Here we are referring to every person who finds himself in the shoes of a software developer who knows how much it requires to develop an app. There are many tasks they need to fulfill and focus on different points like scalability, compatibility, and resource consumption. Moreover, when they need to develop a complex app with 3D graphics, advanced functionality, and innovative technologies such as augmented reality, then the development process are badly tangled web of threads that need to be tied together to make it unitary. Well then comes SDKs, What are SDKs of AR? Let’s dive in and learn about them:
What is AR SDK?
SDK is augmented reality software that stands for Software Developer Kit. It is mainly a bundle of many programs and software that developers use to develop other software.
Well, the SDK eases the work of developers by letting them access typical and time-tested solutions and shortcuts in development, rather than wasting their crucial time on solving all generic and typical problems. However, it is not that easy to simply build a simulation, it requires special tools. In this article, we have discussed about 5 most popular and efficient tools of AR development.
Top 5 augmented reality development tools:
1. Vuforia:
Vuforia is one of the most popular tools as it offers many range of products for developing AR experiences, such as Vuforia Engine, Studio, and Chalk. The software supports both marker-based and markless AR. The software has many features for object recognition and 3D modeling. The features that this software provides are Ground Plane-for addition of content on horizontal surfaces, Visual Support visual source beyond mobile phones and tablets, and VuMarks- markers for face recognition and encoding data.
2. Wikitude:
Wikitude is also a really useful software for AR software development. It was introduced recently in the market by a company that was founded in 2008. However, the debate is still on Vuforia and Wikitude which of them is better. Wikitude is the best choice for developing iOS, Android, and Smart Glasses devices. Like all other best augment reality programs, Wikitude supports a variety of tracking methods and technologies and incorporates geolocation, cloud recognition, and distance-based scaling features.
3. AR Kit:
If you want a go-to application, ARKit is the best tool for you. The ARKit is an augmented reality software that is developed by Apple. Hence, it can’t be used for Android devices but for iOS devices. The ARKit mainly depends on camera sensor data and some additional data (by gyroscope and accelerometer) for detecting and analyzing users. ARKit performs fast motion tracking, face tracking, Quick look, and a few other rendering effects. The software has been updated to ARKit 1, ARKit 2, and ARKit 3 with the new versions of iOS.
4. ARCore:
AR Core is quite similar to the AR Kit as it is an application developed by the developers, especially for devices that use this platform. Well, the platform is Android, and the company that developed AR Core is Google. ARCore offers a plethora of features including motion tracking, detection of surface, and estimation of light. Not only this, it has many advanced features to offer that include augmented images (customized responses of specific types of 2D shapes and objects) and multiplayer (rendering of the 3D objects on distinctive devices).
ARcore is compatible with Vuforia which makes a perfect bundle of functionality with these two software at once. In addition to this, ARCore Unity is utilized to develop efficient Android apps. Google has introduced a few restrictions that the apps will only run on specific devices. To check if your phone or tablet is compatible, you can simply check on the ARCore Supported Devices available on the Google website.
AR Tool Kit:
AR Tool Kit is a free-to-use SDK mainly for AR development for distinctive platforms. However, the SDK is used for Android and iOS and to run AR apps on Windows, Linux, and OS X. It was released in 1999 and has been updated numerous times. The features of the AR Tool Kit involve tracking the planar images and simple black squares, speed support, easy-to-use camera calibration, and more. This software has many plugins that it offers for development with Unity and Open Scene Graph.
Which AR SDK you should choose?
Among all of the applications mentioned above, all of them are the top choices of developers. But there is no doubt that each of them has its strengths and drawbacks that have their own supported and non-supported features.
Well, choosing the best tool for you as a developer, significantly relies on the functionalities that need to be developed to correspond with the tool. The tools refer to the ease of development and the need for functionalities rather than just blindly picking randomly advertised and flashy software for your development project. Moreover, if you are hiring a company to develop an AR application, you will have to make sure that they are eligible to deliver the project completion with all of the appropriate solutions for your project.
