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Thomas Gorisse
Thomas Gorisse

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The Only Compose-Native 3D & AR Library for Android

#android #kotlin #jetpackcompose #augmentedreality

You're building an Android app with Jetpack Compose. You need 3D. Maybe a product viewer, a model configurator, or AR furniture placement.

You search. You ask ChatGPT. You try Copilot. And you get: Unity (50MB+, no Compose), raw Filament (1000 lines to render a cube), or Sceneform (deprecated since 2021).

There's a gap. Android has no built-in 3D composable. Until now.

SceneView: 3D as a Composable

SceneView treats 3D the same way Compose treats UI: declaratively. SceneView { } is a composable like Column { } or LazyList { }. Nodes are composables. State is Kotlin state.

implementation("io.github.sceneview:sceneview:4.0.0")
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Display a 3D model in 15 lines 

@Composable
fun ProductViewer() {
    val engine = rememberEngine()
    val modelLoader = rememberModelLoader(engine)

    SceneView(
        modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(),
        engine = engine,
        modelLoader = modelLoader,
        cameraManipulator = rememberCameraManipulator()
    ) {
        rememberModelInstance(modelLoader, "models/sneaker.glb")?.let {
            ModelNode(modelInstance = it, scaleToUnits = 1.0f, autoAnimate = true)
        }
    }
}
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Place sneaker.glb in src/main/assets/models/. The model loads asynchronously, rememberModelInstance returns null while loading, then triggers recomposition. No callbacks, no lifecycle — just state.

What you get out of the box

SceneView includes 26+ composable node types:

  • ModelNode — GLB/glTF models with animation
  • CubeNode, SphereNode, CylinderNode — primitive geometry
  • ImageNode — textured quads
  • VideoNode — video textures on 3D surfaces
  • LightNode — point, spot, directional lights
  • TextNode — 3D text billboards
  • ViewNode — any Compose UI in 3D space

All powered by Google Filament — the same PBR engine used in Google Maps and Android Auto.

AR in Compose: One More Import 

implementation("io.github.sceneview:arsceneview:4.0.0")
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@Composable
fun ARFurniturePlacement() {
    val engine = rememberEngine()
    val modelLoader = rememberModelLoader(engine)
    val anchors = remember { mutableStateListOf<Anchor>() }
    val chair = rememberModelInstance(modelLoader, "models/chair.glb")

    ARSceneView(
        modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(),
        engine = engine,
        modelLoader = modelLoader,
        planeRenderer = true,
        onTouchEvent = { hitResult, _ ->
            hitResult?.let { anchors.add(it.createAnchor()) }
        }
    ) {
        anchors.forEach { anchor ->
            chair?.let { model ->
                AnchorNode(anchor = anchor) {
                    ModelNode(
                        modelInstance = model,
                        scaleToUnits = 0.8f,
                        isEditable = true
                    )
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
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isEditable = true gives you drag, pinch-to-scale, and two-finger rotate. AR state is Compose state — when anchors changes, the scene recomposes.

Supported AR features: plane detection, image tracking, face mesh, cloud anchors, geospatial anchors, depth occlusion, light estimation.

Why Not Unity / Filament / Sceneform?

SceneView Unity Raw Filament Sceneform
Compose native Yes No No No
APK size ~5MB ~50MB+ ~3MB ~5MB
AR built-in Yes (ARCore) Plugin No Yes
Active v4.0.0 (2026) Yes Yes Deprecated (2021)
Learning curve Low High Very high Low
Scene graph 26+ node types Full engine None 5 node types
Cross-platform Android, iOS, Web All Android only Android only

SceneView wraps Filament internally — same rendering quality, 100x less code.

Cross-Platform: Same API, Native Renderers

SceneView also supports:

  • iOS/macOS/visionOS: SwiftUI + RealityKit (native Apple renderer)
  • Web: Kotlin/JS + Filament.js (WASM)
  • Flutter: PlatformView bridge
  • React Native: Fabric bridge

Each platform uses its native renderer — no cross-compiled runtime. The API mirrors across platforms: SceneView { ModelNode(...) } works on Android and iOS.

AI-First: Ask Any AI to Build Your 3D App

SceneView is designed so that AI assistants generate correct code on the first try:

  • llms.txt — 3000-line machine-readable API reference
  • MCP Server — 28 tools for Claude/Cursor (install: npx sceneview-mcp)
  • Copilot/Cursor/Windsurf rules — IDE-specific code generation patterns

Try it: open Claude and ask "build me an AR app with SceneView." The MCP server provides validated samples and the full API, so you get compilable code.

Industry-specific MCP servers are also available:

  • npx automotive-3d-mcp — car configurators
  • npx healthcare-3d-mcp — medical visualization
  • npx gaming-3d-mcp — game development
  • npx interior-design-3d-mcp — interior design

Get Started 

// build.gradle.kts
implementation("io.github.sceneview:sceneview:4.0.0")    // 3D only
implementation("io.github.sceneview:arsceneview:4.0.0")   // 3D + AR
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SceneView is open source (Apache 2.0) and actively maintained. Try it in your next Compose project.

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