visionOS Simulator is completely blank in macOS Sonoma VM

Hi,

I have macOS 14 Sonoma beta 2 (build 23A5276g) running in a VM powered by Virtualization.framework with Xcode 15 beta 2 (build 15A5161b) installed. My host machine is an M1 MacBook Air running macOS Ventura 13.4.1. The iOS and iPadOS simulators work fine. However, when I launch the visionOS simulator from Xcode, all I get is a blank screen. Would anyone be able to help with this?

I also noticed that when the visionOS simulator is open, none of the other simulators work. However, as soon as I close the visionOS simulator, everything else starts working again.

Thanks!

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Posted by
nitinseshadri
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  • Exact same situation for me, using Parallels on M1 Mac mini host. Xcode sits perpetually spinning blue circles "Launching World", "Installing World", "Attaching to World on Apple Vision Pro". Same with a trivial default New Project for VisionOS. Trivial default project for iPhone both Preview and Runs, although curiously the Globe and Hello World appear only in Preview, not on the iPhone simulator itself (blank white screen there)

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    Michael_Pique
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Hi, I don't think this is really a use case that is thoroughly tested or supported. If you're able to capture a sysdiagnose in the VM and attach that to a bug report, someone might be able to take a look.

Posted by
Graphics and Games Engineer
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  • Sure, I will do that and post the feedback ID here.

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    nitinseshadri
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Instead of Virtualization, I went with the dual-boot option. I need to run production releases of Ventura and Xcode in order to support my apps in the AppStore - but I wanted to begin work on my VisionOS app too. This setup works like a charm for me...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208891
Posted by
CryptoKoa
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@Graphics and Games Engineer I filed feedback as FB12474494.

Posted by
nitinseshadri
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  • Thanks, someone was able to take a look at this, and it is likely caused by the fact that there are some Metal features that are not supported in the VM graphics driver that are used by the simulator. You'll have to install a native macOS version in order to do development in the simulator.

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    Graphics and Games Engineer

  • @Graphics and Games Engineer Thanks for taking a look at it. If it's possible for them to answer this question: Are there any plans to add the missing Metal features to the VM graphics driver, or modify the simulator so that it can work without the missing Metal features? If not, it would be nice to have a message letting the user know that the visionOS simulator doesn't work in a VM, because it seems like a few other people are confused about this too.

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    nitinseshadri

  • @Graphics and Games Engineer I also wanted to mention that the problem where the other simulators don't work when the visionOS one is open seems to have been fixed in Xcode 14 beta 3 (15A5195k) and macOS 14 Sonoma beta 3 (23A5286g). I'll update the feedback with this information too.

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    nitinseshadri
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