Milestone: 100 Posts on Step Into Vision

This article is my 100th on Step Into Vision. Here are my reflections on the work so far, and a hint at what lies ahead.

It has been 142 days since I soft-launched the website with an only handful of posts. Since that time I’ve been adding examples and labs to help the visionOS community. Today I’m celebrating 100 posts, and I’m just getting started!

In the past few weeks the Learn visionOS page has started to take shape. It now has rough outline of a few key topics for visionOS. We have learned how to work with Windows, Volumes, and Spaces. We’ve learned how to use system gestures for input. We’ve started to dive into ARKit with Hand Tracking. We’ve been stacking basic building blocks in the Spatial SwiftUI series. We’ve only covered three main topics of the 16 that I have planned for 2025.

Writing these posts has been incredibly valuable to me. I’ve been able to further my understanding of visionOS. Sharing my work has opened up my network to new people and organizations. Most importantly, the example code has been useful to people. I’ve lost count of how often someone has said they used Step Into Vision to find the answer to their problem. I’ve heard from teachers and trainers who have used the examples in their classes. I’ve had people ask questions that I was able to answer in a few minutes of coding, thanks to the existing building blocks. It is truly a delight and a privilege to be able to help others. After all, countless developers and mentors helped me build my career in software development. The least I can do is give back. And I want to give everything I can.

It is truly a delight and a privilege to be able to help others

If Step Into Vision has been helpful to you, would you take a moment to let me know? Leave a comment below or send me a note with the contact form. If you are reading this in your email inbox, just hit reply.

So what’s next? In the short term, I have a lot of work to do on the ARKit series. I’ve been improving my understanding of the two main paths we can take: Spatial Tracking Session with Anchors vs. ARKit Session with Data Providers. There is some overlap in these two approaches, but they each have different uses.

A few other series to tease: RealityKit Basics, Working with Materials, Physics & Collisions, Exploring Components, and many more. My goal is to create a set of building blocks in each of these topics. Then we can start expanding on the building blocks with more detailed labs, mini projects, and full applications.

I’m also doing a lot of thinking about the future of Step Into Vision. Ideally, I’d love to make this into my full time job, but I know that path could take years. I’m spending a lot of time thinking and talking with my mentors about that path. I don’t have anything to share just yet. In the next few months I should have some answers for you and for myself.

Thank you for everyone who has joined me so far, and to everyone else, welcome. Let’s get back to work building the future of Spatial Computing.

Joseph Simpson
January 13, 2025