SceneKit
A high-level 3D scene graph, now in maintenance mode in favor of RealityKit.
Introduced
2012
OS X Mountain Lion
Kind
Framework
Runs on
Get it from
iOS
8.0+
iPadOS
8.0+
Mac Catalyst
13.1+
macOS
10.8+
tvOS
9.0+
visionOS
1.0+
watchOS
Works in Swift Playground ›3.0+
Overview
SceneKit made 3D approachable: a scene graph of nodes with geometry, materials, lights, cameras, physics and animation, rendered with Metal.
Apple soft-deprecated SceneKit at WWDC25. Existing apps keep working, but new projects should use RealityKit, and Apple offers guidance for moving SceneKit projects over.
Scene graph
Nodes, geometry, lights and cameras.
Physics and animation
Bodies, constraints and imported animations.
Swift Playground
A friendly way to learn 3D.
Migration
Apple's guidance for moving to RealityKit.
History
How it grew up.
2012
Introduced
Debuts in OS X Mountain Lion.
2014
iOS
SceneKit comes to iOS 8.
2025
Soft-deprecated
Apple recommends RealityKit for new projects.