androidunity-game-engineemulationarcore

ARCore: Emulator and unity


I'd like to test ARCore using Unity/c# before buying an android device - can I use Unity and ARCore emulator without having a device to put together an AR app but just using a camera from my PC, and does the camera require a specific spec?

I read Android Studio Beta now supports ARCore in the Emulator to test an app in a virtual environment right from the desktop, but can't tell if the update is integrated into Unity.

https://developers.googleblog.com/2018/02/announcing-arcore-10-and-new-updates-to.html

Any tips how people may be interacting with the app using a pc camera would be really helpful.

Thank you for your help !

Sergio


Solution

  • ARCore uses a combination of the device's IMU and camera. The camera tracks feature points in space and uses a cluster of those points to create a plane for your models. The IMU generates 3D sensor data which is passed to ARCore to track the device's movements.

    Judging from the requirements above we can say a webcam just isn't going to work, since it lacks the IMU needed by ARCore. Just the camera won't be able to track the device's position, which may lead to objects drifting all over the place (If you managed to get it working at all). Even Google's page or reddit threads indicate that it just won't work.