---
title: Configuration Objects
framework: arkit
role: collectionGroup
role_heading: API Collection
path: arkit/configuration-objects
---

# Configuration Objects

Configure your augmented reality session to detect and track specific types of content.

## Overview

Overview Configuration objects define how ARKit sets up and runs your augmented reality session. Although ARWorldTrackingConfiguration provides the widest range of features in a rear-camera experience, each feature consumes device energy and compute cycles. So to maximize device uptime and performance, enable additional options sparingly. If another AR configuration fulfills your requirements with a more concise feature set, use that configuration instead. For example, use ARBodyTrackingConfiguration instead of a world-tracking configuration for 3D motion-capture if you don’t need user face-tracking, collaboration, or scene reconstruction. Select frame features Some configurations support subfeatures that relate to a session’s frame. Enable these features by setting the following flags in the configuration’s frameSemantics: Use supportsFrameSemantics(_:) to verify whether the iOS device supports the ARConfiguration.FrameSemantics you desire before setting frameSemantics. important: To maximize device responsiveness, refrain from turning on people occlusion for single-user experiences when you don’t expect people in the scene. Switch configurations at runtime To toggle features like plane detection, frame semantics, and environment texturing, you switch your configuration at runtime by calling runWithConfiguration: on your existing session. Where possible, ARKit maintains all the information collected during the session under the prior configuration, such as information about the physical environment and anchors. tip: You can gracefully downgrade the AR experience in the event of low-power or thermal events. For example, you could temporarily switch from a world-tracking configuration to a position-tracking configuration (ARPositionalTrackingConfiguration) if your app can function at a basic level in that limited capacity until the device cools down. If your session switches between face- and world-tracking configurations, the session doesn’t maintain state. Enable high-quality video and custom capture settings In iOS 16, you can enable a 4K and high dynamic range (HDR) video format. In addition, you can customize your session’s video settings through the underlying AV capture device. To determine whether your session supports 4K, call recommendedVideoFormatFor4KResolution. guard let hiResFormat = ARWorldTrackingConfiguration.recommendedVideoFormatFor4KResolution else {    print("4K video format not supported."); return } Then, create a configuration with the format. You can also indicate the intent to enable HDR by setting videoHDRAllowed to true. var config = ARWorldTrackingConfiguration() config.videoFormat = hiResFormat config.videoHDRAllowed = true session.run(config) If the device supports a configurable capture session, the configurableCaptureDeviceForPrimaryCamera provides the underlying capture device that you can adjust as needed. if let device = ARWorldTrackingConfiguration.configurableCaptureDeviceForPrimaryCamera {    do { try device.lockForConfiguration()       // Configure capture settings here.       device.unlockForConfiguration()    } catch { /* Error handling. */ } } Capture high-resolution still frames In iOS 16, you can enable high-resolution frame capture by calling recommendedVideoFormatForHighResolutionFrameCapturing on your configuration. If the device supports high-resolution stills, the function returns a video format you can use to start a session: guard let hiResFormat = type(of: config).recommendedVideoFormatForHighResolutionFrameCapturing else {     fatalError("The device doesn't support high-resolution stills.") } config.videoFormat = hiResFormat arSession.run(config) During the session, capture a high-resolution still frame at any time by calling captureHighResolutionFrame(completion:): arSession.captureHighResolutionFrame { (frame, error) in     if let frame = frame {         saveHiResFrame(frame)     } else { /* Error handling. */ }

## Topics

### Common Configuration Details

- [ARConfiguration](arkit/arconfiguration.md)

### Spatial Tracking

- [Understanding World Tracking](arkit/understanding-world-tracking.md)
- [ARWorldTrackingConfiguration](arkit/arworldtrackingconfiguration.md)
- [ARGeoTrackingConfiguration](arkit/argeotrackingconfiguration.md)
- [AROrientationTrackingConfiguration](arkit/arorientationtrackingconfiguration.md)
- [ARPositionalTrackingConfiguration](arkit/arpositionaltrackingconfiguration.md)

### Body and Face Tracking

- [ARBodyTrackingConfiguration](arkit/arbodytrackingconfiguration.md)
- [ARFaceTrackingConfiguration](arkit/arfacetrackingconfiguration.md)

### Image Recognition

- [ARImageTrackingConfiguration](arkit/arimagetrackingconfiguration.md)

### Object Detection

- [ARObjectScanningConfiguration](arkit/arobjectscanningconfiguration.md)

## See Also

### Setup

- [Choosing Which Camera Feed to Augment](arkit/choosing-which-camera-feed-to-augment.md)
- [Managing Session Life Cycle and Tracking Quality](arkit/managing-session-life-cycle-and-tracking-quality.md)
- [Displaying an AR Experience with Metal](arkit/displaying-an-ar-experience-with-metal.md)
- [ARSession](arkit/arsession.md)