What is the difference between Model3D and RealityView in visionOS?

Question

I think RealityView should be able to do more fancy stuffs, but I still want to figure out the exact differences between them. For now, they are just too similar to each other, e.g. they both need an Entity name to get initialized. I want to know when a Model3D is just enough, and when we must use a RealityView?

Tyranny

Answer 1

RealityView

@available(visionOS 1.0, macOS 15.0, iOS 18.0, *)
@MainActor 
@preconcurrency 
public struct RealityView<Content> : View where Content : View

Standard practice for Apple engineers is to give views several initializers. RealityView isn't an exception here. Let's take a look at RealityView's init(make:update:attachments:) initializer with three closures, where you can:

• create, set up and configure the initial 3D scene's content (make closure)
• update scene's content in response to changes in view's state (optional update closure)
• implement ViewBuilder of attachment views to use in 3D scene (attachments closure)

There's also init(make:update:placeholder:) initializer with a placeholder.

Use RealityView to asynchronously load (it's an optional action) and display a rich 3D content in RealityKit app. RealityView passes a struct conforming to RealityViewContentProtocol to the make and update closures, which you can use to add and remove RealityKit's entities to a scene. Entities must be 3D primitives, .usdz models, or scenes from Reality Composer Pro.

RealityView { content, attachments in
    // code
} update: { content, attachments in
    // code           
} attachments: {
    // code         
}

Just like in ARSCNView (it's a SceneKit's symbiosis of AR and VR), you are not obliged to use an anchor, however, using anchors gives you the opportunity to implement robust AR scenarios – such as image tracking, plane tracking, hand tracking, etc.

Let's see how RealityView looks in code and what base object will be printed in console:

import SwiftUI
import RealityKit

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        RealityView { content in
            if let model = try? await Entity.load(named: "car") {
                model.scale /= 10
                
                let anchor = AnchorEntity()
                anchor.addChild(model)
                content.add(anchor)
                
                print(content)
            }
        }
    }
}

In other words, RealityView is rather a RealityKit's view for visionOS/iOS/macOS SwiftUI apps where you get an access to a scene's assembly point. And don't forget that anchors are an important part of the RealityView hierarchical structure, which isn't the case in Model3D.

---

---

Model3D

SwiftUI's Model3D view is simpler than RealityView, and is used to asynchronously load and display a model from the specified URL (.usdz or .reality models) or from app's bundle. Until the model loads, SwiftUI displays a placeholder. The resulted model is contained in ResolvedModel3D view. Working with Model3D view you are unable to decompose a 3D scene like in RealityView.

You can work with if-else statement inside a closure...

Model3D(url: url) { phase in
    if let model = phase.model {
        // model's modifiers
    } else if phase.error != nil {
        // error description    
    } else {
        // placeholder
    }
}

...or you can switch the cases of Model3DPhase enum.

Model3D(named: named) { phase in
    switch phase {
        case .empty:
            ProgressView()
        case let .failure(error):
            Text(error.localizedDescription)
        case let .success(model):
            model
                .resizable()
                .scaledToFit()
    }
}

Just like RealityView, Model3D view has several initializers.

Let's see how init(named:bundle:content:placeholder:) initializer with a placeholder @ViewBuilder looks in code and what base object will be printed in console:

import SwiftUI
import RealityKit

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        Model3D(named: "car") { model in
            model.resizable()

            let _ = print(model)
        } placeholder: {
            ProgressView()
        }
    }
}

In other words, Model3D is the SwiftUI's 3D view holding RealityKit's scene.

Kelleekelleher

Ah, I was wondering where AnchorEntity is when playing with RealityView. Looks like Apple does not expose it on purpose? Previously we must set Anchor type in Reality Composer but I didn't see any Anchor stuff in Reality Composer Pro. – Tyranny

Yep, RealityView works the same way as great old SceneKit's ARSCNView (with or without anchors). – Kelleekelleher

@AndyJazz How to aspectFit entity in RealityView? Is possible to do something similar as model.resizable().aspectRatio(contentMode: .fit) for Model3D? – Milstone

Answer 2

It is also interesting to note that all instances of RealityView and Model3D share a unique hierarchy, regardless of where they are located in SwiftUI.

Using the .parent property of any entity, one can climb to a common root named Window Context Entity and there are also a number of intriguing new entity types in the tree like CALayerEntity

Mchale