Tag: Unity

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SDK releases

Object Tracking 30% faster: Download SDK 9.5

Wikitude SDK 9.5

Wikitude SDK 9.5 is out now, delivering unparalleled Object Tracking experiences.

Please welcome our last release of the year. SDK 9.5 brings support for Android 11, two new AR samples, and significant improvements in our computer vision engine for developers to enjoy in both the Professional and Expert editions of the Wikitude SDK.

You can test SDK 9.5 by downloading your SDK of choice here.  

Do you have a subscription license? Download our latest release to update your platform free of charge.

Wikitude SDK 9.5 highlights

30% faster Object Tracking

With this release, the Wikitude computer vision engine gets a significant upgrade, resulting in a 30% faster object tracking speed rate.

This upgrade delivers unparalleled AR experiences based on real-world objects and scenes.

The latest Object Tracking update delivers:

  • 30% speed improvements for object tracking
  • More accurate tracking under challenging conditions (light, noisy environment, etc.)
  • Faster initial recognition of objects
  • Overall performance improvements for recognition and tracking

Object & Scene Tracking covers a wide variety of use cases from supporting maintenance and remote assistance solutions, to augmenting museums pieces, enhancing consumer products like toys, and much more.

Watch our latest Unity tutorial on how to work with multiple object tracking to get started.

Developers can create object tracking AR experiences using images or 3D models as an input method (such as CAD, glTF 2.0 and more).

Check out our interactive AR tracking guide to see the best feature for your specific use case.

New Wikitude samples for Expert Edition

The Wikitude sample app gets an upgrade with SDK 9.5. Unity developers can hit the ground running with two new samples:

  • Advanced rendering making use of ARKit 4 and ARCore advanced functionality

With this sample, you will be able to use ARKit, ARCore, and Wikitude capabilities in a single development framework, making the best of Unity’s AR Foundation. With advanced rendering, AR experiences get more immersive and realistic – leveraging people occlusion, motion capture, scene geometry, and more.

  • Multiple extended images

Bring image tracking experiences to a whole new level.

This new sample enables creating more interactive AR experiences by allowing targets to interact with each other and perform specific actions according to the developer’s needs. It’s ideal for games, sales material, marketing campaigns, and enterprise use cases such as training and documentation.

For full details on this release, check out our change log.

How to get SDK 9.5?

Ready to start developing? Wikitude makes it easy. Select an SDK, get a free trial, and start with your next augmented reality experience today.

Ready to launch your project? Seize the chance to take advantage of our Cyber Week (until 4.12.2020). Use code cyberweek15 to get 15% OFF your Wikitude SDK via our online store.

New to Wikitude? Welcome! We have a free Wikitude trial version for testing purposes. 

If you’re already a user and like what you’re testing, reach out to our team to discuss your upgrade to SDK 9.5. 

Download Now

Categories
SDK releases

New in: Explore Wikitude SDK 9.3

Wikitude SDK 9.3

Update: SDK 9.3.1 is now available including iOS 14 compatibility.

August flew by, and a new release of the Wikitude SDK is already available. Today we’re bringing you version 9.3 of our AR toolkit, the last update for the summer. 

For AR developers, this means more stability for experiences based on 3D models as an input method, lots of improvements for Unity Editor, NatCorder support, and expansion of our Alignment Initialization feature for Professional Edition (PE). 

You can test SDK 9.3 by downloading your SDK of choice here. 

Shout out to our awesome community for all the feedback and interaction via the forum this month. Want to have your say? Share your feedback about this release and what you’d like us to improve in the next SDK. 

Got a subscription license? Download Wikitude SDK 9.3 to update your platform free of charge.

What’s new in the Wikitude SDK 9.3?

Tracking improvements for 3D model-based AR experiences (Expert Edition)

In our last update, we introduced a new 3D Model as an input method for developers working with Object Tracking. This means you can use glTF 2.0 files, CAD models, and other 3D model formats exclusively or additional to images to build AR experiences based on all kinds of physical objects.

SDK 9.3 delivers a smoother tracking behavior and better alignment with real objects. 

In addition to significant stability improvements, we roll out a new SDK mode called ‘Assisted Tracking’ to compliment Object Tracking. This mode gathers complementary information from native AR frameworks (ARCore, ARKit) to provide further tracking stability in typically rough conditions for the engine, such as heavy shaking or erratic movements.   

With this update, the Wikitude SDK gives everything you need to build robust AR in the widest variety of objects possible: from buildings to industrial machines, toys, home appliances, and more. 

As we bring this new method of building AR experiences to the finish line (public release), you can request early access by applying to our beta program. All you need to do is provide details on what kind of object you’re looking to augment, your project goal, and company details.

Stay tuned for what’s to come! These are the initial steps that are preparing our technology for future improvements, expansion of objects that can be tracked, and enhancements in our Object Tracking feature moving forward.

APPLY FOR 3D MODEL OBJECT TRACKING BETA TESTING

3D Model Object Tracking benefits at a glance:

  • More Object Target Input methods available
  • Input source materials are interchangeable and combinable (images + 3D models)
  • Broader range of recognizable and trackable physical objects
  • Improved recognition and tracking performance

Find out which method (3D Model or Image) is best for your specific use case by using our AR Tracking Guide. 

Alignment Initializer now available for Professional Edition

Our Alignment Initializer feature now became available in the Wikitude Professional Edition and received a performance boost for Expert Edition. 

Based on initial experiments by some of our early beta testers, SDK 9.3 has received additional improvements in the initialization behavior. In particular,  the new release features improved accuracy when initialization is correctly triggered. This means that the alignment initialization process has become more selective, which guarantees significantly improved customer experience. With a smoother and more intuitive process, developers can expect more reliability when tracking objects what may look alike.

 When pointing a device to recognize an object, the improved Alignment Initialization guides the user towards a pre-defined viewpoint, rapidly kicking off the AR experience. 

You’ll benefit from more stability when tracking objects and less jitter for Object Tracking experiences based on 3D Models (Expert Edition) and images (Professional and Expert Editions). 

Improved experience for Unity developers

The Wikitude Unity plugin makes it easy to create cross-platform apps with immersive augmented reality functionalities within a single development environment. 

Thanks to the feedback of our devoted community in the forum and customer discussions, we were able to identify and improve several features within the Unity Editor, delivering a smoother development experience for Wikitude users.

SDK 9.3 brings the following improvements:

  • Point Cloud preview is now properly destroyed upon unloading of a scene 
  • Fixed Live Preview webcam augmentation pose
  • Removed duplicate event setter in all tracker inspectors (Expert Edition only)

Additionally, our team took the opportunity to include compatibility for the popular NatCorder, a lightweight API that allows you to record videos in just a few steps in Unity. 

Other main features developers can now enjoy include recording MP4 videos, animated GIF images, JPEG image sequences, and WAV audio files, as well as recording any texture (or anything that can be rendered to texture) or any pixel data.

Support for iOS 14

It’s official: Apple has released it’s the Golden Master to third-party developers and Wikitude developers get access faster. SDK 9.3.1 includes full compatibility for iOS JavaScript, iOS Native, Unity (Professional and Expert Editions), Flutter, Cordova and Xamarin.

How do I get SDK 9.3?

It’s easy! Just choose your SDK of choice, get a free trial, and start with your next augmented reality experience today.

New to Wikitude? Welcome! We have a free Wikitude trial version for testing purposes. 

If you’re already a user and like what you’re testing, reach out to our team to discuss your upgrade to SDK 9.3. 

Wikitude Download PAGE

Categories
Dev to Dev

“The Turtle” developer tutorial: markerless app made with Unity (SLAM)

Update: Track, save and share AR experiences with SDK 8

Since the launch of Wikitude’s SLAM technology, “The Turtle” has been the #1 tutorial request we’ve received. So who better than the developers themselves to show you how they made turtles float around the streets of Michigan?

This post is a guest post by YETi CGI, a tech design company who developed projects for companies like Disney, Mattel, National Geographic and more.

The Turtle, as we affectionately call it, is a markerless AR concept demo we built on the new Wikitude SDK as part of our own research into 3D mobile AR. In broad strokes, the app causes your phone to see a majestic sea turtle swimming about the room, getting believably close and distant depending on where it is in virtual space.

Building the AR experience

The demo’s effect hinges on the turtle itself, right? Both its look and its feel contribute to the sense of it swimming in the same room the user occupies. In order to convey this, the first step is to give the turtle some context, which is where Wikitude’s SDK comes in. The SLAM algorithm they’ve got defines the virtual space based on the physical, gathering data from the room and mapping it into a Unity scene.

Because of what Wikitude provides, our coding needs were actually pretty simple. Once the Unity scene is created the camera performs a raycast onto the ground, giving the program most of the variables it needs to run. Aided by the virtual map of the physical room and the raycast data, the prefabbed object (which is then given the turtle as its identity) is positioned at a comfortable distance directly in front of the user.

When scene is set to it’s active state, and if tracking is active, position the Turtle correctly in front of the viewer

if (_isTracking)
{
    //cast ray out from center of screen, get position it hits the ground plane
    Ray cameraRay = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(new Vector3(Screen.width / 2, Screen.height / 2, 0));
    RaycastHit hit;
    if (ground.Raycast(cameraRay, out hit, 30))
    {
        objectHolder.transform.position = hit.point;
    }
}

The turtle’s animation is mostly provided by the art team, but it only consists of a looped reel of images. The baked in animation doesn’t actually include the circles that the turtle is turning, though it’s worth noting that it could have been accomplished that way. Our approach was to use a free plugin, called DOTween, to assign the turtle an animation state. We think it worked nicely.

Did you know you can now use Unity’s live preview with the Wikitude SDK? See more. 

Again, Wikitude’s SDK accommodates the project beautifully: most of the code done by our team determines position and camera input. By using Unity, Wikitude was able to provide us with prefabs (pre-built assets) which allowed us to drag and drop ready-to-go elements, giving us the freedom to work on the design and UX without having to first reinvent the wheel.

The outcome

How cool is to track the world around us? We’re pleased with how it turned out, and we’re going to continue learning about the applications of markerless 3D AR. At YETi we’ve been active in the scene for some time, and to have tools like Wikitude’s SDK showing up is a huge encouragement. 

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Below are some relevant links to get you started with Instant Tracking. Let us know in the comments below which tutorials we should make next.

Get started with the  SDK for Unity: 

 

Download Unity SDK
Set up guide
Instant Tracking info
Other apps using Instant tracking





Interested in creating an AR project of your own?
Talk to one of our specialists and learn how to get started.

Contact The Wikitude Team

Categories
SDK releases

Wikitude SDK 8.6: HoloLens + Flutter Plugin + Geo AR for Unity

Augmented reality SDK: Wikitude SDK 8.6 update

After another productive product improvement cycle, the Wikitude team is excited to present SDK version 8.6. The update includes our powerful – now product ready – HoloLens AR package, introduces support for Flutter, adds Geo-AR for Unity users, and offers further performance enhancements.

Wikitude SDK 8.6 at a glance:

  • Wikitude SDK for Hololens – production version
  • Flutter Plugin – release candidate
  • Geo AR for Unity Plugin (by PendAR)
  • Performance and stability enhancements

Wikitude SDK for HoloLens – Production Version

The Wikitude augmented reality SDK for Microsoft HoloLens 1 is Unity based, comes with a Holographic UI sample app, and is now available in production version. 

A little over a month ago, we launched our HoloLens AR SDK release candidate. The package allowed our customers and partners to test Wikitude Object + Image + Cloud and more HoloLens AR-tracking technology features within their projects.

The response has been very positive. And we have also received valuable feedback which enabled us to improve the platform even further, resulting in a powerful production-ready HoloLens AR SDK. 

With Wikitude SDK 8.6, companies can now purchase and download our augmented reality package for Microsoft HoloLens 1 to create high-performing AR solutions.

New Image Recognition samples for Wikitude AR SDK for HoloLens

Make sure to check out the new Image Target samples to review the performance of the Wikitude SDK for HoloLens.

Additionally, you may access our Wikitude HoloLens Documentation section for further details, instructions, and information.

Augmented Reality for Flutter – Release Candidate Plugin

Wikitude SDK 8.6 is the first AR platform to provide official support for Flutter.

Flutter is an open-source mobile application UI development framework toolkit created by Google. It is used to develop natively-compiled applications for iOS and Android from a single codebase.

Wikitude developers can now work with Wikitude SDK 8.6 to add augmented reality technology to their projects created in Flutter. The Flutter Plugin is based on JavaScript API and comes with the full package: Wikitude AR library/framework, sample apps, and documentation.

Flutter AR Plugin: Feedback Welcomed

As this is a release candidate, we are eager to receive as much developer feedback as possible. When trying the flutter AR plugin, feel free to send us an email (info@wikitude.com) to share what you liked about the development experience and, most importantly, what you think could be improved. Every email received will be highly appreciated and taken into consideration in the improvement process.

Please access the Flutter package manager to install the plugin.

Geo AR for Unity Plugin

Location-based augmented reality is a big hit among the augmented reality community. Starting with Wikitude SDK 8.6, and thanks to PendAR – augmented reality partner of Wikitude, developers can now use LBAR to create Geo-AR experiences in no time in Unity3D. 

LBAR offers a very simple workflow for location-based applications. It can be integrated with other apps in Unity3D, and there will be no need to put effort into geo calculations. LBAR also offers a simple and easy-to-use radar so users can have a better understanding of their surroundings.

Access the Wikitude download page to select the LBAR Geo-AR SDK package.

AR SDK Performance and Stability Enhancements

With every new Wikitude SDK release, our quality assurance team takes the opportunity to review and optimize the platform to ensure all AR features, classic and new, are performing as they should be, enhancing stability whenever possible.

Wikitude SDK 8.6 includes a series of fixes and stability improvements. Please review the release notes for your platform for an in-depth report.

Download Wikitude SDK 8.6

Active Wikitude SDK subscribers are entitled to all SDK version updates released throughout their term. Follow the links below to update your SDK:

New to Wikitude? Download a free Wikitude SDK 8.6 trial version for testing purposes and contact our team to discuss upgrade possibilities.

To explore all SDK options, including smart glasses, plugins, and other dev tools, please access our download page:

Wikitude Download Page

Interested in creating an AR project of your own? Access our store to choose your package or contact our team to discuss your specific AR requirements in detail.

Categories
Dev to Dev

A beginner’s guide to augmented reality with Unity

The Wikitude Academy has been successfully supporting students, professors, and academic institutions since 2012. In short, this awesome initiative has been giving free access to the full feature set of the Wikitude SDK EDU to eligible applicants all around the globe.

Due to the success of the program and popular demand, the Wikitude Academy has now partnered up with award-winning international professor & best-selling author Dr. Penny de Byl to offer online augmented reality courses.

If you are a mobile app creator, game designers/developer, or an AR/Unity enthusiast looking to expand your skill set, this course is for you. Presenting:

A Beginner’s Guide to Augmented Reality with Unity  featuring Mobile AR Applications with Wikitude using ARKit & ARCore for iOS and Android.

Hosted on the online learning platform Udemy and designed for AR beginners, the course ranges from examining AR’s earliest origins to understanding the mashup of computerized environments with the real world. The topics covered in the course include:

  • Projecting Virtual Objects over the live camera feed
  • 2D Image Recognition
  • 3D Object and Scene Recognition
  • 3D Scene Recognition
  • QR and Barcode Detection
  • Image Tracking, and
  • Placing virtual interactable objects and animations into a real scene

Like what you see? Then we suggest you act fast.

With a small investment, enrolled students have full lifetime access to 53 lectures, 10.5 hours of on-demand video, 6 articles, 28 downloadable resources, certificate of completion, and more:

  • All students enrolled in this course are entitled to a free Wikitude SDK EDU license.

Enroll now and learn how to create your own AR app from scratch with Unity and Wikitude.

“Dr. Penny introduces augmented reality techniques using her internationally acclaimed holistic teaching style and expertise from over 25 years of teaching, research, and work in games and computer graphics. Throughout the course, you will follow along with hands-on workshops designed to teach you the fundamental techniques used for designing and developing augmented reality mobile applications.”

To read the full description of the course and sign up, please access A Beginner’s Guide to Augmented Reality with Unity.





Interested in creating an AR project of your own?
Talk to one of our specialists and learn how to get started.

Contact The Wikitude Team