How to build an Augmented Reality app in less than 15 minutes

Whether you’re a seasoned mobile app developer looking to dabble in AR, or a designer exploring the world of 3D, this tutorial is for you.

1. Sign up for 8th Wall. Go to 8thwall.com to create your free account.
2. Download your tools: Xcode (or Android Studio), Unity®, 8th Wall XR for Unity®, and the Demo Unity Project can be found here.
3. Add 8th Wall XR to Unity®. Uncompress xr-unity-master.zip or find the cloned xr-unity repository. Within that folder, open the Demo Unity Project:

open projects/8thWallXR-Demo/Assets/Scenes/Main.unity

After Unity loads, select the Demo Unity Project to open it:

You may receive this warning when opening the project, just click Continue:

Download 8th Wall XR for Unity and add it to your Unity project by opening the .unityplugin. A progress bar will appear as it's loaded. Once finished, a window will display the contents of the XR package. Leave all of the boxes checked and click 'Import:'

4. Generate your app key. Inside your 8th Wall Dashboard, click on Get an App Key, then +Create a New App Key. This will be the bundle identifier for the app you will be building.

Add your App Key to the Unity Project:

• On the Applications page, copy the App Key for your application
• In Unity, go to the XR → App Key Settings
• Paste your key into the App Key field
• Verify that the bundle identifier of your app matches com.your-company-name.XRDemoApp
• Go to File -> Save Project to save these settings.

IMPORTANT: Before moving to the next step, please navigate away from the XRAppSettings panel. Simply select any asset or GameObject in your scene (i.e Click on Main Camera). There is a race condition in Unity related to AssetDatabase.SaveAssets() that can cause Unity to crash.

5. Build and run your AR app.

• In Unity, go to File → Build Settings and click “Add Open Scenes”
• Under Platform, select either iOS or Android
• Click “Build and Run”

And, voila! You’ve just built your very own Augmented Reality app 🙌🏾

Follow the full tutorial here to learn how to manipulate features and controllers.