Getting Started with Meta XR Simulator

The Meta XR Simulator is an Extended Reality (XR) runtime for developing and testing XR applications on your development machine.

The simulator implements OpenXR and integrates with supported engine and graphics API configurations. Your application must use the OpenXR features and extensions supported by Meta XR Simulator. The simulator includes a predefined input mapping schema and a user interface that displays information about how the runtime composites the final view and simulates input.

The simulator presents one device to your application at a time. Connect an application first: the Device control cannot list profiles until a runtime session is active. Then select the device in the Inputs panel, under Device info > Device. The default is Meta Quest 3. For the list of devices you can pick, see Meta XR Simulator.

The device you select changes what your application sees:

Test against the device you intend to ship on. A build that runs on one profile does not prove it runs on another.

Stop and restart your application after you change Device. In an editor, stop and re-enter Play mode. The profile is captured when your application creates its OpenXR instance, so restarting is the reliable way to pick up the change.

Select Meta VR Glasses in the Device control to develop against Meta VR Glasses on your development machine.

The Meta VR Glasses profile presents these characteristics to your application:

By default, Meta VR Glasses simulate eye gaze and hand tracking and present no controllers. Meta Touch Plus controllers are available as an optional input.

As with any profile change, stop and restart your application after you select Meta VR Glasses so the runtime binds the new profile.

Meta VR CLI can activate the runtime, launch and quit your application, set the simulated device, and read the runtime logs, so you can script a simulator session instead of clicking through the interface. The commands run on macOS and Windows. See Meta VR CLI.

To activate, open the XR Simulator and click the slider on the top left corner.

This action will set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Khronos\OpenXR\1ActiveRuntime to path to meta_openxr_simulator.json on Windows, and /usr/local/share/openxr/1/active_runtime.json on MacOS.

The Meta XR Simulator will save your current settings and restore them when it’s deactivated. For more details, refer to the OpenXR Loader documentation⁠.

Note: Only one OpenXR runtime can be active at any given time. Activating the Meta XR Simulator will automatically deactivate any other installed OpenXR runtime, including Meta Horizon Link.

To deactivate, open the XR Simulator and turn off the toggle on top left corner. The previous active runtime will be restored.

After you set the Meta XR Simulator as the active OpenXR runtime, launch your OpenXR application. The OpenXR Loader loads Meta XR Simulator as the runtime, and your application appears in the Meta XR Simulator window when it creates its XrInstance:

You can run hello_xr to verify that the Meta XR Simulator is set up correctly. The About side panel gives details on the Meta XR Simulator version, file path, graphics API, and other useful information: