Heaving a very weary sigh— NEW: I spoke to those impacted by layoffs within XBOX's accessibility teams to try and understand the scale of those cuts and what they mean for accessibility going forward. It's all pretty bleak, but there *are* tiny shreds of hope.

Accessibility teams hit hard in XBOX’s “reset”

Among 1600 jobs cut by Microsoft this week, the axe has fallen heavily on XBOX's accessibility teams.

blog.geoffreybunting.co.uk

Can already be tested in the latest beta of Gantry27 testflight.apple.com/join/1MXM41Wm

Join the Gantry: Scene Converter beta

Available on iOS

testflight.apple.com

elkraneo@elkraneo.bsky.social · last mo.

USDKit beta 2 → beta 3 jump is variants - USDPrim.variantSets - USDPrim.VariantSet - VariantSetCollection.add - VariantSet.add - setSelection, clearSelection, blockSelection - selection, authoredSelection, variantNames - withEditTarget(layer:_:) Also new: USDPrim.transform(at:)

USDKit beta 2 → beta 3 jump is variants - USDPrim.variantSets - USDPrim.VariantSet - VariantSetCollection.add - VariantSet.add - setSelection, clearSelection, blockSelection - selection, authoredSelection, variantNames - withEditTarget(layer:_:) Also new: USDPrim.transform(at:)

For those lucky enough to be on macOS27, here's a TestFlight of Gantry powered by USDkit, we call it Gantry27 (and sure, we put more thought into the app than the name) testflight.apple.com/join/1MXM41Wm

Join the Gantry: Scene Converter beta

Available on iOS

testflight.apple.com

while we wait for the review of the first Gantry27 beta, we kept going and started with the implementation of Spatial Preview so we can start really enjoying the benefits of USDKit

Script graphs can now be selected via components in Deconstructed3 #RealityKit #RealityComposerPro3

Deconstructed3 current state: opens, edits, and re-saves the new .realitycomposerpro project files. Viewport and object tree, lets you move, duplicate, delete, and add objects, and includes a visual editor for "script graphs" with runtime and some samples github.com/elkraneo/Dec...

GitHub - elkraneo/Deconstructed3

Contribute to elkraneo/Deconstructed3 development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

UPDATE: After a closer look, the beta-2 SDK (27A5209h) does expose this USDKit typed layer in the public .swiftinterface — but underscore-prefixed (_get/_set/_readArray/_writeArray/_getElement), i.e., SPI: linkable today, but not yet finished API and subject to change between seeds.

elkraneo@elkraneo.bsky.social · 6mo ago

To better understand the challenges and decisions that produced Reality Composer Pro, I'm creating a clone of it: https://elkraneo.com/deconstructing-reality-composer-pro-intro/

USDKit Beta 1 had no typed way to read or write vector values. Beta 2 adds USDArray<T> for scalars, Float16, GfVec/GfHalf/GfQuat, and GfVec3f with get/set/readArray/writeArray/getElement over attributes, UsdAttributeQuery, layer fields and specs. Not in the public interface yet.

Now, THERE's a movie I could watch...

And just like that, Deconstructed began its third installment

ScriptGraph in RCP3 is JS all the way down, but done in a swift way github.com/apple/realit... #WWDC26

GitHub - apple/realitykitscripting: JavaScript bindings for RealityKit with type-safe Swift interoperability

JavaScript bindings for RealityKit with type-safe Swift interoperability - apple/realitykitscripting

github.com

I know this will sound martian, but it seems like RCP3 is no longer a USD editor but a RealityKit authoring environment powered by the spirit of Clarisse and The Machinery #WWDC26

Gantry v27 beta — powered by USDKit

I had a couple of apps that allow downloading transcripts and other resources published during WWDC. I updated them a year ago, and @daveverwer.com pointed out that those tools could better suited for the web, so in case he's right, dunfeyhotel.com

Dunfey Hotel — WWDC as data

Every WWDC session since 2014 — categories, durations, code snippets, transcripts and trends. Links to Apple, hosts nothing.

dunfeyhotel.com

In case you were wondering about this year's WWDC focus

RCP3 plugins are coming later this year, and I honestly hope the API will not look like this by then 🤕

What Apple's USDKit brings: USDStage, USDPrim, USDLayer, USDValue/USDToken, USDTransformOperation. Stage open/create/save/reload, export, exportFlattened, exportPackage (AVIF textures + mesh compression options); full prim/attribute/metadata/custom Data read-write

~17 new RealityKit components: GaussianSplat · MeshDeformer · Lightmap · DiffuseLightProbe · ToneMapping · Bloom · Clipping · LevelOfDetail · OcclusionCulling · RenderLayer · PhysicallyBasedDecal · AnimationGraph · BehaviorTree · Navigation (+Mesh) uncannyuse.com?new=27.0

uncannyuse

Can I use it? Apple platform compatibility for RealityKit, ARKit, Metal, and hardware-gated features.

uncannyuse.com

The update before WWDC. We have been working to make Gantry export options better. On macOS and iOS, you can now explicitly select between usd* flavors when exporting, which is extremely useful in many workflows. Imagine going from Sketchfab to RCP but without the pain.

just learned about Gorg Vision, and now I can't stop thinking that Apple Vision Pro needs a way to detach the input sensors from the output www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_2A... www.henson.com/jimsredbook/...

Gorg Vision - Jim's Red Book - The Jim Henson Company

YouTube video by The Jim Henson Company

youtube.com

Conversion to .usd* from .fbx on #visionOS unlocked...

And no matter how cool we believe it is to use Gantry on macOS, there is an extra magic when playing with it on iOS youtube.com/shorts/Qw0Le... #OpenUSD #RealityKit #iOS

Gantry: Scene Converter (iOS)

YouTube video by elkraneo

youtube.com

Gantry can convert .gltf, .fbx, .obj, .ply formats to .usd(z). It does this natively and on the device, so you are already working on .usd by the time you see the model in the viewport. youtube.com/shorts/nx1ge... #OpenUSD #RealityKit #macOS

Gantry: Scene Converter #openusd #realitykit #macos (1. Convert)

YouTube video by elkraneo

youtube.com

Gantry needed to be battle tested before it could be considered a useful converter, so we tried it out with tons of 3D models around. Here's a list of the most useful ones so far: https://gantry.reality2713.com/models/

Gantry Model Sammlung — 3D source collection

A curated collection of model sources, sample scenes, and material references for Gantry and Apple-platform USDZ workflows.

gantry.reality2713.com

Today is the release day of a tool that we wished we had sooner. Gantry converts 3D formats to USDZ using OpenUSD native tools, exports images, optimizes textures, and makes the whole process look easy. will get a 50% discount during the launch.

OpenUSD has a closed, enumerable set of SdfValueTypeNames. Swift's type system is open-ended and Turing-complete. RCP cannot support all Swift types—it supports the USD-serializable subset: Swift types that map directly to SdfValueTypeNames, plus special cases like enums and optionals.

I was working outside today, and the terminal was totally unreadable in the sun. Long story short, here is a light skin for Hermes and a skin configurator... https://hermes-skin.reality2713.com

I am not sure what we are doing with RealityKit. It cannot handle relatively complex models and features; the focus on aesthetics and GUI support is excellent, but we require a robustness and industry-standard iteration

We may or may not be dealing with App Store rejections at the moment to get something cool out the door...