Designium’s winning projects in the Lenslist x Lightship Template Challenge
Building a Better Future with AR
CONTENTS
- Introduction
- In-depth Study of the Winning Projects
- Magic Flashlight
- VPS Geocaching
- AR Comic
- Conclusion
- Editorial Note
Introduction
Lightship Templates help developers quickly and easily start building with Lightship with less code and more creativity. Therefore, Niantic offical teamed up with the folks at Lenslist to hold the Lenslist x Lightship Template challenge. During the challenge, over 95 developers came together to build with Lightship. The winners are determined based on originality, innovation, execution of ARDK features, attractiveness of the demo and quality/reliability of the build. The Designium is very honored to receive three awards in this challenge.
In-depth Study of the Winning Projects
Augmented Reality (AR) is to explore and interact with virtual objects placed in the real world by mobile phones. We can find some applications, such as displaying information, placing virtual objects to decorate the environment, using geospatial information to play games, etc., to provide various entertainment and services for life. AR technology allows us to complete thousands of imaginations of the real world.
Therefore, based on our development experience, the way to open an AR project can be simply broken down into four steps:
Start with an idea.
Because AR is inseparable from the real world, all AR projects are based on the integration of the real world and the AR world. So the first thing to start an AR project is to prepare a good IDEA.
Pre-production stage — Proof of concept (POC)
Sharing the idea with others is a great way to see if it’s worth pursuing. Confirm that the core function can be implemented with simple visual elements, then share a test video to get people’s feedback. If the idea resonates with everyone, it can move on to the next step.
Production stage — Improve the quality
In this step, it focuses on refining the experience by considering UI and UX to extend the full-featured design, visual effects, 3D models, animations, sound effects, and more. During the production process, we are constantly reviewing, modifying and testing the fusion of all elements.
Take a good demo video.
When the work can be presented smoothly, it is important to shoot a compelling and persuasive demo video! The content of the video is not only from seeing the actual operation scenario to showing the operation process, but also can not ignore that the viewers should have fun when watching the video!
Next, we will introduce our winning projects around these four steps.
Grand Prize Winner — Magic Flashlight
The concept behind the “Magic Flashlight” was to create an experience that prompts users to find hidden clues and information at a VPS-activated location. Developer Alexson Chu wanted to create a world where there were hidden images that required a UV flashlight to bring the clues to light, similar to how UV light would reveal clues at a crime scene.
Therefore, a bad vibe scenario was built to implement this interactive pattern. Player needs to pick up the Magic Flashlight to find the hidden spell. When all the symbols are found, ghosts will be casted away! And the place will be revived with living mushrooms that will interact with your Magic Flashlight, use it to provide energy to all the different mushrooms!
On technical aspect, the area is using Lightship VPS to quickly localize a user and trigger the experience. And the flashlight is using AR Cursor Renderer for pointing reference.
All the achievement comes from Alexson believes that there are probably ghosts around us, but most people cannot see them because our dimensions do not collide. The Magic Flashlight AR game proves the idea that having a tool to “see” ghosts is cool for everyone.
Lightship VPS Winner — VPS Geocaching
“VPS Geocaching” is an AR geocaching game that hides treasures in the real world. In order to better fit the game concept, the visual design of the game hopes that there is no difference between virtual and reality. So in the practice of this idea, the most difficult thing is to build the surface overlay of the virtual object with the real object and make them integrate seamlessly. The difference between virtual and real will be invisible.
The developer Mao Wu (Kuan Ying Wu) captures the depth data and RGB color data of the real world to make the ground swell and hides treasures in the mound. And the game sets two modes according to the feature of AR, one is to play the game after scanning the activated VPS anchor, and the other is to start the game directly without VPS localization. After the game starts, a circular detection area will appear in the center of the screen. The player needs to move and search the field, and the mound can be seen in the detection area on the screen. When the mound appears within the detection range, quickly press the dig button to dig out the hidden treasure. Also, the mound is like small animals that hide and move underground, it will move around the activated VPS area. You have to be smart and fast to successfully complete the mission to find 3 hidden treasures.
On technical aspect, the AR Game uses both Lightship ARDK and Lightship VPS. A lot of time was spent tweaking the pixel density of the ground to enhance the visual effects of the blended reality without sacrificing game performance. Finally, we also tested the possibility of the uplift effect appearing on various venues, such as: ground, wall, pillar, irregular shaped objects, etc., to find the best gaming venue for film shooting.
AR Fundamentals Winner — AR Comic
Nowadays people often use filters or frames to decorate photos and videos before uploading to social media. The concept of “AR Comics” is simple. In order to take filters and frames beyond the confines of the screen, developer Mao Wu (Kuan Ying Wu) found that AR technology would allow users to place comic frames directly in the real world. This will inspire all kinds of creations using the AR comic frame in 3-dimensional space.
Considering the technical issues at an early stage, there is no need to develop new functions to implement the idea. Because the user operation steps are simply divided into “top page”, “select comic frame”, “place single or multiple comic frames”, “photograph or video”. In terms of user experience, we should pay attention to how the comic frames are placed and adjusted in the real world. And notice that the occlusion culling should work on people and surroundings according to the depth data.
When the user enters the top page of the AR Comic APP, a cursor will appear on the screen to indicate the preset placement position in the real world. Once the comic frame is selected and placed at a preset position, you can still adjust it back and forth, resize it, or clear it.
This AR work took a lot of time to test and shoot a demo video. This is also the first time for developers to use filters or frames in an AR environment. How to use it? How to place it? How is AR Comic different from other filters and frames because of the AR features in AR Comics? Again and again the testing experience turned into the opinions for updating the next version. In order to edit the most suitable demo video, the developer took countless shots under different scenarios and various AR comic frame placements. To sum up, the feature of experiencing “AR Comic” is to record life or interact with these comic frames, and use the real world to create your own comic strip.
Conclusion
In the process of making AR works, we feel that the AR world is full of infinite possibilities. It can be fun, or it can be practical. Various fields can be applied or assisted by AR. The most common uses today include: sports events, music events, fashion events, museum guides and displays, brand marketing…etc. You might also be wondering, developing an AR APP takes so much time to make, how can it keep up with events? An AR project requires a “reasonable production period”, and the length of production time depends on the scale and complexity of the AR project. Like this template challenge, from the release of the competition to the deadline, there is only one and a half months at most. And the accomplishment of implementing AR projects is that it is not just an APP, it will change our visual perception of reality, our usage habits, and our way of life for a long time. Please look forward to our future projects. We will continue exploring what we can do in the AR world.
EDITORIAL NOTE
I am Mary Chin (@Mutien_Mary), the writer and designer of the PR team at Designium. It is an honor to present Designium winning projects to you. The purpose of this article is to give people insight into how to build interesting AR projects from zero to one. Hope you enjoyed the reading and learning more about what we do and how we do it. If you have any ideas for cooperation, please feel free to contact us. 😉
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