AR Collaborative

AR Collaborative is a library for developing AR multi-user experiences or multiplayer games in Unity where people share the same physical space. A shared AR Anchor is placed based on photos of the environment, and state synchronisation occurs over LAN.

AR Collaborative can be used in a variety of scenarios: as a testing environment for a multi-user app, requiring a quick setup, before implementing more complex solutions; as a complete alternative to such solutions; as a fallback solution when cross-platform support is needed or when an internet connection is not viable.

How it works

• The session host takes photos of flat objects on a surface and shares them with other users. These will become AR markers in the physical world.
• Then, all users scan the markers with their devices. Each device tracks the environment independently, but the images ensure there are Trackables in common among everyone.
• When everyone is ready, users can create, grab, manipulate and remove objects in the shared AR space.

Dependencies

AR Collaborative requires:

• AR Foundation package
  • ARCore XR Plugin (Android)
  • ARKit XR Plugin (iOS)
• Multiplayer High-Level API
• CaptainsMess (requires HLAPI)

CaptainsMess is a library built on top of the HLAPI, and manages network discovery, single-scene network sessions, and one-tap connectivity and exposes network events in a friendly way.

Adding ARC to a Unity project

To add the AR Collaborative library to a new or existing AR project, download and move Assets/ARC into your own Assets folder.

You can find extensive usage information for every Component and class in the dedicated wiki.

Sample projects

The Assets/Examples folder contains some sample scenes with setups that show the main features of this library, which you can use as a reference:

• Hello ARC: setting up a minimal ARC Session and spawning a 3D object that appears in the same physical place for every user, plus create and grab specific entities
• ARC PileUp: users can stack some boxes on top of each other to create the highest stack possible
• ARC Sandbox: a playground where users can spawn and manipulate primitives that stay in place or behave according to the laws of physics