AR Foundation and WebGL (I know it's not support, just read. :) )

Lets get it out of the way first. I know AR Foundation won't work on WebGL!
What I'd like to know if theres a way to build an app for WebGL which has ARFoundation elements in, when you don't use the AR features.

Allow me to explain..

I have a simple AR app.
It works on Mobile as expected, but I've coded it so when ran in the editor or built for windows, it'll disable the AR system and use a non AR system instead. This way I can write the same app that'll work on mobile and standalone.

I'd like to deploy it to a website without having to create a separate version of the app. (To ensure no version gets left behind)

I've tried wrapping #if !UNITY_WEBGL around all the AR code so it's not compiled, but it looks like the actual source code is being included. (Specifically the ARSessionOrigin.cs file)

 

Ok, I've found a solution to this. (I thought I'd post the issue anyway in case anyone else had this issue, they could follow this advice.)

What I did when deploying to WebGL (in addition to the #if !UNITY_WEBGL wrappings mentioned above) was to simply disable the gameobject containing the AR Subsystems, (AR Session, and AR Session Origin) then remove the AR Foundation package. (Leaving the ARKit and ARCore packages.)

This allowed me to build the project as normal. Once I deployed the web version, I re-added the AR Foundation package and continued as normal.

 

Thanks for sharing knowledge.

 

can we create ARCORE based webgl build in unity?

 

No, and please dont use such giant bold font its horrible to read and comes across as attention seeking, in a bad way.

 

So is Web AR possible using Unity?

 

It would be nice to at least know 'why' we can't do this yet - is there a limitation of AR Foundation? Or something we can work around?

 

in fact it has to do with hardware limitations as far as I know, ar foundation uses not only the camera but other systems and sensors of the phone, such as gyro, compass, accelerometer, etc ...
and that is the main reason why even on some phones it doesn't work, and it can't be tested in the editor, at least not without unity remote.

 

Any news on AR foundation getting support on the web? Now that safari also supports WebGL 2.0 with iOS15 and WebXR (immersive web at W3C) is working on making WebXR standards?

 

Any news about this topic?

 

It's not like Apple is supporting WebXR any time soon with Safari unless there is some news on this I missed.

 

There are several Unity Plugins that allow AR in WebGL:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/ar-for-webgl-with-unity.1412541/

Current list of Assets:

• Imagine WebAR - World Tracker - Anchor your game objects to the floor or any surface with exceptional 6DOF tracking. Supports all major mobile browsers.
• Universal AR (UAR) SDK - Web and Native AR - provides you with best-in-class AR technology for face tracking, image tracking, and instant world tracking targeted for Web and mobile platforms.
• Augmented Reality WebGL - Image Tracking WebAR.

 

For everyone looking for a real WebXR solution, check out Needle engine, which uses Unity as Editor and Typescript as scripting backend for threejs based WebXR solutions - https://engine.needle.tools/docs/ - and it's free for non-commercial use.