Developers now have access to the Meta Quest 3’s RGB cameras to create new and innovative mixed reality features and apps.

Version 74.0 of the Meta XR Core SDK provides developers with access to the passthrough cameras, a feature that Meta calls the Passthrough Camera API (PCA).

“This new API provides access to the forward-facing RGB cameras and is provided to allow developers to improve the production quality of their apps (e.g. lighting and effects) and to drive ML/CV pipelines for apps like object recognition.”

PCA is currently experimental, which means that developers can start to create apps and app features using PCA, but are not yet allowed to publish them to the Horizon Store or include them in their existing apps. This is standard practice for groundbreaking new Meta APIs. We hope to see full availability in the coming months.

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Our official Passthrough Camera Samples: https://t.co/YqjmDJ9evi… pic.twitter.com/WGvKZqhTai

– Robi ᯅ (@xrdevrob) March 14, 2025

While it will be some time before the first VR and MR applications with APC functionality appear in the Horizon Store, you can expect to see interesting examples on platforms such as Sidequest and Github in the coming weeks and months.

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For apps to use PCA, users must grant permission when the application is first launched, similar to microphone access.

PCA is only supported by Meta Quest 3 and 3S. Applications have access to 30 FPS per camera with a maximum resolution of 1,280 x 960 pixels. Latency is 40 to 60 milliseconds. As a result, the machine learning and computer vision algorithms may have difficulty with fast-moving objects and small or distant images and text.

Meta has published a series of Unity samples on GitHub. Five further examples are provided by Meta’s Roberto Coviello with QuestCameraKit. The features demonstrated include QR code tracking, object recognition and an integration of OpenAI’s Visual Model for the real-time analysis of images.

At GDC, which starts today, studios Niantic, Resolution Games, and Creature will demonstrate what they have been able to achieve with PCA. They have been given access to the API in advance.

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