AR Foundation and ARCore Extensions for Unity capabilities and features

    • AR Foundation is a cross-platform framework for building AR experiences for Android and iOS devices.

    • ARCore Extensions for AR Foundation provide access to additional ARCore features not readily available through the standard AR Foundation and XR plugins.

    • The table provides a comprehensive overview of various ARCore features and how they are implemented or accessed using AR Foundation with ARCore Extensions.

    • Supported features range from basic functions like plane finding and local anchors to more advanced capabilities like Cloud Anchors, environmental light estimation, and depth API.

    AR Foundation is a cross-platform framework that allows you to build augmented reality experiences once, then build for either Android or iOS devices. ARCore Extensions for AR Foundationenables additional ARCore functionality and features that are not (yet) exposed through AR Foundation and the ARCore XR plugin on Android and the ARKit XR plugin on iOS.

    ARCore feature
    AR Foundation with ARCore Extensions
    Supported Unity versions
    Unity 2019.4.3f1 or later
    Unity XR support
    Install the AR Foundation and ARCore XR Plugin packages, and enable ARCore plug-in provider under Project Settings > XR Plug-in Management (Android)
    GitHub repo(s)
    (SDK / samples)
    google-ar/arcore-unity-extensions
    Unity-Technologies/arfoundation-samples
    In-editor development workflow
    AR Remoting & Simulation
    Pause the AR Session
    Disable the ARSession game object
    Detect tracking issues
    Use notTrackingReason provided by ARSession and returning a NotTrackingReason
    Select camera config
    See Configuring the camera for ARCore Extensions
    Plane finding
    Use Plane Detection provided by ARPlaneManager
    Local anchors
    Use Anchors provided by ARAnchorManager
    Cloud Anchors
    Provided by ARCore Extensions
    Basic light estimation
    Use Ambient Intensity Light Estimation mode provided by ARCameraManager
    Environmental HDR light estimation
    Automatically enabled when a compatible camera config is selected and one or more Environmental HDR settings are selected:
    • Ambient Spherical Harmonics , Main Light Direction , Main Light Intensity in the Light Estimation mode provided by ARCameraManager
    • Environmental Probes are enabled in an AREnvironmentProbeManager
    Augmented Images
    Use (2D) Image Tracking provided by ARTrackedImageManager
    Augmented Faces
    Use Face Tracking provided by ARFaceManager
    Depth API
    Use AROcclusionManager to enable Automatic Occlusion in AR Foundation 4.1.0-preview.2 or later with ARCore XR Plugin 4.1.0-preview.2 or later
    Raycasting
    Use Raycasting provided by ARRaycastManager
    Feature points
    Use Point Clouds provided by ARPointCloudManager
    AR camera image access
    Use Pass-through video provided by ARCameraBackground
    CPU image access
    Provided by AR Foundation
    GPU texture access
    Accessible as external Texture2D s.
    Multithreaded rendering
    Supported in Android Player Settings in AR Foundation 2.1.0 or later.

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