SDK 5 BETA live! Unity3D, extended tracking, plugins API

Andy Gstoll

Update: It has been some time since the launch of Wikitude – Unity 3D Beta Plugin. Check out the updates on all AR development frameworks supported by Wikitude.

With this BETA version of the SDK 5.0, we are finally delivering on our promise we made a few weeks ago that this release will be BIG. Big because is it absolutely packed with features.

Our former Director of Product Management and newly appointed CTO Philipp Nagele likes to summarize it as follows: “The sheer number and significance of the features included in this release are exceptional. Our talented team of computer vision experts and mobile developers has shown once again how to fulfill the AR technology requirements from some of the biggest brands and companies around.”

This BETA version is still a bit rough around the edges. While we are working day and night – literally – to finalize our testing and documentation, we need to apologize to you should this cause you any trouble! We will continue to keep the fully stable SDK 4.1.1 up on our download page while offering the BETA version of the SDK 5.0 in parallel, so you can try it out already and get things going with some new features (see full list of features). Needless to say, if you purchase the SDK 4.1.1 today, you will get a FREE upgrade to the final release of the SDK 5.0 coming out shortly.

Unity 3D plugin

Built for our new native API, allowing you to dig deep and to code in Android or iOS, we are now offering a free Unity 3D plugin for those of you building powerful 3D experiences or AR games. One of our SDK customers in the gaming space has already put this feature to good use. “We are working with Wikitude’s augmented reality technology for some time now but have been missing the connecting piece to Unity, which we as a game studio heavily rely on. We are happy that Wikitude now filled that gap”, says Redox CEO Philipp Götz. Check out Redox’s video below showing their latest AR experiment based on the Wikitude SDK in connection with the Unity3D plugin.

Extended image tracking

Based on popular demand we are adding this feature to give you more freedom and to expand your augmented reality space. A picture is worth a thousand words, better yet, watch the video below to understand the power of this feature better.

In this example video a facility manager of a large building uses the image for primarily two purposes:

  1. To identify the floor of the building and the exact room location of where he is.
  2. To initialize the AR experience as a highly accurate reference point and to show the matching content, in this case, the water pipes running behind the walls allowing him to drill a hole into the wall at the correct spot.

Wikitude SDK plugins API

“Power to our developers” is what best describes this feature. Do you want to combine text recognition / OCR, barcode, or QR code technologies with augmented reality? Now you can! Our partners and OCR specialists at ANYLINE have built the project shown in the video below as we prepared for the launch of this “open” feature. You can also check out our dedicated page for more details on this feature.

As always, we would love to hear your feedback in the comments section below, in our developer forum, on Facebook, Twitter, or directly via email at feedback@wikitude.com

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