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Meta XR Simulator Overview

Updated: Sep 4, 2026

Standalone XR Simulator

This documentation covers the new Standalone XR Simulator. Older Meta Core SDK versions may not work with it. If you encounter issues, remove the 'com.meta.xr.simulator' package from your project and use the toggle in Meta XR Simulator to set it as the OpenXR active runtime. For legacy usage, refer to the Archived XR Simulator documentation.

Overview

Meta XR Simulator is a lightweight OpenXR runtime⁠ that runs on your computer. It presents an API-level model of a Meta Quest or other supported device to your application. It ships no operating system image and no Android layer, so it does not emulate device hardware.

A simulated device is a set of device-profile properties:

Display name and system name
View count
IPD range
Refresh-rate list
Per-eye field of view
Recommended eye resolution
Interaction-profile ranking
Passthrough resolution and color mode

You can test and debug on your computer without a headset. Launch the application from your development machine, drive the simulated headset and inputs with a keyboard, a mouse, or a connected controller, and iterate without deploying a build to a device.

Main components

Device simulation

The simulator reports one device profile to your application at a time. The following profiles are documented:

Meta Quest 2
Meta Quest Pro
Oculus Rift S
Meta Quest 3
Meta Quest 3S

Meta Quest 3 is the default profile. Select a profile under Device info in the Inputs panel.

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

Device data varies by profile. Hand tracking and Environment Depth are each available on a subset of profiles.

Synthetic environments

A synthetic environment is a 3D scene that stands in for a physical room.

On a physical Meta Quest headset, cameras capture your room, detect walls and furniture, and supply passthrough. Synthetic environments serve the same purpose in Meta XR Simulator. They are pre-created 3D rooms that provide:

Passthrough data: Visual representation of the “physical” space
Scene information: Walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, doors, and windows
Spatial anchors: Places to attach virtual objects

Environment Depth data: Distance data. Windows only, on the Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S profiles.

Without a synthetic environment, your application has no “physical world” to interact with. This matters most for mixed reality applications.

Application requirements

Your application must meet all of the following conditions.

The application requests OpenXR API version 1.0 through 1.1. Outside that range, instance creation fails.
The application uses a supported graphics API. Vulkan works on Windows and macOS. Direct3D 11 and Direct3D 12 work on Windows. Metal works on macOS. OpenGL and OpenGL ES are not supported.
The application uses extensions that the chosen device profile supports. Support varies by profile.

Key features

Input simulation

Drive the headset and both hands from your computer. Sources include the keyboard and mouse, physical Meta Quest controllers connected by data forwarding, and an Xbox controller on Windows.

For more information see Input Simulation.

Tracking simulation

Test tracking without a headset. Use Tracking controls in the Inputs panel.

Room and environment options

Test your application in different room layouts:

Built-in rooms: Game room, living room, bedroom, and more
Custom rooms: Build your own in the synthetic environment builder
JSON-based rooms: Scene definitions in JSON format
Real room captures: Import room setups from a Meta Quest device

For more information see Synthetic Environments.

Session capture (record and replay)

Record a simulator session to a VRS file, then replay it. A recorded session reproduces the same head and input motion on every run, so a bug driven by that motion becomes repeatable.

For more information see Session Capture (Record and Replay).

Multiplayer testing

Connect more than one application client to the simulator to test a shared session. Each client acts as a separate user, so you can exercise connection, presence, and shared-state code paths without extra headsets.

For more information see Multiplayer Testing.

User interface

You interact with Meta XR Simulator through its window interface. The window looks different depending on whether an application is running in the simulator.

The XR Simulator window

When you first open the XR Simulator

When you open the XR Simulator without running an application, the window displays a message and provides access to essential settings:

Choose a synthetic environment from the available options
Configure basic simulator settings
Turn on the XR Simulator runtime using the runtime toggle in the header

When an application is running

Once you launch an application in the simulator, the window displays:

Viewport: The main view showing what would appear in the headset
Header: Runtime activation, session recording and replay upload, and synthetic environment controls
Navigation rail: Buttons that open the Inputs, Inputs binding, Graphics, Settings, and About panels
Bottom tray: Expandable Console and Multiplayer sessions tabs

The Meta XR Simulator window: navigation rail, Inputs panel, viewport showing a simulated room, and bottom tray.

The header holds status information and controls:

Runtime activation

XR Simulator runtime toggle: Sets Meta XR Simulator as the active OpenXR runtime and shows whether that activation is enabled

Session and environment controls

Record session: Starts and stops a VRS recording. The button label changes with state: Record session, Stop recording, and Stop playback.
Upload: Replays a recorded session. Select the .vrs file to replay and a destination for the replay output. Disabled while recording or playback is active.
Choose environment: Picks a room to load.

Documentation and Report a bug appear on the rail as additional items.

Side panels

Side panels open from the navigation rail.

Inputs panel

The Inputs panel includes the following controls, among others:

Device info: Pick the simulated device. Set its IPD (the gap between the eyes), refresh rate, and Viewport.
Input settings: Enable the headset and choose a source for the left and right inputs.
Tracking controls: Sync the headset to movement tracking, or play random head movement. Both appear only while movement tracking is active.
Keyboard and mouse: Configure Point & click and choose its action input.
Quest controllers: Connect physical Quest controllers by data forwarding.
Xbox controller: Connect an Xbox controller on Windows.
Input positioning: See where the headset and inputs are reported.

Input bindings panel

The Input bindings panel, which opens from the Inputs binding rail item, shows how simulator controls map to simulator actions:

View the keys or buttons assigned to each action, such as moving forward, rotating up, or grabbing
Customize the key or button assignments

Graphics panel

The Graphics panel reports the graphics and compositor APIs in use, frame rate over time, and the composition layers your application submits.

Settings panel

The Settings panel holds simulator preferences such as the theme, the path to Android Debug Bridge (ADB), and analytics consent.

About panel

The About panel reports the runtime version, the session and developer IDs, the simulator file paths, and the OpenXR extensions the runtime supports.