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Firebase not initializing in iOS Unreal Engine 5.6 app (using MetaHuman + FirebaseFeatures)
Hi everyone, I'm building a native iOS app using Unreal Engine 5.6 with Firebase for authentication and Firestore. The app uses a MetaHuman avatar and is meant to run as a standalone UE app on iPhone. I'm using this Firebase wrapper: 👉 https://pandoa.github.io/FirebaseFeatures/ I've followed all the steps, including: Adding GoogleService-Info.plist to the Xcode project and ensuring it’s in the correct target Calling FIRApp.configure() in AppDelegate Verifying the plist is bundled correctly However, the app crashes on launch, and Firebase does not initialize properly. Crash log shows: [FirebaseCore][I-COR000005] No app has been configured yet. Setup details: Unreal Engine: 5.6 (source build, macOS) iOS Deployment: 17.5 MetaHuman character packaged correctly and app launches fine without Firebase Has anyone here managed to get Firebase working inside a native Unreal Engine iOS app with this setup? I'd love to hear if there’s something I’m missing — maybe something with initialization timing or module loading? Thanks so much in advance 🙏
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757
Jul ’25
How to apply a geometry modifier to a VideoMaterial in RealityKit?
I have a model that uses a video material as the surface shader and I need to also use a geometry modifier on the material. This seemed like it would be promising (adapted from https://developer.apple.com/wwdc21/10075 ~5m 50s). // Did the setup for the video and AVPlayer eventually leading me to let videoMaterial = VideoMaterial(avPlayer: avPlayer) // Assign the material to the entity entity.model!.materials = [videoMaterial] // The part shown in WWDC: Set up the library and geometry modifier before, so now try to map the new custom material to the video material entity.model!.materials = entity.model!.materials.map { baseMaterial in       try! CustomMaterial(from: baseMaterial, geometryModifier: geometryModifier)     } But, I get the following error Thread 1: Fatal error: 'try!' expression unexpectedly raised an error: RealityFoundation.CustomMaterialError.defaultSurfaceShaderForMaterialNotFound How can I apply a geometry modifier to a VideoMaterial? Or, if I can't do that, is there an easy way to route the AVPlayer video data into the baseColor of CustomMaterial?
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1.2k
Dec ’25
How can I get pixel coordinates in the fragment tile function?
In this video, tile fragment shading is recommended for image processing. In this example, the unpack function takes two arguments, one of which is RasterizerData. As I understand it, this is the data passed to us from the previous stage (Vertex) of the graphics pipeline. However, the properties of MTLTileRenderPipelineDescriptor do not include an option for specifying a Vertex function. Therefore, in this render pass, a mix of commands is used: first, a draw command is executed to obtain UV coordinates, and then threads are dispatched. My question is: without using a draw command, only dispatch, how can I get pixel coordinates in the fragment tile function? For the kernel tile function, everything is clear. typedef struct { float4 OPTexture [[ color(0) ]]; float4 IntermediateTex [[ color(1) ]]; } FragmentIO; fragment FragmentIO Unpack(RasterizerData in [[ stage_in ]], texture2d<float, access::sample> srcImageTexture [[texture(0)]]) { FragmentIO out; //... // Run necessary per-pixel operations out.OPTexture = // assign computed value; out.IntermediateTex = // assign computed value; return out; }
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190
Mar ’25
Will OpenGL API and Drivers be removed after appleOS 26?
Hi, I am a Multimedia and Graphics researcher and I am wondering if OpenGL API and drivers will be removed after appleOS 26? macOS 26 iOS 26 iPadOS 26 visionOS 26 I am asking this because most of the libraries I use depends on OpenGL. Like CGAL, libigl, immediate mode ui, nanovg, nanogui, bullet physics. Transitioning from Vulkan and metal while using and learning those libraries is just not viable. I would like to ask you that. I am the sole developer and I just want to ask you that. Regards.
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227
Aug ’25
Background GPU Access availability
I would love to use Background GPU Access to do some video processing in the background. However the documentation of BGContinuedProcessingTaskRequest.Resources.gpu clearly states: Not all devices support background GPU use. For more information, see Performing long-running tasks on iOS and iPadOS. Is there a list available of currently released devices that do (or don't) support GPU background usage? That would help to understand what part of our user base can use this feature. (And what hardware we need to test this on as developers.) For example it seems that it isn't supported on an iPad Pro M1 with the current iOS 26 beta. The simulators also seem to not support the background GPU resource. So would be great to understand what hardware is capable of using this feature!
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1k
Jul ’25
How to detect which entity was tapped?
Hi, I'm rewriting my game from SceneKit to RealityKit, and I'm having trouble implementing the following scenario: I tap on the iPhone screen to select an Entity that I want to drag. If an Entity was tapped, it should then be possible to drag it left, right, etc. SceneKit solution: func CGPointToSCNVector3(_ view: SCNView, depth: Float, point: CGPoint) -> SCNVector3 { let projectedOrigin = view.projectPoint(SCNVector3Make(0, 0, Float(depth))) let locationWithz = SCNVector3Make(Float(point.x), Float(point.y), Float(projectedOrigin.z)) return view.unprojectPoint(locationWithz) } and then I was calling: SCNView().hitTest(location, options: [SCNHitTestOption.firstFoundOnly:true]) the code was called inside of the UIPanGestureRecognizer in my UIViewController. Could I reuse that code or should I go with the SwiftUI approach - something like that: var body: some View { RealityView { .... } .gesture(TapGesture().onEnded { }) ? I already have this code: @State private var location: CGPoint? .onTapGesture { location in self.location = location } I'm trying to identify the entity that was tapped within the RealityView like that: RealityView { content in let box: ModelEntity = createBox() // for now there is only one box, however there will be many boxes content.add(box) let anchor = AnchorEntity(world: [0, 0, 0]) content.add(anchor) _ = content.subscribe(to: SceneEvents.Update.self) { event in //TODO: find tapped entity, so that it could be dragged inside of the DragGesture() } Any help would be appreciated. I also noticed that if I create a TapGesture like that: TapGesture(count: 1) .targetedToAnyEntity() and add it to my view using .gesture() then it is not triggered.
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267
Aug ’25
vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat Fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat When Trying to Convert CMYK to RGB
So I get JPEG data in my app. Previously I was using the higher level NSBitmapImageRep API and just feeding the JPEG data to it. But now I've noticed on Sonoma If I get a JPEG in the CMYK color space the NSBitmapImageRep renders mostly black and is corrupted. So I'm trying to drop down to the lower level APIs. Specifically I grab a CGImageRef and and trying to use the Accelerate API to convert it to another format (to hopefully workaround the issue... CGImageRef sourceCGImage = `CGImageCreateWithJPEGDataProvider(jpegDataProvider,` NULL, shouldInterpolate, kCGRenderingIntentDefault); Now I use vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat... with the following values for source and destination formats: Source format: (derived from sourceCGImage) bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 32 colorSpace = (kCGColorSpaceICCBased; kCGColorSpaceModelCMYK; Generic CMYK Profile) bitmapInfo = kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault version = 0 decode = 0x000060000147f780 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault Destination format: bitsPerComponent = 8 bitsPerPixel = 24 colorSpace = (DeviceRBG) bitmapInfo = 8197 version = 0 decode = 0x0000000000000000 renderingIntent = kCGRenderingIntentDefault But vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat fails with kvImageInvalidImageFormat. Now if I change the destination format to use 32 bitsPerpixel and use alpha in the bitmap info the vImageConverter_CreateWithCGImageFormat does not return an error but I get a black image just like NSBitmapImageRep
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1.5k
Aug ’25
Trouble with MDLMesh.newBox()
I'm trying to build an MDLMesh then add normals let mdlMesh = MDLMesh.newBox(withDimensions: SIMD3<Float>(1, 1, 1), segments: SIMD3<UInt32>(2, 2, 2), geometryType: MDLGeometryType.triangles, inwardNormals:false, allocator: allocator) mdlMesh.addNormals(withAttributeNamed: MDLVertexAttributeNormal, creaseThreshold: 0) When I render the mesh, some normals are (0,0,0). I don't know if the problem is in the mesh, or in the conversion to MTKMesh. Is there a way to examine an MDLMesh with the geometry viewer? When I look at the variable values for my mdlMesh I get this: Not too useful. I don't know how to track down the normals. What's the best way to find out where the normals getting broken?
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163
May ’25
App not showing in Game Center “All Activity” after release
Hello — I shipped an App Store build that signs in to Game Center using the Apple Unity Plugins (GameKit). The login banner appears, but my app still doesn’t show up in Game Center’s “All activity” (You started playing XXX 2d ago) What I’ve done Call await GKLocalPlayer.Authenticate(); “Game Center” is enabled for the current version in App Store Connect Confirmed: other App Store games do appear under “All Activity” on the same device/account Timeline: This is the first version that enables Game Center (not the app’s first release), and it has been about 2 hours since this build went live. Questions Is authentication alone sufficient for “Recently Played,” or is at least one Game Center component (leaderboards, achievements, activities, multiplayer) required? Is there a typical propagation delay before “Recently Played” starts showing a newly enabled app/version? Is there anything else I should configure in App Store Connect or entitlements to make “Recently Played” visible? Thanks for any help.
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581
Aug ’25
Is there any future for screensavers on macOS?
I haven't been looking at screensavers for a long time because of Apple's lack of will (or resources?) to provide a public version of the private modern SDK used by Apple for a very long time now. I'm now looking at the Screen Saver pane in System Settings (the What-If version of System Preferences in an alternate universe where all screens are in portrait mode). In macOS Sequoia, it seems like 3rd party screensavers are not welcome considering that they are relegated to the "Other" section at the bottom of the list and you have to click Show All to start seeing 3rd party screen savers. I also had a quick look at macOS Tahoe Beta 3 and it looks like that all the real screensavers are gone (3rd party and the ones from Apple: Hello, Message, Flurry, etc.) or at least it requires to be a Nobel Prize to find them (and the Search field is not useful). I tried to install a 3rd party screen saver on macOS Tahoe Beta 3, it doesn't show up in the list. To summarize: No public access to modern APIs AFAIK. UI that is hostile to 3rd party screen savers on macOS Sequoia. Apparently only screensavers that are slideshows or movies curated by Apple in macOS Tahoe b3. Hence the question: Is there any future for screen savers on macOS? Because if there's none, I won't waste my time trying to update some old screen savers.
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570
Aug ’25
Game Center SignIn alert appears on macOS 26 (Tahoe) without capability or entitlement
Hello, On macOS 26 (Tahoe), when building a OSX app that includes GameKit code, calling GKLocalPlayer.local.authenticateHandler shows the "Sign In to Game Center" alert (e.g. didShowFullscreenSignIn) — even if the app does not have the Game Center capability enabled or any related entitlement (com.apple.developer.game-center). This alert only appears when the user is not signed in to Game Center in system settings. However, when testing the same code path on iOS app built with macOS 26 (Tahoe), the alert does not appear unless the proper capability and entitlement are included. This behavior is different from macOS 15 (Sequoia) + Xcode 15.x. Prior to the update, Game Center features did not work at all even with the OSX app without Capability and Entitlements. Steps to Reproduce Create a new OSX app target (App Sandbox enabled, no Game Center capability). Add minimal GameKit code: GKLocalPlayer.local.authenticateHandler = { _, _, _ in } Build OSX app and run on macOS 26 (Tahoe). Ensure Game Center is signed out in System Settings. Observe: “Sign In to Game Center” alert appears automatically. Expected Behavior When Game Center capability and entitlement are not present, authenticateHandler should fail silently, and no signIn alert should appear. Actual Behavior On OSX app, the Game Center signIn UI appears even without any Game Center capability or entitlement. On iOS app, this alert does not appear. *Build Configuration: built with the same condition. (macOS 26 + Xcode 26) Question Could you please confirm whether this behavior is an intentional change in macOS 26 or a bug only for OSX apps in the GameKit authentication flow? Thank you.
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489
Oct ’25
Request: API to temporarily defer Reachability for fullscreen game swipes (bottom edge)
In swipe-driven games, a first downward swipe starting near the home indicator can trigger Reachability, even when using preferredScreenEdgesDeferringSystemGestures = .bottom and prefersHomeIndicatorAutoHidden = true. This causes the app to slide down to half screen and breaks gameplay. Please consider an API to temporarily defer Reachability while a custom gesture is active (similar to existing system gesture deferral), without disabling accessibility globally. Environment: Devices: iPhones with Home Indicator (Face ID) Why this matters: Bottom-origin swipes are core in many games (flick shots, slingshot, physics toss, bottom sheets). Current workarounds degrade UX and discoverability, and players still accidentally trigger Reachability. Feedback Assistant Post
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671
Aug ’25
GameKit Achievements, Leaderboards and Challenges not showing on iOS 26 beta 4 in the Game Center UI (opened from GKAccessPoint)
On an iPad running iPadOS 26 beta 4, when tapping the Game Center Access Point, the overlay doesn’t show the configured achievements, leaderboards or challenges. I should specify this is an in-development app and the achievements and leaderboards are in the “Not Live” state, however they show on other devices running iOS 18 in the Access Point UI. Anyone else having this issue? If so, how should I test achievements and leaderboards while iOS 26 beta is out? The UI looks like this on iPadOS 26:
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354
Aug ’25
Game Center save game data to iCloud
We are trying to implement saving and fetching data to and from iCloud, but it have some problems. MacOS: 15.3 Here is what I do: Enable Game Center and iCloud capbility in Signing & Capabilities, pick iCloud Documents, create and select a Container. Sample code: void SaveDataToCloud( const void* buffer, unsigned int datasize, const char* name ) { if(!GKLocalPlayer.localPlayer.authenticated) return; NSData* data = [ NSData dataWithBytes:databuffer length:datasize]; NSString* filename = [ NSString stringWithUTF8String:name ]; [[GKLocalPlayer localPlayer] saveGameData:data withName:filename completionHandler:^(GKSavedGame * _Nullable savedGame, NSError * _Nullable){ if (error != nil) { NSLog( @"SaveDataToCloud error:%@", [ error localizedDescription ] ); } }]; } void FetchCloudSavedGameData() { if ( !GKLocalPlayer.localPlayer.authenticated ) return; [ [ GKLocalPlayer localPlayer ] fetchSavedGamesWithCompletionHandler:^(NSArray<GKSavedGame *> * _Nullable savedGames, NSError * _Nullable error) { if ( error == nil ) { for ( GKSavedGame *item in savedGames ) { [ item loadDataWithCompletionHandler:^(NSData * _Nullable data, NSError * _Nullable error) { if ( error == nil ) { //handle data } else { NSLog( @"FetchCloudSavedGameData failed to load iCloud file: %@, error:%@", item.name, [ error localizedDescription ] ); } } ]; } } else { NSLog( @"FetchCloudSavedGameData error:%@", [ error localizedDescription ] ); } } ]; } Both saveGameData and fetchSavedGamesWithCompletionHandler are not reporting any error, when debugging, saveGameData completionHandler got a nil error, and can get a valid "savedGame", but when try to rebot the game and use "fetchSavedGamesWithCompletionHandler" to fetch data, we got nothing, no error reported, and the savedGames got a 0 length. From this page https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/718541?answerId=825596022#825596022 we try to wait 30sec after authenticated , then try fetchSavedGamesWithCompletionHandler, still got the same error. Checked: Game Center and iCloud are enabled and login with the same account. iCloud have enough space to save. So what's wrong with it.
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786
Mar ’25
Unity GameKit plugin beta GameKit Activity UnsupportedOperationForOSVersion
I’m running into unexpected problems with the Unity GameKit plugin setup with the new Activities. I didn’t see anyone else mentioning these issues, so my guess is that it’s a problem with my setup. The authentication (GKLocalPlayer.Authenticate()) works as expected, but any call to the new GameActivity functionality (e.g. GKGameActivityDefinition.LoadGameActivityDefinitions() or GKGameActivity.WantsToPlay) gives me an exception with a 'UnsupportedOperationForOSVersion' reason despite it running on an iOS 18.6.1 device. I’m using a completely empty Unity 2022.3.62f1 project that only contains the official authentication example, followed by an event handler for activities from another example and the Unity core and gamekit plugins. The setup: macOS 15.6 Xcode 26 beta 6 (also tried with 5) Physical iPhone device running iOS 18.6.1 Unity 2022.3.62f1, which satisfies the requirements Unity plugin, Xcode setup, and build steps: I Followed the official beta branch build steps for Unity plugins with python3 build.py -m iOS iPhoneSimulator macOS -p Core GameKit which ran through after a slight modification for the macOS target that somehow contained an unknown team reference for the GameKitWrapper project, which I changed to not reference a team and use ‘sign to run locally’, as was the case for the other packages. As far as I understood the macOS version is not strictly necessary either way just for running it on a local iOS device(?) I Imported these as tarball packages into the empty Unity 2022.3.62f1 project as per the official instructions, which seems to work as expected Added a single script with the mentioned example code added in a MonoBehavior.Start Building in Unity works as expected as well, creating the Xcode project The Unity-iPhone target has the GameKit framework linked (’do not embed’) and the GameCenter capability was added automatically as expected The GameKit framework seems to not be added to the UnityFramework target, but I don’t think this is necessary? Quickly testing this with the GameKit framework added there as well didn’t make a difference The linked GameKit framework is indeed the expected Xcode 26 beta version I can then build and run this on the physical iPhone iOS 18.6.1 device, where I get an ‘UnsupportedOperationForOSVersion’ as soon as I try to subscribe to deeplinking events (GKGameActivity.WantsToPlay) or use other GameKit Activity functionality from the official examples: // log showing that it's actually running on iOS 18.6: [Apple.Core Plug-In Runtime] Availability Runtime Environment: iOS 18.6 Apple.Core.Availability:OnApplicationStart() // and the exception I get: GameKitException: Code=-7 Domain=GKErrorDomain Description=The operation couldn’t be completed. (GKErrorDomain error -7.) (UnsupportedOperationForOSVersion) at Apple.GameKit.DefaultNSErrorHandler.ThrowNSError (System.IntPtr nsErrorPtr) [0x00000] in <00000000000000000000000000000000>:0 Rethrow as TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'Apple.GameKit.GKGameActivity' threw an exception. I unfortunately didn’t find any clues as to why this happens and how to resolve it on this forum or otherwise. Changing the minimum iOS version - up to 18.6 from the previously used (Unity export default) 12.0 for any and all targets - did not yield a different result I'd rather not update the phone to use the iOS 26 beta, though as far as I understood this is not necessary Any pointers to what I might be missing or doing wrong are greatly appreciated! Thank you very much in advance!
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607
Aug ’25
RealityView postProcess effect depth texture
Hello, Question re: iOS RealityView postProcess. I've got a working postProcess kernel and I'd like to add some depth-based effects to it. Theoretically I should be able to just do: encoder.setTexture(context.sourceDepthTexture, index: 1) and then in the kernel: texture2d<float, access::read> depthIn [[texture(1)]] ... outTexture.write(depthIn.read(gid), gid); And I consistently see all black rendered to the view. The postProcess shader works, so that's not the issue. It just seems to not be receiving actual depth information. (If I set a breakpoint at the encoder setTexture step, I can see preview the color texture of the scene, but the context's depthTexture looks like all NaN / blank.) I've looked at all the WWDC samples, but they include ARView for all the depth sample code, which has a different set of configuration options than RealityView. So far I haven't seen anywhere to explicitly tell RealityView "include the depth information". So I'm not sure if I'm missing something there. It appears that there is indeed a depth texture being passed, but it looks blank. Is there a working example somewhere that we can reference?
2
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642
Nov ’25
SceneKit - different behavior when debugging
Hello, I'm currently working on my first SceneKit game and have encountered an issue related to moving an SCNNode using a UIPanGestureRecognizer. When I deploy the game to my iPhone via Xcode in debug mode, all interactions are smooth. However, when I stop the debugging session and run the game directly from the device (outside of Xcode), the SCNNode movement behaves inconsistently — it works sometimes smoothly and sometimes not and the interaction becomes choppy. The SCNNode movement is controlled using a UIPanGestureRecognizer. Do you have any ideas what might be causing the issue?
1
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356
May ’25
RealityKit Blend Modes
I have 2 planes with textures on. I want these planes to intersect [ –|– ], and I want the blend mode to be additive. Currently I get z fighting on the planes, and I can't see how to set blend modes. I've done this before in Unity and Godot in a fairly straight forward manner. How do I accomplish this with RealityKit, preferably using code only (my scene is quite dynamic)? Do I need to do it with a shader manually? How can I stop the z fighting?
2
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779
Aug ’25