New OpenXR extensions unlock portable spatial computing by standardizing plane and marker tracking, spatial anchors, and persistent experiences across sessions and platforms.

The Khronos^® OpenXR™ Working Group has released a groundbreaking set of OpenXR extensions that establish the first open standard for spatial computing, enabling consistent cross-platform support for plane and marker detection and tracking, precise spatial anchors, and cross-session persistence. These new Spatial Entities Extensions are now available for public review, and we invite developers to provide feedback to help drive the continued evolution. As the first implementations roll out in 2025, this milestone brings developers powerful new tools for building persistent, interoperable XR spatial experiences across a growing range of devices.

Revolutionizing Spatial Computing for Developers

The result of over two years of cooperative design between multiple runtime and engine vendors in the OpenXR working group, spatial entities are foundational to enabling intuitive, context-aware interactions with a user’s physical environment in advanced AR, VR, and MR applications. The new extensions enhance the OpenXR API by providing capabilities to detect and track features in the user's physical environment and precisely position and anchor virtual content relative to those features, including virtual content that persists across XR sessions. These capabilities address a long-standing need in the XR ecosystem by defining common API interfaces for critical spatial computing operations that are portable across multiple XR runtimes and hardware platforms.

The Spatial Entities Extensions have been ratified and published in the OpenXR Registry on GitHub, as part of the OpenXR 1.1 and Ratified Extensions specification, reflecting the OpenXR Working Group’s ongoing commitment to consolidate widely used functionality, reduce fragmentation, and streamline cross-platform development.

"The OpenXR Spatial Entities Extensions address one of the most critical needs expressed by our developer community, and represent a significant milestone in our mission to create a powerful and truly interoperable XR ecosystem," said Ron Bessems, chair of the OpenXR Working Group. "The Spatial Entities Extensions are carefully defined as a discoverable and extensible set of functionality, providing a firm foundation for spatial applications today, and enabling continued innovation in portable spatial computing into the future.”

Structured Spatial Framework

The OpenXR Spatial Entities Extensions are organized around a base extension, forming a highly extensible, discoverable framework. This structure enables consistent, concise expression of system capabilities with minimal code.

• XR_EXT_spatial_entities: foundational functionality for representing and interacting with spatial elements in the user’s environment.
• XR_EXT_spatial_plane_tracking: detection and spatial tracking of real-world surfaces.
• XR_EXT_spatial_marker_tracking: 6 DOF (Degree of Freedom) tracking of visual markers such as QR codes in the environment.
• XR_EXT_spatial_anchor: enables precise positioning of virtual content relative to real-world locations.
• XR_EXT_spatial_persistence: allows spatial context to persist across application sessions.
• XR_EXT_spatial_persistence_operations: advanced management of persistent spatial data.

The structure of the Spatial Entities Extensions enables vendors to build additional capabilities on top of the base spatial framework, allowing for experimentation and innovation while maintaining compatibility across the ecosystem. Potential future functionality under discussion includes image and object tracking, as well as the generation and processing of mesh-based models of the user's environment.

Developer Benefits and Availability

These standardized spatial computing APIs significantly reduce development time and costs by eliminating the need to write device-specific code for each platform. Developers gain streamlined access to sophisticated spatial mapping capabilities through a consistent interface, enabling them to future-proof their applications against evolving hardware while focusing their energy on innovative features rather than managing platform-specific implementations.

Multiple implementations are already in progress and are expected to begin appearing in runtimes throughout 2025. Check with your platform vendor for specific availability timelines.

We Value Your Feedback!

The OpenXR Working Group is actively seeking developer input on these extensions. Whether you are planning to implement them in your run-time, use them in your application, have questions about the specifications, or just want to share your experience using them, the team wants to hear from you. There are multiple ways to get involved:

• Join the discussion on the OpenXR Discord channel
• Share your thoughts on the OpenXR Forums
• Report issues or ask technical questions via the GitHub Issue Tracker

We look forward to your feedback to help us continue to evolve OpenXR as a portable spatial computing framework that meets the practical needs of real-world developers!

Meet Us at AWE 2025

Khronos and the OpenXR Working Group will be at AWE this week! Stop by Khronos Booth #510 to meet with Khronos and learn more about OpenXR. We're also sharing slide updates from OpenXR and glTF at AWE - you can view the presentation slides here.

Don't miss our dedicated OpenXR session at AWE: OpenXR and the Future of XR: Interoperability in a 5G/Edge-Driven World

When: June 11, 4:00 - 4:25pm Where: Room 101A

The AWE session will feature OpenXR Working Group members discussing how OpenXR enables cross-platform interoperability in XR development and exploring how 5G and edge computing can power next-generation XR experiences such as holographic collaboration on low-power devices.

Member Support

“PICO is proud to have contributed to the design of the OpenXR Spatial Entities Extensions and to be among the first to implement runtime support. By helping define this core capability, we’re enabling developers to build more persistent, shareable, and spatially aware XR experiences across platforms,” said Praveen Babu J D, OpenXR Tech Lead at PICO

“Collabora is proud to serve as OpenXR Specification Editors and to have contributed to the review and refinement of the Spatial Entities extensions. We thank all the Khronos OpenXR Working Group members whose collaboration made this achievement possible. This marks an important milestone that the XR community has been eagerly anticipating — laying the groundwork for more standardized and interoperable spatial computing across platforms — and we're honored to have played a part in making it happen,” said Frederic Plourde, XR Lead at Collabora.

“Having the ability to obtain and store information about the user's physical surroundings is an often-requested feature amongst our users, who are currently met with a wild growth of implementations. The OpenXR Spatial Entities Extensions offer a well-thought-out and future-proof standard for this functionality, which we believe will prove to be a major milestone for the XR industry. Godot is proud to have been a part of its development and offering support for this API as early adopters of the extensions,” said Bastiaan Olij, XR lead Godot Engine.

“We are looking forward to bringing Spatial Entities to the Android XR platform, empowering developers to build XR experiences that take advantage of a rich understanding of the real world in a cross-platform way. Google has always believed in the power of open standards, and Spatial Entities will enable us to innovate here faster and while also reducing fragmentation across the entire OpenXR ecosystem,” said Mahesh Kallahalla, senior director at Google.

“The introduction of the XR_EXT_spatial_entities extension is a major milestone resulting from years of collaboration among leading XR industry professionals. Meta is thrilled to soon support this new industry standard extension. It will provide a consistent and powerful method for scene understanding in applications, promoting both cross-platform interoperability and innovation in spatial computing,” said Ron Bessems, senior staff engineer at Meta. 

“The OpenXR Spatial Entities Extensions are a step forward for the industry, creating an interoperable standard for cross-platform mixed reality app development. Unity is committed to supporting the OpenXR Spatial Entities Extensions and integrating them with AR Foundation, enabling developers to run their apps on any compatible OpenXR runtime,” said Andy Biar, senior software engineer, Unity.

“By embracing spatial entities, OpenXR is answering the growing need for tools that lower the barriers to building foundational mixed reality experiences, while still providing the flexibility needed to support advanced, custom use cases. At Varjo, we’re committed to bringing spatial entities to our customers, empowering them to realize their vision with greater ease and precision,” said Denny Rönngren, XR architect at Varjo