Apple’s easy to incorporate Augmented Reality development Platform for iOS mobile devices, ARKit

Introduction

Making AR(Augmented Reality) experience easier, ARKit integrates device motion tracking, camera scene capture, powerful image processing, and display conveniences. Using these technologies and an iOS device’s front or rear camera, you may create a variety of AR experiences.
Apple’s ARKit is a suite of software development tools that allow developers to create augmented reality apps for iOS as well as upgrade existing AR apps.

Note: ARKit is only supported by mobile devices with A9 or later processors (iPhone 6s/7/SE/8/X, iPad 2017/Pro) on iOS 11 and newer. For some features iOS 12 or newer is required.

Usage

Depend on it

Follow the installation instructions from Dart Packages site.

Update Info.plist

ARKit uses the device camera, so do not forget to provide the NSCameraUsageDescription. You may specify it in Info.plist like that:

    <key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
    <string>Describe why your app needs AR here.</string>

Update Podfile

At the top level of the ios folder uncomment the second line in the Podfile and change the iOS minimum version from 9.0 to the appropriate one. The minimum supported iOS version is 11.0, though if you need image anchors use 11.3, for image tracking configuration or face tracking set 12.0, and for body tracking minimum version must be 13.0.

From:

# platform :ios, '9.0'

To:

platform :ios, '11.0'

NOTE: If when running for the first time you get a cocoapods error, delete the Podfile.lock file in the ios folder. Open the ios folder in the terminal and run:

pod install

Write the app

The simplest code example:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:arkit_plugin/arkit_plugin.dart';
import 'package:vector_math/vector_math_64.dart';

void main() => runApp(MaterialApp(home: MyApp()));

class MyApp extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _MyAppState createState() => _MyAppState();
}

class _MyAppState extends State<MyApp> {
  late ARKitController arkitController;

  @override
  void dispose() {
    arkitController.dispose();
    super.dispose();
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) => Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(title: const Text('ARKit in Flutter')),
      body: ARKitSceneView(onARKitViewCreated: onARKitViewCreated));

  void onARKitViewCreated(ARKitController arkitController) {
    this.arkitController = arkitController;
    final node = ARKitNode(
        geometry: ARKitSphere(radius: 0.1), position: Vector3(0, 0, -0.5));
    this.arkitController.add(node);
  }
}

Result:

Examples

I would highly recommend to review the sample from the Example folder inside the plugin. Some samples rely on this Earth image

If you prefer video here is a playlist with “AR in Flutter” videos:

UX advice

You might want to check the device capabilities before establishing an AR session. Review the Check Support sample for the implementation details.

If your app requires placing objects consider using coaching overlays. Review the Custom Object sample for the implementation details.

Before you go to AppStore

The plugin supports TrueDepth API. In case you didn’t use it, your app will be rejected by Apple. Hence you need to remove any TrueDepth functionality by modifying your Podfile file

post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    target.build_configurations.each do |config|
      ... # Here are some configurations automatically generated by flutter

      config.build_settings['OTHER_SWIFT_FLAGS'] = '-DDISABLE_TRUEDEPTH_API'
    end
  end
end

FAQ

• Is it possible to use this plugin on Android?
  No, as ARKit is not available on Android. You might want to try ARCore plugin instead.
• My app crashes when I open the AR scene several times. Why?
  Most probably that’s because you didn’t call dispose method on the ARKit controller.
• One of the features I need is merged in the repository, but is not available on pub.dev. How can I use the latest version?
  You may use the latest version by changing the pubspec.yaml dependency to:

dependencies:
  arkit_plugin:
    git: git://github.com/olexale/arkit_flutter_plugin.git

Contributing

If you find a bug or would like to request a new feature, just open an issue. Your contributions are always welcome!

GitHub

Source Code: flutter_ARKit.