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Pokémon Go for iOS Adding Advanced 'AR+' Capture Mechanics Thanks to Apple's ARKit

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Niantic and The Pokémon Company today announced that an update coming this week to Pokémon Go on iOS will bring support for Apple's ARKit, enhancing the augmented reality abilities of the popular mobile game. The company is calling this feature "AR+" and will be available to players running iOS 11 on the iPhone 6s and later devices.

Previously announced by Apple at WWDC, ARKit brings a few new advancements to Pokémon Go's augmented reality technology, including the ability for the app to fix Pokémon to a specific point in space. This scaling feature allows players to walk up close to a Pokémon and move around them freely, bringing the app "one step closer to truly realizing Pokémon the way they are supposed to be represented in the real world," according to Niantic.

pokemon-go-arkit.jpg

Another advancement is in the awareness of Pokémon that players are trying to capture, meaning that the creatures might run away if they notice trainers are getting too close. But, if trainers can sneak up on the Pokémon an Expert Handler bonus can be earned upon capture. This mechanic is represented in an "awareness meter" next to each Pokémon and if it fills up the Pokémon will flee, although another opportunity for capture might come if the player taps nearby tall grass.

Both of these new features are combined for the Expert Handler bonus, which rewards players for moving close to a Pokémon in AR+ mode, and capturing it without it fleeing. The bonus will reward players with more XP and Stardust upon capture.

Regarding the ARKit update to Pokémon Go, the company said that "this is our first step toward making AR capabilities in Pokémon GO even more awesome, opening up the framework for greater AR experiences in the future."

During the WWDC reveal of ARKit in June, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi presented the Pokémon Go AR+ enhancements now rolling out and stated, "The Pokémon is so real, he's right there on the ground. As the ball bounces, it actually bounces right there in the real environment. It's AR like you've never seen it before."

Pokémon Go is available to download for free from the iOS App Store [Direct Link].

Article Link: Pokémon Go for iOS Adding Advanced 'AR+' Capture Mechanics Thanks to Apple's ARKit
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/12/20/pokemon-go-ios-update-arkit/
MacRumors said:



Niantic and The Pokémon Company today announced that an update coming this week to Pokémon Go on iOS will bring support for Apple's ARKit, enhancing the augmented reality abilities of the popular mobile game. The company is calling this feature "AR+" and will be available to players running iOS 11 on the iPhone 6s and later devices.

Previously announced by Apple at WWDC, ARKit brings a few new advancements to Pokémon Go's augmented reality technology, including the ability for the app to fix Pokémon to a specific point in space. This scaling feature allows players to walk up close to a Pokémon and move around them freely, bringing the app "one step closer to truly realizing Pokémon the way they are supposed to be represented in the real world," according to Niantic.

pokemon-go-arkit.jpg

Another advancement is in the awareness of Pokémon that players are trying to capture, meaning that the creatures might run away if they notice trainers are getting too close. But, if trainers can sneak up on the Pokémon an Expert Handler bonus can be earned upon capture. This mechanic is represented in an "awareness meter" next to each Pokémon and if it fills up the Pokémon will flee, although another opportunity for capture might come if the player taps nearby tall grass.

Both of these new features are combined for the Expert Handler bonus, which rewards players for moving close to a Pokémon in AR+ mode, and capturing it without it fleeing. The bonus will reward players with more XP and Stardust upon capture.

Regarding the ARKit update to Pokémon Go, the company said that "this is our first step toward making AR capabilities in Pokémon GO even more awesome, opening up the framework for greater AR experiences in the future."

During the WWDC reveal of ARKit in June, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi presented the Pokémon Go AR+ enhancements now rolling out and stated, "The Pokémon is so real, he's right there on the ground. As the ball bounces, it actually bounces right there in the real environment. It's AR like you've never seen it before."

Pokémon Go is available to download for free from the iOS App Store [Direct Link].

Article Link: Pokémon Go for iOS Adding Advanced 'AR+' Capture Mechanics Thanks to Apple's ARKit
Click to expand...
Yaas pokemon
 
This was so fun last year. Too bad the excitement around it died down relatively quickly. I met to many people.
 
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GLAD to see it is finally coming out the door. It was promised for SEPTEMBER, so they are a few months late. Perhaps all that extra time went into testing and developing a better product? :confused:

Next up: WALKING DEAD: OUR WORLD. Also promised with ARKit to be released to coincide with Season 8. Last update pushes it back to at least mid January 2018.
 
Glad to see they’ve stepped it up from the AR shown at WWDC to add the bushes, bonus rewards, and improved catching! This and the new weather add-on make it feel a lot more tied to our world
 
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I don’t play as often since the app started messing with my camera on Android and overheating my 7 Plus. But this sounds like a lot of fun. I rarely see Pokémon where I live so this will have to wait until vacation and holidays.
 
Abazigal said:
And meanwhile on the android front, ARcore is ...?
Click to expand...

Let's call it hARdcore :D

Google promised they'll release ARcore for more than 100 million devices next year, let's see what happens. The main problem with Android is only a small percentage of the customer base is on the latest version of the OS, so when they introduce new APIs is always hard to reach a wide number of customers. Many are still on 4.4, or 5.0, and you have to support those devices as well.
That's the reason why I still use WebGL for my "AR" app now, I can run it on iOS and on Android with the same code and don't have to worry about AR sdk coming to Android.
I plan to upgrade some components of my app to use ARkit in the future, but Android will still use WebGL
 
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