Step Into Newsletter – October 27, 2024

Starting a series on gestures, learning the basics of custom components and systems, and playing with head and hand anchors in RealityKit.

Example Code: Gestures

Over the next few weeks I’ll take a look at the available system gestures in SwiftUI and write example code posts for each one. I started with a general post about gestures and one about Tap Gesture.

SwiftUI Gestures with RealityKit Entities – After a bit of setup, it’s easy to use SwiftUI gestures on entities in a RealityView.

Tap Gesture Basics – Using the system tap gesture with RealityKit.

There are plenty of gestures to explore and some interesting ways to combine them. Let me know what you would like to learn about gestures.

Step Into Labs

Last week @JohnAdams_IV asked me how to create a bit of UI that could be anchored to a hand. My first thought was to dive into ARKit and use hand tracking, but then I remembered seeing something about Anchor Entities during WWDC. AnchorEntity ended up being a great option for this since we can use it in full spaces even when we are not otherwise using ARKit. This question from John prompted the creation of Labs 007 and 008.

Lab 007 – Anchor an attachment to a hand – Create a tracked entity that will update based on an anchor, then child an attachment entity to it. No need for hand tracking or ARKit.

Lab 008 – Anchor and entity to the head – Create a tracked entity that will update based on head position, then child an entity to it.

For months I’ve had a task on my list to learn the basics of custom components and systems in RealityKit. It’s kind of amazing that I’ve made it over a year in visionOS development without needing a custom system. Still, it was time to add these concepts to my mental toolbox so I created Lab 010 to teach myself.

Lab 010 – Learning the basics of Systems – Creating a custom component and system that will add a breathing effect to entities based on the duration entered in the component.

Bonus: In Lab 009 I imagined a spooky time for Apple Vision Pro users. Enjoy!

Community

Brian McIntosh opened a TestFlight for Animated Horror Flicks. I really enjoyed the first story and I hope there are many more coming. Watch the trailer and join the beta.

While we are taking about spooky things, Ravi Krishnan recently published the second story in Close Encounter Stories.

Shader Vision – “Experience the next level of shader creation with Shader Vision, designed for Apple VisionPro.” This looks like such an amazing way to learn and create shaders. I’m going to challenge myself to spend some time with it.

Personal Update

I was in Washington DC from October 14th to the 20th. I was visiting a client who sells office-management software to members of congress. It was a mix of work and fun. I saw the space shuttle at the Smithsonian and got to see some of the monuments. We went to a comedy show (Dane Cook) and a concert near the wharf (Air) and capped off the week with a trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. I took a lot of photos while I was there, but this one was my favorite by far.