If you are interested in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) as well as in the possibilities that these technologies promise in the graphic field, hold fast. At the developer conference Unite Berlin, Unity presented new tools designed specifically for augmented reality that promise to bring AR to a higher level.

Project Mars will come by autumn

By autumn a new extension for Unity called Project Mars (Mixed and augmented reality studio, ed) will allow developers to create AR apps “which works in and react to real-world”, according to Timoni West, in charge of XR Research at Unity Labs. “We do not want you to think only about building on a device or building on a console – explained West – we want you to think about how to create apps that interact in the real world”.

Simulation View for AR facia expressions

Apps added West, “that work in the way we want Augmented Reality to act, sensitive to the context, flexible, customizable, to work in space”. It sounds very interesting, but what does it mean in practice? For example regarding the reproduction of facial expressions in AR the Simulation View component allows a developer to see how the effects work in real-time through a connected camera.

Facial AR Remote Component for iPhone X

Whit Facial AR Remote Component, developers and creators can capture digital recordings of high quality live movements via a video camera TrueDepth on iPhone X. Unity offers 52 different blend forms to match the actor’s facial expressions with those of the animated character. The acquired recordings can then be cropped and merged in Unity Editor, reducing the number of cuts that an actor must record to get to the final version.

A similar device also from Unreal

Commenting on the news on Twitter, some users have remembered how Unreal had first launched a similar device. The difference is that Unity used ARKit on iPhoneX while Unreal opted for a complete professional plant with infrared cameras and markers on the face of the actor, with prices starting at 199$.

Unity: news or relaunch of an old plugin?

According to other users, however, Unity just relaunched an old third-party plugin (Ulsee) which costs 500$ and captures only a single face without even using all the markers.

Btw, many developers and creatives seemed genuinely excited by the news just announced by Unreal and it is probable that we will see a new flow of content created through these devices in the coming months.

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