Khronos Group and the OpenXR Working Group have released Spatial Entities Extensions, establishing the first open standard for spatial computing, providing support for spatial anchors, plane and marker tracking, and cross-session persistence across XR platforms.
A highly requested addition from developers, the OpenXR Working Group has spent the past two years working closely with runtime and engine vendor members to develop a foundation that enables context-aware interactions with a user’s physical environment for XR applications.
As the first implementations roll out in 2025, Khronos says that this milestone will bring developers powerful new tools for building persistent, interoperable XR spatial experiences across a growing range of devices.
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.
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 OpenXR Working Group chair Ron Bessems.
“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.”
“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 realise their vision with greater ease and precision,” said Denny Rönngren, XR architect at Varjo.
