Unity hosted a keynote presentation in Copenhagen and announced a series of updates to its AR and mixed reality creation tools.
Unity’s MARS tool — which stands for Mixed and Augmented Reality Studio — is going to have companion apps for dedicated AR gadgets. The first version of the tool is coming for mobile phones through ARKit and ARCore. “You can sync project folders in the Unity Cloud, then lay out assets as easily as placing a 3D sticker,” according to the company. “You can create conditions, record video and world data, and export it all back straight into the editor.”
The next version of the tool will be made for AR devices like Magic Leap and HoloLens. Unity also offers a tool it calls “AR Foundation” meant to allow developers to build one AR application and have it work across the major platforms. That, too, is coming to wearable AR headsets like HoloLens and Magic Leap.
For those unfamiliar, Unity is the most popular development tool for game designers and its been pursued for acquisition by Facebook in the past as well as added enormous rounds of investment. The toolset’s broad cross-platform support helps developers bring their software to multiple gadgets. The company claims more than two thirds of creators working on VR and AR software use Unity. Unity is also including as a preview in its 2019.3 release “Unity as a Library” which will “let creators of native apps benefit from Unity’s best features and tools, including AR tools like MARS, AR Foundation, and the XR Interactions Toolkit.”
