Documentation

Setup Guide Unity Plugin

There are only a few steps necessary to add the Wikitude Unity Plugin to your existing Unity project. This guide will explain them in detail. In general the steps are

  • Import the Wikitude.unitypackage into your project
  • Add the WikitudeCamera and ImageTracker or CloudTracker prefab to the Unity scene hierarchy and configure their properties
  • Add a custom augmentation to the tracker as child GameObject to the Trackable
  • Export your project and change Xcode Build Settings in order to fully integrate the Wikitude Native API in your Unity project

Import the Wikitude.unitypackage

The Wikitude Unity Plugin comes as a standard .unitypackage and can be imported through the usual Unity package import procedure. In your Assets inspector, right click and choose Import Package -> Custom Package. Select the downloaded Wikitude.unitypackage in the presented open file browser and click open. You should import all items that are part of the Wikitude.unitypackage.

Use the Wikitude Unity plugin

After the Wikitude.unitypackage was imported, its components and scripts can be used to define a custom augmented reality experience. The example section describes in more detail how those prefabs and scripts can be used to do so.

Export and Xcode Build Settings Changes

Once the application is setup in Unity and ready for testing on a real device, it needs to be exported as an Xcode project for iOS or built for Android either directly by creating an .apk file using Unity or by exporting an Android Studio project.

Export to Xcode

iOS developers need to open the exported project and manually do the steps listed below.

  • Before exporting, make sure the Target minimum iOS version is set to 8.0 or later in the Unity in Player Settings. This can also be done in the Xcode project, but setting it in Unity will ensure it doesn't get overwritten when rebuilding your project.
  • The WikitudeNativeSDK framework has to be added as an Embedded Binary. Please refer to the Wikitude iOS Native SDK setup guide for more information.
  • The build setting Enable Bitcode needs to be set to NO.
  • The build setting Always Embed Swift Standard Libraries needs to be set to YES.
  • In the Info.plist file, make sure there is an entry for NSCameraUsageDescription with an appropriate value if you plan to deploy to iOS 10 or higher. Not doing so will lead to a runtime crash on the device.

After these steps are done once, building with Append or by pressing Cmd + B will ensure that the settings are kept.

Export an .apk file

If you don't need an Android Studio project, building directly from Unity is the fastest way to run your app on an Android device.

  1. In Unity open File | Build Settings...
  2. Make sure Android is the current build target. If not, select Android from the list and click Switch Platform
  3. Click Build And Run and choose where to save the .apk file. If you have an Android device connected, it will also install the app on it.

After this is done once, pressing Ctrl + B (Windows) or Cmd + B (Mac) will automatically create the .apk file and install it on your device, if it is connected.

Export to Android Studio

Unfortunately Unity projects exported as Android Studio projects do not work out of the box. Some manual work is required which we described in detail below:

  1. In Unity open File | Build Settings..., check Google Android Project and click Export
  2. Open Android Studio and click Import Project (Eclipse ADT, Gradle, etc.)
  3. Within the file selection dialog, navigate to the folder where you exported the project and select the folder named after your app
  4. In the next step choose a new, empty folder to import and click on Next
  5. Finish importing by clicking Finish on the next screen
  6. In Android Studio open File | New | New Module ...
  7. Select Import .JAR/.AAR Package and click on Next
  8. For File name: navigate to the folder where you originally exported the project from Unity and then to the sub-folder named after your app
  9. Select the file wikitude-unity-bridge.aar under libs and click on Finish
  10. Open the file build.gradle (Module: YOUR_APP_NAME) and add the line compile project(':wikitude-unity-bridge') under dependencies
  11. The project is now running in Android Studio

Unity Requirements and supported versions

Please note that the Wikitude Unity Plugin currently supports
  • The plugin is compatible with Unity  5.1.0 and higher, but the samples require at least 5.2.0 to work properly. However, all the samples except for the Camera Settings sample can be run on versions 5.1.x if you delete the CameraSettingsController.cs from the scripts folder
  • Rendering engine
    • OpenGL ES 2
    • OpenGL ES 3.x
  • Because Unity currently doesn't support 64 bit libraries on Android, performance on such devices might be lower than similar devices running iOS 64 bit.