One of Unity’s latest projects has been to allow developers to create handheld augmented reality (AR) games using their Engine. To this end they have been creating a new multi-platform API that they hope will aide developers in facing common problems that stem from programming AR games.
Unity has previously supported AR software such as Google’s ARCore and ARKit however they have now started developing their own AR software which they call AR Foundation. With this, Unity has presented a common API that can make use of tools in ARCore and ARKit as well as more AR software in the future.
According to a Unity Blog post by Bradley Weiers and Michael Durand, AR Foundation is integrated with the Unity Engine through the Package Manager, meaning that it will be easy for developers to use in their new projects. The Unity Team has focused on adding several new features into the AR Foundation including platform specific plugins.
The initial software available for AR Foundation will provide core functions for developing AR games. These will include:
- Planar surface detection
- Depth data represented as point clouds
- Performant pass-thru rendering
- Reference points to aid in anchoring virtual objects to the physical world
- Estimates for average color temperature and brightness
- Tracking device position and orientation in physical space
- Utilities for scaling content properly in AR
- Raycasting against plane and depth data
Unity has presented a short guide to getting started with the AR Foundation Software:
1. Make sure that you have installed Unity 2018.1 or higher. If you are targeting Android be sure to have the Android Build Support Component installed and if you are targeting iOS be sure to have the iOS Build Support Component installed.
2. Clone the arfoundation samples GitHub repository and checkout the master branch. This project automatically installs the following required packages: AR Foundation, ARCore XR Plugin, and ARKit XR Plugin.
3. Open SampleScene.unity and deploy to a compatible android or ios devices.
Unity states that they are "optimistic" about the future of AR and that they wish to help the technology evolve and the market to expand. With this in mind AR Foundation will continue to be updated while still being backwards compatible with previous versions so that it remains flexible for multiple developers.
Alex Briggs is an intern working at IGN Southeast Asia with a passion for JRPGs and platformers.
