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.

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

I want to let users place 2D/3D “artworks” on detected walls and have them reappear in exactly the same real‑world spot after quitting and relaunching the app (like widgets do, but for my own entities).Environment: Xcode 26, visionOS 2.0, RealityKit + ARKitSession/WorldTrackingProvider Entities are parented to a holder that’s aligned to a wall via plane/mesh raycasts. What I’ve tried: Create a WorldAnchor at placement, save UUID + full 4×4 transform On next launch, re-create the WorldAnchor (or set the saved transform) and attach the entity Gate restore on relocalization/mesh updates and disable all raycast/search after restore Issue: After relaunch, placement still resolves relative to current device pose, not the same wall position. Questions: Is there a public API in visionOS 2.0 to persist app‑managed world anchors across sessions (room‑fixed), e.g., AnchorStore or equivalent? If not, what’s the recommended pattern to reliably restore wall‑anchored content? Are persistence features mentioned for widgets/windows available to third‑party RealityKit entities?

Can the event of long pressing the digital display in VisionPro be monitored in RealityView

I used colorpick on the view, but after converting it to a model, colorpick doesn't work. Is there any way to use colorpick

Hi, Toggling a SwiftUI menu in iOS 26 significantly reduces the framerate of an underlying SKView or ARView. Below are test cases for SpriteKit and RealityKit. I ran these tests on iOS 26.1 Beta using an iPhone 13 (A15 chip). Results were similar on iOS 26.0.1. Both scenes consist of circles and balls bouncing on the ground. The restitution of the physics bodies is set for near-perfect elasticity, so they keep bouncing indefinitely. In both SKView and ARView, the framerate drops significantly whenever the SwiftUI menu is toggled. The menu itself is simple and uses standard SwiftUI animations and styling. SpriteKit import SpriteKit import SwiftUI class SKRestitutionScene: SKScene { override func didMove(to view: SKView) { view.contentMode = .center size = view.bounds.size scaleMode = .resizeFill backgroundColor = .darkGray anchorPoint = CGPoint(x: 0.5, y: 0.5) let groundWidth: CGFloat = 300 let ground = SKSpriteNode(color: .gray, size: CGSize(width: groundWidth, height: 10)) ground.physicsBody = SKPhysicsBody(rectangleOf: ground.size) ground.physicsBody?.isDynamic = false addChild(ground) let circleCount = 5 let spacing: CGFloat = 60 let totalWidth = CGFloat(circleCount - 1) * spacing let startX = -totalWidth / 2 for i in 0..<circleCount { let circle = SKShapeNode(circleOfRadius: 18) circle.fillColor = .systemOrange circle.lineWidth = 0 circle.physicsBody = SKPhysicsBody(circleOfRadius: 18) circle.physicsBody?.restitution = 1 circle.physicsBody?.linearDamping = 0 let x = startX + CGFloat(i) * spacing circle.position = CGPoint(x: x, y: 150) addChild(circle) } } override func willMove(from view: SKView) { self.removeAllChildren() } } struct SKRestitutionView: View { var body: some View { ZStack { SpriteView(scene: SKRestitutionScene(), preferredFramesPerSecond: 120) .ignoresSafeArea() VStack { Spacer() Menu { Button("Edit", systemImage: "pencil") {} Button("Share", systemImage: "square.and.arrow.up") {} Button("Delete", systemImage: "trash") {} } label: { Text("Menu") } .buttonStyle(.glass) } .padding() } } } #Preview { SKRestitutionView() } RealityKit import RealityKit import SwiftUI struct ARViewPhysicsRestitution: UIViewRepresentable { let arView = ARView() func makeUIView(context: Context) -> some ARView { arView.contentMode = .center arView.cameraMode = .nonAR arView.automaticallyConfigureSession = false arView.environment.background = .color(.gray) // MARK: Root let anchor = AnchorEntity() arView.scene.addAnchor(anchor) // MARK: Camera let camera = Entity() camera.components.set(PerspectiveCameraComponent()) camera.position = [0, 1, 4] camera.look(at: .zero, from: camera.position, relativeTo: nil) anchor.addChild(camera) // MARK: Ground let groundWidth: Float = 3.0 let ground = Entity() let groundMesh = MeshResource.generateBox(width: groundWidth, height: 0.1, depth: groundWidth) let groundModel = ModelComponent(mesh: groundMesh, materials: [SimpleMaterial(color: .white, roughness: 1, isMetallic: false)]) ground.components.set(groundModel) let groundShape = ShapeResource.generateBox(width: groundWidth, height: 0.1, depth: groundWidth) let groundCollision = CollisionComponent(shapes: [groundShape]) ground.components.set(groundCollision) let groundPhysicsBody = PhysicsBodyComponent( material: PhysicsMaterialResource.generate(friction: 0, restitution: 0.97), mode: .static ) ground.components.set(groundPhysicsBody) anchor.addChild(ground) // MARK: Balls let ballCount = 5 let spacing: Float = 0.4 let totalWidth = Float(ballCount - 1) * spacing let startX = -totalWidth / 2 let radius: Float = 0.12 let ballMesh = MeshResource.generateSphere(radius: radius) let ballMaterial = SimpleMaterial(color: .systemOrange, roughness: 1, isMetallic: false) let ballShape = ShapeResource.generateSphere(radius: radius) for i in 0..<ballCount { let ball = Entity() let ballModel = ModelComponent(mesh: ballMesh, materials: [ballMaterial]) ball.components.set(ballModel) let ballCollision = CollisionComponent(shapes: [ballShape]) ball.components.set(ballCollision) var ballPhysicsBody = PhysicsBodyComponent( material: PhysicsMaterialResource.generate(friction: 0, restitution: 0.97), /// 0.97 for near perfect elasticity mode: .dynamic ) ballPhysicsBody.linearDamping = 0 ballPhysicsBody.angularDamping = 0 ball.components.set(ballPhysicsBody) let shadow = GroundingShadowComponent(castsShadow: true) ball.components.set(shadow) let x = startX + Float(i) * spacing ball.position = [x, 1, 0] anchor.addChild(ball) } return arView } func updateUIView(_ uiView: UIViewType, context: Context) { } } struct PhysicsRestitutionView: View { var body: some View { ZStack { ARViewPhysicsRestitution() .ignoresSafeArea() .background(.black) VStack { Spacer() Menu { Button("Edit", systemImage: "pencil") {} Button("Share", systemImage: "square.and.arrow.up") {} Button("Delete", systemImage: "trash") {} } label: { Text("Menu") } .buttonStyle(.glass) } .padding() } } } #Preview { PhysicsRestitutionView() }

Hello, I am in the process of implementing SharePlay support in my visionOS app. Everything runs fine when I test locally, but when my app is distributed via TestFlight, calling try await activity.activate() shows the SharePlay dialog as usual, but then when I start a new FaceTime call, my ImmersiveSpace gets dismissed. This is only happening when the app is distributed via TestFlight, when I run it locally the ImmersiveSpace stays active as expected. Looking at the console on my Mac I found this log: Invalid initial client settings class: UIApplicationSceneClientSettings; expected class: MRUISharedApplicationSceneClientSettings; bundle ID: com.apple.facetime; scene ID: com.apple.facetime:SFBSystemService-DDA8C751-C0C4-487E-AD85-59EF4E6C6050 Does anyone have an idea how I can fix this? It's driving me nuts and I wasted over a day looking for a workaround but so far been unsuccessful. Thanks!

Breaking Through PolySpatial's ~8k Object Limit – Seeking Alternative Approaches for Large-Scale Digital Twins Confirmed: PolySpatial make Doubles MeshFilter Count – Hard Limit at ~8k Active Objects (15.9k Total) Project Context & Research Goals I’m developing an industrial digital twin application for Apple Vision Pro using Unity’s PolySpatial framework (RealityKit rendering in Unbounded_Volume mode). The scene contains complex factory environments with: Production line equipment Many fragmented grid objects need to be merged.) Dynamic product racks (state-switchable assets) Animated worker avatars To optimize performance, I’m systematically testing visionOS’s rendering capacity limits. Through controlled stress tests, I’ve identified a critical threshold: Key Finding When the total MeshFilter count reaches 15,970 (system baseline + 7,985 user-created objects × 2 due to PolySpatial cloning), the application crashes consistently. This suggests: PolySpatial’s mirroring mechanism effectively doubles GameObject overhead An apparent hard limit exists around ~8k active mesh objects in practice Objectives for This Discussion Verify if others have encountered similar limits with PolySpatial/RealityKit Understand whether this is a: Memory constraint (per-app allocation) Render pipeline limit (Metal draw calls) Unity-specific PolySpatial behavior Explore optimization strategies beyond brute-force object reduction Why This Matters Industrial metaverse applications require rendering thousands of interactive objects . Confirming these limits will help our team: Design safer content guidelines Prioritize GPU instancing/LOD investments Potentially contribute back to PolySpatial’s optimization I’d appreciate insights from engineers who’ve: Pushed similar large-scale scenes in visionOS Worked around PolySpatial’s cloning overhead Discovered alternative capacity limits (vertices/draw calls)

I'm currently implementing 180° / 360° immersive video for my app. I easily implemented 360° by just applying VideoMaterial to flipped sphere. But I'm stuck at 180°. I'm trying to implement by applying VideoMaterial to hemisphere (half sphere). I want to make VideoMaterial to be visible half front sphere and half back sphere transparent / clear. Would there be any advice / information / idea to implement this? Your help would be grateful.

I found that unofficial apps like ChatGPT and Shadowrocket can use widgets in VisionOS 26. How is this achieved? How can I also enable widgets for apps I develop?

When using the new RealityKit Manipulation Component on Entities, indirect input will never translate the entity - no matter what settings are applied. Direct manipulation works as expected for both translation and rotation. Is this intended behaviour? This is different from how indirect manipulation works on Model3D. How else can we get translation from this component? visionOS 26 Beta 2 Build from macOS 26 Beta 2 and Xcode 26 Beta 2 Attached is replicable sample code, I have tried this in other projects with the same results. var body: some View { RealityView { content in // Add the initial RealityKit content if let immersiveContentEntity = try? await Entity(named: "MovieFilmReel", in: reelRCPBundle) { ManipulationComponent.configureEntity(immersiveContentEntity, allowedInputTypes: .all, collisionShapes: [ShapeResource.generateBox(width: 0.2, height: 0.2, depth: 0.2)]) immersiveContentEntity.position.y = 1 immersiveContentEntity.position.z = -0.5 var mc = ManipulationComponent() mc.releaseBehavior = .stay immersiveContentEntity.components.set(mc) content.add(immersiveContentEntity) } } }

Since updating to iOS 26.0 (and confirmed on 26.1), ARBodyTrackingConfiguration no longer detects a valid ARBodyAnchor on devices with LiDAR (e.g., iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max). This issue reproduces in custom projects and Apple’s official sample “Capturing Body Motion in 3D”. The AR session runs normally, but the delegate call: func session(_ session: ARSession, didUpdate anchors: [ARAnchor]) never yields an ARBodyAnchor with valid joint transforms. All joints return nil when calling: body.skeleton.modelTransform(for: jointName) resulting in 0 valid joints per frame. Environment • Device: iPhone 17 Pro Max (LiDAR) • iOS: 26.0 / 26.1 • Xcode: 16.0 (stable) • Framework: ARKit + RealityKit • Configuration used: config.worldAlignment = .gravityAndHeading config.isAutoFocusEnabled = true config.environmentTexturing = .none session.run(config) Also tested: with and without frameSemantics = .bodyDetection Expected Behavior ARBodyAnchor should be detected and body.skeleton should contain ~89 valid joints with continuous updates.

I am building a 360 photo viewer in VisionOS 26. Which allows the user to choose a 2 by 1 jpg and then renders it with a sphere mesh entity. And I use: TextureResource(contentsOf: url, options: options). I noticed two situations here in terms of mipmaps options. When setting "mipmapsMode: .none": The graphic quality within the "gaze area" looks sharp and clear The two poles (top and bottom) are perfectly rendered Massive shimmer around the "gaze area" When setting "mipmapsMode: .allocateAndGenerateAll": The graphic looks slightly blurrier than in ".none" within the "gaze area" The two poles are very blurry and hard to recognize the texture Much less shimmer around the "gaze area" My question would be: Is there a way to have the perfect graphic quality in ".none" without the massive shimmer? Thank you! Screenshots: mipmapsMode: .none mipmapsMode: .allocateAndGenerateAll

Hello, If you add a ManipulationComponent to a RealityKit entity and then continue to add instructions, sooner or later you will encounter a crash with the following error message: Attempting to move entity “%s” (%p) under “%s” (%p), but the new parent entity is currently being removed. Changing the parent/child entities of an entity in an event handler while that entity is already being reassigned is not supported. CoreSimulator 1048 – Device: Apple Vision Pro 4K (B87DD32A-E862-4791-8B71-92E50CE6EC06) – Runtime: visionOS 26.0 (23M336) – Device Type: Apple Vision Pro The problem occurs precisely with this code: ManipulationComponent.configureEntity(object) I adapted Apple's ObjectPlacementExample and made the changes available via GitHub. The desired behavior is that I add entities to ManipulationComponent and then Realitiykit runs stably and does not crash randomly. GitHub Repo Thanks Andre

Hi, I have a hand model that is in FBX and I'm exporting it to USD in Blender. I get a skinned mesh and while I can track the whole hand how do I track each joint and assign it and animate the skinned mesh itself. All my attempts say this is not possible in RealityKit as of now. True?

Hi All, We're a studio building an app and as part of a scene we have a 3D asset with a smoke particle emitter and a curved mesh that plays video. I notice that when the video alone is played or the particle effect alone is done then the scene works fine but the frame rate drops drastically when both are turned on. How do I solve this because this is an important storytelling feature.

Hello, I've been trying to leverage instanced rendering in RealityKit on visionOS but have not had success. RealityKit states this is supported: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/validating-usd-files https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2021/10075/?time=1373 https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2023/10099/?time=772 RealityKit Trace metrics Validating instancing is working: To test I made a base visionOS app with immersive space and the entity replaced with my test usdz file. I've been using the RealityKit Trace profiling template in xcode instruments in the immersive space and volume closed. This gets consistent draw call results. If I have a single sphere mesh with one material I get one draw call, but the number of draw calls grows linearly with mesh count no matter how my entity is configured. What I've tried Create a test scene in blender, export with instancing enabled Create a test scene in Reality Composer Pro using references Author usda files by hand based on the OpenUSD spec Programatically create a MeshResource with Contents at runtime References https://openusd.org/release/api/_usd__page__scenegraph_instancing.html https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/meshresource https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/meshresource/instance Thank you

Hello, I'm getting started for my project with Xcode Cloud since I upgraded to the macOS Sequioa Beta and Xcode 16 now refuses to archive builds for TestFlight. Somewhere very late in the build process I get the following error: realitytool requires Metal for this operation and it is not available in this build environment The log says this happens at: Compile Skybox urban.skybox My project uses RealityKit. How can I fix this issue? Thanks!

I have a question I guess more for the Apple team. But why are there no totally 3D experiences for the Vision Pro lineup? I know they have given us tools to implement unity 3D games into iPhone and I guess you can also build it in RealityKit. But why at this moment are 3D games limited to just iPad and iPhone and can't you bring that into Vision Pro? Just to explain. When I say a totally 3D game, I mean games like Gorn. I mean the Vision Pro is definitely powerful enough, but it just feels limited to tabletop games and AR games. Is this something Apple is thinking about implementing?

The issue reproducible with empty project. When you run it and tap "Open immersive space" it takes a couple of minutes to respond. The issue only reproducible on real device with debugger attached. Reproducible other developers too (not specific to my environment). Issue doesn't exists in Xcode 16. Afer initial long delay subsequent opens works fine. Console logs: nw_socket_copy_info [C1:2] getsockopt TCP_INFO failed [102: Operation not supported on socket] nw_socket_copy_info getsockopt TCP_INFO failed [102: Operation not supported on socket] Failed to set dependencies on asset 9303749952624825765 because NetworkAssetManager does not have an asset entity for that id. void * _Nullable NSMapGet(NSMapTable * _Nonnull, const void * _Nullable): map table argument is NULL PSO compilation completed for driver shader copyFromBufferToTexture so=0 sbpr=256 sbpi=16384 ss=(64, 64, 1) p=70 sc=1 ds=0 dl=0 do=(0, 0, 0) in 1997 XPC connection interrupted <<<< FigAudioSession(AV) >>>> audioSessionAVAudioSession_CopyMXSessionProperty signalled err=-19224 (kFigAudioSessionError_UnsupportedOperation) (getMXSessionProperty unsupported) at FigAudioSession_AVAudioSession.m:606 Failed to load item AXCodeItem<0x14706f250> [Rank:6000] SpringBoardUIServices [AXBundle name:/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle/SpringBoardUIServices] [Platforms and Targets:{ iOS = SpringBoardUIServices; } Framework] [Excluded: (null)]. error: Error Domain=AXLoading Code=0 "URL does not exist: file:///System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=URL does not exist: file:///System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle} Failed to load item AXCodeItem<0x14706f250> [Rank:6000] SpringBoardUIServices [AXBundle name:/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle/SpringBoardUIServices] [Platforms and Targets:{ iOS = SpringBoardUIServices; } Framework] [Excluded: (null)]. error: Error Domain=AXLoading Code=0 "URL does not exist: file:///System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=URL does not exist: file:///System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/SpringBoardUIServices.axbundle} [b30780-MRUIFeedbackTypeButtonWithBackgroundTouchDown] Playback timed out before completion (after 3111 ms) Failed to set dependencies on asset 7089614247973236977 because NetworkAssetManager does not have an asset entity for that id.