Augmented Reality (AR) is a new rage these days. It is a growing technology that has taken our world by storm because of the endless possibilities. From using Snapchat and Instagram filters to selecting the furniture that looks best in your room, AR is everywhere. And this is just the beginning.
We expect the AR market to become even more significant in the coming years. Businesses and industries are beginning to use AR in their apps. The applications include various activities such as virtual shopping, education, and gaming, etc. They offer customers a highly interactive experience. Therefore, it enhances user engagement.
For these businesses, it is essential to select the best toolkits to build an AR app.
Among the toolkits suitable for building an AR app, two outstanding options are AR Foundation and Vuforia. Both tools have strong points. However, we will discuss a few differences here. This information will give you an overall view of both toolkits. Therefore, it is easy for you to choose the best for your business.
What Is Vuforia Augmented Reality Support?
Vuforia is another toolkit that makes AR apps. It focuses on manufacturing industrial applications. Also, it is an old and well-established company that has been around since 1985. PTC owns Vuforia. They offer advanced developer tools that set it one step ahead of the AR Foundation.
More About Vuforia
PTC is an American public computer software and services company. Currently, it is worth over $1 billion in revenue. With over 6,000 workers on its payroll, PTC successfully manages Vuforia. Its developers can upload their models, object scans, and images on Vuforia. Their systems use computer vision algorithms to detect uploaded projects. Overall, the company runs an integrated system that delivers exceptional AR apps.
This toolkit also supports devices that run Android version 6.0 or above and iOS 9.0 or above. However, Vuforia would only detect objects you provide targets for recognition. You can use it alongside ARKit, ARCore, or AR Foundation through the Vuforia Engine Library to enhance the Vuforia experience.
Vuforia is an excellent platform for business-oriented projects. Developers use it to create unconventional workflows in different industries. Also, to increase workforce effectiveness, you can use tools like Vuforia Expert Capture and Vuforia Chalk. These tools help you create AR instructions easily.
Another outstanding feature of Vuforia is its free developer tier. This developer tier has 1000 cloud recognitions and 1000 targets per month with Vuforia watermarks. In addition, you can buy their paid plans. The package includes 1000 cloud recognitions and 100,000 targets for an affordable monthly fee.
Pros
- Supports Android, iOS, unity editor, and UWP
- Well-known AR company
- Extensive guidelines on their website
Cons
- Watermarked cloud recognition on the free developer tier
About AR Foundation
AR Foundation is more fixated on using AR to develop gaming applications.
AR rose to popularity after Apple and Google introduced their toolkits for AR app development. These kits are the ARKit and ARCore. Apple engineers designed the ARKit while Google developed ARCore.
While ARKit is only compatible with iOS devices, Google’s ARCore can help create AR apps for iOS and Android. However, both the kits can work with unity, java, and unreal.
An example of an AR app developed by ARKit is the IKEA Mobile App. Also, ARCore played a major role in developing the eBay app. These have enabled sellers to use AR technology to properly analyze products on this site.
Essentially, the AR Foundation is a framework that helps you build AR apps using core features from multiple platforms, such as ARKit and ARCore. This means you can develop your app in Unity3D and use it on iOS and Android. Moreover, using the pre-built features of ARKit and ARCore helps you avoid building your app from scratch.
The company, Over the Edge, invented the AR foundation in 2004. This happened in Denmark. The founders operate under a mother company named unity. It supports devices powered by Android 7.0, iOS 11, and later versions of both operating systems.
Furthermore, the best thing about AR Foundation is that you can combine features from both ARCore and ARKit to build your AR app. This allows you to be more creative as an app developer. For example, if a feature you want to use is available on one platform but not the other, you can switch apps. AR Foundation will activate hooks to enable the feature on the other platforms, which you can use by updating your packages.
Pros
- Uses features from both ARKit and ARCore toolkits
- Suitable for both iOS and Android AR application
- Vast community
- Great for creating AR apps for gaming
Cons
- Preferable for AR for gaming apps rather than manufacturing and industrial applications
- The Unity 3D Pro license is expensive
Similarities Between AR Foundation and Vuforia
Although AR Foundation and Vuforia differ in several aspects, a few of their features are similar. For example, developers can build these toolkits on iOS and Android devices.
Moreover, AR Foundation and Vuforia both have extensive information on their websites.
Also, AR Foundation features support documentation, a roadmap, and marketing literature. These features help customers navigate game stores and different app platforms. Similarly, Vuforia focuses on providing information to its manufacturers. This way, they can understand how the industry works.
That said, Vuforia has a user forum with all the user-created routines the customers can use as examples. Similarly, AR Foundation’s website features several videos and blogs, including an app store, with various guides.
In addition, AR Foundation also sports a site full of tutorials and training apps. Its users can access these features to help them develop the necessary skills. Apart from this, AR Foundation offers a free four-week course to guide the new users. This creates an opportunity to give them the essential expertise required to maximize its features.
Vuforia also offers online support and guidance through their PTC University. This vast Vuforia community gives you all the information you require regarding AR app building.
Differences Between AR Foundation and Vuforia
AR Foundation is a relatively new company founded in 2004, while Vuforia was founded in 1985 by PTC. However, as PTC is a well-established company and is always at the frontline of manufacturing industry technologies, Vuforia seems to be the public’s favorite.
However, the AR Foundation was founded in 2004, and it focuses primarily on gaming. Regarding experience, AR Foundation is not as exposed as Vuforia in the industrial or manufacturing sector. We attribute that to its operating methods, tailored more to the gaming world.
Apart from the tools that both platforms offer, there are other differences between AR Foundation and Vuforia that you must note.
For example, AR Foundation creates mobile apps for single users. These are mostly gaming apps. Also, the apps rely on the device’s security.
On the other hand, Vuforia is only used to make AR apps for industrial applications. These applications include Remote Service Calls, IIoT, robots, and many others. If the device is lost or misplaced, it will cause havoc. It is a bad situation because anyone can tamper with it. Consequently, people with unauthorized access can leak vital information. For this reason, Vuforia provides industrial-strength security to support its devices.
Apart from device security, the Vuforia toolkit includes heavy-duty industrial-strength solutions. These are solutions for different tasks such as field service. They also offer real-world training that can refine skills and further work instructions.
AR Foundation, on the other hand, creates mobile game apps. Therefore, it doesn’t require high-level security and doesn’t need any heavy-duty industrial solutions either.
Is the AR Foundation Better Than Vuforia?
As mentioned above, AR Foundation focuses more on the gaming world, while Vuforia focuses on industrial applications. Apart from the advantages discussed above, we have a few more things to consider. Then we can conclude on which toolkit is better.
Vuforia is one of the oldest AR development toolkits that features many essential tools. The brand offers tools such as Vuforia Engine and Vuforia Studio. A recent version of Vuforia Engine has produced advancements in markerless AR. You can now place any virtual object in a physical environment. As a result, the virtual object would be more stable than using an older version of Vuforia Engine.
Vuforia Engine is also directly integrated with Unity 3D now. This makes it a suitable tool that can be used to create AR projects within the game engine effortlessly.
Furthermore, the Vuforia Studio, on the other hand, is a drag-and-drop application. This is a seamless feature that allows you to build an AR app. And you do not need to have any coding or designing skills. With this tool, you can reduce errors, costs, and waste. You can also increase your productivity and enhance customer experience by leveraging the tool’s augmented 3D training and instructions.
While AR Foundation’s main characteristic is that you can use it on iOS and Android devices, Vuforia surpasses this toolkit with its multiple features. Not only is it easier to use, but you can primarily use it to track images and objects. The latter feature allows it to recognize different objects like boxes and planes.
Vuforia’s other significant feature is VuMark. This feature is a blend of pictures and QR codes.
Developers can scan the QR code and then use it to create object targets with the help of Vuforia Object Scanner.
In conclusion, Vuforia is a better option than AR Foundation because it is easier to use. It also has versatile features. You can use Vuforia with both iOS and Android.
How Do You Use the AR Foundation With Vuforia?
Sometimes, businesses would require the features of both AR Foundation and Vuforia. This can help them use the vertical planes. For example, you can apply the vertical planes from the AR Foundation in the Vuforia platform if necessary. In such cases, you will need to combine these two features and use them simultaneously. To perform such a task, you should meet these requirements:
- A development or pro license
- AR Foundation version 4.0 or above
- Vuforia engine version 9.5 or above
- ARKit and ARCore
It should be noted that HoloLens, UWP Tablets, and Magic Leap devices are unsupported for this integration.
Go to the package manager to add Vuforia to the AR Foundation scene. First, download the retrieval script from Vuforia’s developer portal as a custom package and then import it. You will see the Vuforia engine in the package manager now.
Follow these steps to add AR Foundation to Vuforia:
- First, open the package manager window again.
- Search for the AR Foundation package in the list in the unity registry.
- After you find it, click and start the Installation.
You should know that to use Vuforia and AR Foundation side by side, both platforms must have all their components in the scene. Also, there should only be one AR camera game object in the background, and this is the AR Foundation’s AR camera.
Also, if you want to use Vuforia Engine targets in AR Foundation, you should ensure that at least one Vuforia target is present in the scene during the app-building time. The program does not support adding targets from runtime to scripting.
Conclusion
Augmented reality has significantly enhanced the features of existing apps. However, you need to have more than simple coding skills to engage your users and gain revenue. AR Foundation and Vuforia are two fantastic toolkits that quickly help you create an AR application. Both platforms have their pros and cons, discussed in this article. Which one is better, though?
While AR Foundation is best for creating gaming apps and employs the features of both ARKit and ARCore, Vuforia is faster, well-known, and more capable of handling complicated tasks.
Finally, Vuforia may seem better than AR Foundation, but in the end, it depends on what kind of an AR app you are developing. That would determine the toolkit you should choose.
