The future of the world as seen through various sci-fi movies, games and theories is becoming more and more believable with the passage of time. With the exponential advancement in technology, our minds are constantly thinking about how it’s going to change our world in the coming years. Mixed and Augmented Reality Studio (MARS) was introduced at Unity’s Berlin event this month (June 2018) where Unity revealed that the tool would support devs in building apps, which interact with any real-world environment intelligently.
“The motto for this project is reality is our build target. We don’t want you to think about building to a console or phone – we want you to start thinking about how you can create experiences that truly take advantage of the real world.”
~ Unity 3d
In its present state, AR apps are still bound by the constraints of the real world. Most augmented reality applications till now have not taken advantage of the full scale of the technology, thereby limiting the software design and resulting user experience. Project MARS, on the other hand, is designed particularly for AR and will enable devs to create more robust apps. The new toolset is expected to raise the bar for AR apps and lets devs create augmented reality experiences without the need for customized coding.
The new AR extension also brings a Simulation View feature, letting devs see the effects of their work in real time, not to mention the awesome features of creating AR scenes and face masks inside the editor. A sample scene was released to showcase the amazing capabilities of the software.
Spatial conditions such as proximity, elevation and plane size can be easily defined with the new AR-specific gizmos without needing precise measurements or custom code. Instead of building the entire world from scratch, MARS help devs solve this challenge by incorporating easily creatable AR experiences.
Although a date hasn’t been announced yet, Project MARS is expected to be released as an experimental package later this year.