Niantic has introduced its ‘Niantic Studio’ 3D and XR experience builder for 8th Wall developers at AWE 2024.
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Now in public beta, Niantic Studio provides developers with a visual interface that makes all creation accessible and viewable in real time.
This represents an advancement on traditional web-based XR and 3D builders, which predominantly display coding with little visual feedback of what this will entail for users.
The new builder by the creators of Pokémon Go was announced at this year’s Augmented World Expo (AWE), a conference and exhibition of the latest augmented reality, virtual reality, and wearable technology.
In a blog post by 8th Wall the web-based augmented reality platform outlined the major benefits of Niantic Studio:
“Studio is a completely new approach to building immersive XR and 3D experiences with Niantic 8th Wall.
“With Studio, we’ve completely overhauled the development environment, moving from a code-only interface to an intuitive visual editor that combines the speed and power of the web with the robust tools needed to create more realistic 3D web games and XR experiences.
“Studio offers solutions for both seasoned web developers and designers, enabling progressive complexity depending on what you want to build.
“Use Studio to create everything from AR scenes that use Face Effects or World Tracking to more complex 3D web games and immersive XR experiences.”
‘What You See is What You Get’
As well as offering developers a real-time visual interface, 8th Wall breaks down some of the features of Niantic Studio, including easy-to-add interactivity, a new web gaming engine, editable simulations, advanced XR capabilities and cross-platform development, and team collaboration tools.
It describes Niantic Studio as a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” experience that allows developers to literally see their idea as it takes shape. Every action, from adding and altering assets, is instantly mirrored within the visual element of the builder.
Built-in tools for graphic elements, such as physics, cameras, lighting, animation, particles, audio, game triggers, and more, make it easy to bring high-quality, engaging experiences into existence.
The Studio has been built on the Entity Component System (ECS) gaming structure and it includes new web gaming engine to help simplify development tasks and build more interaction and gameplay into projects.
3D scenes can also be built, edited, and previewed in real time using Play Mode.
Powerful web-based XR functionalities like Face Effects, World tracking, and cross-platform deployment distribution are now accessible, with more XR features due to be added to the Studio throughout the beta.
Finally, the Studio makes it easy for teams to bring their multiple skills together on a project via the web, with no extra apps required.
Niantic Studio is in public beta and currently available to all 8th Wall developers.
Existing 8th Wall developers can get started straight away by selecting “Studio” as the creative tool for new projects.
For those looking to get started with 8th Wall, is free to sign up for a Basic 8th Wall account. You will then be able to create your first experience using Studio sample projects.
