Book Image

Learn ARCore - Fundamentals of Google ARCore

Book Image

Learn ARCore - Fundamentals of Google ARCore

Overview of this book

Are you a mobile developer or web developer who wants to create immersive and cool Augmented Reality apps with the latest Google ARCore platform? If so, this book will help you jump right into developing with ARCore and will help you create a step by step AR app easily. This book will teach you how to implement the core features of ARCore starting from the fundamentals of 3D rendering to more advanced concepts such as lighting, shaders, Machine Learning, and others. We’ll begin with the basics of building a project on three platforms: web, Android, and Unity. Next, we’ll go through the ARCore concepts of motion tracking, environmental understanding, and light estimation. For each core concept, you’ll work on a practical project to use and extend the ARCore feature, from learning the basics of 3D rendering and lighting to exploring more advanced concepts. You’ll write custom shaders to light virtual objects in AR, then build a neural network to recognize the environment and explore even grander applications by using ARCore in mixed reality. At the end of the book, you’ll see how to implement motion tracking and environment learning, create animations and sounds, generate virtual characters, and simulate them on your screen.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Title Page
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Light estimation


Light estimation is a technique for replicating the lighting conditions of the real world and applying it to our 3D virtual objects. Ideally, we would like to be able to replicate the exact lighting conditions, but of course, we're not there yet. ARCore currently uses an image analysis algorithm to determine light intensity based on the current image from the device. This is then applied as global light to the 3D objects in the scene. Open up Unity again and let's see how this is done by following along the given steps:

  1. Locate the AndyMaterial again and revert its shader to ARCore/DiffuseWithLightEstimation.
  2. Save the project (File | Save Project).
  3. Connect your device and type Ctrl + B (command + B on Mac) to build and run the app on your device. Place a couple of Andy models and alter the lighting conditions. Note how our objects respond to the changes in lighting.
  4. Go back to Unity and double-click on the HelloAR scene in the Assets/GoogleARCore/HelloARExample/Scenes folder...