The AR company is building its own Lightship AR Developer Kit and will soon release it globally for all the developers across the world.
Only a few years ago, location-based AR games such as Pikmin and Pokémon Go took the world by storm. The first of its kind, these games became immensely popular across the planet for their unique experience and design. The company behind these games, Niantic, is one of the biggest names in the domain of augmented reality. And since their origin, they have explored and contributed to the growth of AR technology.
In their latest effort to develop the domain further, Niantic has announced that they are all set to make their exclusive Lightship AR toolkit available for one and all. An attempt to expand its ever-growing metaverse, it would help the developers from across the world build more engaging AR content, games, and experiences more easily.
Starting this week, developers will have free access to Niantic’s AR tools via Lightship platform, the cross-platform space of the company. Using this toolkit, developers will now be able to build their own location-based AR games and experiences for both iOS and Android devices.
According to Niantic, the ARDK supports the top three augmented reality features, namely Real-time Mapping, Sharing, as well as Understanding. This will help developers to create true-to-life AR content utilizing a vast range of AR features, including Multiplayer, real-time 3D mesh, and Occlusion APIs.
In their official press release, Niantic explained how this toolkit will help developers. According to the company, Sharing is one of the most critical components of making AR experiences feel realistic. On the other hand, the Multiplayer feature will enable the experiences to become more connected. The Multiplayer APIs of the ARDK will allow developers to create AR sessions that will support up to five players in remote locations connect concurrently. This will make the experience more collaborative and interactive that feels more seamless and realistic, keeping all the players, their interactions, as well as the virtual content in sync, that too in real-time.
John Hanke, CEO and Founder of Niantic stated that transforming humanity’s relationship with emerging technology by merging the virtual and physical worlds would require fresh perspectives and innovative ideas from as many people as possible. This is the reason the company is optimistic about the global release of the AR toolkit, for developers can now use the same technology that Niantic uses for their incredible AR games and experiences to build their own AR content. Together, the efforts will push the boundaries of the potential that augmented reality promises to mankind.
The press release also informed that Niantic has already started working in collaboration with several eminent organisations as part of developing the private beta of the ARDK. The list includes big names such as the PGA, TRIPP, Science Museum Group, Warner Music Group, and Coachella.
The company also announced that it has launched a new investment program called Niantic Ventures that will help raise funds for supporting indie AR developers. As part of the project, Niantic will be contributing an ambitious fund of $20 million towards building its real-world metaverse.
