Unity Technologies – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

May 27, 2020

Unity’s Dedicated AR Creation Studio MARS is Available Next Week

A couple of years ago when augmented reality (AR) was becoming a hot topic thanks to the likes of Google’s ARCore and Apple’s ARKit, Unity revealed Project MARS as it looked to help developers build better AR experiences. Today, during the AWE 2020 online keynote, Unity announced that MARS will be made available next week.

MARS stands for Mixed and Augmented Reality Studio, a tool inside the normal Unity editor which can aid next-generation AR content creation, apps that are responsive to physical spaces and context-aware, so they can operate in a variety of spaces.

AR apps used to be about overlaying content in the real world. As the technology has advanced its been more about integrating that digital experience with the real one. So CG objects not only where they are in a location but also able to interact with it for a seamless effect.

The most recent example built using MARS is Dr. Seuss’s ABC – An Amazing AR Alphabet! which launched for iOS and Android devices in March. An educational experience where children learn about the alphabet whilst Seussian characters come to life, thanks to MARS these can hop along a table or play on the sofa.

As MARS is used inside the Unity editor developers can test experiences without leaving the software; include location, map, product and more data in their projects and only worry about deploying their experience once across all AR platforms such as ARKit, ARCore, Magic Leap and Hololens devices.

Unity will launch MARS next Monday, 1st June, so you can start having a play with the software soon. As for more MARS developed projects, the only one known so far is the recently announced Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up from the award-winning animation company Aardman. No footage has been released just yet but it’ll be the first time the comedy duo has stepped into AR.

Once the launch has taken place and more developers get their hands on MARS, VRFocus will report back with the latest AR projects.

March 13, 2020

Unity is Making its High Definition Render Pipeline VR Compatible Allowing Photorealistic Visuals

When it comes to developing virtual reality (VR) videogames there are two primary engines studios use, either Epic Games’ Unreal Engine or Unity by Unity Technologies. Both highly competitive when it comes to gaining market share, Unity tends to dominate the VR scene due to ease of use while Unreal Engine is known for its graphic fidelity. Unity’s current version 2019.3 – which arrived back in January – has recently been upgraded to reduce that visual divide, making its High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) VR compatible.

Unity HDRP

Unity’s HDRP targets high-end PCs and consoles, allowing creators to build high-definition and photorealistic visuals. With package version 7.2.0 of the HDRP now verified, Unity has confirmed that all HDRP features are compatible with VR. While that won’t mean a great deal to gamers initially, they’ll certainly notice it in the months to come as developers implement the feature into their project, thus making VR experiences look even better.

VR for HDRP will support a number of VR platforms, Oculus Rift and Rift S, Windows Mixed Reality and PlayStation VR. As the company previously announced Unity 2019.3 will end support for Samsung Gear VR and Google VR, while OpenVR compatibility will be phased out. The latter only because Valve is currently developing their OpenVR Unity XR Plugin for 2019.3 which Unity notes will be available soon.

In a blog posting Unity explains in more detail how developers using the latest version of the videogame engine can utilise HDRP for their VR purposes, from Deferred and Forward rendering and light types, shadows, decals, and volumetrics to Color Grading, Anti-aliasing and Depth of Field.

As for the future of HDRP VR and what Unity will be working on the company lists the following:

Improving performance with new hardware options like Variable Rate Shading
Improving platform support with Vulkan and DX12
Improving devices support
Extending single pass to support more than two views

For those interested in stepping into VR development Unity is free to download and begin using. It’s only when your revenue or funding exceeds $100K USD over 12 months that you need to start paying. For those with a basic understanding of the engine, last year Unity and Oculus teamed up to create a free course specifically for VR development.

For further updates on Unity, keep reading VRFocus.

July 30, 2019

Unity 2019.2 Arrives, Improves VR/AR Performance and Capabilities for Developers

There are a number of videogame engines designed to help facilitate virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) development. While you may not really pay attention (or care) about some of the logos at the start of titles, one that crops up quite a lot is Unity. Today, Unity Technologies has announced the launch of Unity 2019.2, with the latest iteration including a few tasty features for immersive content developers.

Unity 2019.2 image1

As with any release of this kind Unity 2019.2 features a massive selection of updates and improvements, more than 170 in fact. While many none specific VR/AR enhancements will help immersive developers, there are several designed just for them. These include VR support for Unity’s High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP). Currently limited to Windows 10 and Direct3D11 devices, developers will be able to improve the visual capabilities of their projects on high-end hardware.

When it comes to supporting AR developers Unity released a dedicated solution called AR Foundation. It’s now received a slew of improvements to support face-tracking, 2D image-tracking, 3D object-tracking, environment probes and more for ARKit and ARCore.

AR Foundation Updates:

Face-Tracking (ARKit and ARCore): You can access face landmarks, a mesh representation of detected faces, and blend shape information, which can feed into a facial animation rig. The Face Manager takes care of configuring devices for face-tracking and creates GameObjects for each detected face.
2D Image-Tracking (ARKit and ARCore): This feature lets you detect 2D images in the environment. The Tracked Image Manager automatically creates GameObjects that represent all recognized images. You can change an AR experience based on the presence of specific images.
3D Object-Tracking (ARKit): You can import digital representations of real-world objects into your Unity experiences and detect them in the environment. The Tracked Object Manager creates GameObjects for each detected physical object to enable experiences to change based on the presence of specific real-world objects. This functionality can be great for building educational and training experiences, in addition to games.
Environment Probes (ARKit): This detects lighting and color information in specific areas of the environment, which helps enable 3D content to blend seamlessly with the surroundings. The Environment Probe Manager uses this information to automatically create cubemaps in Unity.
Motion Capture (ARKit): This captures people’s movements. The Human Body Manager detects 2D (screen-space) and 3D (world-space) representations of humans recognized in the camera frame.
People Occlusion (ARKit): This enables more realistic AR experiences, blending digital content into the real world. The Human Body Manager uses depth segmentation images to determine if someone is in front of the digital content.
Collaborative Session (ARKit): This allows for multiple connected ARKit apps to continuously share their understanding of the environment, enabling multiplayer games and collaborative applications.

There’s plenty to get stuck into and don’t forget Unity 2019 is free to download. As for what to expect in Unity 2019.3? Well, that’s expected to arrive later this summer in beta, with a full release scheduled for fall 2019. For those that can’t wait there’s always the alpha version. For further Unity updates, keep reading VRFocus.

March 19, 2019

Make ARKit and ARCore Development Easier With Unity AR Foundation

When Apple and then Google launched their augmented reality (AR) development software ARKit and ARCore respectively, they provided a perfect avenue for creators to build immersive AR apps and videogames for mobile devices. But just like the Khronos Group is trying to solve with the issue of fragmentation using OpenXR, having both ARKit and ARCore meant more work for developers trying to support both. During the recent Unity keynote at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019, the videogame engine company has a solution, AR Foundation.

Angry Birds AR Structure Destroyed

While devices like Magic Leap and HoloLens might be pushing the upper reaches of AR technology, some of the most interesting work is being done at a consumer level on mobile devices. Yet creators generally have to choose whether to focus on ARKit or ARCore. Which is why Unity created the AR Foundation framework, specifically for AR content developers, allowing them to build an AR app and then deploy it to both ARKit and ARCore.

AR Foundation also includes features to overcome common problems such as anchoring digital objects into the real world and the visual fidelity of digital objects. One of the options Unity focused on was AR Remote: “it significantly reduces iteration time by streaming sensor data from an AR-enabled mobile device directly into the Unity editor, explains a blog posting. “This allows developers to see changes on their target device in real time without having to publish to the device.

As AR Foundation is part of Unity, veterans of the software will feel right at home using its workflows and features to create AR content. They can even use the assets built for non-AR titles and use them in their new AR project.

Tendar

Unity is one of the most popular engines for virtual reality (VR) and AR development, supporting the industry from an early stage. Unity CEO John Riccitiello has previously claimed that around two-thirds of all VR and AR apps on the market were built using Unity.

As Unity continues to expand and introduce more features for VR and AR development, VRFocus will keep you updated.

December 13, 2018

Unity 2018.3 Arrives, Adding new Prefab workflows & Haptics APIs for VR Controllers

When it comes to virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) development indie studios tend to pick one of two game engines, either Epic Games’ Unreal Engine or Unity, by Unity Technologies. Today, the latter has just upgraded its system to Unity 2018.3, bring a myriad of features for standard and immersive content creators alike.

Unity 2018.3

The big news when it comes to Unity 2018.3 is the new Prefab workflows, allowing developers to split up scenes and Prefabs, with the aim of offering greater flexibility and increasing productivity. In fact, the update delivers more than 2000 new features, fixes and improvements, including Visual Effect Graph (Preview), and the Updated Terrain System.

When it comes to specific VR and AR additions, Unity 2018.3 has now included native support for Daydream Controllers, haptics APIs for VR controllers, and updates to the AR Foundation as well as XR Performance Testing. The update has also focused on targeted multi-platform support, so that an app or videogame can reach the widest audience possible, including SDK’s like OpenVR, Oculus, WindowsMR, Daydream, and GearVR.

If you’re a Unity developer then head on over to the Unity blog page for a detailed rundown of the update and links to download it.

Unity 2018.3 MegaCity

Unity 2018.3 may have just arrived but the company continues its relentless push to improve, noting that Unity 2019.1a is now available and the first Unity alpha available to everyone. As an alpha user you will get access to new features sooner, just expect to find more bugs as well.

And there’s still lots to look forward to in 2019 like Project MARS which was revealed during Unite Berlin. The experimental project aims to improve AR development, giving creators the power to build applications that intelligently interact with any real-world environment.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Unity, reporting back with its latest updates.

July 26, 2018

VR and AR Developer FarBridge Brings In Unity Veteran

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) software developers FarBridge have announced that it is appointing a new Head of Business Development and Partnerships, Kevin Robertson, who will be bringing his extensive experience at Unity Technologies to his new role.

FarBridge have previously established partnerships with leading businesses and brands, including the Smithsonian Institute, Oculus and CyArk in order to build content and launch new immersive experiences. Part of Robertson’s new role at FarBridge will be to strengthen those partnerships and establish new ones.

Farbridge

Robertson was an early employee at Unity Technologies, after which he turned his attention to helping create tools and middleware for cloud computing at GameSparks as its vice president. GameSparks was subsequently acquired by Amazon in 2017.

“Kevin’s passion for games and immersive media is absolutely contagious. Working together at Unity Technologies was a personal highlight, and we’ve been looking for a way to team back up ever since,” said Patrick Curry, CEO of FarBridge. “I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to bring Kevin onboard, and he’s already making big contributions to our team and business.”

At both Unity and GameSparks, Robertson developed a reputation for being able to form solid partnerships with well-known industry brands, including Warner Bros, Blizzard, Riot Games and Valve, being one of the first people outside of Valve to see some of the early VR demonstrations, and becoming an advocate of VR technologies as a result.

“Joining FarBridge feels like I’m coming back home to the studio side of the industry. There is such a great breadth and variety of challenges in the world of gaming, virtual reality, and augmented reality.” said Robertson, “I’m inspired by the creativity and soul of the FarBridge team and I’m stoked on the limitless opportunities that lie ahead.”

Farbridge

For future news from the VR industry, keep checking back with VRFocus.

July 10, 2018

Develop VR and AR Content? Unity 2018.2 now Available to Make That Process Easier

If you happen to make virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) content then there’s a good chance you might use development middleware Unity – the company claims two-thirds of all AR experiences are made with the engine. Should that be the case then you’ll be glad to hear Unity 2018.2 has been launched today, adding plenty of new features to make content creation easier.

Unity 2018.2 - LWRP

New additions to Unity 2018.2 include optimised performance of the Lightweight Render Pipeline (LWRP) and an enhanced High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) which are both in preview. LWRP is particularly notable as it helps deliver high performance for lower-end hardware, useful for performance-hungry applications like XR, on mobile platforms. While the HDRP prioritises high-definition visuals targeted at high-end platforms, such as PC and consoles.

Or how about the particle system improvements which has seen the update add support for eight UVs, MinMaxCurve and MinMaxGradient, Linear Color Space, Emit from Sprites, BakeMesh, and ETC Texture Support.

Unity and Google also want to make it easier to create Connected Games by reducing the resource, technology, and knowledge barrier through the introduction of a suite of features to Unity 2018.2 designed to enable connected games including game server hosting and game-specific services such as an open source matchmaking project developed by Unity and Google.

On the mixed reality (MR) side HoloLens Holographic Remoting now features, allowing applications to leverage the power of a local desktop machine to offload rendering and processing at runtime. Unity notes that: “We think our Automotive and AEC customers will find this feature particularly useful.”

As for features still to find a way to the software one of the biggest is Mixed and Augmented Reality Studio (MARS), announced during the Unite Berlin keynote address last month. For further details on all the new additions check out the Unity blog. As Unity continues to expand its videogame engine, VRFocus will keep you updated.

June 24, 2018

The VR Job Hub: Big Opportunities Available

The last Sunday of June is here meaning it is the last of The VR Job Hub for the month. With the weather still unable to make up it’s mind on if it is summer or not yet one thing that is for sure is that it is always a good time to look for work opportunities.

Every weekend VRFocus gathers together a number open position from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe, to help make finding the ideal job easier. Below are a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on VR, AR and MR.

Location	Company	Role	Link
Pittsburgh, PA, US	Oculus VR	Software Engineer (Infrastructure)	Click Here to Apply
Markham, ON, CA	AMD	Software Engineer – Immersive Technology & SDKs	Click Here to Apply
Vancouver, BC, CA	uForis VR	3D Environment Artist	Click Here to Apply
London, UK	GANT	UK Intern – Creative Developer	Click Here to Apply
Vancouver, BC, CA	CloudHead Games	Game Designer	Click Here to Apply
Vancouver, BC, CA	CloudHead Games	VFX Artist	Click Here to Apply
Menlo Park, CA, US	Facebook	VR UX Engineer, Social VR	Click Here to Apply
Melville, NY, US	Labrodex Studios	Unreal 4 Developer	Click Here to Apply
Vancouver, Canada	VRChat Inc	Online Community Manager	Click Here to Apply
San Francisco, CA, US	Unity Technologies	Senior Graphics Engineer (XR)	Click Here to Apply
London, UK	University of the Arts London	Associate Lecturer MA Virtual Reality	Click Here to Apply

As always, if there was nothing in this week’s feature that was a good fit for you, you can always look at the previous edition of The VR Job Hub.

As always, if you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to myself (keva@vrfocus.com) and also Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).

Check back with VRFocus next Sunday at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the industry.

June 17, 2018

The VR Job Hub: Big Roles At The Big Hitters

So ends another busy week for VRFocus covering everything at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. As with every year there was much that was revealed and much that left us with questions. Even beyond videogames though there will still plenty of news, so much we frankly didn’t have enough time to cover it all. There’s news across the medical industry, education industry, design industry and a lot more besides that we will get into over the course of the week to come. Because as we always say on VRFocus, immersive technology is in use everywhere.

So, unsurprisingly there are jobs everywhere too. Here’s a selection of roles and titles currently available in the immersive technology sector that you may well be interested in.

Location	Company	Role	Link
Jacksonville, FL, USA	Brooksource	AR/VR Developer	Click Here to Apply
San Francisco, CA	Cybercoders	Software Engineer – React Dev for Augmented Reality	Click Here to Apply
Plantation, FL, USA	OSI Engineering, Inc.	Technical Sound Designer for a Virtual/Augmented Reality	Click Here to Apply
Haifa, IL, USA	IBM	Computer Vision & Augmented Reality Researcher	Click Here to Apply
Brussels, Belgium	Epson	Account Manager – Professional Display	Click Here to Apply
Mountain View, CA, US	Google	Software Engineer, Virtual Reality	Click Here to Apply
San Francisco, CA, US	HTC	VR Intern – Content & Acquisition	Click Here to Apply
San Bruno, CA, US	YouTube	Software Engineer, Virtual Reality	Click Here to Apply
Vancouver, Canada	VRChat Inc	Online Community Manager	Click Here to Apply
San Francisco, CA, US	Unity Technologies	Senior Graphics Engineer (XR)	Click Here to Apply
London, UK	Facebook	Technical Program Manager, Social VR	Click Here to Apply

As always, if there was nothing in this week’s feature that was a good fit for you, you can always look at the previous edition of The VR Job Hub.

Check back with VRFocus next Sunday at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the industry.

May 25, 2018

Living Wine Labels Celebrates National Wine Day With Auggie Award Nomination

The 25th May is National wine Day in the United States. Many will be celebrating this with a nice glass or red or white, perhaps even enhancing the experience with some virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) such as that provided by the Living Wine Labels app, which has recently got an award nomination.

An increasing number of alcoholic beverage producers have started turning to immersive technologies in a bid to attract customer attention. One of the world’s largest wine companies, Treasury Wines Estates, turned to Unity Technologies to create AR wine labels.

The result is called Living Wine Labels, which allows brands such as Chateau St. Jean’s Chardonnay and Chateau St. Jean’s Sparkling Brut Blanc de Blancs to bring the user interesting and informative AR content, such as showing the history of the vinyard the wine came from, or supplying tasting notes for the wine.

That’s not all, though, there are more esoteric usrs for the technology, including some pop culture such as Walking Dead wine, where using the Living Wine Labels app brings Sheriff Rick from the Waling Dead TV show into your room to battle the zombies again.

Living Wine Labels has just been announced as a finalist for the Best Campaign at the 2018 Auggie Awards. 2018 will be the ninth year that the Auggie Awards have run, celebrating the best in AR and VR. The winners will be presented at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, which is due to run from 30th May – 1st June, 2018.

“For almost a decade, AWE has recognized hundreds of exceptionally talented and profoundly influential AR and VR technologists whose work is changing the world,” said Ori Inbar, co-founder and executive producer of AWE. “This year’s submissions—the largest number in AWE history including many by giant companies —represent an incredibly diverse and competitive assortment of achievements. These finalists illustrate the XR technologies and use cases with the greatest potential to impact our lives.”

Further information on the Living Wine Labels app can be found on the official website. As always VRFocus will continue to bring you the latest news on VR and AR content.