Apple Working on visionOS Support for Godot Game Engine

[MacRumors]

Apple engineers have offered to contribute Vision Pro support to the Godot engine, which is a free, open source game engine that's available to game creators as an alternative to Unity and Unreal. Godot is cross-platform and supports PCs, mobile devices, the web, and more at the current time, but with Apple's contributions, games made with Godot could run natively on the Vision Pro.

On GitHub, a member of the visionOS engineering team said that Apple wants to help bring Vision Pro integration to Godot, with the aim of developing a visionOS VR plugin. Apple engineers have already started contributing to the project, and have pledged to continue development based on community feedback.

First, I'd like to mention that we're really excited to be working with the Godot community on adding visionOS support. We've attempted to follow Godot's coding standards and a high-quality bar for our contributions. We hope that our contributions align with Godot's goals. Lastly, even though we have tried to split the changes into smaller self-contained PRs, we acknowledge that some of these PRs can be of considerable size.

We're very happy to iterate on our PRs after receiving feedback and suggestions from the community.

The Vision Pro has so far seen lackluster sales and waning interest from Apple users, both due to the high cost and the lack of content. By providing free tools that would let Godot developers create immersive visionOS experiences, Apple could grow the number of games on the platform.

Apple is working on future versions of the Vision Pro, so laying the groundwork for development early will benefit the headset's longer term prospects.

Article Link: Apple Working on visionOS Support for Godot Game Engine

 

[xmach]

smart move on Apple's part -- but why weren't they doing this a year ago?

Also, is Apple collaborating with Unity and Unreal developers to support visionOS on those engines?

 

[Donkey Man]

“He’s dead, Jim.”

 

[pizzafunghi]

Apple Gaming & Godot? Wait...

 

[Madd the Sane]

smart move on Apple's part -- but why weren't they doing this a year ago?

Also, is Apple collaborating with Unity and Unreal developers to support visionOS on those engines?

Apple collaborated with Unity for VisionOS support… right before Unity went greed-crazy.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Apple collaborated with Unity for VisionOS support… right before Unity went greed-crazy.

Can't have that!
Going "greed-crazy" is Apple's usual role!

 

[darngooddesign]

“He’s dead, Jim.”

“I’m a doctor, not an XR expert.”

 

[Graphate]

smart move on Apple's part -- but why weren't they doing this a year ago?

Also, is Apple collaborating with Unity and Unreal developers to support visionOS on those engines?

There is some support in UE, but generally I don’t think VR is suitable for the type of gaming people do. It’s like reading a book on a computer… books are best for stories, although iPads are fine. Playing video games is best on a console or computer; VR will need to develop a new type of experience.

 

[Harvey Zoltan]

"waning interest from Apple users" No, I still use mine every day.

 

[doelcm82]

"waning interest from Apple users" No, I still use mine every day.

I use mine every day also.

I think they meant waning interest from Apple users who don't actually have a Vision Pro.

 

[hagar]

Apple must be quite desperate. Their typical modus operandi is to create the platform and let developers do their thing (And take 30%). That’s clearly not working here.

 

[menist]

It's slowly turning into a gaming VR headset 😅

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's slowly turning into a gaming VR headset 😅

It should’ve been a focus they launched with.

 

[dante_mr]

smart move on Apple's part -- but why weren't they doing this a year ago?

Also, is Apple collaborating with Unity and Unreal developers to support visionOS on those engines?

Unity support was part of the Vision Pro announcement way back in 2023.

Too bad Unity did some weird cash grab announcements not soon thereafter.

 

[It’s always something]

Okay, fine. I’ll say it.

Godot? Just what I’ve been waiting for!

😉

 

[mark-vdw]

The cynical mart of me thinks this is just Apple trying to help Godot in order to undermine Epic and Unreal. If they were genuine about wanting gaming on their platforms, Unreal should be the first engine to team up with.

 

[Bungobungo]

I don’t care for the Vision Pro at all, but this is a nice development. Godot is a really cool engine and embracing open source solutions is a great way to encourage people to develop for the platform.

 

[d___d]

I'm enjoying this public insight into the work of Apple engineers. I remain optimistic about visionOS, and love seeing how the groundwork is being laid for future use-cases.

 

[Marbles1]

It'll be OpenGL next! /s

 

[hanske68]

The only reason I'd want Apple goggles is for an emersive development area, with code and tools everywhere. And movies. Nothing else.

 

[Flowstates]

Yes ! I was holding off on tinkering with devving for this thing (WebXR is hampered). This would finally make the ecosystem attrative enough (Not having to interface with unity)

 

[Donkey Man]

this is about the future of the platform, not current (and indeed small number of) VP owners.

There’s no future for that “platform”.

 

[mozumder]

"waning interest from Apple users" No, I still use mine every day.

Same, but I have no interest in video games.

I don't think anyone spending thousands of dollars for this will have interest in video games.Which leads me to think Apple is likely going to release a much cheaper model.

 

[Sezel]

It's good that Apple supports free and open source softwares like Blender and Godot.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Can't have that!
Going "greed-crazy" is Apple's usual role!

Greed crazy is different from regular old Apple greed

Unity’s recent moves are angering a lot of developers while Apple’s customers still (for the most part) happily pay Apple’s prices.