CoLocationHS sample overview

Updated: May 11, 2026

Overview

The CoLocationHS sample demonstrates the older Shared Spatial Anchors approach (user-ID-based, not the Colocation Discovery API). It uses a two-phase architecture (lobby + showcase), BP_CoLocationComponent for anchor lifecycle management, passthrough with poke-a-hole materials, a Blueprint component architecture, device capability checking in C++, and targets UE 5.4.

View the sample source code on GitHub⁠.

What you will learn

Shared Spatial Anchors with user-ID-based sharing

Two-phase architecture (lobby and showcase)

Anchor lifecycle management via Blueprint components

Passthrough with poke-a-hole materials

Device capability checking in C++

Avatar representation in co-located experiences

Requirements

Meta Quest 2, Quest 3, or Quest 3S

UE 5.4

Get started

Clone the repository.

Open the project in UE 5.4.

Configure app credentials in the Oculus Developer Dashboard.

Deploy to two or more Quest devices for co-location testing.

Start with the lobby phase to establish shared anchors.

Explore the sample

File / Scene	What it demonstrates	Key concepts
Lobby phase	Anchor creation and sharing	User-ID-based spatial anchor sharing
Showcase phase	Co-located interaction	Shared world alignment
BP_CoLocationComponent	Anchor lifecycle	Create, share, localize, destroy
Passthrough materials	Mixed reality rendering	Poke-a-hole technique
Device capability check	Hardware validation	C++ capability query

Runtime behavior

The app starts in the lobby phase where one user creates a spatial anchor and shares it with other users via their user IDs. Once all participants have localized the shared anchor, the experience transitions to the showcase phase where users interact in a shared coordinate space. Passthrough rendering uses poke-a-hole materials to reveal virtual content through the physical environment. Avatars represent each co-located player.

Key concepts

Shared Spatial Anchors (user-ID-based)

This sample uses the older user-ID-based approach for sharing spatial anchors. One user creates an anchor and explicitly shares it with other users by their Oculus user IDs.

Note: For new projects, consider using the Colocation Discovery API which provides automatic discovery without requiring user IDs.

BP_CoLocationComponent

BP_CoLocationComponent manages the full anchor lifecycle:

Create — Generate a spatial anchor at the desired position

Share — Send the anchor to other users by user ID

Localize — Receiving users localize the shared anchor

Destroy — Clean up anchors when the session ends

Poke-a-hole materials

Passthrough uses poke-a-hole materials that render as transparent windows into the physical world, allowing virtual content to appear embedded in the real environment.

Device capability check

A C++ capability check validates hardware support before enabling co-location features:

// Check device supports shared spatial anchors
bool bSupported = `UOculusXRFunctionLibrary`::IsDeviceCapabilitySupported(EDeviceCapability::SharedSpatialAnchors);