Overview

XR Simulation lets you test your AR app in the Editor, simulating the behavior of an XR device as it moves through specially configured scenes called XR Simulation environments. With XR Simulation enabled, you can quickly test your AR app in a variety of environments without needing to build to a device or physically move to a different location.

The Game view shows a living room scene where the Simple AR sample scene is running via XR Simulation. Some planes have been detected in the living room environment and are visualized onscreen.
XR Simulation runs the Simple AR sample, demonstrating plane detection in a living room environment

When you enter Play Mode with XR Simulation enabled, AR Foundation loads your XR Simulation environment into the scene with keyboard and mouse navigation controls. As you navigate the environment, AR Foundation detects trackables such as planes, images, and point clouds as if you were moving around in a real space.

AR Foundation includes a variety of preconfigured sample environments that you can optionally install and use, and you can also create your own environments.

To understand the AR features you can test using XR Simulation, refer to the following table:

Feature Supported
Session Yes
Device tracking Yes
Camera Yes
Plane detection Yes
Image tracking Yes
Object tracking
Face tracking
Body tracking
Point clouds Yes
Ray casts Yes
Anchors Yes
Meshing Yes
Environment Probes Yes
Occlusion Yes
Participants

Architecture

AR Foundation defines its AR features using subsystems. Subsystem implementations are called providers. XR Simulation includes Editor-only providers for certain subsystems as shown in the features table, allowing you test your app in Play Mode with no changes necessary to your scene or build settings.

Note

AR Foundation only uses the XR Simulation providers when you run your app in the Editor. The appropriate platform provider, such as the Google ARCore XR Plug-in on Android and the Apple ARKit XR Plug-in on iOS, is always used when you build and run on a device.

Limitations

XR Simulation has limitations you should consider when testing your app. Most importantly, while XR Simulation is designed to approximate the behavior of an XR device in various environments, simulations cannot exactly replicate device behavior and should not be considered a replacement for on-device testing. Unity recommends that you fully test your app on devices you intend to support, while XR Simulation allows you to more quickly iterate on some features without requiring a new build for each iteration.

The following AR features also have limitations in XR Simulation:

  • Plane Detection: Planes are only detectable on axis-aligned surfaces.
  • Meshing: Meshes are all detected immediately on entering Play Mode.
  • Occlusion: Depth maps in simulation are calculated with a small offset added to prevent z-fighting between XR Simulation environments and their respective mesh visualizers.