The Lab

Experiments & research

Spikes, sandboxes and pitches that feed the shipping work. Some are public repositories, some are notes; all of them taught the studio something about building for a headset.

GitHub

VRNavDemo

A VR navigation sandbox for Vision Pro: testing tumble, orbit and fly navigation models against comfort. The Maya-style Y-up tumble with two scalar rotation states that Quads uses came out of this.

Repository

Input research

Muse stylus & pointer probes

Instrumented test targets for Logitech Muse accessory tracking, GameController button and pressure channels, and pointer input inside RealityKit's ManipulationComponent. Findings filed as Apple Feedback and folded into Quads.

Pitch

The Museum of Untold Possibilities

An Epic MegaGrant proposal for a non-game VR museum in the World of Sketchbot, with timed exhibitions, an AI robot docent and an Art Lab where visitors build and 3D-print their own robots.

Read the pitch

Sketchfab

ZBrush for iPad tests

Alien Head V2, sculpted entirely on iPad and published as an interactive model.

Sketchfab

Field notes

Things learned building for visionOS 27

Interactive UI lives in windows

Typing, scrubbing, popovers and dialogs need an OS window. Spatial panels get no keyboard and no presentations; keep them for glanceable, tap-only content.

ARKit needs an ImmersiveSpace

Hand and accessory tracking only run in an immersive space, so a serious modeling workspace can't live in a volume. Volumes are for viewing, not for making.

Budget your entities

Every per-element handle is a RealityKit entity. Past a couple of thousand, the CPU watchdog wins. Dense meshes want collider tools, not handles.

Small mesh files aren't free

Apple's proprietary mesh codec halves a USDZ but locks out Maya, Blender and Pixar's tools. Ship standard packages when the file has to travel.