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Getting Started with Meta XR Simulator

Updated: Nov 13, 2025
Standalone XR Simulator
This documentation covers the newly released Standalone XR Simulator. Older versions of the Meta Core SDK may not be fully compatible. 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.
The Meta XR Simulator is a lightweight Extended Reality (XR) runtime built to speed up XR application development and testing on your development machine. This page provides a brief overview of Meta XR Simulator and basic installation and usage instructions.
The simulator adheres to the same XR API specification as mobile and PC VR runtimes, enabling integration with your engine’s IDE without requiring any modifications. It includes a predefined input mapping schema and a user interface that displays information about how the runtime composites the final view and simulates input.

Installation

The Meta XR Simulator is a standalone application:
  • Windows - Accessible via the Start Menu after installation
  • macOS - Accessible via the Applications folder after installation
    Note: Only the binaries for Apple Silicon (ARM) architecture are provide on macOS.

Supported versions

Unreal Engine

  • UE5 (primary)
  • UE4 (partial)
Note: Meta XR Simulator is supported in v57 and above. To try the simulator in UE4 or previous releases of UE5, see the Getting Started instructions for native app development with Meta XR Simulator.

Graphic API

  • DX11
  • DX12
  • Vulkan (limited)

Setup

  1. Create a VR project. You can create a VR Template project or create one from scratch following Create Quest App.
  2. In Project Settings > Plugins > Meta XR, make sure to use Oculus OVRPlugin + OpenXR backend as the XR API.
  3. In Project Settings > Platforms > Windows, make sure DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 is the Default RHI. Vulkan support is limited at this moment. Unreal RHI Setting
  4. Enable the Meta XR Simulator by checking the Meta XR Simulator toggle, under the Meta XR Simulator dropdown located on the main toolbar. Unreal XR Simulator Setting
  5. Click VR Preview to launch the Meta XR Simulator.
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 Quest Link.

Multiplayer testing

By default Unreal sets Run Under One Process as True and HDM For Primary Process Only as True. Disable these to test all instances connecting to Meta XR Simulator: Unreal XR Simulator Setting

Known issues

This section lists common issues encountered with the MetaXR Simulator and Unreal Engine integration:
  • Tracking Drift: Occasionally, the simulated tracking may drift or exhibit jitter. Restarting the MetaXR Simulator often resolves this.
  • Unreal crashes when net play mode is set as a listen server.
  • Epic Native OpenXR XR API is unstable especially when using Passthrough.
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