It’s been a long ride since we first launched the Wikitude App, the world’s first AR mobile app, and Wikitude Studio, the easiest AR content management tool in the market. With the launch of our SDK 6 Wikitude started a new chapter in its history, focusing on the development of powerful tools for developers to create their own augmented reality apps in a single platform.
This blog post aims to share important dates and details related to the upcoming changes in the Wikitude product suite in accordance with our Terms and Services. This information comes ahead of time so our community can have enough time to plan for the upcoming changes.
Wikitude is terminating Wikitude Studio (studio.wikitude.com) and replacing it by our newly developed Studio Editor. Additionally, Wikitude will terminate support for geo-worlds hosted in the Wikitude App.
Our team has been building the new generation AR content management tool, called Studio Editor, that will continue to provide the same features you loved in Wikitude Studio. Studio Editor is now available for free trial. Exact migration instructions and actions to be taken will follow via email to all customers within the next weeks.
Migration & hosting
Automatic migration of AR experiences from Wikitude Studio to Studio Editor will be provided for all customers later this year.
AR experiences hosted in Wikitude Studio will be upgraded for compatibility with Studio Editor.
Important dates (in chronological order)
Customers using Wikitude Studio hosting in combination with a SDK version lower than 4.1, should contact our team for further information latest by 2017-03-30.
Wikitude Studio will export worlds only in SDK 4.1 or higher version starting 2017-04-04 (if you use the Wikitude App as publishing channel, this does not affect you).
The Wikitude Studio (studio.wikitude.com) will be discontinued from 2017-09-30 onwards.
After 2017-09-30 AR experiences hosted in Wikitude Studio will not be editable (read-only).
Geo-Worlds in the Wikitude App will not be available after 2017-09-30.
Existing tools offering ‘Publish in Wikitude’ feature will not be available after 2017-09-30 except for upcoming the new features in Studio Editor.
AR experiences hosted in Wikitude Studio will be deleted after 2017-12-31.
Wikitude is committed to creating powerful tools that allow anyone to build ultimate AR experiences in just a few clicks.
Should you have any doubts please don’t hesitate to contact our team on the email sales@wikitude.com.
Introducing SDK 6, Wikitude’s powerful SLAM solution for Augmented Reality apps
We are excited to announce the latest version of our augmented reality SDK, powered by the all-new Wikitude 3D SLAM engine.
SDK 6 combines top-notch image recognition and tracking, improved geo-location AR, and new 3D tracking technology (SLAM-based), becoming the world’s most comprehensive augmented reality SDK for mobile, tablets, and smart-glasses.
With this release, Wikitude empowers the 400,000+ AR developers worldwide to transform their cross-platform apps into full-stack augmented reality experiences. Here is an overview of the new features:
Wikitude 3D tracking technology – Go markerless with Instant Tracking
Ditch the markers! With SDK 6, Wikitude introduces its SLAM-based 3D engine to the world. Our all-in-one solution is robust, accurate and 100% in-house developed.
Instant Tracking is the first feature using Wikitude’s 3D tracking technology. It allows developers to easily map environments and display augmented reality content without the need for target images (markers). This feature works in both indoor and outdoor environments, and is suitable for a wide range of industries including medical, architecture, gaming, industrial machinery, real estate, marketing, and more.
For details on how to get started with Instant Tracking, visit our documentation, try oursample app (included in the download package) and watch the instruction video to learn how to track the environment. SDK 6 markerless augmented reality feature is available for Unity, JavaScript, Native, extensions and Smart-glasses (Epson and ODG).
Gestures – Play with augmentations like never before
The new “gestures” feature allows developers to freely place and interact with multiple augmentations on both marker-based or markerless AR experiences. Unlike other SDKs, Wikitude now enables full control of AR content with support for multi-touch gestures: drag, rotate, zoom, pan, make augmentations bigger or smaller, etc. This feature was designed with the end-user in mind, making AR experiences more dynamic, intuitive and fun.
Robust AR everywhere – track targets in rough conditions
Low light condition, shadows, noisy backgrounds, shiny surfaces… SDK 6’s new computer vision engine is prepared to deliver AR in any environment. This means increased performance, unprecedented accuracy (92% recognition rate) and faster recognition speed for target collections.
Developers can also benefit from a new file format optimized for best performance in rough conditions. For more information on the new file format and compatibilities, please see our documentation.
Additional features
Improved Extended Tracking – first introduced in SDK 5, Extended Tracking allows developers to extend experiences beyond targets. Once the target image is recognized, users can continue the AR experience by freely moving their devices without needing to keep a marker in the camera view. Extended Tracking now shares the same SLAM algorithm as Wikitude’s Instant Tracking feature, providing more robust performance.
Advanced camera options – AR has never looked so realistic as with this sharp new feature. Enjoy high definition camera rendering on new devices and 60 fps for smoother AR experiences. SDK 6 comes with two camera setting options that gives developers full control of their AR experiences. Choose between auto mode or select your preferred rendering quality from standard definition SD to full high definition (FullHD). Moreover, developers now have extended control over focus behaviour of the camera.
Positioning – Let your augmentations fly. The Positioning feature enables free positioning of augmentations on targets in any dimension. Content associated with a geo-location can now also be freely positioned in any direction.
Start developing with Wikitude SDK 6 across platforms
Getting started with Wikitude’s new SLAM-based SDK is super easy! Here’s how
In this blog post, Wikitude CTO Philipp Nagele shares some insights into the technical background of SDK 6 and the changes that go along with the new version of Wikitude’s augmented reality SDK.
The planning and work for SDK 6 reach far back into 2015. While working on the previous release 5.3 to add support for Android 7.0 and iOS 10, we already had a clear plan on what the next major release of our SDK should include. It is very gratifying that we now can lift the curtain on the scope and details of what we think is the most comprehensive release in the history of Wikitude’s augmented reality SDK.
While Instant Tracking is without doubt the highlight feature of this release, there are many more changes included, that are worth mentioning. In this blog post, I’ll try to summarize the noteworthy changes and some additional information and insights.
Pushing the boundaries of image recognition
Most of our customers choose the Wikitude SDK for the ability to recognize and track images for various purposes. The engine that powers it has been refined over the years, and, already with SDK 5, reached a level of performance (both in speed and reliability) that puts it at the top of augmented reality SDKs today. With Wikitude SDK 6, our computer vision engine took another major step forward. In more detail, the .wtc file format now uses a different approach in generating search indexes, which improves the recognition rate. Measured on the MVS Stanford data set, SDK 5 delivered a recognition rate of around 86%, while SDK 6 now recognizes 94 out of 100 images correctly. Moreover, the recognition rate stays above 90% independent of the size of the .wtc file. So, no matter whether your .wtc file includes 50 or 1000 images, users will successfully recognize your target images.
Another development we have been working lately is to embrace the power of genetic algorithms to optimize the computer vision algorithms. Several thousands of experiments and hours on our servers led to an optimized configuration of our algorithms. The result is a 2D image tracking engine that tracks targets in many more sceneries and different light conditions. You can get a first impression on the increased robustness in this direct comparison between the 2D engine in SDK 5 and SDK 6. The footage is unedited and shows a setup with several challenging factors:
Low-light condition (single spot light source)
Several occluding objects
Strong shadows further occluding the images
Busy scenery in general
Reflections and refractions
The improvements in SDK 6 make the 2D engine more robust while keeping the same performance in terms of battery consumption and speed.
Instant Tracking – SLAM in practice
You might have seen our previous announcements and advancements in not only recognizing and tracking two-dimensional images, but instead, working with entire maps of three-dimensional scenes. It is no secret that Wikitude has been working on several initiatives in the area of 3D tracking.
For the first time, Wikitude SDK 6 includes a feature for general availability that is based on a 3D computer vision engine that has been developed in-house for the past 2 years. Instant Tracking is based on a SLAM approach to track the surrounding of the device and localize the device. In contrast to image recognition, Instant Tracking does not recognize previously recorded items, but instantaneously tracks the user’s surroundings. While the user keeps moving, the engine extends the recorded map of the scenery. If the tracking is lost, the engine immediately tries to re-localize and start tracking again, with no need for user input. Instant Tracking is true markerless tracking. No reference image or marker is needed. The initialization phase is instant and does not require a special initialization movement or pattern (e.g. translation movement with PTAM).
The same engine used for Instant Tracking is used in the background for Extended Tracking. Extended Tracking uses an image from the 2D computer vision engine as an initialization starting point instead of an arbitrary surface as in the case of Instant Tracking. After a 2D image has been recognized, the 3D computer vision engines starts recording the environment and stays in tracking mode even when the user is no longer viewing the image.
For details on how to get started with Instant Tracking, visit our documentation, see our sample app (included in the download package) and watch the instruction video to learn how to track the environment. SDK 6 markerless augmented reality feature is available for Unity, JavaScript, Native, extensions and Smart-glasses (Epson and ODG).
Putting the Pieces Together – Wikitude SDK and API
What is the strength of the Wikitude SDK? It is much more than a collection of computer vision algorithms. When planning a new release, the product and engineering team aim to create a cross-platform SDK that is highly usable. We try to think of use-cases for our technology, then identify missing features. So it should come as no surprise that Wikitude SDK 6 is packed with changes and new features beyond the computer vision features.
The most obvious and noticeable change, especially for your users, is FullHD rendering of the camera image. Previously, Wikitude rendered the camera stream in Standard Definition (SD) quality, which was perfect back in 2012 when the Wikitude SDK hit the market. Since then, device manufacturers have introduced Retina displays and pixel-per-inch densities beyond the distinguishable. An image rendered in VGA resolution on this kind of display just doesn’t look right anymore. In Wikitude SDK 6, developers can now choose between SD, HD or FullHD rendering of the camera stream..
Additionally, on some devices, users can now enjoy a smoother rendering experience, as the rendering frequency can be increased to 60fps. For Android, these improvements are based on new support of the Android Camera 2 API, which, since Android 5.0, is the successor to the previous API (technically more than 60% of Android devices as of 1/1/2017 should run the Camera2 API). It allows fine-grained control and access to the camera and its capabilities. While the API and the idea behind it are a welcome improvement, the implementations of the Camera 2 API throughout the various Android vendors are diverse. Different implementations of an API are never a good thing, so support for the new camera features are limited to participating Android devices.
“Positioning” was another feature needed to allow users to interact with augmentations. This feature is ideal for placing virtual objects in unknown environments. With Wikitude SDK 6, developers now have a consistent way to react to and work with multi-touch gestures. Dragging, panning, rotating – the most commonly used gestures on touch devices are now captured by the SDK and exposed in easy-to-understand callbacks. This feature has been implemented in a way that you can use it in combination with any drawable in any of the different modes of the Wikitude SDK – be it Geo AR, Image Recognition, or Instant Tracking
The new tracking technology (Instant Tracking) lead us to another change which developers will encounter quite quickly when using SDK 6. Our previously used scheme of ClientTracker and CloudTracker didn’t fit anymore for an SDK with a growing number of tracker types. SDK 6 now carries a different tracking scheme with more intuitive naming. For now, you will encounter ImageTracker with various resources (local or cloud-based) and InstantTracker, with more tracker types coming soon. We are introducing this change now in SDK 6, while keeping it fully backward compatible with the SDK 5 API, while also deprecating parts of the SDK 5 API. The SDK comes with an extensive migration guide for all platforms, detailing the changes.
Last, I don’t want to miss the opportunity to talk about two minor changes that I think can have great impact on several augmented reality experiences. Both are related to visualizing drawables. The first change affects the way 2D drawables are rendered when they are attached to geo-locations. So far, 2D drawables have always been aligned to the user when attached to a geo-location. Now, developers have the ability to align drawables as they wish(e.g. North), and drawables will stay like that. The second change also affects 2D drawables. The new SDK 6 API unifies how 2D and 3D drawables can be positioned, which adds the ability to position 2D drawables along the z-axis.
Naturally, all of our official extensions are compatible with the newest features. The Titanium (Titanium 6.0) and Unity (Unity3D 5.5) extensions now support the latest releases of their development environments, and x86 builds are now available in Unity.
The release comes with cross-platform samples (e.g. gestures are demonstrated in a SnapChat-like photo-booth experience) and documentation for each of the new features, so you can immediately work with the new release.
Start developing with Wikitude SDK 6
Getting started with Wikitude’s new SLAM-based SDK is super easy! Here’s how:
We are excited to see what you will build with our new SDK. Let us know what is your favorite feature via Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #SDK6 and #Wikitude !
In the past weeks our development team has been digging deep into public beta versions of the new iOS 10 and Android 7.0 Nougat. With yesterday’s official release of Android’s new version of the OS, we wanted to make a quick summary for our dev community of the main changes and let you know we have an SDK update coming up soon.
So starting with the good news: our augmented reality SDK is ready for both Android 7.0 and iOS 10 changes! We are happy to announce we are in final stages of building our upcoming SDK 5.3, that will be fully compatible with both operating systems.
Android 7.0 Nougat
Android 7.0 Nougat was released yesterday, slightly ahead of schedule, and it came with a couple of new features that got us, AR developers, excited. Here are our highlights:
Vulkan API support – when it comes to 3D rendering APIs, Vulkan is an awesome-to-have. This is a low level API that gives direct access of the GPU to developers, allowing high-performance 3D graphics like we’ve never seen before. So get ready for some eye-candy AR games!
New JIT (Just in Time) compiler – this will allow faster compilation and reduce the size of apps. Improved performance by this new compiler will make the building process of Android-based AR apps much faster and intuitive.
Doze battery saver – introduced already on Marshmallow last year, Doze is Android’s battery-saving feature that shuts apps down once you are done with them. No real news here, but the more battery we have for AR experiences, the better!
VR mode – coming later this year, Nougat will make apps VR-friendly with their Daydream, Google’s upcoming VR platform.
Window split mode: Apps based on Android 7.0 can make use of the new split screen feature.
Right now, Nougat is only available for recent Nexus device owners (Nexus 6, 6P, 5X, Pixel C, or Nexus 9 tablet). For everyone else, there’s still some waiting time ahead for the over-the-air update.
To summarize: overall this update will bring more opportunities to build faster nice looking AR experiences in less “heavy” apps.
A word on iOS 10
You probably have heard that Apple is working on some kind of AR project behind the scenes and that we can expect something awesome some time in the future. Tim Cook himself confirmed that AR is “…extremely interesting and sort of a core technology”. Self-driving cars or AR headset, fact is Apple’s new iOS 10 doesn’t give us much to what direction the company is going with this technology.
Apple’s new OS, just like Google’s, revolves around improved messaging systems, new emojis, heavy machine learning for images and building a smarter home with IoT. Also, making Siri accessible through apps, which is kind of neat if you would ask us.
Rumor has it that iOS 10 will be officially released in about a month. Several public beta version have been around since the beginning July and our team has explored it inside out. So far, no sign of any feature that will make AR devs be on cloud 9.
Wikitude SDK 5.3
We’re excited about the new features Android Nougat and iOS 10 bring and can’t wait to reveal our fully compatible Wikitude SDK 5.3 in the next days. The release will be available for Wikitude SDK JavaScript API, Native API and all extensions including Unity. The later will see some more features as well.
What you can expect? Improved performance, faster building time for your AR apps and an awesome new feature to those already working with our Plugins API feature.
Today Wikitude starts a new chapter launching the next generation of our AR content creator: our next version of Wikitude Studio, called Wikitude Studio Editor – currently in beta.
We introduced the world’s easiest AR creation tool back in 2013. Studio was phenomenal for its time! The old version of our tool was considered the most viable alternative to Metaio Creator, back then, the benchmark AR authoring and publishing tool – and one which is no longer available.
Since then, a lot has changed: new tools appeared in the market – and others have disappeared. AR experiences have become more sophisticated, and the need for customer engagement is now that much higher.
So as technology advances, so must the tools we use to create it! We’ve opened up public access to the next generation of our platform– the beta version of Wikitude Studio Editor. Our mission was to create an even more powerful tool that would allow anyone to build awesome AR experiences in just a few clicks.
With the beta version you will be able to use all functionalities of Studio, including previewing and testing of AR projects. With the official release of the new Wikitude Studio, you’ll be able to export to both the Wikitude app and to your own apps.
Here’s everything you need to know about Wikitude Studio Editor!
Augmented Reality experiences – bring any print to life
Wikitude Studio Editor enables you to create interactive augmented reality experiences for magazines, newspapers, business cards, billboards, catalogues, or any 2-dimensional or planar surface. You can add the following digital content to your print:
3D models
Videos and transparent videos
Images
Social media sharing buttons
Other buttons and labels
New features and navigation
“Quick, easy and fun” was our motto when developing the new Studio Editor. The list of what’s new on Studio is long – but here are the highlight features:
3D model visualization – a reason to celebrate for our old Studio users: now you can see 3D-model silhouettes making it much easier to work with your augmentations.
New 3D space for targets – see your target and augmentations from different angles, freely move and adjust augmentation properties with the new Studio view.
Integration with Wikitude Cloud Recognition – Studio is now connected with our Cloud recognition service, which allows you to access your targets much faster online
Quick-load of projects via QR-code – preview and test your projects in just one scan, on the QR code reader of your choice
Monitor and report of projects – Use Google Analytics to follow your project performance and create precise report for your AR campaigns
Augment your target
Send to the cloud
Preview and test
What’s coming next?
Final version of Studio: our new Studio Editor is now available for free trial on the European set-up, so you can get started with our new AR content creation tool. The final version of Studio is planned for 2017. The old Studio remains with all its functionality and exporting properties until summer 2017.
Project exporting: this beta version currently doesn’t allow exporting of projects. This functionality will be available on the full release of the next Wikitude Studio.
Project migration: if you currently have projects in the old Studio, no need to worry! All projects remains untouched. Wikitude will provide a full migration guide once the new Studio is released.
We hope you enjoy working with Wikitude Studio Editor!
If you have any questions or feedback feel free to drop us a line on the Feedback section on the new Studio page. Spread the good news on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
The Wikitude team
The Wikitude development team has just released an update to ourUnity plugin!
Being Wikitude’s #1 plugin since its first release, this upgrade adds a number of cool features to our native SDK, including the long-awaited 3D tracking and a new sample app!
So here it is, the new Unity plugin 1.2.1-1.1.0 (read: Plugin version 1.1.0 including Wikitude SDK 1.2.1) is now available for download and free trial to our developer community!
What’s new?
Upgrade to Wikitude SDK (Native API) 1.2.1
3D Tracking
Extended Tracking quality indicator
Camera Controls (back/front camera)
Callbacks are now Unity Events
New Unity Plugin Reference included
Improved and extended documentation
New Unity based sample app for Android and iOS
Several bug fixes and stability improvements
Note that due to the changes the upgrade requires some migration steps to be followed. A step-by-step migration guide is available to upgrade your Unity-based apps!
The update is free for all existing Unity Plugin users and available for Android and iOS apps.
To finish off an exciting year for augmented reality, Wikitude happily reveals some long-awaited news: a new generation of Wikitude Studio.
Since 2013, when we launched the first version of Studio, users around the globe have created AR experiences with our easy drag-and-drop web tool in just a few clicks. Thousands of projects were created with Studio to bring print media, such as billboards, brochures, packaging, apparel, and more come to life.
As Wikitude’s technology evolves and AR experiences become more and more interactive, we felt it was time to boost up the capabilities of Studio and create the ultimate AR creator for our users. Agencies, developers and AR enthusiasts provided feedback and suggestions to improve Studio, which our team transformed into an extensive “wish list” to make true when the timing was right.
So here it is, a first sneak preview of the next generation Studio and its new features:
3D workspace for augmentations: a dynamic and user friendly space to create AR experiences, manage and visualize augmentations.
Wikitude Cloud Recognition integration: one of the most popular requests from our users will be implemented in our next Studio. Host and call Studio projects directly from the cloud.
Entry point from the Wikitude Target Manager: use a single tool to manage projects and quickly generate wtc-files and publish your AR experiences.
Quick-load of projects via QR-code: quickly load a project’s preview with the new “QR code” scanning function.
In addition, you will be able to augment and visualize 3D models, videos, buttons and images while creating great AR experiences for your customers and users!
Sign up now and get a free upgrade for the next generation Studio!
While this project is still in the works by our technical team, you can sign up today for our current version of Wikitude Studio and get a free upgrade to our next generation version upon launch.
We hope you enjoyed this first preview of Studio! Got further wishes? Send them along to sales@wikitude.com.
In the past weeks, our technical team has gotten feedback from developers on different issues related to Apple’s iOS 9 and the Wikitude SDK 5. We have collected all the reported issues, which are currently being tackled by our developers. We are working on a maintenance release for Wikitude SDK 5 to be released in the next days.
Here is a list of the identified issues:
No OpenGL ES rendering after application pause/resumes (ApplicationDidBecomeInactive/Active)
architect.js not loaded when loading the Architect World via HTTPS
Compass calibration screen shown in an infinite loop
Various crashes in our example application when launching different examples consecutively.
Linker error when building for the iOS simulator.
To kick off the fix, we created a new pre-release version for our Wikitude Cordova Plugin on GitHub. You can either use the Cordova CLI to update your plugin or simply download the branch (v.5.0.1-3.2.0) as a .zip and replace the plugin files in your project.
We received also many reports on seeing an error message for initialising the Google logging framework twice. The Google logging module for C++ came newly to the SDK in the previous release to improve logging output message and better readable log output. In case you are seeing it initialised twice, read the proposal from our dev team in the forum post how to resolve that. This logging framework does not track any personal information nor does it send any data to Google nor Wikitude.
All updates on the progress of resolving these issues will be posted on this blog post and on the Wikitude Forum. If you have any further suggestion of improvements feel free to leave a comment on the dedicated forum post.
The all-new and fresh updates of our extensions for the Wikitude SDK 5 have just been released and are now available for download! You can now use all the benefits from the Wikitude SDK 5 in your Xamarin, Cordova, or Titanium-based apps.
The Wikitude extensions were updated to use the latest version of the supported mobile development platforms. The extension now runs based on:
Existing customers and users of our extensions can update immediately. Please check if you are eligible for a free upgrade with your existing license. Feel free to reach out to sales@wikitude.com in case you have any questions.
If you are considering to build your app based on those mobile development tools, get started with the free trial and check the updated documentation for the Wikitude SDK 5 extensions! We would be happy to hear your feedback!
We are proud to announce the new Wikitude Target Manager, a project our team has been secretly working on the past months for you! The new target manager will be completely redesigned to minimize the efforts when creating target images and optimize the management of your target collections for the Wikitude SDK. With this easy drag & drop tool, you can now add, delete, edit and maintain your target images more efficiently with a completely fresh user interface.
What’s NEW!?
For those of you who have used our old Target Manager, you know it was capable of creating wtc-files only. Our new version will now allow you to additionally manage cloud-recognition projects if you have any. If you don’t require cloud recognition yet, you might in the future, which is the advantage of this dynamic platform as it may grow with your requirements. The new Target Manager will allow you to manage both your offline and online projects, meaning your recognition scenarios can happen directly on the device with the help of the Wikitude SDK or to manage your online recognition scenarios, should you also use the Wikitude Cloud Recognition service in combination with our SDK.
Offline Recognition
If your application needs to recognize and augment up to 1,000 target images, a so-called “wtc-file” will be generated containing all the information required for offline recognition. With one click you can quickly generate this wtc-file in the new Target Manager and start integrating it into your AR experience. In our AR.ClientTracker documentation you can find out how easy it is to put videos and even 3D models on top of your print media.
Online or Cloud Recognition
Although the Target Manager lets you manage your projects in minimum time, sometimes it is easier to automatize things using RESTful APIs. Wikitude’s Cloud-Recognition analyzes camera-frames online so your application does not need to know anything about the targets as such, but focus on the augmentation handling only. Define metadata for a target: This JSON data is reported back on successful recognition so you can maintain the content server-side and set up the scene in JavaScript according to the information reported from the server. Still not sure if that’s what you’re looking for? Use it for free during test phase and purchase the license later. Everything you need for development or upgrade is available in the new Target Manager.
Project migration
If you already created wtc files in the previous Target-Manager, no worry, we transferred your work into the new one. The migration from the old to the new target manager is scheduled for Thursday (September 3rd, 2015) during the morning Austrian time (CET). Some downtime and instability could occur during this period. If you need access to your projects on a downtime please write us at info@wikitude.com and we will be ready to assist you. Developers will have access to the new Target Manager as soon as the migration is complete.
Update: all projects were successfully migrated and developers now have access to the new Wikitude Target Manager.
We hope you enjoy the new tool, and we are happy to hear your feedback!
Download
Documentation
Support
FAQ
Blog
