CameraViewer sample overview

Updated: May 7, 2026

Overview

This sample demonstrates the foundational use case of the Passthrough Camera API: accessing a live camera texture from the Quest headset and displaying it in your Unity scene. It covers requesting camera permissions, initializing the camera feed, and rendering it to a world-space UI Canvas, making it a strong starting point for developers new to the Passthrough Camera API.

View the sample source code on GitHub⁠.

What you will learn

Request and check camera access permissions at runtime using OVRPermissionsRequester

Initialize camera access with PassthroughCameraAccess and detect when the feed is ready

Retrieve a GPU texture from the headset camera using GetTexture()

Display the camera feed on a world-space Canvas UI element in XR

Configure camera position and resolution through prefab-based settings

Requirements

Hardware: Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S running Horizon OS 74 or newer

Development environment: Unity with the Mixed Reality Utility Kit (MRUK) package installed

For version requirements, SDK installation, and project configuration, see the sample README.

Get started

Clone or download the Unity-PassthroughCameraApiSamples repository⁠ from GitHub. Open the project in Unity and load the scene at Assets/PassthroughCameraApiSamples/CameraViewer/CameraViewer.unity. Build and deploy to a Quest 3 or Quest 3S device — the app prompts for camera access permission on first launch. For detailed build configuration, see the sample README.

Explore the sample

The CameraViewer scene contains the essential components for camera access and display.

File / Scene	What it demonstrates	Key concepts
CameraViewer.unity	Complete scene setup with XR camera rig, passthrough rendering, and camera feed UI	Building Blocks integration (Camera Rig, Passthrough), world-space Canvas positioning
Scripts/CameraViewerManager.cs	Camera initialization and permission status display	Coroutine-based polling for camera readiness, permission checking in Update loop
Prefabs/CameraViewerManagerPrefab.prefab	World-space Canvas with RawImage for camera display and debug text	World-space UI in XR (RenderMode=WorldSpace, 0.001 scale, 1.2m forward offset)
PassthroughCamera/Prefabs/PassthroughCameraAccessPrefab.prefab	Shared camera access component configured for left camera at 1280x960	Prefab-based camera configuration, reusable across samples
PassthroughCamera/Scripts/RequestPermissionsOnce.cs	Automatic permission request on first scene load	Runtime permission flow for Scene and PassthroughCameraAccess

Runtime behavior

When you run the sample, you see a world-space canvas floating in front of you displaying the live feed from the Quest headset’s left camera. Below the camera feed, a debug text field displays whether camera access has been granted. The camera feed appears as a 1280x960 texture rendered on the canvas, positioned at a local z-offset of 1.2 meters from the center eye anchor.

Key concepts

Coroutine-based camera initialization

The sample uses a coroutine pattern in CameraViewerManager.Start() to handle asynchronous camera startup. The coroutine polls PassthroughCameraAccess.IsPlaying each frame using yield return null until the camera feed is ready, then assigns the texture once via GetTexture(). This pattern avoids blocking the main thread while waiting for hardware initialization. See CameraViewerManager.cs for the complete implementation.

Permission flow

Camera access requires three steps: (1) enabling camera permissions in OculusProjectConfig at build time, (2) triggering the OS permission dialog at runtime via RequestPermissionsOnce.cs, and (3) verifying permission status using OVRPermissionsRequester.IsPermissionGranted(Permission.PassthroughCameraAccess). The sample displays the current permission state in a debug text field updated each frame in Update().

Prefab separation for reusability

The sample separates camera lifecycle management (PassthroughCameraAccessPrefab) from UI presentation (CameraViewerManagerPrefab). The shared PassthroughCameraAccessPrefab configures camera position (CameraPositionType.Left) and resolution (1280x960) through serialized fields, allowing other samples to reuse the same camera instance without duplicating configuration. This prefab-based approach appears in all five samples in the project.

Extend the sample

Add camera switching: Modify the sample to toggle between the left and right cameras by changing CameraPositionType and re-initializing the camera feed

Apply custom shaders: Use the camera texture with Unity shader graphs or custom materials to create visual effects, color grading, or image processing. See the ShaderSample in this project for examples

Integrate spatial anchors: Combine the camera feed with MRUK’s scene understanding to overlay the camera texture on detected surfaces or at specific anchor points. See the CameraToWorld sample for spatial alignment patterns

Passthrough Camera API Overview⁠

Passthrough Camera API Getting Started Guide⁠

Unity-PassthroughCameraApiSamples GitHub Repository⁠

CameraToWorld sample — camera pose alignment and 2D-to-3D ray projection⁠

ShaderSample — GPU shader effects on camera textures⁠

Mixed Reality Utility Kit (MRUK) Documentation⁠