Apple Vision Pro game development just leveled up with first Unity beta

(Image credit: Apple)

We're still months away from the Apple Vision Pro headset going on sale but its WWDC 2023 unveiling ensured that developers will have plenty of time to work on their apps and games. And building the latter just took a big step forward.

That's because Unity has announced that developers can now sign up to get in on the beta for its PolySpatial development platform for visionOS — the software that will power the Vision Pro headset.

Access to PolySpatial will give developers new tools to build games that can run on the Vision Pro headset. Games were surprisingly lacking from the big Vision Pro unveiling, but it did confirm that Unity would be involved in development.

Spatial computer gaming

Unity announced the new beta in a press release sent to iMore, confirming that the PolySpatial beta launches today. "Featuring integration with the Unity editor, creators can build experiences that run in visionOS, and leverage the amazing features of Apple Vision Pro," the press release reads." The release goes on to say that "by combining Unity’s new PolySpatial technology with Apple’s RealityKit-managed app rendering, content created in Unity will have a unified look and feel, alongside other apps in visionOS."

Unity says that developers can start to build new experiences or port existing ones over to visionOS now, "previewing from the Unity Editor directly to Apple Vision Pro for quick iteration."

Triband, the team behind the popular What The ...? games series, has already been using Unity PolySpatial to port the WHAT THE GOLF? game to Vision Pro.

“Unity’s multi-platform support and comprehensive development tools allowed us to leverage our existing Unity knowledge and repurpose content from our games to create a fun experience that works great on Apple Vision Pro,” said Peter Bruun, CEO of Triband via Unity's statement. “With our game, WHAT THE GOLF?, we're looking forward to bringing our comedy, silliness, and surprises to visionOS, and can’t wait for users to experience it.”

Apple hasn't confirmed exactly when we can expect the Vision Pro to go on sale, but it did say that we will see it arrive in early 2024.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.