Meta XR Simulator is a lightweight Extended Reality (XR) runtime built to speed up XR application development and testing on your development machine.
The simulator uses the same XR API specification as mobile and PC VR runtimes, allowing it to integrate with your engine’s IDE without modification. The simulator includes a predefined input mapping schema and a user interface that provides information on how the runtime composites the final view and simulates input.
This page provides a brief overview of Meta XR Simulator and basic installation and usage instructions.
Prerequisites
To install and use Meta XR Simulator, you need a Unity project configured for Meta XR development.
Add Meta XR Simulator to your assets if it’s not added already.
Click Open in Unity to open the Package Manager window with Meta XR Simulator selected.
In the Package Manager window, select Install to add Meta XR Simulator to your Unity project.
On macOS:
Meta XR Simulator has strict requirements on macOS. It requires Apple Silicon Mac, Unity OpenXR Plugin (in version at least 1.13.0+), and Meta XR SDK (v66+).
Note: Older versions of Meta XR Simulator required a homebrew package. Currently we deliver standalone package which does not require additional system dependencies. If you were using our homebrew tap before you can delete it and upgrade the package in Unity Package Manager.
Start Meta XR Simulator
To start Meta XR Simulator:
With your project open in the Unity Editor, navigate to Meta > Meta XR Simulator > Activate to activate the simulator.
In the console, a log message titled [Meta XR Simulator is activated] indicates that the activation is successful.
After you see the log message, run your Unity app in XR simulator by clicking the Play button.
The Meta XR Simulator UI opens. You can drag the panels to arrange them for your convenience.
Input simulation
Meta XR Simulator simulates Meta Quest headset, controller, and hand input by mapping input from the following sources on your development machine:
Keyboard and mouse input
An Xbox controller
Meta Quest Touch controllers
To select which Meta Quest input you want to simulate:
In the Meta XR Simulator UI, open the Input Simulation tab.
For Active Inputs, select the inputs that you want to simulate.
To see how your development machine inputs map to Meta Quest, open the Input Bindings tab. The Input Bindings tab provides more information about controlling the simulated headset using keyboard, mouse, or Xbox controller input. Some common operations have pre-programmed shortcuts for your convenience (for example, grabbing interactions and continuous head rotation).
To stop Meta XR Simulator, you can either click the Play button again from Unity or click the Exit Session button at the top left corner of the Meta XR Simulator UI.
If you want to go back to development on your physical headset, deactivate the simulator in Unity by selecting Meta > Meta XR Simulator > Deactivate.
Example
Suppose you want to test out a Horizon OS app that you’ve built in Unity using your Meta Quest Touch controllers, but you’d rather not don and doff your headset to verify small changes that you make during development. You can test out the app using Meta XR Simulator, and continue to use your Touch controllers as user input.
Connect your headset to your development machine, and place the headset on the desk in front of you.
Open Meta Quest Developer Hub (MQDH) on your machine.
From the left navigation bar in MQDH, select Device Manager.
Select your headset from the Devices list.
Under Device Actions, disable the Proximity Sensor for 2 hours or longer.
Open your Hello World app in the Unity Editor.
With your project open in the Unity Editor, navigate to Meta > Meta XR Simulator > Activate to activate Meta XR Simulator.
Select the Play button in the Unity Editor to run your app in Meta XR Simulator.
Enable controller data forwarding
In the Meta XR Simulator window, navigate to Settings > Connect Physical Quest Controllers.
Under Device, select your connected device.
If you don’t see your device, select Refresh to refresh the list of devices.
Select Install Data Forwarding Server to install the data forwarding server app to your headset.
This app forwards input data from your controllers through your headset to XR Simulator.
Open MQDH, and navigate to File Manager > Apps.
Select the ... to the right of the com.oculus.xrsamples.xrsimdataforwardingserver app, and select Launch App.
Your headset should launch the data forwarding server. If you look in your headset, you should see Meta XR Simulator - Data Forwarding Server. Meta XR Simulator should read Connected to Headset Server.
In XR Simulator, select Connect Physical Controllers to connect to your controllers.
Select Calibrate Controllers, and hold your controllers in front of you, between you and the headset on your desk. The controllers should calibrate to this position.
Test out your app
Meta XR Simulator should respond to controller movements and button presses.
To move your camera around, use your keyboard or mouse.
