Niantic and 8th Wall roll out new tools and mixed-reality experience

Niantic and 8th Wall this week revealed Wol, its first mixed-reality experience. Powered by 8th Wall, Wol places gamers in the course of a redwood forest with a small owl of the identical title as their information. In addition to the new experience, Niantic additionally revealed at the moment that it’s rolling out new tools for builders, together with Metaversal Deployment and expanded shared AR tools.

Wol, the mixed-reality experience, is a restricted launch obtainable for Meta Quest headset in addition to Android and iOS telephones. Users can enter a redwood forest by way of an augmented actuality portal, the place Wol the Northern Saw-whet owl describes the atmosphere to the person. Wol additionally demonstrates 8th Wall’s Metaversal Deployment, which allows builders to construct a WebAR challenge to deploy on a number of completely different methods.

In addition, Niantic additionally introduced that it’s rolling out a number of new tools for each 8th Wall and the Lightship ARDK. With ARDK 3.0, builders who use Unity can use Niantic’s AR options with Unity’s AR Foundation and XR subsystems. Niantic can be utilizing Lightship ARDK 3.0 to setup compatibility with wearable headsets, notably these powered by Snapdragon Spaces.

Niantic additionally deployed Lightship Maps for Unity, so builders can use Niantic’s in-house maps for their very own video games. Brian McClendon, Niantic’s SVP of engineering, stated in a keynote at AWE, “Niantic focuses on maps at the scale of humans, maps that work at eye level, within the context of real locations. We’re able to position realistically because of our scanning frameworks and maps APIs. At Niantic we believe in AR everywhere, all at once, for everyone.”

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