Author: Eva Triantafillopoulou

The Wikitude SDK provides an array of features and extensions that enable developers to create customized AR experiences that perform at the highest level.

To ensure that our developer community has continued access to one of the best AR platforms on the market, we are continuously improving the Wikitude SDK. We’ve had great advancements over that last couple of months, and today we are proud to present Wikitude SDK 8.3!

Wikitude is releasing SDK 8.3 to offer performance enhancements, important fixes, additional product support, compatibility updates and more.

• UWP Native API – Public Release
• ARchitect based on Universal SDK
• Compatibility with Unity 2018.3
• Last release for Titanium
• Support for Vuzix M300
• Critical fixes and stability improvements
• Faster and more reliable Object Recognition, Extended Tracking, and Instant Tracking

UWP Native API – Public Release

After a series of tests and adjustments, following the feedback received from the UWP Native beta release – last November, SDK 8.3 is now fully prepared to offer Native API support for Windows-based apps.

This addition means that the Wikitude SDK now enables both Native and Unity for UWP applications. Download the UWP Native API package to start developing using C++.

ARchitect based on Universal SDK

Wikitude has been making major modifications to its core SDK design. These efforts, which we’ve named project Universal SDK, have been important in the process of preparing our platform for the growing requirements and opportunities within the AR field. The results have been awesome and the project has already enabled Unity Live Preview, Windows support, and resulted in significant performance improvements.

With this release, we are revealing the next achievement of this project. SDK 8.3 is extending the Universal SDK to the JavaScript API for Android and iOS. This expansion has addressed critical fixes and significantly improved the software core performance and stability.

Compatibility with Unity 2018.3

Unity 2018.3 introduced significant updates to the Unity AR Foundation. According to their release post, developers now have access to a new set of optimized camera image APIs. This new feature allows users to efficiently access camera images on the CPU. Therefore, ideal for developers that choose to do their own image-processing.

Wikitude SDK 8.3 is fully compatible with Unity 2018.3. Access Wikitude SDK for Unity to download.

Last release for Titanium

As officially informed on December 19, 2018, due to a drastic decrease in product demand, Wikitude will discontinue support for the Titanium Module. Appcelerator developers can learn more by accessing the Product update: Titanium Module post.

To ease the migration progress for our subscription customers currently using Appcelerator, we have included Titanium support in this SDK 8.3 release.

Support for Vuzix M300

Wikitude has been optimizing its AR SDK to support Vuzix Smart Glasses since early 2014. With SDK 8.3, we extended our platform to include AR support for the Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses.

The Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses were built for the enterprise market to deliver a hands-free solution for accessing, collecting and managing data. Developers can now use our SDK to create powerful Image Recognition AR experiences to improve workflows and other aspects of industrial, medical, retail and many other businesses.

Critical fixes and stability improvements

Parallel to our new-AR-feature development initiatives, Wikitude is also committed to delivering a high-performing platform to ensure our existing technology runs smooth, accurately and reliably.

Thanks to the feedback of our awesome developer community and our continued investments in stability improvements we were able to attend to many customer reports and implement critical fixes and enhancements in SDK 8.3.

Please review the release notes for an in-depth report.

Faster and more reliable Object Recognition, Extended Tracking, and Instant Tracking

At its core, the Wikitude SDK has an advanced computer vision engine that has been developed 100% in-house. Because of our independent development, the Wikitude team has total control and a profound understanding of every aspect of the AR platform.

With SDK 8.3 our development team has introduced a new CV engine version that was redesigned to perfect the performance of all tracker types, with a particular focus on Object Recognition, Extended Tracking, and Instant Tracking features.

Outlook

The Wikitude SDK 8.3 release is delivering a powerful and even more stable AR platform to our developer community. Behind the scenes, however, the wheels are always in motion and our team is working on many cool features and updates. Stay tuned!

Download Wikitude SDK 8.3

Visit our store to select the ideal license plan for your AR project or talk to one of our specialists to discuss your specific AR requirements in detail.

Wikitude SDK 8.3 is available* for various supported platforms, extensions, and operating systems. Choose your package by clicking on the button below.

*Wikitude customers with active subscriptions are entitled to a free upgrade.

The new Studio, an improved version of our code-free AR platform, has officially been released! Along with the launch, users can now publish their augmented reality creations on the Wikitude App and on their own app.

Designed with an intuitive interface, our web-based augmented reality content manager is the perfect solution for creating powerful AR experiences in an easy and timely fashion.

Having a special set of programming skills is often perceived as an indispensable requirement in the process of bringing an augmented reality project to life. However, that is not always the case. With the new Studio, anyone can create, manage and deploy AR projects with incredible ease; no code needed!

Features at a glance

• Intuitive Interface
• No programming skills needed
• Drag and drop
• Web-based: work on your projects from multiple devices and locations
• Image recognition and tracking
• Object recognition and tracking
• Video augmentations
• 3D model visualization
• Quick-load of projects via QR-code
• Monitor projects with Google Analytics

Additionally, Studio Editor users now have the option of:

• Hosting: conveniently store your AR project on a Wikitude server;
• Publishing: easily publish your AR project in the Wikitude App
  After creating an AR project on Studio Editor, as of today, the Wikitude App can now be used as the gateway for users to access the AR experience.

How does it work?

Simply log in to our web-based software (no installation required), add your targets of interest (images and/or objects), include the content you wish to augment (3D models, videos, images, interactive buttons, etc.) and publish the AR experience (on your own app or directly on the Wikitude App). As easy as it gets!

For users who already have projects on the previous Studio platform, please refer to the project migration notes. In case of further inquiries, contact studio@wikitude.com for extra support.

Apart from being an augmented reality technology provider, Wikitude is also committed to developing powerful AR creation tools. Have an awesome AR idea and want to put it into action? Access the new Studio to get started and experience an efficient, hassle-free way of creating AR.

Try it out

They say it ‘Tis the season to be jolly’, so Wikitude is doing its part to help spread the holiday cheer… the developer way!

First, the good news: ARKit is now integrated into the Wikitude SDK and is available for testing. You can get the first developer preview for JavaScript and Native SDKs on our download page.

This integration helps developers to deliver optimal markerless augmented reality experiences on Apple’s high-end devices and overcome the accessibility limitations of ARKit with instant tracking. This means, when ARKit is not supported, Wikitude’s reliable SLAM technology kicks in and delivers the AR experience instead. With ARCore also on the way, we are getting closer and closer to making augmented reality a possibility for all.

The addition of ARKit to Wikitude’s SDK allows developers to optimize markerless AR experiences within a single API, making cross-platform development faster and smoother. Going beyond ARKit, the Wikitude SDK delivers world-class geolocation, marker-based AR, and object recognition features, with ample device coverage (smartphones, smart glasses, and tablets) and multiple platform deployment (iOS, Android).

Now, a holiday bonus: Wikitude has prepared an AR Christmas tutorial so that our fellow developers can put it to the test right now!

The AR experience brings your holiday prepping to the next level! If you are planning to set up a Christmas tree, but aren’t sure which size would look best in your living room, this tutorial is for you.

Augmented Christmas Tree Tutorial – putting ARKit integration to the test

Building the AR experience

To access ARKit’s functionality using the Wikitude JavaScript SDK, very little change is required. In fact, only a single flag needs to be set in the configuration of the AR.InstantTracker.

this.tracker = new AR.InstantTracker({
    [...]
    arKitCoreEnabled: true
});

Setting the arKitCoreEnabled flag to true will result in ARKit’s algorithms to be preferred over Wikitude’s algorithms on devices that support them. On devices that do not support ARKit the tracking will function normally, but without the aid of ARKit.

Although the outlined change is sufficient to enable ARKit, we do recommend adding the newly introduced onChangeStateError callback. Switching from initialization state to tracking state may fail when using ARKit due to a lack of texture detail in the camera view or the absence of a plane estimation. The concrete failure reason is supplied to the function as an input parameter.

this.tracker = new AR.InstantTracker({
    [...]
    arKitCoreEnabled: true,
    onChangeStateError: function(error) {
        alert("Failed to change state. Error code: " + error.id + " Error message: " + error.message);
    }
});

As ARKit provides real-world scaling, the device height above ground input parameter is only required for the initialization phase. The tracking phase will ignore it and use the ARKit supplied scale. Leveraging the real world scale is easy and intuitive: 1 SDU is 1 meter. For the case of our 3D model, that simply means that a distance of 1 in the model’s geometry corresponds to 1 meter.

Examining a model in the 3D modeling software of your choice will tell you its extent. For the Christmas tree, the dimensions happen to be the following.

var modelSize = {
    x: 243.1,
    y: 246.7,
    z: 357.9
}

As a height of 357.9 meters is quite sizeable for a Christmas tree, we calculate a scale factor that will bring it down to a manageable height.

var initialModelHeightMeters = 1.5;
var scaleValue = initialModelHeightMeters / modelSize.z;

Applying this scale value to the AR.Model will yield a tree of exactly 1.5-meter height.

var treeModel = new AR.Model("assets/tree.wt3", {
    scale: {
        x: scaleValue,
        y: scaleValue,
        z: scaleValue
    }
});

Finally, scaling the model such that it fits your particular environment is easily achieved by using the onScaleChanged and onScaleEnded gesture callbacks like so.

var treeModel = new AR.Model(
    [...]
    onScaleChanged: function(scale) {
        var s = scaleValue * scale;
        this.scale = {x: s, y: s, z: s};
    },
    onScaleEnded: function(scale) {
        scaleValue = this.scale.x;
    }
});

You can download the whole sample package from the Beta tab on our Download page.

Special thanks to our community member Florin Necula for the ‘Wikitude tree’ 3D model.

We hope you enjoy working with the developer preview of the Wikitude SDK with ARKit.

Don’t forget to share your holiday AR experiences via social media using the #wikitude on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Happy holidays from the Wikitude team!