Apple ARKit
Facebook AR studio
Microsoft Windows mixed reality
PTC Vuforia
Google ARCore
ARToolKit
Wikipedia
MaxST
Kudan
Xzimg
Domestic ranking
Baidu AR
Netease insight AR
Shi++EasyAR
Liangfengtai
Tianyanhe
Taixu river
Phantom AR
other
Ranking basis
Platform Bonus (Market Opportunity)
Free and Availability (Entry Threshold)
Scale and quality of developers (scale)
Performance, expressiveness and attractiveness of finished products (actual effect)
Overview of foreign AR SDK
We will explain later "why the domestic ranking is only seven".
From a practical point of view, foreign SDK rankings are actually only the top five.
Starting from the sixth ARToolKit, it is either an open source project with poor code perfection or an SDK that will be easy to use after paying, just looking at the name.
Apple ARKit
In 20 15, Apple acquired Metaio. Metaio was not inferior to Vuforia's iOS AR SDK before, but it no longer provides downloads and updates after being acquired. Metaio can be considered as the predecessor of ARKit. The number of devices supporting iOS 1 1 upgrade exceeds 1 100 million, ARKit is a binding function, and its huge market monopoly has overwhelmed other similar competitors. What is the first grade?
Facebook AR studio
The advantage also lies in the huge scale of App users, which exceeds the number of iOS devices, and the platform has self-promotion ability, which is slightly inferior to iOS 1 1. The disadvantage is that developers can only develop content for their platforms, and the commercialization rules are also formulated by the platforms. So it ranks second.
Microsoft Windows mixed reality
At present, the market share of Hololens has not been scaled up, which is the main bottleneck of Microsoft. However, with reference to the popularity of compatible hardware from third-party manufacturers in the PC era, the future prospect of hardware has great potential, and several compatible products have been put on the market recently. In addition, Microsoft's application development service system is complete, mature and compatible. The ecological foundation of the platform is very solid. So it ranks third.
PTC Vuforia
Vuforia was sold by Qualcomm to PTC Company. PTC is an Internet of Things company. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, the Internet of Everything will be the future trend, and AR as an interactive display technology has broad prospects. Vuforia was originally provided to developers free of charge, with a large number of initial diehards. Although Vuforia began to charge a high license fee in 20 16, which drove away a large number of free users, it is still a SDK with good reputation at present. At present, PTC has no obvious signs of integrating Vuforia, but it is commercialized separately, with almost no platform bonus and relying entirely on word of mouth. So it ranks fourth for the time being.
Google ARCore
It's a little late. ARKit has been launched, and Google has also produced a preview version. Not integrated in Android, it does not have a monopoly advantage. Android devices have a high market share, but the performance and kernel are not as concentrated as those of iOS devices. How practical it is remains to be seen. But surpassing Vuforia is just around the corner. So temporarily ranked fifth.
With the above five options, there is basically no need to repeat the rest of the foreign SDK.
Generally speaking, the advantages and disadvantages of the five foreign SDKs are as follows:
Apple: huge users; However, iOS 1 1 is not yet open, and the actual user market feedback is not obvious.
Facebook: huge users; But you can't enter the domestic market.
Microsoft: The development system is highly mature; But the equipment is expensive, and the development speed of the consumer market is too slow.
Vuforia: mature and easy to use; When charging in China, PTC will lead it to the Internet of Things market.
Google: quantity Google:Android devices are high and the growth rate is obvious; Just launched, it remains to be seen.
Summary of domestic AR SDK
Foreign AR SDK is not easy to meet the needs of domestic developers. The main difficulties are:
Language communication disorder
Technical support time difference problem
Technical support is slow in response and easy to fail.
In the future, only Apple ARKit and Microsoft are worth considering in foreign AR SDK.
Facing the C-end market, developers had better choose Apple ARKit. Facing the B-end market, Microsoft has more integration advantages. Usually, the B-side solution will not use conventional devices such as mobile phones.
Domestic AR SDK has certain localization advantages. For developers, platform bonus (market) is still the first choice for all advantages of domestic AR SDK. We focus on providing reference for developers from the perspective of platform advantages and market scale of these SDKs.
First place: Baidu AR
Official platform: Baidu search "Baidu AR", the second search result. The first item is Baidu AI open platform, which can also enter Baidu AR.
Judging from the scale of use, Baidu AR is not the first, but Baidu platform has obvious advantages, but it started a little late, and there is no sign of exerting strength in the short term.
Baidu AR is not an independent SDK, but belongs to Baidu AI open platform. As we all know, Baidu has continued to exert its strength in the AI field in the past six months, so that it has given up many marginal businesses, and recently even sold Baidu takeaway (distressed for a second), which shows Baidu's determination to invest in the AI field. As a means of content expression, AR belongs to the AI open platform, which is understandable.
Slogan of Baidu AR SDK also advertises itself as "the most AI AR SDK", which means that Baidu AR SDK will provide rich AI features. Baidu AR started the internal testing application in January, and it is still in the testing stage. From a technical point of view, the functional richness and performance of Baidu AR are worth looking forward to.
Platform bonus: ☆ ☆ ☆.
Baidu AR open platform defines the platform dividends that developers can enjoy, one from mobile phone Baidu and the other from Baidu map.
In addition, Baidu also has some offline resources, but this part of the visual inspection should not be free, and may only be provided to large customers.
Compared with other similar products, Baidu ar has the most basic advantage of platform bonus.
Free and available: ☆☆☆
The core functions of Baidu AR SDK will always be free. The charging part may be related to cloud API and resource storage services. The specific charging standard of cloud API has not been announced, and the charging standard of resource storage service refers to Baidu Cloud.
In terms of usability, the use of Baidu AR SDK still needs to be "applied for internal testing" and is not directly open.
Scale and quality of developers: ☆☆.
The scale of registered developers in 20 16 years announced by Baidu Map is 10000000. Because Baidu AR SDK regards Baidu map as one of the marketing outlets for developers, it can basically be considered that the potential developers of Baidu AR SDK can reach one million.
Performance and expressiveness of finished products: ☆☆☆.
Baidu's current cases can be divided into several categories: marketing, public welfare, and customized content. There are only 1 business cases, which is the AR real-life navigation of Baidu map.
Judging from the number of cases, because it was just launched in July, the current official case is only 15, and the number is small.
Cases provide videos and recognizable experience logos. Measured by Xiaomi MIX mobile phone, the picture of AR content is no problem. Stability is above average; When the logo must be kept in the camera picture, the effective recognition distance is about 15cm ~ 80cm.
Interested developers can experience official website through Baidu AR SDK. You need to prepare the "Mobile Baidu" App in advance.
Second place: Netease Insight AR
Entry: Baidu search "Netease Insight", the first search result.
Platform bonus: ☆☆.
Netease has three platform-level products, one is news client, the other is Netease cloud music, and the third is Netease open class. Platform-level products are not directly related to Insight AR. Only Netease Cloud Music has a "sweeping" entrance, which is mainly used for related marketing activities. In contrast, Baidu has integrated the portal of AR scanning into its own mobile core products. This Netease insight AR is not as good as Baidu AR.
Similar to Baidu, Netease also put ar in the artificial intelligence business system, and gained insight that the AR team belongs to Netease Artificial Intelligence Division. The subordination of AR and AI seems to be a common view of large companies, although there is no obvious "fit" content so far.
Netease understands that AR's platform bonus exists, but whether it will be open to ordinary developers and how to provide bonus opportunities for ordinary developers has no obvious strategy and plan.
Free and available: ☆.
Netease Insight AR official website did not directly provide SDK download, but provided a "contact us" form.
This is extremely unique compared with other SDK. First, there is no explanation about the use fee, secondary developers can't directly participate in the use, and there is no developer document. The division of a large company seems unreasonable.
Scale and quality of developers: ☆☆.
Netease is not an open and purely technical company. It is rarely heard of the accumulation of developer community, and the scale of potential developers lacks reasonable support.
However, with the continuous exploration of Netease in artificial intelligence and AR technology, it may be possible to form its own developer community. Its brand has a certain appeal, but it may lack the implementation experience of the developer community.
Generally speaking, ☆☆☆ is a vague evaluation, mainly based on its brand.
Performance and expressiveness of finished products: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆.
Netease Insight AR official website did not list enough development cases, and the only case actually listed was "Nongfu Spring+Netease Cloud Music". This case is a marketing case. Nongfu Spring has put a total of 400 million bottles of mineral water in custom bottles into the market for this purpose.
This case must be that Netease Insight AR has established a commercial, large-scale and influential implementation case in event marketing, but it may be the only one at present. Compared with other SDK achievements in this respect, the quality and scale of this case are much higher, and it is directly oriented to the consumer market.
We use Mi6 mobile phone, iPhone 6s mobile phone through Netease cloud music client, customized version of Nongfu Spring. The AR experience is above average, with good stability and general spatial fit, but the tonality can be given full marks. When the logo must be kept in the camera picture, the effective recognition distance is about 10cm ~ 120cm.
Interested friends can try it themselves.
Operation process: open Netease Cloud Music > find "Sweep" in the menu > switch to AR and sweep the bottle.
Insight AR official website did not provide other clear cases except the above cases, but only provided three moving pictures to show the stability of its SDK. (Because the official Gif image is too large, the image quality is damaged after compression. If necessary, it is recommended to go directly to Insight AR official website for inspection. )
Judging from the practical experience of the case of "Nongfu Spring", the above chart basically conforms to the factual effect.
Third place: Shi +EasyAR
EasyAR currently has a certain number of developers in China. According to its latest financing news, the number of developers is about 30,000. This is partly due to Vuforia's "charging" operation last year. For example, the relatively junior developers of AR cards such as "AR Tu Tu Music" switched to EasyAR because of Vuforia's suicidal "licensing fee action".
Platform bonus: ☆.
Lack of platform advantage is the obvious deficiency of EasyAR at present. Its entrepreneurial team background leads to no mature and unified export market at present.
Among the new investors of EasyAR, there is a platform similar to car home, and the latest financing description also says that it will look at the car application scenarios for AR in the future. In the latest "car home" App, there is a function entrance of "ar Sweep", but there is no explanation or prompt.
However, there is no public information showing that EasyAR developers have the opportunity to enjoy car home's platform bonus.
Screenshot of the latest version of car home App interface
Free and available: ☆☆☆
EasyAR officially provides a free version of the localized SDK download, which is called the "basic" version, but it does not support functions such as SLAM, 3D object tracking, simultaneous identification and tracking of different types of targets, and screen recording.
Pro version charges 2999 yuan/application license fee, which is relatively conscience price. Pro version supports the above four functions.
In addition, EasyAR also provides cloud identification API service, and the charging price is RMB1200/month.
The local version mainly meets the basic requirements of AR recognition and display effect, and the cloud version is mainly used to manage a large number of recognition maps. The general distinction can be understood as: the local version meets the short-term and single-demand small-scale project development, and the cloud version meets the large-scale and complex project development.
There is also a one-stop solution, but the page can't be opened, and it is displayed as
Scale and quality of developers: ☆☆☆☆.
According to the latest financing news, the number of developers is around 30,000 (unconfirmed).
Compared with Baidu AR, EasyAR's current developer scale still has advantages, but it is expected to be surpassed in the future. Compared with Netease's insight, EasyAR has advantages in scale and quality.
In the long run, it may not be easy to expand the scale of their developer community only by pure products and services if they cannot provide stable "profitable" exports for developers.
Performance and expressiveness of finished products: ☆ ☆ ☆.
EasyAR official website provided 65 cases, most of which were presented by video. Most of the video contents are advertisements of Party A's products, including a few application scenarios.
Due to the lack of markers (not provided by official website), it is impossible to measure the case, and some video animations are intercepted for reference.
The AR content of animation 1 and 2 looks stable, while the AR content of animation 3 is obviously unstable. The two main influencing factors are the relative distance between the mobile phone and the identification point and the response speed of identification and tracking. When the relative distance is large, the picture deviation caused by the normal shaking of human body when holding the device is small, so the car-mounted ar effect is relatively stable, while the card AR with short distance is more likely to detect the picture deviation, and the response speed of recognition and tracking is inevitably delayed, which leads to the result in Figure 3.
The effective identification distance data provided by the third party is about 270cm at most, and the minimum distance is not provided.
Fourth place: Hill of Cool Wind Station
Liangfengtai's main business is AR glasses, and SDK is a part of its hardware product ecology. SDK is divided into local version and cloud API. In view of the fact that the maturity and market share of domestic AR glasses products are not even as good as Microsoft's Hololens, developers basically do not enjoy the platform bonus. Therefore, this SDK with hardware products as the core ranks very low according to our standards.
Platform bonus: ☆.
There are Meitu among the investors of Liangfengtai, but there is no public information indicating that developers of HiAR SDK can have the opportunity to develop profitable content for Meitu platform.
Liangfengtai's own market share is obviously not high, so it can't provide platform bonus for developers.
Free and available: ☆☆☆☆.
Both the local SDK and the cloud API are free and are not directly reflected in the official page. After registration, you can download and use it directly, and check the management background.
Scale and quality of developers: ☆☆.
There is no public data on the number of developers of Liangfengtai in China. According to the case shown on the related page of official website SDK, there is a certain amount of toB cooperation with enterprises, but there is no evidence that it has a large developer community.
According to the information displayed in its developer community, there are about 100 developers in the community.
Performance and expressiveness of finished products: ☆ ☆.
The performance and effect of HiAR SDK can refer to your own App "Fantasy". The download entrance of Dreamland App is located under the "Products" menu in official website.
Measured by Mi6 mobile phone, a simple animation appears after the Fantasy App recognizes "50 yuan RMB", and the expressive force of the animation is irrelevant. The superimposed image will have slight jitter and continuous deformation, and its stability is obviously not as good as the above three SDK.
AR SDK ranking summary
Arsdks ranked fifth to seventh are simply listed, mainly because these SDK projects are small in scale and there is no news of profit or financing at present, so there may be some problems in their survival prospects. From the perspective of development, it is inevitable to avoid the risk of "greater uncertainty".
Generally speaking, from the perspective of "how to participate in the AR market", the advantages of the platform should be considered first when choosing the AR SDK. From a technical point of view, the algorithmic logic of most SDK is similar, and the difference lies in the refinement of code, the soundness of development assistance, and the quality and sustainability of technical support.
ARKit bundling iOS 1 1 is undoubtedly the most direct and biggest market opportunity at present, which needs to be tested in actual combat.
Among the domestic AR SDK, Baidu AR and EasyAR are undoubtedly the first choice. Compared with the two, Baidu AR has a slight advantage at present and more long-term advantages. Netease's insight into the openness of AR is currently in doubt.
Copying and pasting the report is quite reliable. Forgive me for forgetting the source, but I only saved the content at that time.