In the summer of 2016, the Pokémon Go location-based augmented reality game was released for iOS and Android devices. It quickly became a worldwide phenomenon as one of the most popular and profitable mobile apps in 2016. Pokémon Go uses GPS to identify your location and reveal nearby virtual Pokémon characters, superimposed on the live video feed on your screen. You flick a Pokéball towards a Pokémon to capture it.
AR and games are a natural fit for many reasons. Mobile games have been a major driver in the adoption of mobile devices and have become a huge market in itself. Adding AR features to games can be seen as an extension to mobile apps, rather than a new category. We anticipate that, as more devices become AR enabled, including mobile phones and tablets as well as wearable AR smartglasses, games will again be an important driver for adoption and proliferation of these devices.
In this chapter, we will build an AR ball game that uses your coffee table or desk as the ball court stage. Players try to throw balls and make a basket or goal. The app will track the table surface and recognize real physical objects on the desk as obstacles that can occlude (hide) the virtual ball and bounce off.
In this chapter, you will learn about:
- Using Unity physics engine and materials
- Screen space user interaction
- Layered event driven architecture
- Using AR object terrain recognition