Foveated Streaming Framework

Foveated Streaming is Apple’s first-party framework for XR streaming on visionOS, powered by the same CloudXR technology embedded within visionOS itself. It enables dynamic foveated streaming to Apple Vision Pro in a secure and privacy-preserving fashion, allowing users to perceive high-fidelity XR experiences while reducing GPU and network cost.

Foveated Streaming uses eye-tracking data within the secure streaming session to optimize streaming quality in the user’s focus area and reduce bandwidth for peripheral areas—all without exposing sensitive eye-tracking data outside the streaming session.

Note

The CloudXR Runtime does not expose user’s focus region to the OpenXR application and uses focus region solely to optimize encoding quality across regions of the frame.

For more information, refer to the Apple Foveated Streaming documentation.

Supported Platforms

• visionOS

  • Apple Vision Pro running visionOS 26.4 or later

  • Full immersive XR streaming with dynamic foveated streaming

  • Eye-tracking optimized streaming quality

Note

Foveated Streaming is currently available for visionOS only.

Development Requirements

To develop visionOS clients using Foveated Streaming, you need:

• macOS with Xcode 26.0 or later

• visionOS 26.4 SDK or later

• CloudXR Runtime version 6.0 or later on the streaming application

• The com.apple.developer.foveated-streaming-session entitlement added to your visionOS target

Quick Start

For a step-by-step tutorial on building your first Foveated Streaming client, refer to CloudXR Client for visionOS Using Foveated Streaming.

A complete sample project for the streaming application is available on GitHub: apple/streamingsession

CloudXR Framework vs. Foveated Streaming

CloudXR Framework and Foveated Streaming are built on the same underlying CloudXR technology. For a detailed comparison to help you choose the right framework, refer to the Migration from CloudXR Framework, which includes a comprehensive feature comparison table.

Key Advantages of Foveated Streaming

• Dynamic Foveated Streaming: Eye-tracking optimized streaming that delivers higher quality in the user’s focus area while reducing bandwidth for peripheral regions, all handled in a privacy-preserving manner by the visionOS system layer

• System Discovery: Built-in QR-code pairing flow via the .systemDiscovered endpoint for easy local device pairing without custom authentication

• Smaller App Binary: Reduced binary size without the need to bundle the full CloudXR Framework SDK

Resources

• Apple Documentation: Foveated Streaming

• visionOS Development Guide: visionOS

Documentation Contents

Contents:

• CloudXR Client for visionOS Using Foveated Streaming
  • System Requirements
  • Option 1: Use the Xcode Foveated Streaming Template (Recommended)
  • Option 2: Create the Project Manually
  • Add the Foveated Streaming Entitlement
  • Set the Deployment Target
  • Import Foveated Streaming
  • Create the App Model
  • Set Up the Foveated Streaming Session
  • Enter Your Connection Details
  • Create the Immersive View
  • Connecting to a Streaming Application
• Streaming Application Setup for Foveated Streaming
  • Architecture Overview
  • Step 1: mDNS Service Advertisement
  • Step 2: TCP Session Management Protocol
  • Step 3: QR-Code Pairing
  • Step 4: CloudXR Runtime Management
  • Application Packaging
  • Additional Resources
• Migration from CloudXR Framework
  • Overview
  • Framework Comparison
  • Project Configuration
  • API Migration
  • Code Changes
  • Data Channel Migration
  • Common Issues
  • Migration Checklist
  • Additional Resources