CHANGELOG.md

CHANGELOG

v2.54.0 — 31 March 2026

Added

• Semantic Masking — semanticMask prop on ViroMaterial (Android + iOS)

  Selectively show or hide a material based on what the AR session classifies each pixel as in the real world. A per-frame 256×144 semantic segmentation image from ARCore is used to discard fragments at the GPU level — no CPU readback, no extra render pass.

  ViroMaterials.createMaterials({
    // Only render on pixels classified as sky
    skyOnly: {
      diffuseColor: "#ffffff",
      semanticMask: {
        mode: "showOnly",
        labels: ["sky"],
      },
    },
    // Invisible on people (useful for occlusion)
    hidePeople: {
      diffuseColor: "#00ff00",
      semanticMask: {
        mode: "hide",
        labels: ["person"],
      },
    },
  });

  mode controls the discard direction:

  Mode	Behaviour
  "showOnly"	Fragment rendered only where the pixel matches a label
  "hide"	Fragment discarded where the pixel matches a label
  "debug"	Overrides color: blue = unlabeled, teal→orange gradient = classified pixels

  labels — one or more of: "sky", "building", "tree", "road", "sidewalk", "terrain", "structure", "object", "vehicle", "person", "water"

  iOS setup: requires the ARCore Semantics pod. Add includeSemantics: true to the Expo plugin config in app.json. If provider: "arcore" or includeARCore: true is already set, the pod is included automatically. The prop is silently ignored when the session has not yet produced a semantic image.

• requestRequiredPermissions(permissions?) utility

  Prompts the user for the specified permissions and resolves with their granted status. Pass a ViroPermission[] to request only what your feature needs; omit it to request all four.

  import { requestRequiredPermissions } from "@reactvision/react-viro";
  
  // Camera only
  const { camera } = await requestRequiredPermissions(["camera"]);
  
  // All four
  const result = await requestRequiredPermissions();

• checkPermissions(permissions?) utility

  Non-prompting read of current permission status. Never shows a system dialog.

  import { checkPermissions } from "@reactvision/react-viro";
  
  const { camera, microphone } = await checkPermissions(["camera", "microphone"]);
  if (!camera) {
    // guide user to Settings
  }

  ViroPermission ("camera" | "microphone" | "storage" | "location") is exported as a standalone type. ViroPermissionsResult keys are typed boolean? — only keys for the requested permissions are present in the resolved object.

• Animated GLB support — skeletal animation, morph targets, and skinning

  GLB/glTF 2.0 models with embedded animations are now fully supported on both platforms. Three animation systems are covered:

  System	Description
  Skeletal animation	Bone-driven character and creature rigs
  Morph targets	Blend-shape facial animation and shape keys
  Skinning	Vertex-weight deformation tied to a skeleton

  Animations are played via the existing ViroAnimatedComponent API — no new props required. Multiple animations embedded in a single GLB file are each exposed as a named clip.

• Expo 54 and Expo 55 support

  The package peer dependency range and Expo config plugin are updated to support both Expo SDK 54 and Expo SDK 55.

Fixed

• [Android] ViroARImageMarker — onAnchorFound never fires

  The native ARScene.java callback path for image anchors was not bridging the onAnchorFound event to the React Native layer. The marker component appeared to work (the tracked image drove the AR overlay position) but the JS onAnchorFound handler was never called, making it impossible to react to detection in user code.

• [Android] App crash on launch on 16 KB page-size devices (Android 15 / 16) — #429

  All bundled .a static libraries have been recompiled and aligned to 16 KB boundaries. Devices that enforce the new ABI requirement (Android 15 and later) were crashing immediately on System.loadLibrary because the dynamic linker rejected unaligned segments in the .so produced from the old .a files.

• [Android] Fatal SIGSEGV after returning from background — #445

  Three independent bugs combined to produce a guaranteed crash whenever the OS reclaimed the OpenGL/EGL context while the app was in the background:

  1. Background model downloads — assets that finished downloading while paused queued GPU-upload tasks that fired against the destroyed context on resume. GPU tasks are now gated on EGL context validity before execution.

  2. Stale texture IDs — the AR session retained OpenGL texture handles from the destroyed context and attempted to render with them on the next frame. Texture handles are now invalidated on context loss and re-created on resume.

  3. Render-queue shutdown race (VIRO-4537) — a pre-existing null-ordering bug prevented the render queue from being cleanly shut down during dispose(), leaving a partially torn-down renderer reachable. The shutdown sequence is now ordered correctly.

• [iOS] Invalid Podfile syntax error on EAS iOS builds — #441

  The Expo config plugin (withViro) was writing a pod directive with a string literal in a position that CocoaPods does not accept, producing:

  Invalid Podfile file: syntax error, unexpected string literal,
  expecting end-of-input
  

  The generated Podfile snippet is now syntactically valid in all EAS build environments.

• [Android] Model texture overlays entire screen during video recording

  VRODriverOpenGL maintains a CPU-side cache of the currently-bound OpenGL texture per unit and bound shader program. This cache was shared between the display EGL context and the recording EGL context.

  When VRORecorderEglSurfaceDisplay::bind() switched to the recording context the cache still reflected display-context state. The recording blit updated the cache (RTT texture → unit 0); when invalidate() restored the display context the cache falsely reported that the RTT texture was still bound, skipped glBindTexture, and sampled the wrong texture — causing the model's diffuse texture to overlay the full display frame.

  The texture binding cache is now invalidated whenever the active EGL surface changes.

• [iOS] ViroPortalScene interior content not rendering — #452

  Portal interior content (3D objects, Viro360Image, etc.) was invisible on iOS in v2.53.0 while the portal frame and stencil hole rendered correctly.

  VRODisplayOpenGLiOS::bind() was missing two OpenGL state resets that VRORenderTargetOpenGL::bind() already included:

  • glStencilMask(0xFF) before glClear — portal rendering leaves the stencil write-mask at 0x0F (lower 4 bits only); without this reset GL_STENCIL_BUFFER_BIT in glClear did not clear the upper bits, leaving stale values that failed the stencil test on the following frame and prevented portal contents from drawing.
  • glStencilFuncSeparate(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_ALWAYS, 0xFF, 0xFF) after glClear — resets the stencil function to always-pass so non-portal geometry rendered after the portal pass is not inadvertently clipped.

  Android was unaffected because it uses VRORenderTargetOpenGL::bind() directly which already contained both resets.

---

v2.53.0 — 06 March 2026

Breaking Changes

• ViroARSceneNavigator — provider replaces cloudAnchorProvider and geospatialAnchorProvider

  The two separate props are merged into a single provider prop that controls both the cloud anchor and geospatial anchor backends simultaneously.

  Before:

  <ViroARSceneNavigator
    cloudAnchorProvider="reactvision"
    geospatialAnchorProvider="reactvision"
    initialScene={{ scene: MyARScene }}
  />

  After:

  // provider defaults to "reactvision" — prop can be omitted entirely
  <ViroARSceneNavigator
    initialScene={{ scene: MyARScene }}
  />
  
  // Or to override:
  <ViroARSceneNavigator
    provider="arcore"
    initialScene={{ scene: MyARScene }}
  />

  ViroCloudAnchorProvider and ViroGeospatialAnchorProvider types are now deprecated aliases for the new ViroProvider type. Remove them from props; use provider instead. The old types still compile with a deprecation warning to ease migration.

• Expo plugin (withViro) — provider replaces cloudAnchorProvider and geospatialAnchorProvider

  The two separate Expo plugin options are merged into a single provider option in app.json. The old options are deprecated but still accepted as overrides.

  Before:

  ["@reactvision/react-viro", {
    "cloudAnchorProvider": "reactvision",
    "geospatialAnchorProvider": "reactvision",
    "rvApiKey": "...",
    "rvProjectId": "..."
  }]

  After:

  ["@reactvision/react-viro", {
    "provider": "reactvision",
    "rvApiKey": "...",
    "rvProjectId": "..."
  }]

  Setting provider: "arcore" continues to inject ARCore pods on iOS and force dynamic linkage, exactly as cloudAnchorProvider: "arcore" did before. Setting provider: "reactvision" injects location permissions on both platforms (previously only triggered when geospatialAnchorProvider: "reactvision" was explicit).

• ViroARPlaneSelector — new architecture (scene-event-driven)

  The component no longer self-discovers planes through pre-allocated ViroARPlane detector slots. You must forward the parent ViroARScene anchor events to it via a ref:

  const selectorRef = useRef<ViroARPlaneSelector>(null);
  
  <ViroARScene
    anchorDetectionTypes={["PlanesHorizontal", "PlanesVertical"]}
    onAnchorFound={(a)   => selectorRef.current?.handleAnchorFound(a)}
    onAnchorUpdated={(a) => selectorRef.current?.handleAnchorUpdated(a)}
    onAnchorRemoved={(a) => a && selectorRef.current?.handleAnchorRemoved(a)}
  >
    <ViroARPlaneSelector ref={selectorRef} alignment="Both" onPlaneSelected={...}>
      <MyContent />
    </ViroARPlaneSelector>
  </ViroARScene>

  The old self-contained usage (no ref, no anchor wiring) no longer works.

Added

• gpsToArWorld(devicePose, lat, lng, alt) utility — converts a GPS coordinate to an AR world-space [x, y, z] offset from the device's current geospatial pose. Uses Mercator projection + compass heading. Available in @reactvision/react-viro.

• latLngToMercator(lat, lng) utility — WGS84 Mercator projection returning metres. Building block for gpsToArWorld and custom geo math.

• ReactVision — Cloud Anchor Provider

  The "reactvision" provider routes hostCloudAnchor / resolveCloudAnchor through the ReactVision platform — no Google Cloud configuration or API key required. The existing hostCloudAnchor, resolveCloudAnchor, and onCloudAnchorStateChange API is unchanged.

• ReactVision — Cloud Anchor Management API

  8 new methods on arSceneNavigator for full CRUD and analytics on cloud anchors (available when provider="reactvision", the default):

  Method	Description
  rvGetCloudAnchor(anchorId)	Fetch a single anchor record
  rvListCloudAnchors(limit, offset)	Paginated list of all project anchors
  rvUpdateCloudAnchor(id, name, desc, isPublic)	Rename / re-describe an anchor
  rvDeleteCloudAnchor(anchorId)	Permanently delete an anchor and its assets
  rvFindNearbyCloudAnchors(lat, lng, radius, limit)	GPS proximity search
  rvAttachAssetToCloudAnchor(id, url, size, name, type, userId)	Attach a hosted file
  rvRemoveAssetFromCloudAnchor(anchorId, assetId)	Remove an attached asset
  rvTrackCloudAnchorResolution(...)	Record resolve analytics manually

  All calls are handled entirely inside the compiled native binary — no API keys or endpoint URLs are present in the JS bundle.

• ReactVision — Geospatial Anchor Provider + Management API

  GPS-tagged anchors are available through the ReactVision platform. 5 new management methods on arSceneNavigator:

  Method	Description
  rvListGeospatialAnchors(limit, offset)	Paginated list
  rvGetGeospatialAnchor(anchorId)	Fetch a single geospatial anchor
  rvFindNearbyGeospatialAnchors(lat, lng, radius, limit)	GPS proximity search
  rvUpdateGeospatialAnchor(id, sceneAssetId, sceneId, name)	Update metadata
  rvDeleteGeospatialAnchor(anchorId)	Permanently delete

• New ViroProvider type

  Canonical union type "none" | "arcore" | "reactvision" exported from the package. Replaces the old ViroCloudAnchorProvider and ViroGeospatialAnchorProvider (now deprecated aliases).

• ViroARPlaneSelector — tap-position object placement

  Objects placed as children of ViroARPlaneSelector now appear at the exact point the user tapped, not at the plane's geometric centre.

  The world-space tap position from onClickState is converted to the plane's local coordinate space using the full inverse rotation matrix (R = Rx·Ry·Rz, X-Y-Z Euler order as used by VROMatrix4f) and clamped to the plane surface (Y = 0 in local space). Children retain their own Y offset (position={[0, 0.5, 0]} etc.) relative to the tap point.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — onPlaneSelected receives tap position

  onPlaneSelected?: (plane: ViroPlaneUpdatedMap, tapPosition?: [number, number, number]) => void;

  tapPosition is the world-space ray–surface intersection point.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — onPlaneRemoved prop

  Called when ARKit/ARCore removes a tracked plane. Receives the anchorId string. Selection is automatically cleared if the removed plane was selected.

• ViroARSceneNavigator — depthEnabled prop

  Activates the depth sensor (LiDAR on supported iOS devices, monocular depth estimator as fallback; ARCore Depth API on Android 1.18+) without enabling occlusion rendering. Virtual objects are not occluded, but depth data becomes available for:

  • performARHitTest — returns DepthPoint results
  • distance measurement use-cases

  When occlusionMode="depthBased" is set at the same time, occlusionMode takes precedence and full depth-based occlusion is used instead.

  <ViroARSceneNavigator depthEnabled={true} ... />

  Platform	Requirement
  iOS	LiDAR device or monocular fallback (all devices)
  Android	ARCore Depth API — ARCore 1.18+

• ViroARSceneNavigator — depthDebugEnabled prop

  Debug visualisation of the depth texture over the camera feed. Colours represent depth values: magenta = no data, blue = near, red = far. Useful for verifying depth coverage before relying on hit-test results.

  <ViroARSceneNavigator depthEnabled={true} depthDebugEnabled={true} ... />

  Default: false. Both iOS and Android.

• ViroARSceneNavigator — preferMonocularDepth prop (iOS only)

  When true, forces iOS to use the monocular depth estimator even on LiDAR-equipped devices. Useful for testing depth behaviour on older hardware or when LiDAR accuracy is not required and power consumption is a concern.

  Default: false (LiDAR used when available).

• ViroARPlaneSelector — hideOverlayOnSelection prop

  Controls whether the plane overlay hides once a plane is selected. Default true — the overlay disappears after selection so only your children content remains visible. Pass false to keep the overlay visible (e.g. to show the plane boundary while the user repositions content). Unselected planes are always hidden after a selection regardless of this prop.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — material prop

  Pass a ViroMaterials-registered material name to customise the plane overlay surface. Defaults to the built-in translucent blue.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — handleAnchorRemoved public method

  New public instance method matching handleAnchorFound / handleAnchorUpdated. Removes a plane from the visible set and clears selection if needed.

• ARKit/ARCore plane detection — both orientations enabled by default

  Previously only horizontal planes were detected unless anchorDetectionTypes was set explicitly. The default is now horizontal + vertical at all layers:

  Layer	File
  C++ default	VROARScene.h
  iOS native default	VRTARScene.mm
  JS fallback default	ViroARScene.tsx

• Shader modifiers — custom sampler2D uniforms

  Shader modifier code can now declare and receive uniform sampler2D inputs. Previously, sampler declarations in modifiers were silently ignored and the GPU always read texture unit 0. Now each named sampler is assigned its own texture unit and bound correctly at draw time.

  ViroMaterials.createMaterials({
    noisyMetal: {
      lightingModel: "PBR",
      shaderModifiers: {
        surface: {
          uniforms: "uniform sampler2D noise_tex;",
          body: `
            float noise = texture(noise_tex, _surface.diffuse_texcoord * 3.0).r;
            _surface.roughness = mix(0.2, 0.9, noise);
            _surface.metalness = mix(0.4, 1.0, noise);
          `
        }
      },
      materialUniforms: [
        { name: "noise_tex", type: "sampler2D", value: require("./textures/noise.png") }
      ]
    }
  });

  ViroShaderUniform.type now accepts "sampler2D" and value accepts a require() image reference.

• Shader modifiers — runtime texture uniform update

  ViroMaterials.updateShaderUniform now accepts "sampler2D" as a type, allowing any texture bound to a modifier sampler to be swapped at runtime:

  ViroMaterials.updateShaderUniform("colorGraded", "lut_tex", "sampler2D",
    isDaytime ? require("./lut_day.png") : require("./lut_night.png"));

• Shader modifiers — custom varyings between vertex and fragment stages

  A new varyings field on shader modifier entry points lets vertex-stage (Geometry) modifiers pass typed data to fragment-stage (Surface / Fragment) modifiers. Declare the same name in both stages; the engine injects out / in declarations automatically:

  shaderModifiers: {
    geometry: {
      varyings: ["highp float displacement_amount"],
      uniforms: "uniform float time;",
      body: `
        float wave = sin(_geometry.position.x * 4.0 + time) * 0.1;
        _geometry.position.y += wave;
        displacement_amount = abs(wave) / 0.1;
      `
    },
    surface: {
      varyings: ["highp float displacement_amount"],
      body: `_surface.roughness = mix(0.1, 0.9, displacement_amount);`
    }
  }

• Shader modifiers — scene depth buffer access

  Fragment modifier entry points can set requiresSceneDepth: true to receive scene_depth_texture (sampler2D) and scene_viewport_size (vec2) automatically. Enables soft particles, contact edge glow, depth-based fog, and intersection effects. On older Adreno/Mali GPUs that cannot sample the depth buffer in-pass, the engine automatically inserts a blit to a GL_R32F color attachment.

  fragment: {
    requiresSceneDepth: true,
    body: `
      vec2 screenUV = gl_FragCoord.xy / scene_viewport_size;
      float sceneDepth = texture(scene_depth_texture, screenUV).r;
      float softFactor = clamp(abs(sceneDepth - gl_FragCoord.z) / 0.1, 0.0, 1.0);
      _output_color.a *= softFactor;
    `
  }

• Shader modifiers — live AR camera texture access

  Fragment modifier entry points can set requiresCameraTexture: true to sample the live AR camera feed on any geometry. Two uniforms are bound automatically: ar_camera_texture (the camera feed) and ar_camera_transform (a mat3 correcting for device orientation and aspect ratio). The sampler type difference between platforms (samplerExternalOES on Android, sampler2D on iOS) is handled invisibly — developer GLSL is identical on both platforms.

  surface: {
    requiresCameraTexture: true,
    body: `
      vec2 cameraUV = (ar_camera_transform * vec3(_surface.diffuse_texcoord, 1.0)).xy;
      _surface.diffuse_color = texture(ar_camera_texture, cameraUV);
    `
  }

  Enables magnifying glass, portal, refraction, warp, and camera-feed-on-geometry effects.

• Shader modifiers — deterministic priority ordering

  VROShaderModifier now has a priority field (default 0). Multiple modifiers on the same material are injected in ascending priority order. Engine-internal modifiers (AR shadow, occlusion) use priority -100; user modifiers default to 0; debug overlays use 100. Prevents engine modifiers from interfering with user-defined effects regardless of attachment order.

• Updated ViroShaderModifier type

  export type ViroShaderModifier = {
    uniforms?: string;
    body?: string;
    varyings?: string[];             // pass typed data from vertex to fragment stage
    requiresSceneDepth?: boolean;    // auto-bind scene_depth_texture + scene_viewport_size
    requiresCameraTexture?: boolean; // auto-bind ar_camera_texture + ar_camera_transform
  };
  
  export type ViroShaderUniform = {
    name: string;
    type: "float" | "vec2" | "vec3" | "vec4" | "mat4" | "sampler2D";
    value: number | number[] | ReturnType<typeof require>;
  };

Fixed

• GLB/3D models — washed-out / overexposed colours (virocore/ViroRenderer/VROMaterialShaderBinding.cpp, standard_fsh.glsl)

  Models loaded from GLB files (and some OBJ/FBX assets) appeared overexposed or had their colours washed out. Root cause: material_emissive_color was being added to the fragment shader output for every material, including those with no intentional emission. GLB materials often carry a non-zero emission value in their PBR data; added on top of the diffuse+specular result it pushed the final colour toward white. Removed the material_emissive_color and material_alpha_cutoff uniforms from the standard shader binding — these were incorrectly applied to all materials instead of only emissive/masked ones.

• Android — physics body crash on scene close (virocore/ViroRenderer/capi/Node_JNI.cpp)

  Closing a scene that contained physics-enabled nodes crashed with a null pointer dereference at VRONode::setTransformDelegate+56. The GL-thread lambdas queued by nativeSetTransformDelegate and nativeRemoveTransformDelegate called node->setTransformDelegate() without first checking whether the std::weak_ptr<VRONode> had already expired. Added an if (!node) { return; } guard in both lambdas so that a node destroyed before the lambda runs is silently skipped instead of crashing.

• Android — New Architecture Metro error (viro/android/viro_bridge/…/PerfMonitor.java)

  "You should not use ReactNativeHost directly in the New Architecture" was thrown during dev-menu initialisation. PerfMonitor.setView() called getReactNativeHost().getReactInstanceManager().getDevSupportManager(), which throws under the New Architecture. Replaced with the New-Arch API: getReactHost().getDevSupportManager().

• iOS — startVideoRecording silent failure / stopVideoRecording returns {success: false, errorCode: 0} (virocore/ios/ViroKit/VROViewRecorder.mm, VROViewAR.mm)

  Video recording was completely non-functional after the move to the React Native New Architecture. Several independent bugs combined to produce a silent failure with no error callback and an empty URL on stop:

  • [AVAssetWriter startWriting] return value was never checked. A failed writer still set _isRecording = YES, causing the stop path to hit the kVROViewErrorAlreadyStopped branch and return errorCode: 0.
  • The pixel buffer pool was never validated after startWriting. A nil pool produced a null _videoPixelBuffer used later without a check.
  • AVAssetWriter was created before the video dimensions were validated; a zero-size view (not yet laid out) produced an invalid writer.
  • AVAudioSession was configured without mode:AVAudioSessionModeVideoRecording and without [session setActive:YES]. On iOS 17+ ARKit takes control of the audio session, silently preventing AVAudioRecorder from writing data; the resulting empty/unplayable audio file then caused generateFinalVideoFile to call handler(NO) → completionHandler(NO, nil, nil, kVROViewErrorUnknown).
  • generateFinalVideoFile hard-failed when the audio file was missing or unplayable, with no fallback.

  Fixes applied:

  • Added dimension guard (kVROViewErrorInitialization) before writer creation.
  • Added startWriting return check with cleanup and kVROViewErrorInitialization.
  • Added pixel buffer pool nil check with writer cancellation and error callback.
  • Added nil check for AVAudioRecorder after initWithURL:settings:error:.
  • Added -record return value check with a diagnostic log.
  • Set mode:AVAudioSessionModeVideoRecording and [session setActive:YES] in VROViewAR so the audio session is properly activated before recording starts.
  • generateFinalVideoFile now falls back to video-only output when the audio file is missing or unplayable, instead of failing the entire recording.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — index-mapping mismatch (root cause of ghost planes)

  The old implementation pre-allocated 25 ViroARPlane slots per alignment and mapped them by JS array index. The C++ constraint matcher assigns anchors non-deterministically, so the slot at index i did not reliably hold the plane detectedPlanes[i] referred to. The rewrite uses one <ViroARPlane anchorId={id}> per confirmed anchor — no mismatch possible.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — selected plane disappeared on selection

  Opacity was computed as isSelected ? 0 : isVisible ? 1 : 0 — the selected plane hid itself immediately after tap. Fixed to selectedPlaneId === null || isSelected ? 1 : 0.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — children duplicated across all plane slots

  Children were rendered inside every one of the 50 pre-allocated slots. Now rendered once, only on the selected plane, wrapped in a ViroNode at the tap position.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — onPlaneDetected return value ignored

  Returning false from onPlaneDetected previously had no effect. Now correctly prevents the plane from being added to the visible set.

• ViroARPlaneSelector — removed planes not cleaned up

  Disappeared planes were never removed from internal state. The new handleAnchorRemoved deletes the entry from the Map and resets selection if needed.

• VROARPlaneAnchor — hasSignificantChanges AND→OR threshold logic

  The previous implementation required both the absolute (>1 cm) and the relative (>5 %) extent thresholds to pass simultaneously. For large planes (floors, walls) the relative check almost never passed once the plane was mature, silently dropping most ARKit update notifications. Fixed to OR: either threshold alone triggers an update.

• VROARPlaneAnchor — hard 100 ms update throttle suppressed early detection

  ARKit sends rapid update bursts in the first seconds of plane detection. A fixed 100 ms minimum interval discarded most of them. Replaced with an adaptive throttle: 33 ms (≈30 fps) for the first 20 updates, 66 ms (≈15 fps) thereafter.

Changed

• createGeospatialAnchor, createTerrainAnchor, createRooftopAnchor — supported with provider="reactvision".

  GPS→AR placement uses Mercator projection + compass heading to compute the relative AR-frame offset, then creates a native ARKit / ARCore local anchor. No VPS, no ARCore Geospatial API, and no ARCore pods are required.

  Method	ReactVision placement
  createGeospatialAnchor(lat, lng, alt, quat)	GPS absolute altitude
  createTerrainAnchor(lat, lng, altAboveTerrain, quat)	deviceAlt + altAboveTerrain
  createRooftopAnchor(lat, lng, altAboveRooftop, quat)	deviceAlt + altAboveRooftop

  The returned anchorId is a native AR anchor tracked by VIO for the session. Placement accuracy matches device GPS accuracy (~3–10 m horizontally).

• ViroARPlaneSelector — useActualShape now defaults to true

  Previously the bounding-rect ViroQuad fallback was used whenever vertices were absent; now the polygon path is always preferred and the quad is only used as a fallback before ARKit provides boundary vertices.

ViroCore Integration

This release integrates the ReactVision native backend into ViroCore:

• Cloud anchor hosting and resolving via the ReactVision platform (Android + iOS)
• Geospatial anchor CRUD, proximity search, and GPS→AR placement
• ReactVision provider wired into the AR session layer on both platforms

---

v2.52.0 - 08 February 2026

Added

• Full Shader Support: Complete implementation of shader modifiers for iOS and Android platforms
• Shader Overrides: New shaderOverrides prop for real-time shader customization across both platforms
• Shader Propagation: Intelligent shader propagation system down the node tree with proper timing
• Fragment Output Standardization: Unified fragment shader outputs across platforms
• Texture Handling in Shaders: Full texture support in shader overrides
• Animated Shader Support: Uniform binding for animated shaders
• Material Animation Preservation: Materials with animations are preserved during shader application
• Lighting Properties in Shaders: Lighting properties are properly copied and maintained in custom shaders
• Material Sharing: Materials now shared efficiently across instances for improved performance
• Depth-based AR Hit Testing: Enhanced AR hit test functionality using depth information
• Monocular Depth Fallback: Non-LiDAR devices now automatically fallback to monocular depth estimation
• Throttle Mechanism: Added performance throttle to prevent system overload

Fixed

• iOS Memory Leaks (Critical): Completely eliminated memory leaks on iOS platform (both viro and virocore)
• Portal Crashes (Critical): Fixed crashes when unmounting portals on iOS
• Material Overflow: Fixed cloned materials array overflow that caused crashes
• VRX Asset Loading: Resolved VRX asset loading issues
• Monocular Depth Alignment: Fixed monocular depth frame alignment issues
• Double Anchor Reference: Fixed issue with creating duplicate anchor references
• Gravity Type Crash: Fixed Android crash caused by incorrect gravity type definition (now correctly typed as 3D vector [number, number, number])
• hitResultId: Fixed hitResultId availability issue in AR hit tests
• Thread Locks: Refactored implementation to avoid thread locks

Changed

• Depth Integration: Improved depth integration with simplified logic

Removed

• Debug logs and visualizations from production code
• Spam/noisy logging

ViroCore Integration

This release includes 21 commits from virocore focused on:

• Native shader support and modifiers
• Memory management improvements
• Depth processing enhancements

v2.51.0 - 01 February 2026

Previous release baseline for v2.52.0 changes.

v2.43.6 - 08 October 2025

• Fixed pod install issues: Adjusted ViroKit requirements
  • Resolved persisting pod installation failures

v2.43.5 - 07 October 2025

iOS Improvements

• Fixed pod install issues: Rebuilt ViroCore framework for iOS
  • Resolved pod installation failures
  • Improved compatibility with modern CocoaPods versions
  • Fixed framework architecture issues

Fabric Architecture Improvements

• Enhanced Fabric compatibility: Migrated 30 methods across 8 Java modules to use Fabric's UIBlock pattern

  • Fixed ReactNoCrashBridgeNotAllowedSoftException errors in production
  • Replaced deprecated getNativeModule(UIManagerModule.class) with UIManagerHelper.getUIManager()
  • Updated to use com.facebook.react.fabric.interop.UIBlock and UIBlockViewResolver
  • Modules updated: ARSceneModule, ARSceneNavigatorModule, CameraModule, ControllerModule, NodeModule, SceneModule, SceneNavigatorModule, VRT3DSceneNavigatorModule

• Improved prop handling: Added Fabric-aware error recovery system in VRTNodeManager

  • Removed isAttachedToWindow() checks that blocked prop updates in Fabric's pre-attachment phase
  • Implemented safelyApplyProp() pattern with automatic retry on transient failures
  • Enhanced error logging for better debugging
  • Refactored 28 @ReactProp methods for consistent error handling
  • Reduced boilerplate code by ~250 lines

• Better resilience: Automatic prop retry handles GL context initialization timing issues

  • Prevents props from being silently lost during scene transitions
  • Recovers from view state timing issues on low-end devices
  • Improved stability during AR session interruptions

v2.43.1 - 26 June 2025

• Added support for React Native New Architecture (Fabric)
• Added examples demonstrating how to use ViroReact with automatic architecture detection
• Updated documentation with information about the New Architecture support
• Deprecated legacy architecture support (removed completely)

v2.42.0 - 7 February 2025

• Compatibility with Expo 52
• Removed Telemetry
• Cleaned codebase

v2.41.1 - 6 March 2024

• fix(ViroBase): fix onClick not working for <ViroText /> components #277
• fix(react): remove unnecessary debug logging #276
• fix(ViroBase): fix onClick not working for <ViroText /> components (#277) #272

v2.41.0 - 23 February 2024

• Bump ip from 1.1.8 to 1.1.9 #270
• chore: Update android #261
• chore: release v2.41.0 fefff31

v2.40.1 - 19 February 2024

• fix: Add import/export of VIRO_VERSION #268
• chore: release v2.40.1 44a6900

v2.24.0 - 16 February 2024

• Add Telemetry #264
• fix: fix isARSupportedOnDevice #262

v2.23.3 - 10 February 2024

• fix: fix isARSupportedOnDevice 220847d
• chore: version bump 2.23.3 31adf38

v2.23.2 - 9 February 2024

• Fix screenshot taking and screen recording in AR #256
• docs: update readme installation instructions #259
• feat: added code of conduct #255
• Update ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md 219fff7

v2.23.2-beta - 2 February 2024

• Fix screenshot taking 844be5a

v2.23.1 - 25 January 2024

v2.23.1-rc4 - 25 January 2024

• Support kotlin and Expo SDK 50 for Android #249

v2.23.1-rc1 - 25 January 2024

• Fix Expo plugin issues, dependency issues, and stabilize #247
• v2.23.1-alpha #243
• Update README.md #206
• Bump react-devtools-core from 4.27.7 to 4.28.5 #235
• Bump xml2js and @expo/config-plugins #236
• Bump semver from 5.7.1 to 5.7.2 #234
• Bump @babel/traverse from 7.17.0 to 7.23.2 #231
• Bump hermes-engine and react-native #209
• Fix for 'Tried to register two views with the same name VRTQuad' in ViroSurface #180
• Bump shell-quote and @react-native-community/cli-tools #208
• Bump @sideway/formula from 3.0.0 to 3.0.1 #195
• Bump decode-uri-component from 0.2.0 to 0.2.2 #182
• Bump @xmldom/xmldom from 0.7.5 to 0.7.8 #176
• Bump minimatch from 3.0.4 to 3.1.2 #178
• Bump json5 from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2 #191
• ViroSurface Fix #199
• Bump simple-plist from 1.3.0 to 1.3.1 #139
• Bump async from 2.6.3 to 2.6.4 #131
• Bump plist from 3.0.4 to 3.0.5 #115
• Bump minimist from 1.2.5 to 1.2.6 #114
• Bump ansi-regex from 4.1.0 to 4.1.1 #113
• Update INSTALL_ANDROID.md #98
• Update README.md #126
• Remove unnecessary logging from Viro3DObject #132
• Add VR AndroidManifest injection #104
• Add supporter image for Morrow #111
• Add out-of-the-box expo plugin support #88
• Update INSTALL_IOS.md #96
• Rewrite repo in typescript #72
• Update INSTALL.md #80
• Update README.md #85
• Enable bitcode + chroma threshold #78
• v2.22.0 #69
• Update INSTALL_IOS.md #68
• Update LICENSE #67
• Add out-of-the-box expo plugin support (#88) #87
• Revert "Fix iOS compatibility and ViroVideo (#47)" 3a4b8e0

v2.21.1 - 8 September 2021

• Fix iOS compatibility and ViroVideo #47

v2.21.0 - 5 September 2021

• Update package.json #46
• Update #42
• Update INSTALL_ANDROID.md #38
• docs: updates links and also file type change #27
• docs: fixed typo #26
• Updating the discord invite link #10
• Bumping version for release. #9
• Removing references to fbjs. #8
• fix typo in package.json #6
• Adding NPM publish action #4
• • Removed the star from every pod as when doing pod install it drops … #1
• First 4fb045b
• Remove broken scripts 2d94c22
• Updating Readme to give better install instructions and moving examples to their own page(#7) bee93cc