Unity 2018 Augmented Reality Projects

Build four immersive and fun AR applications using ARKit, ARCore, and Vuforia

Jesse Glover

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781788835848
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatica
• Subtopic: Realtà virtuale

Create engaging Augmented Reality (AR) applications with Unity 3D that can be experienced with devices such as HoloLens and Daydream

Key Features

• Learn the principles of AR application development
• Work with the most popular sensors used in AR games and applications across Android, Apple and Windows
• Build experiences with interactive objects, physics, UI, animations, and C# scripting

Book Description

Augmented Reality allows for radical innovations in countless areas. It magically blends the physical and virtual worlds, bringing applications from a screen into your hands. Meanwhile, Unity has now become the leading platform to develop augmented reality experiences, as it provides a great pipeline for working with 3D assets.

Using a practical and project-based approach, Unity 2018 Augmented Reality Projects educates you about the specifics of augmented reality development in Unity 2018.

This book teaches you how to use Unity in order to develop AR applications which can be experienced with devices such as HoloLens and Daydream. You will learn to integrate, animate, and overlay 3D objects on your camera feed, before gradually moving on to implementing sensor-based AR applications. In addition to this, you will explore the technical considerations that are especially important and possibly unique to AR. The projects in the book demonstrate how you can build a variety of AR experiences, whilst also giving insights into C# programming as well as the Unity 3D game engine via the interactive Unity Editor.

By the end of the book, you will be equipped to develop rich, interactive augmented reality experiences for a range of AR devices and platforms using Unity.

What you will learn

• Build and run AR applications for specific headsets, including HoloLens and Daydream
• Create 3D scenes with Unity and other 3D tools while learning about world space and scale
• Move around your AR scenes using locomotion and teleportation
• Create filters or overlays that work in tandem with facial recognition software
• Use GPS, geolocation services, and the camera feed to create a fitness application
• Integrate AR and VR concepts together in a single application

Who this book is for

Unity 2018 Augmented Reality Projects is for you if you're a game developer familiar with 3D computer graphics and interested in building your own AR games or applications. Any experience in Unity and C# is an advantage.

What AR is and How to Get Set up

This book begins with some introductory information and theory regarding Augmented Reality (AR). Unfortunately, we can't just jump right into programming without first properly tackling the fundamentals. Without knowing the fundamentals and theory behind how AR projects work, we would not be able to fully understand how the technology works or how to take advantage of some of the more abstract features of the technology. This doesn't mean that you wouldn't be able to use the technology, just that there are many underlying features that would be difficult to grasp at more advanced levels.

This book and its code files are set up with the experienced programmer in mind. There are optimization strategies employed and esoteric language constructs used that beginner programmers may not immediately understand. If you have not been studying programming for at least two years and have not used C# extensively during that period, I suggest having a reference manual or two at hand in order to clarify any programming terms or syntax usage that you are unfamiliar with. Some of the best sources for really diving into the C# language are the C# Language Specification (https://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/Ecma-334.pdf) and Learning C# By Developing Games with Unity 2017 (https://www.packtpub.com/game-development/learning-c-7-developing-games-unity-2017-third-edition).

Please be aware that at least two projects in this book will require the use of Xcode and will require a macOS and iOS device to compile and run properly. If you do not have, at the bare minimum, a 2011 model or later macOS, you should skip implementing the examples in the chapters and sections that deal with ARKit entirely, as you will not be able to follow along with the book. Feel free to read the sections, though, as there is always something to learn, even if you can't follow the examples.

The version of Unity3D we will be using for this book is Unity 2017.2.0f3 (64-bit) for both Windows 10 and macOS. We will be using Windows 10 version 1703 build number 15063.726 to build for Android, and macOS High Sierra (version 10.13) for building for iOS, as these are the latest versions of both operating systems at the time of writing this book.

The core information we will go over is as follows:

• Which AR toolkits are available for usage
• How to get started with each toolkit
• What the pros and cons of each toolkit are
• Reasons for developing AR applications and games

Available AR packages

Unity3D has several options readily available via plugins for creating AR applications and games:

• Vuforia AR Starter Kit
• ARCore (Tango)
• ARToolKit
• ARKit

It should be noted that Vuforia Starter Kit has been fully integrated into Unity3D and is quite easy to jump right into creating projects with. ARKit and ARCore, however, are slightly different. Because they are still in the experimental and early developmental phases, Apple and Google have not released full and proper SDKs for Unity Technologies to incorporate into the engine.

There is a plugin that exists for both of them that you will have to compile to get it to work with your project for Apple and Android devices, and we will go into how to compile and integrate into Unity3D to get it to work appropriately later in this chapter. For now, it is good to know that there is a little bit more setup involved with getting AR to work with iOS and Android.

With the introduction out of the way, we can finally begin to really talk about AR, what it is exactly, and how to set up Unity3D to take advantage of the SDKs available to create your own AR games and applications. Without further ado, let's define what AR actually is.

Defining AR

AR is augmented reality. Augmented reality is taking some form of reality and changing it in a specific way to enhance the experience. What augmented reality typically refers to is as follows:

1. Sound:

Sound perception

2. Video:

The text in this image is not important. We are just showcasing the video perception overlay

3. Graphics:

The text in this image is not important. We are just showcasing the Graphic perception overlay

4. Haptics:

Haptic perception

5. GPS data:

GPS perception

This means that we could boost visual graphics of an object and view it in a different perspective than what we are accustomed to, or we could add something that isn't there. The video is a little bit different, as it requires the software to interface with specialized hardware, such as glasses, cell phones, HUDs, and other devices.

We could boost the auditory aspect of the world around us. We could take words we see in one language and have it say those words in another, or we could pick up those faint sounds that we always hear and tune out, then amplify them and really bring them to the forefront.

Haptic perception is a little more difficult, but it could be achieved w...