Quickstart for ARCore Extensions for iOS

Get started with building your iOS apps using AR Foundation.

About AR Foundation

AR Foundation is Unity's high-level, cross platform API to support Augmented Reality. AR Foundation lets you write your app once, and build for either Android or iOS.

Requirements

Hardware

• ARKit compatible device that is also supported by ARCore.

• A USB cable to connect your device to your development machine.

Software

• Unity 2019.4.3f1 or later with iOS Build Support

  The following Unity packages will be installed automatically by the Unity Package Manager dependency management system when you install the ARCore Extensions package in the next step:

  • AR Foundation 4.1.5 or later

  • ARKit XR Plugin 4.1.5 or later

  You may encounter compatibility issues if you do not use these versions

• Xcode 11.0 or later

Create a new project and install the ARCore Extensions package

1. Download the latest arcore-unity-extensions-*.tgz from the GitHub releases page.

2. Open Unity and create a new 3D project.

3. Import ARCore Extensions into your project:

   1. Open the Package Manager (choose Window > Package Manager).

   2. In the top left corner of the Package Manager, click the + (plus) button. Choose Add package from tarball…

   3. Locate the downloaded arcore-unity-extensions-*.tgz tarball, then click Open.

   4. Wait a moment while Unity installs this and dependent packages into your project.

4. Choose Window > Package Manager, and install ARKit XR Plugin package version 4.1.5 or later (required for building iOS apps).

   When upgrading your project from an earlier version of Unity to Unity 2019.1 or later, verify the following setting:

   Setting	Value
   Player Settings > Other Settings > Script Runtime Version	.Net 4.x Equivalent or higher

Configure project settings

1. Select File > Build Settings.
2. Select iOS and click Switch Platform.
3. In the Build Settings window, click Player Settings.
4. In the Inspector window, open the Other Settings menu.
5. Configure the following settings:

   Setting	Value
   Player Settings > Other Settings > Bundle Identifier	Add your app's name in a reverse DNS format. For example, use com.mycompany.myapp
   Player Settings > Other Settings > Camera usage description	Enter a description to explain your use of AR (for example, ARKit).
   Player Settings > Other Settings > Target minimum iOS version	11.0 or higher
   Player Settings > Other Settings > Architecture	ARM64

6. Go to Edit > Project Settings and click XR Plug-in Management.
7. Select ios and click ARKit under the Plug-in Providers table.

Build and launch the app

Your development environment is now configured for targeting iOS for ARCore Extensions for AR Foundation.

You can use the following steps for building and launching your own ARCore apps targeting iOS.

Build for iOS

1. In Unity, click Build and select an output folder for your iOS Xcode project. An Xcode project is generated.

2. Locate and open the generated Unity-iPhone.xcworkspace workspace file in Xcode.

   Note: The Unity-iPhone.xcodeproj project file doesn't contain the required iOS dependencies. To avoid build errors, you must open and build from the xcworkspace file instead of the xcodeproj project file.

3. In Xcode, select the Unity iOS project in the left pane, connect your device, and launch your app.

Next steps

• Review Runtime Considerations.
• Review Design Guidelines.
• Review Cloud Anchors developer guide for ARCore Extensions.