AR foundations and ARCore

AR foundation and ARCore are related technologies in Augmented Reality (AR) development. AR foundation includes a specific ARCore provider that allows you to leverage the ARCore capabilities while using AR foundation as the development framework in Unity. When building AR applications for Android, the ARCore provider acts as the bridge between the Unity engine and the ARCore platform.

AR foundation

AR foundation is a high-level Unity framework developed by Unity Technologies. It allows you to create AR applications that run on multiple AR platforms with a single codebase. It acts as an abstraction layer and provides a unified API for AR development, which works across ARKit for iOS, ARCore for Android, and other AR platforms.

It simplifies the process of developing AR applications by hiding the platform-specific differences, which allows you to focus on building AR experiences using a consistent set of APIs. With AR foundation, you can access many AR features like plane detection, object tracking, raycasting, and more.

ARCore

ARCore is a platform developed by Google that provides AR capabilities for Android devices. It allows you to create AR applications for Android smartphones and tablets by using features such as motion tracking, environmental understanding, and light estimation.

ARCore uses the device’s camera, motion sensors, and processing power to enable AR experiences, which allows virtual content to be placed and interacted with in the real world. It supports various AR features like image recognition and using AR foundation surface detection, making it a powerful tool for creating immersive AR experiences on your Android device.

Conclusion

The ARCore provider in AR foundation handles the communication and interaction between Unity's rendering engine, the device's camera, motion sensors, and ARCore SDK. It abstracts the platform-specific functionality of ARCore and provides a standard set of APIs that you can use to create AR experiences in Unity.

By using AR foundation with the ARCore provider, you can write AR code that works on both ARKit (iOS) and ARCore (Android) platforms. This cross-platform compatibility allows you to target a wider audience and ensures a consistent AR experience on different devices.

In summary, AR foundation, with the ARCore provider, serves as a bridge between Unity and ARCore, allowing you to build AR applications that run on Android devices while benefiting from the simplified development workflow provided by AR foundation.