Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Planning an AR game
First of all, let's be honest, the AR technology on mobile devices is very far from its
true potential. Because of obvious technical limitations, it takes only baby steps to-
ward the full expression of its talents. In some cases, the name of the technology it-
self has a greater affect on the audience than the real application's functionality. This
means that to provide a truly viable product, rather than a single-purpose, technical
gimmick, you should be less-ambitious, and the goals should be chosen very carefully
and maturely.
Remember that there is no truly reliable way to generate an accurate model of reality
on the screen of a smartphone camera yet. Modern devices can scan and recognize
only a small part of the real world, since the screen representation is only an illu-
sion and you have do your best to make it very convincing and attractive. Modern AR
solutions should be used on iOS devices only when there's a creative idea and it is
clear that a game will gain some advantage if it were to utilize the advantages of the
AR environment. In other cases, it is better to skip the idea and use more traditional
approaches. Remember that an exciting demonstration of a technology is not yet a
game; games are not about an attractive technology, but about interesting playability.
To plan an AR game, it's better to start with the weak points of current technology
implementations that are based on graphic-based markers and the standard camera
(one the most popular methods today).
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Light
: AR systems based on the standard camera and graphical markers are
sensitive to the quality of light. Thus, it is harder to play in dark rooms because
computer vision begins to lose reference points, and the likelihood of errors is
increased. AR activity usually stops when the light is minimal as the markers
become unrecognizable. Another aspect is the lack of correlation between the
real light source and virtual objects; it is obvious that simple AR systems can-
not simulate the effect of real light sources on rendered 3D models as well as
imitate real shadows.
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Distance
: Generally, players' characters should stay at an appropriate dis-
tance from the fiducial markers and not too far away. In other cases, the sys-
tem may lose functional patterns, and the markers will look too small for the
