Apple's Latest Vision Pro Tool Contains Traces of Defunct Game Engine 'The Machinery'

[MacRumors]

The latest beta of Apple's Reality Composer Pro 3, the content creation tool used to build spatial experiences for Apple Vision Pro, appears to contain traces of "The Machinery," an ambitious game development project that abruptly shut down in 2022 without explanation.

Based on code discovered by Nicolás Alvarez and independently confirmed by MacRumors, binaries included with Reality Composer Pro 3 beta contain at least 40 mentions of "the machinery" or "our machinery," and match aspects of The Machinery's project structure, asset management system, and database architecture.

The findings are notable because The Machinery was developed by Our Machinery – a company made up of veterans of the Bitsquid game engine. The project earned a devoted following among engine programmers for its unconventional approach to content creation workflows. And yet it disappeared without trace.

Central to the project was a system known as "The Truth," a database-driven architecture designed to unify assets, objects, dependencies, and editor state. Many of the same concepts appear in Apple's latest Reality Composer Pro release, announced during WWDC 2026. Things like reusable prototypes, live editing, asset dependency tracking, and rapid iteration workflows all pop up – ideas that have notable technological similarities to how The Machinery worked. The direct references in the code appear to confirm the connection.

The links don't just extend to code strings, either. Tricia Gray, co-founder and CEO of Our Machinery, now works on Apple's spatial computing developer tools team, as evidenced in her LinkedIn profile.

It's not clear whether Apple licensed The Machinery or acquired the company, or in some way inherited the referenced technology, but the presence of the identifiers throughout Apple's code suggests at least some of the project's ideas have somehow found their way into Apple's spatial computing development toolset.

The discovery is particularly notable because The Machinery's development ended so suddenly, surprising many developers at the time who had followed the project's progress. We've reached out to Apple to comment on the findings and will update this story if we hear back.

Article Link: Apple's Latest Vision Pro Tool Contains Traces of Defunct Game Engine 'The Machinery'

 

[benface]

Wow! Love a good mystery. I think this is the start of something very big. Let’s dig, people! Get the best investigative reporters on this! Also, dips on the movie rights.

 

[lepetitnicolas]

I am the machine !
He is the machine !

 

[TehFalcon]

They obviously acquired them!

 

[MrMacintoshIII]

Nice, this is one of those rare actually Macrumor mac rumors!

 

[gummybear2026]

AVP will be defunct before long.

 

[Taq'aix]

Nice, this is one of those rare actually Macrumor mac rumors!

And the only one you’ll get this year. The rest is lazy copy paste BS of the leaker known as “Mark Gurman”.

 

[Taq'aix]

AVP will be defunct before long.

Ternus should take it behind the shed and take care of it, once and for all.

 

[gummybear2026]

And the only one you’ll get this year. The rest is lazy copy paste BS of the leaker known as “Mark Gurman”.

Gurman is not a leaker. He's the mouth piece for Apple rumors and news.

 

[unsui_grep]

If they could cut the price AVP in half, keep it as a stand alone device with the ability to pair with a Mac and they's have a compelling gaming device. Next gen consoles are hovering around $1000+ so it's not that much of a leap. They still need to work on the weight as well as the cost but a native truly immersive 3D gaming experience would sell. Apple needs to treat the AVP more as a high end smart monitor with environmental input that can tether to a Mac Studio. It maybe a niche device but they should keep it alive. They have the hardware but need to keep iterating on the software to bring AAA games on board. They've made progress but need to be more aggressive.

 

[963852741]

AVP will be defunct before long.

It has more uses than foldable phone for 3000 large.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

It's not clear whether Apple licensed The Machinery or acquired the company,

Apple bought the company via shell corporation to make sure no one one finds out. Just like they did with patents.

Apple bought it for not just talent but hoping to make Metal architecture better on Apple Silicon which they did (and some AAA games are now being ported to Macs by game developer themselves)

Timing matches up. Game engine ceased development in 2022, Vision Pro came out in 2024. Would not have been surprised if they made the developers sign strict NDA that also prohibited them from disclosing that Apple or third party shell company bought them. Hence the no usual statement of “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

I would not be surprised if during this year’s fall Apple Event, they announce the Apple TV ultra with M series chip and main focus would be games with this gaming archetype being the focus.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I would not be surprised if during this year’s fall Apple Event, they announce the Apple TV ultra with M series chip and main focus would be games with this gaming archetype being the focus.

I will bet the other side of this ... heavily.

 

[Starfia]

Also, dips on the movie rights.

(Are "dips" dibs?)

 

[benface]

(Are "dips" dibs?)

Uh, yes. Sorry, not a native speaker!

 

[maxoakland]

If they could cut the price AVP in half, keep it as a stand alone device with the ability to pair with a Mac and they's have a compelling gaming device. Next gen consoles are hovering around $1000+ so it's not that much of a leap. They still need to work on the weight as well as the cost but a native truly immersive 3D gaming experience would sell. Apple needs to treat the AVP more as a high end smart monitor with environmental input that can tether to a Mac Studio. It maybe a niche device but they should keep it alive. They have the hardware but need to keep iterating on the software to bring AAA games on board. They've made progress but need to be more aggressive.

Does it have any games though? It seems like Apple didn't want it to be a gaming device so they didn't make immersion even really possible

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

I would not be surprised if during this year’s fall Apple Event, they announce the Apple TV ultra with M series chip and main focus would be games with this gaming archetype being the focus.

you need at least an m4 pro and a 20 core gpu to get to console performance territory

how many people do think are going to drop $2000 on an Apple TV?

 

[unsui_grep]

Does it have any games though? It seems like Apple didn't want it to be a gaming device so they didn't make immersion even really possible

Nothing too intriguing, that's why I think they need to treat it more like a smart display with environmental I/O. Playing iOS games is fine but I really think it would really shine as a device that can operate on it's own but can also be an extension of a more powerful Mac. They have to get the price and weight down to give it a real chance. I actually think that all of their displays should essentially be iMacs. They already have A series chips inside. They should embrace the modular cluster approach that so many AI enthusiasts are adopting. Spatial computing is just fancy marketing for 3D engines anyway.

 

[Starfia]

Uh, yes. Sorry, not a native speaker!

(Laughs)

Not at all. As you might observe, many native speakers routinely do far worse.

 

[nateo200]

The latest beta of Apple's Reality Composer Pro 3, the content creation tool used to build spatial experiences for Apple Vision Pro, appears to contain traces of "The Machinery," an ambitious game development project that abruptly shut down in 2022 without explanation.

Based on code discovered by Nicolás Alvarez and independently confirmed by MacRumors, binaries included with Reality Composer Pro 3 beta contain at least 40 mentions of "the machinery" or "our machinery," and match aspects of The Machinery's project structure, asset management system, and database architecture.

The findings are notable because The Machinery was developed by Our Machinery – a company made up of veterans of the Bitsquid game engine. The project earned a devoted following among engine programmers for its unconventional approach to content creation workflows. And yet it disappeared without trace.

Central to the project was a system known as "The Truth," a database-driven architecture designed to unify assets, objects, dependencies, and editor state. Many of the same concepts appear in Apple's latest Reality Composer Pro release, announced during WWDC 2026. Things like reusable prototypes, live editing, asset dependency tracking, and rapid iteration workflows all pop up – ideas that have notable technological similarities to how The Machinery worked. The direct references in the code appear to confirm the connection.

The links don't just extend to code strings, either. Tricia Gray, co-founder and CEO of Our Machinery, now works on Apple's spatial computing developer tools team, as evidenced in her LinkedIn profile.

It's not clear whether Apple licensed The Machinery or acquired the company, or in some way inherited the referenced technology, but the presence of the identifiers throughout Apple's code suggests at least some of the project's ideas have somehow found their way into Apple's spatial computing development toolset.

The discovery is particularly notable because The Machinery's development ended so suddenly, surprising many developers at the time who had followed the project's progress. We've reached out to Apple to comment on the findings and will update this story if we hear back.

Article Link: Apple's Latest Vision Pro Tool Contains Traces of Defunct Game Engine 'The Machinery'

This is so mysterious and interesting to me. I wanna know more lol.

 

[p96]

you need at least an m4 pro and a 20 core gpu to get to console performance territory

It doesn't necessarily have to run the most GPU intensive AAA games, they could be going more for Nintendo Switch 2 style lower power gaming.

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

It doesn't necessarily have to run the most GPU intensive AAA games, they could be going more for Nintendo Switch 2 style lower power gaming.

So $500 to $1000 for mobile gaming on your tv?


Why not just mirror your iPhone?

I just don’t see the sale pitch for this

 

[nateo200]

It doesn't necessarily have to run the most GPU intensive AAA games, they could be going more for Nintendo Switch 2 style lower power gaming.

I think that 20 core GPU requirement is a bit dramatic tbh. The problem is cooling on the MacBook Air’s and bad optimization of windows games and what not I think.

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

I think that 20 core GPU requirement is a bit dramatic tbh. The problem is cooling on the MacBook Air’s and bad optimization of windows games and what not I think.

I can tell you from experience going from a 20 gpu core MacBook Pro to a 40 gpu core studio that the gpu core count makes a massive difference

40 cores can play most games (including windows games in crossover) at higher settings and 4k resolution. 20 cores can technically play most games at lower settings and resolution, anything lower than that is not going to cut it, especially for an imaginary apple silicon gaming machine