resolution capture.
Hi team, I believe I’ve found a registration issue between ARFrame.sceneDepth and ARFrame.capturedImage when using high-resolution frame capture on a 2022 iPad Pro (6th gen). When enabling high-resolution capture: if let highResFormat = ARWorldTrackingConfiguration.recommendedVideoFormatForHighResolutionFrameCapturing { config.videoFormat = highResFormat } … arView.session.captureHighResolutionFrame { ... } the depth map provided by ARFrame.sceneDepth no longer aligns correctly with the corresponding high-resolution capturedImage. This misalignment results in consistently over-estimated distance measurements in my app (which relies on mapping depth to 2D pixel coordinates). iPad Pro (6th gen): misalignment occurs only when capturing high-resolution frames. iPhone 16 Pro: depth is correctly registered for both standard and high-resolution captures. It appears the camera intrinsics, specifically the FOV, change between the “regular” resolution stream and the high-resolution capture on the iPad. My suspicion is that the depth data continues using the intrinsics of the lower resolution stream, resulting in an unregistered depth-to-RGB mapping. Once I have the iPad in hand again, I will confirm whether camera.intrinsics or FOV differ between the low-res and high-res frames. Is this a known issue with high-resolution frame capture on the 2022 iPad Pro? If not, I’m happy to provide some more thorough sample code. Thanks for your time!
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212
Nov ’25
ARView environment.lighting IBL from HDR file
I have an iOS app that can display a USDZ model downloaded from the Internet (and cached locally) via an ARView. I would like to light that model with an image based light (IBL) also downloaded from the Internet. However, as far as I can tell, ARView can only create an IBL from a resource that has been compiled into the Xcode project and loaded with EnvironmentResource(named:in:) or EnvironmentResource.load(named:in:). Is there a way to create an EnvironmentResource from an HDRI via a file URL to use in ARView in iOS?
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680
Nov ’25
ARKit Eye Tracking Calibration Issues - Word-Level Reading Tracking Feasibility
Hi Apple Developer Community, I'm developing an eye-tracking application using ARKit's ARFaceTrackingConfiguration and ARFaceAnchor.blendShapes for gaze detection using Xcode. I'm experiencing several calibration and accuracy issues and would appreciate insights from the community. Current Implementation Using ARFaceAnchor.blendShapes (.eyeLookUpLeft, .eyeLookDownLeft, .eyeLookInLeft, .eyeLookOutLeft, etc.) Implementing custom sensitivity curves and smoothing algorithms Applying baseline correction and coordinate mapping Using quadratic regression for calibration point mapping Issues I'm Facing 1. Calibration Mismatch Red dot position doesn't align with where I'm actually looking Significant offset between intended gaze point and actual cursor position Calibration seems to drift or become inaccurate over time 2. Extreme Eye Movement Requirements Need to make exaggerated eye movements to reach screen edges/corners Natural eye movements don't translate to proportional cursor movement Difficulty reaching certain screen regions even with calibration 3. Sensitivity and Stability Issues Cursor jitters or jumps around when looking at center Too much sensitivity to micro-movements Inconsistent behavior between calibration and normal operation 4. I also noticed that tracking on calibration screen as well as tracking on reading screen works better as expected when head movement is there, but I do not want much head movement. I want tracking with normal eye movement while reading an Ebook. Primary Question: Word-Level Eye Tracking Feasibility Is word-level eye tracking (tracking gaze as users read through individual words in an ebook) technically feasible with current iPhone/iPad hardware? I understand that Apple's built-in eye tracking is primarily an accessibility feature for UI navigation. However, I'm wondering if the TrueDepth camera and ARKit's eye tracking capabilities are sufficient for: Tracking natural reading patterns (left-to-right, line-by-line progression) Detecting which specific words a user is looking at Maintaining accuracy for sustained reading sessions (15-30 minutes) Working reliably across different users and lighting conditions Questions for the Community Hardware Limitations: Are iPhone/iPad TrueDepth cameras capable of the precision needed for word-level tracking, or is this beyond current hardware capabilities? Calibration Best Practices: What calibration strategies have worked best for accurate gaze mapping? How many calibration points are typically needed? Reading-Specific Challenges: Are there particular challenges when tracking reading behavior vs. general gaze tracking? Alternative Approaches: Are there better approaches than ARKit blend shapes for this use case? Current Setup Devices: iPhone 14 Pro iOS Version: iOS 18.3 ARKit Version: Latest available Any insights, experiences, or technical guidance would be greatly appreciated. I'm particularly interested in hearing from developers who have worked on similar eye tracking applications or have experience with the limitations and capabilities of ARKit's eye tracking features. Thank you for your time and expertise!
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725
Oct ’25
Hand Tracking Latency When UITextView Becomes Active in Vision Pro Immersive Space
I'm placing sphere at finger tip and updating its position as hand move. Finger joint tracking functions correctly, but I’ve observed noticeable latency in hand tracking updates whenever a UITextView becomes active. This lag happens intermittently during app usage, lasting about 5–10 seconds, after which the latency disappears and the sphere starts following the finger joints immediately. When I open the immersive space for the first time, the profiler shows a large performance spike upto 328%. After that, it stabilizes and runs smoothly. Note: I don’t observe any lag when CPU usage spikes to 300% (upon immersive view load) yet the lag still occurs even when CPU usage remains below 100%. I’m using the following code for hand tracking: private func processHandTrackingUpdates() async { for await update in handTracking.anchorUpdates { let handAnchor = update.anchor if handAnchor.isTracked { switch handAnchor.chirality { case .left: leftHandAnchor = handAnchor updateHandJoints(for: handAnchor, with: leftHandJointEntities) case .right: rightHandAnchor = handAnchor updateHandJoints(for: handAnchor, with: rightHandJointEntities) } } else { switch handAnchor.chirality { case .left: leftHandAnchor = nil hideAllJoints(in: leftHandJointEntities) case .right: rightHandAnchor = nil hideAllJoints(in: rightHandJointEntities) } } await MainActor.run { handTrackingData.processNewHandAnchors( leftHand: self.leftHandAnchor, rightHand: self.rightHandAnchor ) } } } And here’s the function I’m using to update the joint positions: private func updateHandJoints( for handAnchor: HandAnchor, with jointEntities: [HandSkeleton.JointName: Entity] ) { guard handAnchor.isTracked else { hideAllJoints(in: jointEntities) return } // Check if the little finger tip and intermediate base are both tracked. if let tipJoint = handAnchor.handSkeleton?.joint(.littleFingerTip), let intermediateBaseJoint = handAnchor.handSkeleton?.joint(.littleFingerIntermediateTip), tipJoint.isTracked, intermediateBaseJoint.isTracked, let pinkySphere = jointEntities[.littleFingerTip] { // Convert joint transforms to world space. let tipTransform = handAnchor.originFromAnchorTransform * tipJoint.anchorFromJointTransform let intermediateBaseTransform = handAnchor.originFromAnchorTransform * intermediateBaseJoint.anchorFromJointTransform // Extract positions from the transforms. let tipPosition = SIMD3<Float>(tipTransform.columns.3.x, tipTransform.columns.3.y, tipTransform.columns.3.z) let intermediateBasePosition = SIMD3<Float>(intermediateBaseTransform.columns.3.x, intermediateBaseTransform.columns.3.y, intermediateBaseTransform.columns.3.z) // Calculate the midpoint. let midpointPosition = (tipPosition + intermediateBasePosition) / 2.0 // Position the sphere at the midpoint and make it visible. pinkySphere.isEnabled = true pinkySphere.transform.translation = midpointPosition } else { // If either joint is not tracked, hide the sphere. jointEntities[.littleFingerTip]?.isEnabled = false } // Update the positions of all other hand joint spheres. for (jointName, entity) in jointEntities { if jointName == .littleFingerTip { // Already handled the pinky above. continue } guard let joint = handAnchor.handSkeleton?.joint(jointName), joint.isTracked else { entity.isEnabled = false continue } entity.isEnabled = true let jointTransform = handAnchor.originFromAnchorTransform * joint.anchorFromJointTransform entity.transform.translation = SIMD3<Float>(jointTransform.columns.3.x, jointTransform.columns.3.y, jointTransform.columns.3.z) } } I’ve attached both a profiler trace and a video recording from Vision Pro that clearly demonstrate the issue. Profiler: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fDWyGj_fgxud2ngkGH_IVmuH_kO-z0XZ Vision Pro Recordings: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17qo3U9ivwYBsbaSm26fjaOokkJApbkz- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LxTxgudMvWDhOqKVuhc3QaHfY_1x8iA0 Has anyone else experienced this behavior? My thought is that there might be some background calculations happening at the OS level causing this latency. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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396
Sep ’25
Body segmentation/occlusion on the Apple Vision Pro
Hello, I am currently working on a Unity project for the Apple Vision Pro. I would like to have people passing in front of the virtual objects occlude the virtual objects that are behind. Something similar to this: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/arkit/occluding-virtual-content-with-people I could unfortunately not find any documentation about this. Is it possible to implement body segmentation or occlusion on the Apple Vision Pro? If it's not currently supported, are there plans to add it? Any ideas on how to achieve this with existing tools? Thanks! Mehdi
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417
Feb ’25
How to show only Spatial video using UIDocumentPickerViewController
Is there a suitable UTType type to satisfy the need to pick up only SpatialVideo in UIDocumentPickerViewController? I already know that PHPickerFilter in PHPickerViewController can do this, but not in UIDocumentPickerViewController. Our app needs to adapt both of these ways to pick spatial videos So is there anything that I can try in UIDocumentPickerViewController to fulfill such picker functionality?
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513
Feb ’25
iOS needs to allow for background bluetooth scanning. I can't fully build my app.
iOS currently restricts background Bluetooth advertising and scanning in order to preserve battery life and protect user privacy. While these restrictions serve important purposes, they also limit legitimate use cases where users have explicitly opted in to proximity-based experiences. The core challenge is that modern social applications need a way to detect when users are physically present at the same location or event without requiring every participant to keep their app in the foreground. Under the current system, background BLE advertising is heavily throttled and can only transmit a limited payload, background scanning intervals are sparse and unpredictable, peer-to-peer proximity detection cannot be maintained reliably when apps are in the background, and Background App Refresh is non-deterministic, making any kind of time-based proximity validation impossible. A proposed enhancement would be to introduce an “Enhanced Proximity Permission.” This would allow developers to enable reliable background BLE advertising and scanning for declared time windows, such as a maximum of eight hours. It would also allow devices running the same app to detect each other’s proximity using ephemeral, rotating identifiers that preserve privacy, with clear user consent and prominent indicators whenever the feature is active. Unlocking this capability would open up new categories of applications. Live events could offer automatic attendance tracking at concerts, conferences, or sports venues. Retail environments could support opt-in foot traffic analysis and dwell-time insights. Social apps could allow users to find friends at festivals, campuses, or other large venues. Safety applications could extend to crowd density monitoring and contact tracing beyond COVID-era needs. Gaming could offer real-world multiplayer experiences based on physical proximity, and transportation providers could verify rideshare pickups or measure public transit flows automatically. Privacy safeguards would remain central. Permissions would be time-boxed and expire after an event or session. A mandatory visual indicator would be displayed whenever proximity tracking is active. A user-facing dashboard would show all apps granted enhanced proximity access. Permissions would automatically be revoked after a period of non-use, and only ephemeral tokens not permanent identifiers would be broadcast. The industry impact would be significant. With this enhancement, iOS could power the next generation of location-aware social platforms while maintaining Apple’s leadership in privacy through explicit user control and transparency. Current alternatives, such as requiring users to keep apps in the foreground or deploying dedicated hardware beacons, produce poor user experiences and constrain innovation in spatial computing and social applications. Can anyone from Apple consider this change? Having to buy iBeacons is brutal and means slower adoption. Please reconsider this for users who opt in.
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1.1k
Sep ’25
Gaze, Eye Tracking responsive Stuff
I am wondering, is it possible to somehow configure a 3D object to respond to the gaze of a person, like change colors of some parts of the 3D-Model where a person is looking, i.e. where a person's gaze lands on the surface of the 3D-model ? For example, if there is a 3D model of a Cool Dragon 🐉 in the physical space of a person, when seen through with the mixed reality view, of a VisionPro. Now, it would be really cool to change only the color, or make some specific parts of the dragon skin shimmer, but only in the areas where a person is looking. Is this possible ? Is it do-able with eye-tracking of VisionPro ? Any advice would be appreciated. 🤝 🤓 I am new to iOS and VisionOS development.
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237
Mar ’25
how to achieve "concave in" glass view look?
I have been trying to implement this look where a component looks "pushed in" but I could not find any resources regarding this effect. The closest I got was a combination of a RoundedRectangle and .glassBackgroundEffect(), but this makes the view look pushed out, instead of pushed in. I was wondering if this is achievable in SwiftUI level, or even in UIKit level.
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124
Apr ’25
Summon gesture
Can you help to write a code able to pick an element a bit far from me, then bring it near to me, flick it a bit and then send it back to its original position when I release it? Thanks a lot, Christophe
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68
Apr ’25
Loading USDZ with particle system crashes on Intel Macs
Hello, we have a RealityKit app that also runs on macOS via Catalyst. For specific USD assets containing particle systems we have observed a reproducible crash. Steps to reproduce: Open Reality Composer Pro Create new file Create simple particle system (default one is fine) export as USDZ Create project in Xcode Call Entity.load(… and pass in your USD Running this on an Intel iMac with macOS Sequoia 15.3 will lead to a crash with the following console log: validateWithDevice:4704: failed assertion `Render Pipeline DescrvalidateWithDevice:4704: failed assertion `Render Pipeline Descriptor Validation depthAttachmentPixelFormat (MTLPixelFormatDepthvalidateWithDevice:4704: failed assertion `Render Pipeline Descriptor Validation depthAttachmentPixelFormat (MTLPixelFormatDepthvalidateWithDevice:4704: failed assertion `Render Pipeline Descriptor Validation depthAttachmentPixelFormat (MTLPixelFormatDepth32Float) and stencilAttachmentPixelFormat (MTLPixelFormatStencil8) must match. ' iptor Validation depthAttachmentPixelFormat (MTLPixelFormatDepth32Float) and stencilAttachmentPixelFormat (MTLPixelFormatStencil8) must match. ' 32Float) and stencilAttachmentPixelFormat (MTLPixelFormatStencil32Float) and stencilAttachmentPixelFormat (MTLPixelFormatStencil8) must match. ' 8) must match. ' Xcode version: 16.2.0 iMac 2020 3,8GHz Intel Core i7 macOS Sequoia 15.3 FB16477373 It would be great if this could be fixed quickly or a workaround provided since it affects or production app. Thank you!
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454
Mar ’25