The XRAn umbrella term encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) applications. Devices supporting these forms of interactive applications can be referred to as XR devices. More info
See in Glossary Origin serves as the center of tracking space in an XR sceneA Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info
See in Glossary.
An XR Origin is a set of GameObjectsThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info
See in Glossary and components that work together to transform XR tracking data into the scene world space.
The following topics discuss the XR Origin and how to use it in your project:
Topic | Description |
---|---|
XR tracking space | Describes the relationship between the XR Origin, the device tracking space and the Unity scene. |
XR Origin configurations | Describes the different XR Origin configurations available in Unity. |
Refer to XR Origin component for more details about the XR Origin and its child GameObjects and components.
XR devices choose an origin point in the real world at initialization. The positions and orientations of all tracked entities, such as the user’s headset or hand-held device, XR controllers, hands, and physical objects detected around the user, are reported relative to this chosen point.
Note: The criteria for choosing the initial origin varies by platform. Typically, a device chooses a point at or directly below the user’s HMD (VR) or hand-held device (AR).
If you used the tracking data directly in your scene, the user would appear to be standing at the scene origin point (0, 0 ,0). To make the user appear at a different location in the scene, you need to transform the tracking data to the desired position and orientation. Unity provides the XR Origin to do this automatically. Many Unity XR features, including those provided by AR Foundation and the XR Interaction Toolkit, require an XR Origin in the scene. You can choose from a variety of XR Origin configurations to suit your project.
To position the XR tracking space in a Unity scene, add an XR Origin GameObject at the location where you want the user to appear when the scene starts. For example, to place the user at the scene origin, place the XR Origin GameObject there. You can rotate the XR Origin around its y axis to face the user in the desired starting direction.
The XR Origin contains GameObjects representing tracked entities as children within its hierarchy. For example, the user’s headset or hand-held device is represented by the CameraA component which creates an image of a particular viewpoint in your scene. The output is either drawn to the screen or captured as a texture. More info
See in Glossary GameObject. Because they are children, the tracking data controlling the positions and rotations of these GameObjects is automatically transformed into world space relative to the XR Origin. When the user moves in the real world, these child GameObjects move relative to the XR Origin in the scene.
By using the XR Origin (A) as the parent for transforming tracking data, the tracking origin and the Unity scene origin (B) can be in different places and orientations.
The parent XR Origin GameObject doesn’t move when the user walks around the scene. However, you can move the XR Origin with a script to allow the user to teleport or navigate around the scene via controller input.
The Unity XR packages provide several XR Origin configurations tailored for different types of XR applications. You can use the GameObject > XR menu to add an XR Origin to the current Scene. The available options depend on which packages you have added to your project.
Important: You should never have more than one active XR Origin in a scene. If you need different configurations of the XR Origin in a scene for different purposes, only enable one at the same time.
XR type | Configuration | Menu option | Package | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
VRVirtual Reality More info See in Glossary, MRMixed Reality See in Glossary |
XR Rig | Convert Main Camera To XR Rig | XR Legacy Input Helpers (installed with the XR Plug-in Management package) | Replaces the standard Camera in a basic Unity Scene. The logic used to replace the main camera can fail in complex scenes. Unity removes this option when you install the XR Interaction Tools package. The XR Rig GameObject created by this menu option is slightly different than the XR Origin and might not be as compatible with other Unity XR features. |
VR, MR | XR Origin | XR Origin | XR Core Utils (installed with the XR Interaction Toolkit package) | Does not include GameObjects for controllers. |
VR, MR | XR Origin (VR) | XR Origin (VR) | XR Interaction Toolkit | Includes controller GameObjects set up for action-based input. |
VR, MR | XR Origin (VR) | Device-based > XR Origin (VR) | XR Interaction Toolkit | Includes controller GameObjects set up for device-based input. |
ARAugmented Reality More info See in Glossary, MR |
XR Origin (AR) | XR Origin (AR) | AR Foundation | Serves as the tracking origin for hand-held AR applications. Includes controller GameObjects. This option is available if you have the XR Interaction Toolkit installed. |
AR | XR Origin (Mobile AR) | XR Origin (Mobile AR) | AR Foundation | Serves as the tracking origin for hand-held AR applications. Does not include controller GameObjects. This option is replaced with XR Origin (AR) if you have the XR Interaction Toolkit installed. |
Notes:
XROrigin
component also replaces the CameraOffset
component, providing additional settings. Refer to XR Origin component for more information.Did you find this page useful? Please give it a rating:
Thanks for rating this page!
What kind of problem would you like to report?
Thanks for letting us know! This page has been marked for review based on your feedback.
If you have time, you can provide more information to help us fix the problem faster.
Provide more information
You've told us this page needs code samples. If you'd like to help us further, you could provide a code sample, or tell us about what kind of code sample you'd like to see:
You've told us there are code samples on this page which don't work. If you know how to fix it, or have something better we could use instead, please let us know:
You've told us there is information missing from this page. Please tell us more about what's missing:
You've told us there is incorrect information on this page. If you know what we should change to make it correct, please tell us:
You've told us this page has unclear or confusing information. Please tell us more about what you found unclear or confusing, or let us know how we could make it clearer:
You've told us there is a spelling or grammar error on this page. Please tell us what's wrong:
You've told us this page has a problem. Please tell us more about what's wrong:
Thank you for helping to make the Unity documentation better!
Your feedback has been submitted as a ticket for our documentation team to review.
We are not able to reply to every ticket submitted.
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
More information
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising. Some 3rd party video providers do not allow video views without targeting cookies. If you are experiencing difficulty viewing a video, you will need to set your cookie preferences for targeting to yes if you wish to view videos from these providers. Unity does not control this.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.