Introducing ARCore: An Android AR SDK for Unity

Unity Engine
, ,
1


Google ARCore SDK preview for Unity requires Unity 2017.20b9 or later and Android API SDK v24 or higher.

ARCore enables AR development for the Android ecosystem. With ARCore you can create brand new AR experiences for Android or extend existing applications to take advantage of ARCore’s features. To learn more about the features or how you can use ARCore with your Unity project, check out our Unity ARCore blog post.

All the features supported are available via the ARCore SDK for Unity available today. ARCore requires the following:

  • Pixel, Pixel XL, or Samsung Galaxy S8 running Android 7.0 Nougat and above
  • Unity 2017.2.0b9 or later

To get started please follow these steps:

In Google’s Unity Getting Started Guide:

  • Download and import the ARCore SDK for Unity package.
  • Install the Google ARCore service on your target device.
  • Make sure you also get a copy of HelloAR. It’s an easy to understand project that demonstrates the ARCore SDK and makes it easy for developers to quickly build and run their first app.

Configure Unity for ARCore development:

  • In the Player Settings (Edit > Project Settings > Player), select the Android options, then look under XR Settings and make sure “Tango Supported” is checked.

  1. Under Other Settings, but sure Multithreaded Rendering is unchecked and your Minimum API Level is at least API Level 24 (Android 7.0).

Start experimenting today and get ready to build AR experiences for millions of Android devices.

Don’t forget to share your thoughts and ask questions on every aspect of Unity development for ARCore!

3 Likes
2

I recently got a Zenfone AR to play around with Tango, will it be able to run the Unity ARCore project?

3

The Unity 2017.2.0b9 beta is now live! Apologies for the short delay. Unity Editor Beta Releases

4

Does it support Sumsung S6 or Galaxy note 4

5

ARCore is not currently supported on the Zenfone.

Sorry, only the Pixel, Pixel XL and Samsung Galaxy S8 are supported for now.

6

Awesome. This will rattle a couple of things.

7

Can this preview be used on Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus – european version? Thanks

8

Running on a pixel xl with 7.1.2, unity 2017.2b9 and the downloadable unitypackage from the google site and I’m getting a crash on start, below is the ddms logs. I double checked and I think all the settings on my project are correct, any suggestions?

1 Like
9

Even though this looks great, I just want to point out that limiting this to two types of phones (for what reason?) is not accomplishing what is stated as a goal for the technology:
“One of the biggest challenges that developers face is ensuring that their apps and experiences are available to the widest possible audience. To overcome this challenge, AR needs to work on hardware that users already own, such as mobile devices.”
This looks like a marketing tactic to force upgrades to new phones.

1 Like
10

I’m getting a very similar error to rjevans, with the key line being

A/tango(11616): jni_helper.cc:19 ‘vm’ Must be non NULL

I’ve built both the Unity example on Windows and the Java example from Mac on a Samsung S8 with Nougat 7.0 and both fail similarly.

However, the same programs [both the same Java program and the same Unity program] work with a Pixel running 7.1.2.

11

@MrMallIronmaker @rjevans Does the startup crash happen consistently? I believe there is a known issue involving a race condition at startup.

12

If you have a project where you’ve imported Unity’s ARKit plugin, and then you import the ARCore package and you get a purple screen instead of a camera feed. Go into player settings and make sure to select ‘auto graphics api’ rather than OpenGLES2. This will resolve the issue.

1 Like
13

I don’t believe it works on the S8 Plus yet. You can check the exact model numbers here: https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/

14

@tdmowrer 10/10 tries on the S8 lead to failures, 10/10 tries on the Pixel worked. It doesn’t seem all that likely to be a race condition issue.

If it’s useful data, we just bought the Samsung S8 today, while one of our teammates has had the Pixel for a while [since January].

15

10/10 on pixel xl for me

16

just sanity checking - that means it fails 10/10 tries, right?

17

Did you install the ARCore service on your phone using “adb install -r -d arcore-preview.apk” ?

18

I had, but as a test I tried re-installing it and now things appear to be working. Thanks!

1 Like
19

I hadn’t installed it, that’s where I flaked on the instructions. Thanks @jimmya !

1 Like
20

I’m on my s8+ device to open ARCORE flashback, what’s up Does the startup crash happen consistently?