Shared AR

Use Lightship ARDK to create AR experiences that multiple users can participate in. Users can use your app to locate and orient themselves in the same AR space, and then use that shared space to collaborate in virtual activities.

Your shared AR experience can involve users interacting with a shared AR environment at the same time. For example, you could create an AR game where multiple players manipulate virtual objects in the same real-world location. Players can see virtual representations of each other in the shared environment, along with seeing how other players are manipulating the virtual objects in real-time.

To ensure all clients can interact in a shared AR environment, clients must synchronize using mapping data from the environment generated by ARDK. This involves scanning the environment to create mapping data that all clients can synchronize to. This process is also known as AR localization. ARDK provides:

• Shared environment localization, where clients scan and synchronize with a common object in their environment.

• MarkerSync localization, where clients use a visual marker, such as a QR-Code, to synchronize to the same shared space.

To communicate with the ARDK backend (for AR localization and session management) and with clients in the same shared AR environment, ARDK provides a networked AR session and several APIs for communicating between clients.

• For easily communicating virtual object changes across multiple clients in a shared AR session, ARDK provides a high-level networking API (HLAPI).

• For communicating between clients in a shared AR session where you need more customized network messaging, ARDK provides a low-level networking API via the IMultipeerNetworking interface (LLAPI).

Next Steps

• Getting Started with Shared AR

• Setting Up a Networked AR Session

• Localizing With a Shared Environment

• Localizing With Marker Sync

• Sharing Virtual Object Information