XR input options

The main options to handle input in an XR game or application include:

• The XR Interaction Toolkit
• OpenXR interaction profiles
• “Traditional” input through the Input System or Input Manager
• The XR.InputDevice and XR.Node APIs
• Third-party input libraries

In some cases, you might use more than one of these options at the same time. For example, you could use the XR Interaction Toolkit to allow the user to pick up objects in the environment, use the Input System to bind a pause function to a controller button, and use the XR.Node API to read the hardware state so that you can animate the controller GameObject.

Note: The OpenXR plug-in, which supports many different XR devices and controllers, provides its own, additional way to access XR input and tracking data. You can still use the XR Interaction Toolkit, the Input System, or the XR.InputDevice and XR.Node APIs. (The legacy Input Manager is not supported when you use the OpenXR plugin.) See Input in Unity OpenXR for more information.

XR Interaction Toolkit

The XR Interaction Toolkit builds on the Input System and the base UnityEngine.XR API to support XR input. It provides a near ready-to-use set of components for handling XR input and defining interactions between the user and the environment and the scene UI. Even if you choose not to use the toolkit’s interaction system, you can use the input components as a starting point to save set-up effort. The toolkit provides two basic approaches to handling input:

• Action-based input provides the most flexibility and makes it easier to support multiple controller and input schemes. The XR Interaction Toolkit defines actions for common XR input needs. To use these actions, add the XR Controller (Action-Based) component to your controller GameObjects. This component is already part of XR Origin configuration that you can add to your XR scene (unless you choose the device-based option).
• Device-based input is simpler to set up than action-based input, but is not as flexible. To use device-based input with the XR Interaction Toolkit, add the XR Controller (Device-Based) component to your controller GameObjects. This component is already part of the XR Origin configuration when you add it to the scene with the GameObject > XR > Device-based > XR Origin menu command.

See Actions for more information about Input System Actions.

Tip: The Starter Assets available in the XR Interaction Toolkit provide presets and input actions that remove most of the rote setup work involved in using action-based input.

The XR Interaction Toolkit defines the following base interactions:

• Select: intended for selecting Interactables in the environment
• Activate: intended for activating Interactables in the environment
• UI Press: intended for pressing a control, such as a button, in a UI
• Rotate anchor: intended for rotating an object held at a distance (with the X-Ray Interactor)
• Translate anchor: intended for moving an object held at a distance (with the X-Ray Interactor)

The XR Interaction Toolkit uses these interactions with additional components to let the user interact with the environment. For example, if you add a GrabInteractable component to an object, the user can trigger Select to grab it. By default, select is bound to the grip button of an XR controller, but you can change the binding as you see fit. You can also use your own actions and bindings alongside those defined by the toolkit.

Input System or Input Manager

You can access the controls of XR Controllers, such as buttons and joysticks, in the same ways you would access any game controller. To access tracking data, use the XR.InputTracking API in code. You can also use the Input System TrackedPoseDriver component to control a GameObject with a tracked device such as a HMD or controller. The TrackedPoseDriver component is also available from the Legacy Input Helpers package, in case you are not using the Input System.

Note: When you use the OpenXR plug-in, you must use the Input System. The Input Manager is not supported.

XR Hand tracking input

The XR Hands package provides access to hand tracking data from XR devices that support it. To access this data, you must also use an XR provider plug-in that has been updated to support hand tracking, such as OpenXR version 1.7.

The XR Hands package provides the following:

• The XRHandTrackingSubsystem which allows an XR device to send hand data to a Unity app.
• A hand tracking API Unity apps can use to access the data.
• Support for the OpenXR Meta Aim Hand feature extension, which provides a gesture aiming system along with OpenXR input bindings for hand tracking data.

XR Input APIs

The XR Input APIs provide direct access to XR input. The API lets you find connected XR devices and read their tracking data and state of their input hardware.

See Unity XR Input for more information about the XR input API.

Third-party input APIs

Device makers and other third parties often provide their own input and interaction APIs that you can use instead of or in addition to those provided by Unity.