OpenXR is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

royalty-free Royalty-free (RF) material subject to copyright or other intellectual property rights may be used without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use, per each copy or volume sold or some time period of use or sales. Computer standards ...

standard for interfacing with

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

and

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

devices. It is developed by a

working group A working group is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. Such groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdisciplinary collab ...

managed by the

Khronos Group The Khronos Group, Inc. is an open, non-profit, member-driven consortium of 170 organizations developing, publishing and maintaining royalty-free interoperability standards for 3D graphics, virtual reality, augmented reality, parallel computat ...

consortium. OpenXR was announced by the Khronos Group on February 27, 2017, during GDC 2017. A provisional version of the standard was released on March 18, 2019, to enable developers and implementers to provide feedback on it. On July 29, 2019, OpenXR 1.0 was released to the public by Khronos Group at SIGGRAPH 2019 and on April 15, 2024, OpenXR 1.1 was released by Khronos. Reviewers of the 0.90 provisional release considered that the aim of OpenXR was to "Solve AR/VR Fragmentation".

Architecture

The standard provides an

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

aimed for application developers targeting

devices. This enables developers to build applications that will work across a wide variety of devices. The fundamental elements of this API are: * XrSpace: a representation of the

3D space In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position (geometry), position of a point (geometry), poi ...

* XrInstance: a representation of the OpenXR runtime * System and XrSystemId: a representation of the devices, including the

Virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

Augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

devices and controllers * XrActions: used to handle user inputs * XrSession: represents the interaction session between the application and the user The full specification can be found via th
OpenXR Registry
on

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

Implementations

The

maintains the list of OpenXR-conformant platforms and products. Currently conformant OpenXR platforms are:
Acer's Spatial Display Series
* Bytedance's Neo3 and PICO4 * Canon's MREAL platform display and headsets *

Collabora Collabora Ltd is a global private company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, with offices in Cambridge and Montreal. It provides open-source consultancy, training and products to companies. Collabora's initial focus was instant messa ...

Monado Runtime for GNU/Linux, with the release of version 21.0.0 in February 2021 *

HTC VIVE HTC Vive is a line of Virtual reality, virtual and mixed reality Virtual reality headset, headsets produced by HTC, HTC Corporation. The brand currently encompasses headsets designed for use with Personal computer, personal computers as well a ...

Cosmos and VIVE Focus 3, part of HTC's VIVERSE ecosystem *

Magic Leap Magic Leap, Inc. is an American technology company that released a head-mounted augmented reality display, called ''Magic Leap One'', which superimposes 3D computer-generated imagery over real world objects. It is attempting to construct a lig ...

2 * Meta's PC platform and its Quest line of devices, with full support OpenXR 1.0 added in July 2021 *

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

HoloLens 2 and the Windows Mixed Reality headsets * Qualcomm Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform * Sony's Spatial Reality Displays (ELF-SR1 & ELF-SR2) *

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...

SteamVR Steam is a digital distribution service and storefront developed by Valve Corporation, Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 to provide video game updates automatically for Valve's games and expanded to distributing thir ...

, since version 1.16 in February 2021 * Varjo headsets

Game and rendering engine support

Support for OpenXR application development can be found in the following engines: *

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of ...

, with initial support in the 4.24 *

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer (from Latin ''mixus, the PPP of miscere eng. to Mix)'' or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary ...

, with initial support in the 2.83 LTS release from June 2020 * Unity, with initial support in the 2020.2 release from December 2020 * Godot, with initial support in the 4.0 *

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

VRED * StereoKit, developed around OpenXR *

Nvidia Omniverse Omniverse is a real-time 3D graphics collaboration platform created by Nvidia. It has been used for applications in the visual effects and "digital twin" industrial simulation industries. Omniverse makes extensive use of the Universal Scene Descr ...

* Unigine since version 2.19 from August 2024.

Browser support

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

Chrome and

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

web browsers both enable WebXR support using OpenXR by default using the

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

code base

Roadmap

After the release of OpenXR 1.0, progress will likely be driven through the development of extensions to the core API. This can be seen in the subsequent release of extensions for support of hand tracking and eye gaze tracking. As implementers and developers get more experience with the extensions, they could get integrated into the core OpenXR API in future releases.

Contributors

The following companies are listed by Khronos as public supporters of OpenXR:

References

External links

OpenXR 1.0 specification
{{Virtual reality and Augmented reality 3D graphics APIs Application programming interfaces Graphics standards Video game development Video game engines Virtual reality Augmented reality Spatial computing