Hi everyone. After a long wait we are pleased to announce the availability of AR Foundation 2.1.0 as a preview package.
What’s New In AR Foundation?
This version is compatible with Unity 2019.1 and 2019.2 and contains support for the following new features:
2D Image Tracking
This feature lets you detect specific 2D images in the environment. The Tracked Image Manager automatically creates GameObjects that represent all recognized images. You can change an AR experience based on the presence of specific images. (ARCore & ARKit)
Face Tracking
You can access face landmarks, a mesh representation of detected faces, and blend shape information, which can feed into a facial animation rig. The Face Manager takes care of configuring devices for face-tracking and creates GameObjects for each detected face. (ARCore & ARKit)
3D Object Tracking
You can import digital representations of real-world objects into your Unity experiences and detect them in the environment. The Tracked Object Manager creates GameObjects for each detected physical object to enable experiences to change based on the presence of specific real-world objects. This functionality can be great for building educational and training experiences in addition to making games. (ARKit)
Environment Probes
This detects lighting and color information in specific areas of the environment, which helps enable 3D content to blend seamlessly with the surroundings. The Environment Probe Manager uses this information to automatically create cubemaps in Unity. (ARKit)
What About Unity 2018.3 Users?
Users of Unity 2018.3 must use AR Foundation 1.5.0 which is functionally equivalent to 2.1.0 but has different package dependencies. AR Foundation 2.1.0 is not compatible with Unity 2018.3.
New And Updated Platform Support Packages
In addition to the two new versions of AR Foundation there are updates to the packages to provide AR Foundation support for ARCore and ARKit.
- ARCore XR Plugin (compatible with 2018.3 and later)
- ARKit XR Plugin (compatible with 2018.3 and later)
A new package in the AR Foundation family is:
- ARKit XR Plugin (compatible with 2018.3 and later)
This new face tracking package for ARKit should only be installed in projects that intend to use the Face Tracking capability in AR Foundation. Including this package in your project without indicating your intention to use Face Tracking in your ARKit app’s metadata can result in an App Store certification failure.
How To Get Started
As always, links to the documentation are available from the Package Manager window (Window > Package Manager) for all of these packages. The AR Foundation documentation is the best place to start for learning about the new workflows associated with these new features.
We have also added samples for the new functionality to the AR Foundation Samples repo on GitHub. Check out the new 2.1-preview branches for use with Unity 2019.1 and later. Unity 2018.3 users should use the the 1.5-preview branch.
Migrating An Existing AR Foundation 1.0 Project
The new release of AR Foundation has breaking API changes and automatic upgrade of AR Foundation 1.0 projects is unfortunately not feasible. However, we have created a guide to help make the transition from AR Foundation 1.0 to 2.x easier.
Let Us Know What You Think
This release was a long time coming because we wanted to get it right. We worked extensively with our UX team on the new workflows and went through several rounds of QA prior to publishing these packages.
But there will inevitably be bugs that you find and even desired functionality that we missed. We will be watching the forums closely to answer questions and help where we can. But please feel free to submit bugs via the Unity Issue Tracker as well.
Thank You
Thanks for being Unity customers, for your patience, and for the passion you have for creating great AR experiences with AR Foundation. We are busy adding workflow improvements, support for new platforms, and new functionality to existing platforms. We are heavily invested in the future of AR Foundation and hope it meets your needs as creators.