Passthrough

• Full-color passthrough — High-fidelity view of the physical environment on Quest 3 and Quest 3S
• Environment depth — Depth estimation from stereo cameras enables virtual objects to be occluded by real-world surfaces
• Passthrough windows — Cut holes in your virtual environment to reveal the physical world underneath
• Passthrough as background — Replace the virtual skybox with the real world for full mixed reality
• Color mapping and styling — Apply visual effects to the passthrough feed (edge highlighting, color adjustments, stylized rendering)
• Loading screens — Show passthrough during app loading for seamless transitions
• Multiple resolutions — Choose from several supported resolutions including 1280x960, 1280x1080, 1280x1280, and 1024x1024

• Your app benefits from physical context — Fitness apps that need floor space, productivity apps anchored to a desk, or games that use the room layout
• You want seamless transitions — Moving between fully immersive VR and the real world without removing the headset
• Safety matters — Letting users see their physical surroundings while interacting with virtual content
• You’re building a 2D panel app — Passthrough is the default background for 2D Android apps running on Horizon OS

• Stationary boundary — A small boundary for seated or standing experiences
• Roomscale boundary — A user-defined play area traced during setup
• Passthrough activation — When users approach the boundary edge, the system can automatically show passthrough so they see real-world obstacles
• Boundary API — Your app can query the boundary dimensions to adapt gameplay or UI layout to the available space

• Default passthrough — Standard passthrough rendering does not require special permissions, as your app never receives raw camera data. The OS composites the passthrough feed behind your rendered content.
• Camera access API — If your app needs access to raw camera frames (for computer vision, QR scanning, or custom processing), you must request the appropriate permissions and follow Meta’s camera access policies.
• User expectations — Users expect passthrough to be a view-only feature. If your app processes camera data beyond standard passthrough, communicate this clearly.

• Lighting consistency — Virtual objects look more believable when their lighting matches the real environment. Consider ambient light estimation.
• Occlusion — Use environment depth to let real objects occlude virtual ones. Without occlusion, virtual content appears to float in front of everything.
• Visual contrast — Ensure virtual UI elements are readable against varying real-world backgrounds. Dark text on a transparent panel may be invisible against a dark wall.
• Comfort — Passthrough latency and visual quality vary. Avoid requiring users to read fine text through passthrough or make precise real-world movements based on the passthrough view.
• Casting limitation — Casting is not available when the spatial camera mode is active. If your app relies on casting for spectator features, account for this constraint.
• Environment blend modes — Choose between alpha blend (standard compositing) and additive blend (virtual content adds light to the passthrough feed) based on your visual style. Alpha blend works best for opaque virtual objects; additive blend creates a holographic effect.

• Unity:Passthrough overview

  Color mapping

  Compositing and masking

• Unreal:Passthrough overview
• Spatial SDK:Passthrough
• Native:Passthrough overview
• Android apps:Passthrough camera

• Blend virtual objects with the physical environment: Passthrough design.
• Scene understanding: Best practices for scene understanding.
• Spatial anchors: Best practices for spatial anchors.

• Health and safety guidelines overview: Health and safety recommendations for your app.
• General information for immersive experiences: General health and safety guidelines.
• Depth user safety: Health and safety guidelines for depth.
• Passthrough user safety: Health and safety guidelines for passthrough.
• Scene user safety: Health and safety guidelines for scene.
• Shared spatial anchors safety: Health and safety guidelines for SSA.
• Boundaryless and contextual-boundaryless safety best practices: Best practices for boundaryless experiences.