Can we develop LiDAR apps using ARKit with SceneKit?

2
votes

I have read on many forums that if we want to develop a LiDAR application, we need to use RealityKit, instead of SceneKit. I am in the middle of development of Apple LiDAR Tutorial. But instead of using RealityKit, I used SceneKit. But now I got a problem since SceneKit doesn't offer sceneUnderstanding feature to render graphics. So I want to know basically:

    1. Can't we develop LiDAR applications using ARKit with SceneKit?
    1. Can we achieve sceneUnderstanding feature using SceneKit?
    1. Can we develop LiDAR apps without using sceneUnderstanding?

Really appreciate your answers and comments. Thank you.

1
augmented-realityscenekitarkitrealitykitlidar

1 Answers

2
votes

You can use scene understanding with any renderer. But only RealityKit comes with integration for this feature.

The ARWorldTrackingConfiguration comes with a sceneReconstruction flag that can be enabled. Then, ARKit creates ARMeshAnchor instances for you in the ARSessionDelegate and ARSCNViewDelegate methods.

However, because SceneKit does not come with an out-of-the box support for these features you would have to build a visualization or physics interaction yourself based on the ARMeshAncor properties.