Introduction to AR Foundation
Unity, the corporate behind the favored game engine, is repeatedly working on its AR Foundation project. The goal of this project is to make it easier for developers to create augmented reality (AR) apps that may run on each iOS and Android devices. The latest release of AR Foundation includes support for ARKit’s ARWorldMap and Unity’s Lightweight Render Pipeline, that are exciting features for AR developers.
What is AR Foundation?
AR Foundation is a project that exposes a typical API, allowing developers to create AR apps for each Android and iOS using a single code base. This implies that developers can create an AR app and deploy it on each platforms without having to rewrite the code. AR Foundation covers the core functionality of each Android ARCore and iOS ARKit, including features like plane detection, device position and orientation tracking, and light-weight estimation.
New Features in AR Foundation
The latest release of AR Foundation includes support for ARKit’s ARWorldMap, which enables the creation of shared or persistent AR experiences. With shared experiences, multiple users can see and interact with the identical AR scene using different devices at the identical time. Each user will see the common virtual environment from their very own perspective. ARWorldMap also makes it possible to create persistent AR experiences that could be stored and recreated at a later time. Another feature that’s now supported by AR Foundation is face tracking, which allows developers to trace the movement and expressions of the user’s face.
Platform-Specific Features
It’s value noting that each world map and face tracking support are currently exclusive to ARKit. However, Unity plans so as to add support for the equivalent ARCore features in the long run. For now, developers can use these features to create modern AR experiences for iOS devices.
Cross-Platform Features
One feature that’s supported on each iOS and Android is Unity’s Lightweight Render Pipeline. This allows developers to create shaders using Unity’s shader graph, a visible editor for shaders, after which use them in AR apps. This feature provides more flexibility and creativity for developers relating to designing AR experiences.
Upcoming Features
Unity can be working on several other features for AR Foundation, including remoting and in-editor simulation. Remoting will allow developers to stream sensor data from a mobile device to a desktop computer, making it easier to check and debug AR apps. In-editor simulation will enable developers to check AR apps without using an actual device. Both of those features are scheduled to be released in 2019.
Conclusion
The latest release of AR Foundation is an exciting development for AR developers. With support for ARKit’s ARWorldMap and Unity’s Lightweight Render Pipeline, developers can create more modern and immersive AR experiences. While some features are currently exclusive to ARKit, Unity’s plans so as to add support for equivalent ARCore features in the long run will make AR Foundation an excellent more powerful tool for cross-platform AR development. As AR technology continues to evolve, it is going to be interesting to see what other features and capabilities Unity adds to AR Foundation.
