Is the iOS/ARKit support just a pet project for someone at Epic or is there real support for this?
I have been working for a couple of weeks in 4.18 and the ARKit integration is fragmented at best. Where is the camera component from 4.17? Where is the documentation?
I am genuinely evaluating UnrealEngine vs. Unity. If there is only a half effort in supporting it I need to move on. Unity is making leaps and bounds in mobile AR and it would be sad if Epic stood idly by and let them take it. The end-product quality is here. I would love to stay with UE4 but most importantly, I need a reliable engine to build on.
It sucks for me as well, here at my company we do more stuff in Unity than Unreal, I was tasked with some small AR game project to be done with Unreal, however compared to how Unity handles AR, Unreal is still far behind imo. I really don’t want to switch to Unity as I hope Unreal will catch up.
You can see somewhat complains on discord, other threads, answer hub. More of questions than complains tbh.
As far as I’m concerned it’s not about complaining over something, it’s more about getting some info and feedback as to how to handle stuff that’s been developed by the guys at Epic. It is fresh that’s correct, however ARKit been implemented into the engine around September afair and still it seems like it is indeed a pet project rather than proper integration.
Indeed, you’ll find many post by me badgering on about AR in Unreal, I really really want to use it both for my work and my own joy, I’m even going to buy a new iPad Pro just because of it but there’s next to no documentation on it and no clear clarification of peoples questions.
I guess all we can do is look at Unity, see what they offer and move on if we feel so.
I’d like to add my name to this list. ARKit looks likes something that could help bring AR to the masses, yet I’m finding surprisingly little documentation on how to use it in Unreal Engine 4. I’m researching AR for my company and may have to look into Unity or some other AR tech if I can’t find any support in UE4, which is what I’m currently used to using.
Has anyone successfully used the ARSample file in 4.18? I simply downloaded, opened, and packaged for iOS. The app won’t launch on my iphone 6s. The unreal launch screen comes up, and then the app closes immediately.
I tried it but was not able to launch it on my iPhone to test. I’m not by any means an expert, but from the research I did it appears that the test file may have some code that can only be compiled on a mac with xcode, so that could be why it wasn’t working on my Windows PC. What I did instead was follow the following tutorial:
There’s a couple of steps no longer needed, as the video is using an earlier version of UE4 ARKit support: under project settings you’ll need to check “Start in AR”, you won’t need to add an AppleARKitCamera component to your pawn, and you don’t need to create a skybox with a camera material–ARKIT takes care of that. The issue I’m having now though is that although I can place objects in AR by tapping on the screen, the objects are only ever placed in the original region where your camera was pointing when you launched the app, no matter where you tap on the screen afterwards. There’s very little support out there for ARKit in UE4 so I’m basically trying to figure out what I can and pray that more tutorials are added later.
Many thanks Chance, is it even possible? As from what I see ARKit uses xCode so you’d need a mac just for that right? unless Unreal has it included like the Android SDK installers and so forth?
Thanks Chance for your input, it’s good to have you taking care of community management for VR/AR development. I personally am working with 4.17 ARKit integration since to me it’s more robust. Yeah I know, what am I saying, the thing is 4.18 integration improved some things, but at the same time is missing some vital points, which for instance prevents from doing some even simple alignment plane projection to spawn anything in the world (basing my tests on old 4.17 sample project).
As for compiling with mac, to anyone waiting for it to not be required on the engine side. It’d be easier for you just to get virtual machine with OSX running for compiling your stuff. Although in 4.17 it is quite bothersome when it comes to setting it up, then in 4.18 it doesn’t bring any problems at all. Setting up virtual machine is easy as well, hook me up if you’d need any help with that.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m in the same boat. But as a long time beta-tester (Modo) i also have a heart for the devs. and learned that these guys have a hard time to get it all working =)
Understandable, we are, in the end, developing software with the help of Epic’s software after all. It is obvious it takes time to get all of it working properly and fully. That’s why everyone should be working with what’s currently available. Although communication needs to be present.
Thank you for the link - this is actually the sample file I have been working from. Oddly, I am able to open the sample file, make no modifications, import my provision & certificate, setup remote build for a macincloud server, successfully package the project with no errors, and STILL when I install on my iphone and launch the app, it opens the UE4 splash screen, and them promptly closes with no error messages. Any thoughts on how to dissect what’s going wrong?