US augmented reality (AR) software development firm Niantic announced this week it would begin licencing its ‘Lightship ARDK,’ software development kit (SDK) to third-party AR development teams.
Niantic is giving Lightship away for free to developers for the first six months, and in early May next year, the AR firm will charge roughly $5.00 per 10,000 users for multiplayer features.
Ninantic’s Lightship SDK was the gaming engine behind Pokemon: Go, an AR immersive multiplayer gaming experience based on the famous Japanese animation.
On its website, Niantic introduced the SDK as a platform to inspire “movement, exploration, and shared experiences” designed for AR immersive applications.
Earlier in the year, Niantic hired former Meta employee Dan Morris as its Director of Developer Relations to oversee communications with developers using Lightship ARDK.
Lightship SDK: What’s on Offer
Pokemon: Go gained popularity in August 2016 after reaching roughly 60 million monthly users to become the perfect showcase for the power of Lightship.
Niantic’s ARDK offers an intuitive developer toolkit for the creation of multi-user immersive and interactive experiences:
- Real-Time Mapping: Lightship SDK scans a user’s environment to detect walls and objects, then uses advanced Meshing technologies to transpose realistic virtual items on real-world environments. Developers can additionally integrate physics into the accurate Meshing system so that digital assets can react to the real-world.
- Multiplayer API: Niantic’s proven engine will support private peer-to-peer sessions along with its multiplayer features, allowing the firm to help developers by providing built-in server features such as synchronised clocks and session-persistent databases.
- Semantic Segmentation: The San Francisco-based firm is also providing even more assistance for AR developers with its intuitive system, which automatically recognises elements in an outdoor location such as the sky, artificial ground, water, and buildings.
The AR firm is scheduling updates for Lightship ARDK in the coming months as the firm approaches the early stages of its development roadmap.
Niantic Update Roadmap
The news comes as the US tech firm plans to release “minor updates every six weeks and launch major updates every six months” with many updates in development, it said in a statement.
Key updates the future addition of Lightship’s visual positioning system (VPS) that greatly improves how developers place persistent AR content in real-world environments.
Niantic’s updated VPS function can pinpoint mobile devices within a centimeter for accurate AR visualisations and to relay environmental data, improving the platform’s scanning capabilities.
Additionally, the roadmap foresees updates such as smart navigation for AR characters, billing dashboards for eCommerce support, as well as Unity 2020 LTS and Apple M1 support.
The news comes after Niantic announced in August it had acquired Scaniverse to improve 3D rendering capabilities on iOS devices to expand Lightship ARDK availability on Android and iOS mobile platforms.
