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Preflight Documentation

The Preflight Manifesto

The Spatial Computing era has a “Pipeline Debt” problem. Creators build in 30-year-old Digital Content Creation (DCC) suites (Blender, Maya, Houdini), but deploy to a highly opinionated, modern runtime: RealityKit.

Historically, this has resulted in the “Export-Retry Loop”: a soul-crushing cycle of exporting, loading on-device, seeing a silent failure (frozen faces, missing textures, incorrect scale), and returning to the DCC to toggle a single checkbox.

Preflight exists to end this loop.

1. Beyond Diagnostics: The Surgical Engine

Section titled “1. Beyond Diagnostics: The Surgical Engine”

Diagnosis is only half the battle. Knowing your asset is Z-Up or has missing UVs doesn’t help if you have to wait 2 minutes for Blender to open just to fix it.

Preflight is a Surgical Engine. It leverages OpenUSD Session Layers to perform non-destructive, implementation-ready repairs directly in the verification environment.

  • Don’t just detect: Fix the Up-Axis.
  • Don’t just flag: Remap the Skeleton.
  • Don’t just warn: Inject the Missing Default Prim.

We perform the surgery so the source asset stays pure, but the output is Runtime-Ready.

2. The Intelligence Layer (Preflight Agent)

Section titled “2. The Intelligence Layer (Preflight Agent)”

RealityKit has “Tribal Knowledge”—undocumented constraints, specific animation pathing requirements, and texture format preferences.

Preflight embeds this knowledge into an AI Agent. This is not a generic LLM; it is a technical assistant that:

  • Orchestrates Workflows: Proposes multi-step fixes for complex issues like Mixamo skeletal remapping.
  • Prioritizes Repair: Focuses on the “Critical Path” (Loading → Orientation → Animation).
  • Validates Heuristics: Runs 28+ RealityKit-focused and strict in-process checks, with optional usdchecker parity mapping for reference.

3. The “Zero-Loopback” Goal

Section titled “3. The “Zero-Loopback” Goal”

Our target is a 70% Zero-Loopback Ratio.

We believe that 7 out of 10 reasons an asset fails in RealityKit are Metadata or Pathing issues. These do not require a creative suite; they require a precise surgical tool. By resolving these in Preflight, we reclaim hours of lost productivity for technical artists.

4. OpenUSD Native, visionOS First

Section titled “4. OpenUSD Native, visionOS First”

Preflight is built on the same foundations as the future of spatial computing:

  • Native Swift/Metal: For high-performance visualization.
  • OpenUSD C++ Interop: For precise, standard-compliant file manipulation.
  • RealityKit Parity: Our heuristics are fine-tuned to mirror the exact behavior of visionOS.

5. Our Commitment to Truth

Section titled “5. Our Commitment to Truth”

In a world of “silent failures,” Preflight provides The Truth Tap.

  • Explicit Context: If an animation is missing, we tell you why.
  • Runtime Preview: If it looks broken in Preflight, it will be broken on Vision Pro.
  • Verified Fixed: Once you apply a surgery, you see the result instantly in a shared RealityKit/Hydra context.

Preflight: Verification is the start. Surgery is the solution.