Discuss Spatial Computing on Apple Platforms.

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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
283
Aug ’25
Vision OS: HUD mode windows
If I correctly understand, a new Enterprise API has been introduced In visionOS 26 allowing to fix windows to the user frame of reference, implementing a something like an "head up display", with the window tracking the user movements. Is this API only available to enterprise applications, and if so is there a plan to make it available for every kind of app?
3
0
134
Jun ’25
The folding and unfolding effect of the NBA sand table
Seeing this magical sand table, the unfolding and folding effects are similar to spreading out cards, which is very interesting. But I don't know how to achieve it. I want to see if there are any ways to achieve this effect and give some ideas. May I ask if this effect can be achieved under the existing API
1
0
103
May ’25
FromToByAnimation triggers availableAnimations not the single bone animation
So, I was trying to animate a single bone using FromToByAnimation, but when I start the animation, the model instead does the full body animation stored in the availableAnimations. If I don't run testAnimation nothing happens. If I run testAnimation I see the same animation as If I had called entity.playAnimation(entity.availableAnimations[0],..) here's the full code I use to animate a single bone: func testAnimation() { guard let jawAnim = jawAnimation(mouthOpen: 0.4) else { print("Failed to create jawAnim") return } guard let creature, let animResource = try? AnimationResource.generate(with: jawAnim) else { return } let controller = creature.playAnimation(animResource, transitionDuration: 0.02, startsPaused: false) print("controller: \(controller)") } func jawAnimation(mouthOpen: Float) -> FromToByAnimation<JointTransforms>? { guard let basePose else { return nil } guard let index = basePose.jointNames.firstIndex(of: jawBoneName) else { print("Target joint \(self.jawBoneName) not found in default pose joint names") return nil } let fromTransforms = basePose.jointTransforms let baseJawTransform = fromTransforms[index] let maxAngle: Float = 40 let angle: Float = maxAngle * mouthOpen * (.pi / 180) let extraRot = simd_quatf(angle: angle, axis: simd_float3(x: 0, y: 0, z: 1)) var toTransforms = basePose.jointTransforms toTransforms[index] = Transform( scale: baseJawTransform.scale * 2, rotation: baseJawTransform.rotation * extraRot, translation: baseJawTransform.translation ) let fromToBy = FromToByAnimation<JointTransforms>( jointNames: basePose.jointNames, name: "jaw-anim", from: fromTransforms, to: toTransforms, duration: 0.1, bindTarget: .jointTransforms, repeatMode: .none, ) return fromToBy } PS: I can confirm that I can set this bone to a specific position if I use guard let index = newPose.jointNames.firstIndex(of: boneName) ... let baseTransform = basePose.jointTransforms[index] newPose.jointTransforms[index] = Transform( scale: baseTransform.scale, rotation: baseTransform.rotation * extraRot, translation: baseTransform.translation ) skeletalComponent.poses.default = newPose creatureMeshEntity.components.set(skeletalComponent) This works for manually setting the bone position, so the jawBoneName and the joint-transformation can't be that wrong.
1
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330
Aug ’25
Tapping once with both hands only works sometimes in visionOS
Hello! I have an iOS app where I am looking into support for visionOS. I have a whole bunch of gestures set up using UIGestureRecognizer and so far most of them work great in visionOS! But I do see something odd that I am not sure can be fixed on my end. I have a UITapGestureRecognizer which is set up with numberOfTouchesRequired = 2 which I am assuming translates in visionOS to when you tap your thumb and index finger on both hands. When I tap with both hands sometimes this tap gesture gets kicked off and other times it doesn't and it says it only received one touch when it should be two. Interestingly, I see this behavior in Apple Maps where tapping once with both hands should zoom out the map, which only works sometimes. Can anyone explain this or am I missing something?
6
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835
1w
Ornaments in Presentations
We can add ornaments to popovers shown by PresentationComponent, but I’m not sure if we should. While working on the editor for entities in a Volume-based app, I had the idea to add ornaments to the presented views. The entire app exists inside a volume. A user can tap a item to present a popoverUI to edit it. This is displayed using the new PresentationComponent in visionOS 26. Ornaments have a new attachment anchor option this year: .parent(). .ornament(attachmentAnchor: .parent(.top), ornament: {...}) This works well in the Simulator. We can add ornaments around this popover view just like we would with a window. Unfortunately, when I run this on device I get a different experience. Any part of the ornament that overlaps with the popover content isn’t rendered correctly. Sometimes it entirely disappears, other times it becomes partially transparent. We could use content alignment to try to make sure the ornament doesn’t overlap the popover content. .ornament(attachmentAnchor: .parent(.top), contentAlignment: .bottom, ornament: {...}) This works sometimes–but not all the time. It’s not clear if this is a bug or not, because I’m not sure if we are even supposed to be able to use ornaments in this way. Here is my hierarchy: An app opens as a Volume Volume presenting a RealityView, with its own ornament using .scene() anchor Multiple Entities with Presentation Component show an edit view The view uses .parent() anchor to add ornaments. What makes me unsure is that other methods for drawing UI in RealityView don’t seem to work with ornaments. For example, if I add an attachment to show a view with the ornament–even when I use the .parent() anchor–the ornament is anchor to the volume, not the attachment view. So what do we think? Is this a rendering bug? Are ornaments intended to work with attachments and presentations?
2
0
370
Aug ’25
Digital Crown press when both immersive space and additional windows are presented
I have been experimenting with the Hello World sample app from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/visionos/world and I came across behavior that appears inconsistent with user-facing documentation describing the device controls at https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-vision-pro/tan1e2a29e00/visionos I tried pressing simulator's "Home" button while "Objects in Orbit" immersive space was presented alongside with the main application window. According to user documentation, pressing Digital Crown should take the user directly to Home View. In my test a single press only dismissed the immersive space, I needed another press to "exit" the app and go to Home View. Is this behavior expected? I am assuming that "Home" button in the simulator behaves as if the user pressed Digital Crown on the device, I don't have access to the actual hardware.
5
0
442
Apr ’25
RealityKit Trace Metric Max/Range for VisionOS app
Hi Nathaniel, I spoke with you yesterday in the WWDC lab. Thanks for chatting with me! Is it possible to get a link to a doc that has some key metrics I'd find in a RealityKit trace so I know if that metric is exceeding limits and probably causing a problem? Right now, I just see numbers and have no idea if a metric is high or low :). This is specifically for a VisionOS app. Thanks, Bob
3
0
178
Jun ’25
Looking for a way to implement the video display effect in Apple's 'Spatial Gallery'
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!
3
1
254
Jun ’25
How to combine Occlusion nodes with soft edges.
At a recent community meeting we were wondering how Apple creates this soft-edge effect around the occlusion cutouts. We see this effect on keyboard cutouts, iPhone cutouts, and in progressive spaces. An example: Notice the soft edged around the occlusion cutout for the keyboard One of our members created some Shader Graph materials to explore soft edges. These work by sending data into the opacity channel of the PreviewSurface node. Unfortunately, the Occlusion Surface nodes lack any sort of input. If you know how to blend these concepts with RealityKit Occlusion, please let us know!
0
1
934
Sep ’25
How to visualize a point cloud in RealityKit on visionOS?
I would like to visualize a point cloud taken from a lidar. Assuming I can get the XYZ values of every point (of which there may be hundreds or thousands), what is the most efficient way for me to create a point cloud using this information?
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
358
Activity
Sep ’25
How can I achieve this effect using SwiftUI or ShaderGraph?
How do you call the effect where the edges around the central image gradually become transparent? This effect is also seen when viewing immersive mode of spatial photos in Vision Pro. How can I achieve this effect using SwiftUI or ShaderGraph? I want to use this effect when displaying images in my app.
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
691
Activity
May ’25
Volumetric Maps in VisionOS
At the moment the map kit APls only support non-volumetric maps (i.e. in a window or in a volume, but on a 2D surface). Is support for 3D volumetric maps in VisionOS in the works? And if so when can we expect it to be available?
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
83
Activity
Jun ’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.
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
283
Activity
Aug ’25
Vision OS: HUD mode windows
If I correctly understand, a new Enterprise API has been introduced In visionOS 26 allowing to fix windows to the user frame of reference, implementing a something like an "head up display", with the window tracking the user movements. Is this API only available to enterprise applications, and if so is there a plan to make it available for every kind of app?
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
134
Activity
Jun ’25
RealityView content.add Called Twice Automatically
I’m working with RealityView in visionOS and noticed that the content closure seems to run twice, causing content.add to be called twice automatically. This results in duplicate entities being added to the scene unless I manually check for duplicates. How can I fix that? Thanks.
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
252
Activity
Aug ’25
The folding and unfolding effect of the NBA sand table
Seeing this magical sand table, the unfolding and folding effects are similar to spreading out cards, which is very interesting. But I don't know how to achieve it. I want to see if there are any ways to achieve this effect and give some ideas. May I ask if this effect can be achieved under the existing API
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
103
Activity
May ’25
Can't observe Entity's orientation properties in Slider
On Xcode 26 and visionOS 26, apple provides observable property for Entity, so we can easily interact with Entity between RealityScene and SwiftUI, but there is a issue: It's fine to observe Entity's position and scale properties in Slider, but can't observe orientation properties in Slider. MacBook Air M2 / Xcode 26 beta6
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
221
Activity
Aug ’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
203
Activity
Jun ’25
FromToByAnimation triggers availableAnimations not the single bone animation
So, I was trying to animate a single bone using FromToByAnimation, but when I start the animation, the model instead does the full body animation stored in the availableAnimations. If I don't run testAnimation nothing happens. If I run testAnimation I see the same animation as If I had called entity.playAnimation(entity.availableAnimations[0],..) here's the full code I use to animate a single bone: func testAnimation() { guard let jawAnim = jawAnimation(mouthOpen: 0.4) else { print("Failed to create jawAnim") return } guard let creature, let animResource = try? AnimationResource.generate(with: jawAnim) else { return } let controller = creature.playAnimation(animResource, transitionDuration: 0.02, startsPaused: false) print("controller: \(controller)") } func jawAnimation(mouthOpen: Float) -> FromToByAnimation<JointTransforms>? { guard let basePose else { return nil } guard let index = basePose.jointNames.firstIndex(of: jawBoneName) else { print("Target joint \(self.jawBoneName) not found in default pose joint names") return nil } let fromTransforms = basePose.jointTransforms let baseJawTransform = fromTransforms[index] let maxAngle: Float = 40 let angle: Float = maxAngle * mouthOpen * (.pi / 180) let extraRot = simd_quatf(angle: angle, axis: simd_float3(x: 0, y: 0, z: 1)) var toTransforms = basePose.jointTransforms toTransforms[index] = Transform( scale: baseJawTransform.scale * 2, rotation: baseJawTransform.rotation * extraRot, translation: baseJawTransform.translation ) let fromToBy = FromToByAnimation<JointTransforms>( jointNames: basePose.jointNames, name: "jaw-anim", from: fromTransforms, to: toTransforms, duration: 0.1, bindTarget: .jointTransforms, repeatMode: .none, ) return fromToBy } PS: I can confirm that I can set this bone to a specific position if I use guard let index = newPose.jointNames.firstIndex(of: boneName) ... let baseTransform = basePose.jointTransforms[index] newPose.jointTransforms[index] = Transform( scale: baseTransform.scale, rotation: baseTransform.rotation * extraRot, translation: baseTransform.translation ) skeletalComponent.poses.default = newPose creatureMeshEntity.components.set(skeletalComponent) This works for manually setting the bone position, so the jawBoneName and the joint-transformation can't be that wrong.
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
330
Activity
Aug ’25
Tapping once with both hands only works sometimes in visionOS
Hello! I have an iOS app where I am looking into support for visionOS. I have a whole bunch of gestures set up using UIGestureRecognizer and so far most of them work great in visionOS! But I do see something odd that I am not sure can be fixed on my end. I have a UITapGestureRecognizer which is set up with numberOfTouchesRequired = 2 which I am assuming translates in visionOS to when you tap your thumb and index finger on both hands. When I tap with both hands sometimes this tap gesture gets kicked off and other times it doesn't and it says it only received one touch when it should be two. Interestingly, I see this behavior in Apple Maps where tapping once with both hands should zoom out the map, which only works sometimes. Can anyone explain this or am I missing something?
Replies
6
Boosts
0
Views
835
Activity
1w
Ornaments in Presentations
We can add ornaments to popovers shown by PresentationComponent, but I’m not sure if we should. While working on the editor for entities in a Volume-based app, I had the idea to add ornaments to the presented views. The entire app exists inside a volume. A user can tap a item to present a popoverUI to edit it. This is displayed using the new PresentationComponent in visionOS 26. Ornaments have a new attachment anchor option this year: .parent(). .ornament(attachmentAnchor: .parent(.top), ornament: {...}) This works well in the Simulator. We can add ornaments around this popover view just like we would with a window. Unfortunately, when I run this on device I get a different experience. Any part of the ornament that overlaps with the popover content isn’t rendered correctly. Sometimes it entirely disappears, other times it becomes partially transparent. We could use content alignment to try to make sure the ornament doesn’t overlap the popover content. .ornament(attachmentAnchor: .parent(.top), contentAlignment: .bottom, ornament: {...}) This works sometimes–but not all the time. It’s not clear if this is a bug or not, because I’m not sure if we are even supposed to be able to use ornaments in this way. Here is my hierarchy: An app opens as a Volume Volume presenting a RealityView, with its own ornament using .scene() anchor Multiple Entities with Presentation Component show an edit view The view uses .parent() anchor to add ornaments. What makes me unsure is that other methods for drawing UI in RealityView don’t seem to work with ornaments. For example, if I add an attachment to show a view with the ornament–even when I use the .parent() anchor–the ornament is anchor to the volume, not the attachment view. So what do we think? Is this a rendering bug? Are ornaments intended to work with attachments and presentations?
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
370
Activity
Aug ’25
Please provide bounds for ViewAttachmentComponent
FB17999226
Replies
4
Boosts
0
Views
208
Activity
Jun ’25
How to open control center in Vision Pro’s Xcode simulator
I want to open the control center in Vision Pro’s Xcode simulator. Can I open it? If I can, please tell me how to do it. Thank you.
Replies
2
Boosts
0
Views
440
Activity
Aug ’25
Digital Crown press when both immersive space and additional windows are presented
I have been experimenting with the Hello World sample app from https://developer.apple.com/documentation/visionos/world and I came across behavior that appears inconsistent with user-facing documentation describing the device controls at https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-vision-pro/tan1e2a29e00/visionos I tried pressing simulator's "Home" button while "Objects in Orbit" immersive space was presented alongside with the main application window. According to user documentation, pressing Digital Crown should take the user directly to Home View. In my test a single press only dismissed the immersive space, I needed another press to "exit" the app and go to Home View. Is this behavior expected? I am assuming that "Home" button in the simulator behaves as if the user pressed Digital Crown on the device, I don't have access to the actual hardware.
Replies
5
Boosts
0
Views
442
Activity
Apr ’25
RealityKit Trace Metric Max/Range for VisionOS app
Hi Nathaniel, I spoke with you yesterday in the WWDC lab. Thanks for chatting with me! Is it possible to get a link to a doc that has some key metrics I'd find in a RealityKit trace so I know if that metric is exceeding limits and probably causing a problem? Right now, I just see numbers and have no idea if a metric is high or low :). This is specifically for a VisionOS app. Thanks, Bob
Replies
3
Boosts
0
Views
178
Activity
Jun ’25
How to break the progress of Entity.animate()
Entity.animate() makes entity animation much easier, but in many cases, I want to break the progress because of some gestures, I couldn't find any way to do this, including tried entity.stopAllAnimations(), I have to wait till Entity.animate() completes. iOS 26 / visionOS 26
Replies
1
Boosts
0
Views
370
Activity
Sep ’25
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
Looking for a way to implement the video display effect in Apple's 'Spatial Gallery'
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!
Replies
3
Boosts
1
Views
254
Activity
Jun ’25
How to combine Occlusion nodes with soft edges.
At a recent community meeting we were wondering how Apple creates this soft-edge effect around the occlusion cutouts. We see this effect on keyboard cutouts, iPhone cutouts, and in progressive spaces. An example: Notice the soft edged around the occlusion cutout for the keyboard One of our members created some Shader Graph materials to explore soft edges. These work by sending data into the opacity channel of the PreviewSurface node. Unfortunately, the Occlusion Surface nodes lack any sort of input. If you know how to blend these concepts with RealityKit Occlusion, please let us know!
Replies
0
Boosts
1
Views
934
Activity
Sep ’25