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Introduction to AR in Unity - Setting up your developing environment

Please notice that this is the first of a series of tutorials progressing from basic concepts to more functional and complex projects.

Aims

This tutorial aims to get you started creating AR applications using Unity and the Vuforia plug-in.

Prerequisites

  1. Download and install Unity 2019.2.0.
    Previous versions might also work, this tutorial was made using Unity 2019.2 Please be advised to also download the Android and/or the IOS build support as you will need them to create the compiled file of your project (please read instructions below).

  2. Create a Unity personal account. To use Unity you will have to create our own account as you will be prompted to login when you start running the software.

About the Vuforia Engine

As of 2017.2, Unity integrates the Vuforia Engine, this SDK allows you to easily create AR applications that you can deploy on both Android and IOS devices.

Installing Android and/or IOS build support

In order to compile mobile applications on your computer, you will need to make sure to download the Androir and/or the IOS build support, please notice that you will need to use a MAC computer with Xcode installed if you want to create a AR project for Iphone or Ipad as IOS build is not supported on Windows PCs. AR-vuforia-setup1-f.png

When trying to install either of these SDKs you might find your self in two different situations, on one hand, you might have Unity already installed on your computer and you are missing the SDKs or you are doing a "fresh" Unity installation, both situations require slightly different procedures that will be explained in the following lines.

New Unity installation

ToFirst installwe bothrecommend the Android and IOS build support you should useinstalling the Unity HUB,HUB ideally,as youit shouldwill installmake themyour life a lot easier when installing yourand using Unity copy,2019, once the HUB is installed you just need to go to the Unity 2019.2 beta page and clic on the button thas says "Install version from Unity HUB" this will automatically open the HUB and then run the installation wizard. You will see a list of all the available Unity components, you just need to make sure you tickthat the boxAndroid forand your desired component whilst followingor the UnityIOS installationbuild steps.support is selected befor continuing with the installation.

AR-vuforia-setup1-b.png

Getting started