Unity AR Foundation
Unity AR Foundation is a cross-platform framework for building augmented reality (AR) applications in Unity, providing a unified API to target multiple AR platforms like ARKit (iOS), ARCore (Android), and Magic Leap. It abstracts platform-specific implementations, allowing developers to write AR code once and deploy to various devices without major rewrites. The framework includes core AR features such as plane detection, image tracking, face tracking, and environment understanding.
Developers should use Unity AR Foundation when building AR applications that need to run on multiple platforms (e.g., iOS and Android) to reduce development time and maintenance costs by avoiding platform-specific code. It is ideal for projects like interactive marketing apps, educational tools, or industrial simulations where cross-platform compatibility is essential. Learning it is valuable for Unity developers entering the AR space, as it leverages Unity's ecosystem and simplifies AR development with a consistent workflow.