AR on iOS doesn't seem to work no matter what I do

Hi all, I’ve been trying to use Unity’s AR tools to create an application that uses tracked images to display information when the camera is pointed at certain objects or images. However, I’ve been experiencing an issue where the prefab I’ve set in the TrackedImageManager never instantiates.

At first, I thought it was an issue with the textures, so I replaced the original prefab with a basic blue capsule just to check if it would work. It didn’t. I then changed the image file type to see if that was the issue. It wasn’t. I’ve even tried using simpler patterns and that’s still not working. I’ve been making sure the sizes are as accurate as possible, changed the positions of the prefab, done everything I can think to and everything that I’ve seen online. I’m yet to find anything that works. What makes it even worse is that I’m not even sure if it’s recognising the images, as I’m not sure how to set it to check that on iOS.

I’m happy to provide more information and I’m only allowed to attach one image so I’ve just used the one of the XR Origin file. I’d be more than happy to provide more but the forum won’t let me in this post.

Below: Image of Canvas with XR Origin attributes listed. The Project folder contains the prefab, Reference Image Library and all referenced images.

Please let me know if you can help, it would be greatly appreciated!

  1. AR Foundation Samples repo provides examples with Image Tracking.
  2. My Tutorial about Testing Image Tracking.

Apple used to have a video tutorial for how to check reference image quality, but unfortunately they took it down. There is a way to check reference image quality in Xcode though.

How to create an AR Resource Group: ARReferenceImage | Apple Developer Documentation

Advice for reference images: How can I increase the image track… | Apple Developer Forums

Do this in an empty Xcode project just to test the images. Once your images are confirmed to be high quality, that’s when you should add them to Unity. Reference image quality is the first thing to check when debugging image issues, assuming that your reference image library is set up correctly.

You will know when an image is detected by subscribing to the image manager’s trackablesChanged event: AR Tracked Image Manager component | AR Foundation | 6.4.1