Device compatibility

[Iansi6]

All ARCore compatible devices are compatible with this API? I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 and S9.

[kidavid]

Please find the list of ARCore compatible devices with Depth API support here: https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/supported-devices

Please look for "Supports Depth API" in the Notes column of each listed device.

[yearofthewhopper]

Hi! So, I know this repo is set up to only work with android but i feel it should be a little more explicit that ARcore's depth api only works with android devices. On the above link: for example under the section of supported devices it says

iOS
ARCore supports all ARKit-compatible devices running iOS 11.0 or later.

Verification of newer devices:

Newer devices are added to the list of devices (below) after they have been verified.

Support for older devices:

Support for specific features depends on the ARCore feature and the version of the device, as follows:

Cloud Anchors: Cloud Anchors are not supported on iOS devices that are older than the devices in the following list.

Augmented Faces: Augmented Faces may work on iOS devices that are older than the devices in the following list, but may not operate at the required frame rates for live AR use cases.

The following iOS devices have been verified to work with all ARCore supported features:

The "all ARCore" section of this is very misleading since presumably all ARCore features includes the Depth API. I've also seen several articles that also reference that Depth API can be used with many models of iphones. When I did manage to get these examples to compile for iOS--I was given a prompt that linked me to the above compatibility site.

So, I'm trying to close the loop on potential confusion here and clarify: does the depth api work for iOS at all?

[kidavid]

Depth API is a specific feature of ARCore, which runs on a subset or ARCore-certified devices. At this point, iOS devices are not compatible.

[yearofthewhopper]

@kidavid Thank you! I appreciate this response!

[fredsa]

@yearofthewhopper Thank you for highlighting the confusion. We'll update the wording in the iOS section ("The following iOS devices have been verified to work with all ARCore supported features:") to be less confusing.

In case there are other improvements we should make:

• Would it help if we updated the README.md in this repo?
• In addition, is there anything you think we should do to the Unity project to make this clear when the project is first opened?
• Finally, anywhere in our developer docs (developers.google.com/ar/develop) where the device support aspect is not as clear as it should be?

[yearofthewhopper]

@fredsa Thank you for asking these follow up questions!

updating the readme.md would be really helpful as I wouldn't have attempted to even use the depth api had I known it wasn't supported by iOS devices and hence would've saved me a lot of time and heartache.

The unity project itself is set up to work on android platform; which I think makes sense given that it only works for android devices--but I still feel like a note in the project itself to only use with android devices would've been helpful (given that not every user is going to read the readme.md)

The linked website https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/unity doesn't seem to clarify anything in regards iOS and ARCore's Depth API, like https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/unity/depth/overview for example could say "not available for iOS". There's a lot of opportunities to say explicitly in the documentation that this "subsection of ARCore" doesn't work with iOS when all others do?

[fredsa]

Thanks again for the feedback.

We're putting together a few updates to at least these pages to help clarify Depth API support and available features when targeting iOS:

• https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/supported-devices
• https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/unity
• https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/unity/depth/overview

For the project itself we could add a compile time error, e.g.

#if !UNITY_ANDROID
   // Depth API support currently available on Android only.
   // https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/supported-devices
   #error Build platform must be set to Android.
#endif

[Thaina]

@fredsa Is the devices that not currently support depth api in that list could be possible to be supported in the future?

To be honest I have Nokia 7 plus and I want to know is it just waiting for calibration or it was tested and considered impossible. Also I prefer Nokia (Also Motorola) brand but it seem none of them currently support depth api. Do we have anything particular with Nokia and Motorola?

I wish you would also mark impossible for depth api so people could know they should just buy new device that support it if they want to play with depth api app and don't need to wait hopelessly

[fredsa]

@Thaina Our goal is to make the Depth API available on as many ARCore supported devices as possible. However, the additional depth processing requires additional CPU resources that always available on lower-end and older devices. While we do expect to expand the list of supported devices over time, it's unlikely that all currently ARCore supported devices will be able to support the Depth API. We do continuously look for improvements to ARCore's algorithms, to increase the number of supported devices and make additional CPU capacity available to app developers.

[fredsa]

The following docs have been updated:

• https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/supported-devices
• https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/unity
• https://developers.google.com/ar/develop/unity/depth/overview