Vantage — Immersive Combat Sports Platform

A VR180 broadcast platform on the Apple Vision Pro featuring a novel Spatial Watch Party SDK.

I'm a huge UFC fan and this is my passion project. Vantage is a cross-platform (visionOS, Meta Quest) immersive sports network built to solve the isolation problem in VR. It combines high-fidelity stereoscopic VR180 capture with a novel social layer that synchronizes playback across devices with minimal latency.

Demo of two users syncing playback instantly

Why I built Vantage

For me, the thought of sitting cage-side at a UFC event with my friends, reacting to every technique and knockout blow, is the reason that propelled me to build Vantage. With modern mixed-reality devices, it is now becoming possible to experience this virtually.

While the consumer VR market remains niche, Vantage serves as a production-grade proving ground for advanced spatial computing architectures, including Shared Presence experiences and custom RealityKit rendering pipelines.

Demo of two users syncing playback instantly

The "Fan" Experience

Building a Netflix-style VOD app is a solved problem. Building a synchronous, spatially-aware social theater on first-generation hardware (Apple Vision Pro) is not:

  1. Stereoscopic 180° Video: 8K 3D playback at 60fps.
  2. Spatial Personas: Rendering remote users in the local coordinate space with correct depth occlusion.
  3. Frame-Perfect Sync: Keeping 5+ clients perfectly aligned for "live" reactions.

Core Engineering Features

1. The "Simulated Live" Premieres

Live events are much more exciting because we don't yet know the outcome. The story is unfolding in realtime. Although doing a true, fully live stereoscopic broadcast was not feasible, I figured I could get most of the way there and provide fans like me an awesome experience by "simulating" a live broadcast.

Just like how Apple's recent WWDC events are pre-edited, but still "live", I architected a pipeline that injects pre-produced VR180 content into a live HLS stream.

  • Outcome: Delivers the excitement and urgency of a live PPV event with the production quality of post-processed video.
  • Tech: Custom HLS manifest generation, synchronized start triggers, and a single big button to simplify UX.

2. Immersive Watch Party - SharePlay Architecture

Apple's GroupSessionMessenger is unauthenticated by default, allowing malicious clients to spoof senderUUID and hijack sessions.

  • Solution: I implemented a signed-message protocol. Critical actions (e.g., "Start Event", "Kick User") are wrapped in a JWT and verified against a Supabase/Edge Function backend before propagation.
  • Result: A trust-less architecture that protects paid content and prevents "griefing" in public lobbies.

3. Custom RealityKit Player (Forked)

Apple's native AVPlayerViewController does not support custom immersive environments (like side-by-side Spatial Personas) alongside 3D video.

  • Implementation: Forked an open-source RealityKit player to gain low-level access to the render loop, enabling the composition of 3D video textures behind the translucent Spatial Persona layer.
Demo of two users syncing playback instantly

The Pivot to B2B: ImmersiveWatchParty SDK

Recognizing that the core value of Vantage was its networking stack, I extracted the synchronization logic into a standalone binary framework.

  • Product: A drop-in Swift package that enables any visionOS app to add "FaceTime Watch Together" functionality.
  • Strategy: While the B2C combat sports market matures, this SDK can be great for other businesses entering the spatial era.

Content & Partnerships

  • Fight Night San Jose: Scott Coker. Exclusive VR broadcast partner.
  • Dirty Boxing (DBX): Partnered with Mike Perry and Jon Jones' league for their inaugural VR shoot in Jan 2026.
  • Up Next Fighting: A popular up-and-coming MMA promotion in L.A.

Data-Driven Iteration

  • Discovery: People needed a way to find others watch with. Not many people have Vision Pros, so I built an in-app "Lobby" system that allows users to connect with other sports fans via a FaceTime call.
  • Retention: Analysis of session data revealed that while daily active users (DAU) remain relatively low due to hardware friction, Session Duration for social users is extremely high (~20m+), validating the "Social VR" thesis.

Tech Has Opened A Door For Incredible Experiences

As a combat sports fan, I've thoroughly enjoyed attending MMA events, and this project strives to give other fans the same experience. Here are some of the events I've been to:

Demo of two users syncing playback instantly

What's Next

  • Quest/Vision Parity: Bridging the UX gap between the Unity-based Quest app and the SwiftUI-native visionOS app.
  • Live HLS Scaling: Stress-testing the "Simulive" experience.