Adobe Aero

Adobe Aero is a visual, fairly intuitive way of creating AR experiences that can be experienced on iOS and developed using macOS or Windows (both in beta).  It allows creators to place, scale, and rotate existing or stock 2D or 3D objects directly into virtual space as well as programming basic action sets for user interactivity.  

While it is an easy way to create interactive AR experiences, users have to have an iPhone or iPad to experience them and the desktop creation apps are still fairly buggy.

COST:

  • Free (no Creative Cloud subscription required)


AltspaceVR

AltspaceVR is a social VR platform created by Microsoft that is capable of running on most common VR headsets as well as without a headset using the desktop application on either MacOS or Windows. Users are represented as 3D avatars from the waist up and worlds can be customized either starting with base assets or from scratch by importing a scene from Unity.

COST: Free


Hubs

Hubs is a 3D virtual meeting and collaboration space created by Mozilla. It runs directly in the browser and users are able to join either in VR or not. It is listed as being able to run on a wide swath of devices but will probably need to have its graphics settings lowered for users on older machines. Environments can be either loaded from the library of existing spaces or can be created completely custom using Spoke. Hubs can either exist on Mozilla’s servers or can be deployed using services such as AWS. Hubs has a high degree of customization in terms of interactive elements, world space, and available avatars

COST:

  • Free up to 25 concurrent users

  • For more than 25 concurrent users, custom deployment on Hubs Cloud is necessary


Isadora

Isadora is a node-based visual programming language available on Windows and MacOS. It is similar to other node-based programs such as Touchdesigner but is primarily geared towards live performance playback and has a built-in scene functionality.

Isadora is able to take in a variety of data and input types that can be used to drive live generative visuals. Visuals are created using networks of nodes which Isadora refers to as “actors”.

Has a few more limitations (such as the number of camera inputs and projector outputs) than Touchdesigner but is still extremely powerful.

COST:

  • $732 perpetua license

  • $13 / week rental

  • Monthly & yearly subscriptions also available


Lens Studio

Lens Studio is an application for creating Augmented Reality filters which are then used with either Snap Camera or Snapchat. It’s based in a 3D environment and comes with a large variety of templates that can be used as a starting point. Starting out users should be able to just use the built in components and visual node scripting but as needs get more complex it is possible to add custom code using Javascript. Lens Studio also supports custom machine learning libraries.

COST: Free


Spark AR

Created by Facebook, Spark AR is an AR development software that is meant to make the development and deployment of AR apps as easy as possible. It comes with various templates and assets libraries and is capable of using many different forms of data as triggers (such as motions, sounds, facial expressions, etc.).

Effects are created using a visual coding language and can be customized further using javascript.

AR effects can only be published on Instagram or Facebook and both users and developers need accounts on said platforms.

COST: Free


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