Can we create an augmented reality desktop application using unity which can convert all images from a school textbook into 3D objects. ? If yes, then what will be the procedure and what other tools do we need. ? It is our final year project and we really need help in this.
If watermark will not be an issue than you can use Vuforia library.
https://developer.vuforia.com/
It has nice unity integration and you can archive what you are up to in almost no time :). But it is not supporting desktop build out of the box, but below you have alternative libraries that do:
http://artoolkit.org/download-artoolkit-sdk#unity
http://www.easyar.com/view/download.html
I can't say how good they are because I have never used them.
You can try artoolkit, stable and simple. Easyar is good but a little young.
I recommend using ARToolKit. You can target OSX, Windows and Linux if you need to. Also using the Unity plugin it should be easy for you to get started.
And if you decide to go on mobile later it also has support for iOS and Android.
http://artoolkit.org/download-artoolkit-sdk
(Scroll down for Unity version)
Edit:
They also have an active forum where you can ask questions and find help if you have the need:
http://artoolkit.org/community/forums/
Best
I have a license Unity 3.x. Now we need to create a simple 2D mobile application. Is compatible Unity 3.x SDK with current mobile API platform (Android, IOS) ?
I would say it's not really an issue of if you need to but should you.
And you absolutely should. Unity has released numerous improvements and native support for 2D applications that didn't exist or at least were very rough around the edges prior to 4. I can't think of any reason why I'd want to stay stuck with Unity 3.x when Unity 5 is readily available.
guys i am working on a project which uses unity engien and kinect as input source ..now according to my knowledge there is not much support between unity and kinect sdk ..i have heard about zigfu framework but it is not giving me all functionalities i need..so what are options for me? im thinking to take some functionalities from zigfu and some from a background application build in .net 4.0 and using kinect official sdk ? can i connect to kinect via two interfaces at the same time? i.e zigfu and kinect sdk ....my background app will connect to unity via pipes ..is that agood option?
I've already done something similar. I'd like to use Unity 3D engine and do some interactions to animate the model using Kinect (Kinect SDK). Some functionality in Kinect SDK are not available in Zigfu, such as Hand Gripping detection.
Because Kinect SDK is suitable for WPF application, here is my solution :
Build your Unity into Unity Standalone (PC, Mac, Linux).
Create WPF application with Kinect stuff inside.
Add WindowsFormsHost inside your XAML of WPF application.
Embed your Unity Standalone into WPF using WindowsFormsHost.
To do a communication between WPF and Unity, you can use Raknet. It will work as socket does.
in my experience, its usually not a good idea to use "two of" something, when they both do the same thing. I've never heard of zigfu before, but it seems relatively easy to learn. Since its available as a unity plug in, it may be best to use that over kinect. The reason being that Unity isn't to "friendly" with third party applications.
If your aiming for XNA, its possible to convert easily if the plug-in doesn't already do it for you.
I Highly recommend looking over the unity forums, and the ZDK documentation.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/127924-Zigfu-dev-kit-for-Unity3D-Product-Launch
Can a kinect camera for x-box support me to develop an application? i am not sure for that because it is used for x-box.
Yes, it can. I have used it for this for months now. If by develop an application you mean a C# or C++ then yes, you can get the drivers if you download the Kinect for Windows SDK.
I am told you can also get drivers for Linux using OpenNI if that is what you are looking for. The only nuance is that if you want to compile to a standalone EXE you must pay for a license to the Kinect for Windows SDK development team. However, since you only asked if you could develop, the answer is yes. Also, there is a depth limitation placed on the Kinect for Xbox that is not present on the Kinect for Windows.
I want to start creating games for Android/IOS. I have already created 2D games using XNA and I want to publish them on other platforms even PCs but my highest priority is Mobile platforms. As I said I am familiar with XNA so I need a similar Engine for 2D. It would be great if I could write once and publish on many platforms. Please dont suggest Unity or Unreal. They are not that easy when it comes to 2D.
By similar I mean, for example, how easy to draw a sprite on the screen.
Note: I am working on Windows so no Mac suggestions please.
Regards,
You may also want to consider MonoGame ( https://github.com/mono/MonoGame/ ) as that is also an Open Source, OpenGL implementation of XNA that currently has support for iOS, Android, MacOS X, Windows and recently Linux. It is now all ES 2.0 on the mobile platforms. Our biggest change is that we now support Windows 8, and have a DirectX 11 backend thanks to SharpDX. We now also have initial PlayStation mobile support.
Actually ExEn, is a fork of MonoGame( originally called XNATouch ).
For a list of games on the AppStore or Android Market place and even NaLC, currently using MonoGame look here -
http://monogame.codeplex.com/
I hope this helps.
D.
You might want to keep up on the project called ExEn, which has already successfully ported some XNA samples and smaller games to iPhone and Android. It requires relatively little work to port and refactor to these platforms.
I suggest you check out AndEngine, its an open-source 2d open-gl based game engine that has a strong community. If you want something that you can make cross platform games with check out LibGDX It too is free, open source and based on openGl but it also allows for 3d games. It is also cross platform so a game you write for android can be compiled for, Windows, MacOS (see below), Linux. It also has a really strong community.
Regarding iOS and OSX games you really can't make them unless you buy a Mac. Apple doesn't distribute their SDK for use on any other platform but their own. That said you could maybe get something working under VMWare
Check out MOAI SDK. It's completely free and open-source. It is in beta right now but it is still pretty good. Crimson Pirates for iOS was developed with it.
Right now it supports iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux. Really good. I thought I liked Cocos2D-x, which is a C++ variant of Cocos2d-iphone supporting windows, iOS (not Mac), and Android but not truely supporting desktop kinda made me like MOAI more.
You can use C++ with MOAI or you can use Lua (they highly encourage using Lua). Being built in C++ is really great because you get access to a vast amount of libraries and you can easily bind them to Lua.
You should try games development with cocos2d.
Cocos2d is one of the best 2d engines for ios/Android I have come across.
http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/
It is openGL based free engine.
Regards,
Sam
These might be useful to you. However, the first two aren't free, but they have editions for both iOS and Android.
iOS:
http://ios.xamarin.com/
Android:
http://android.xamarin.com/
I've never used either of them, but it's something I've been looking into a bit.
Apparently it lets you run C# and .NET code on both iOS and Android which is pretty cool considering how much easier drawing and things like that are in XNA compared to Open GL ES 2.0. Not to mention the fact that you'd be using C# instead of objective C.
There's also a free open source version sponsored by the same people who make the two I listed above. This one lets you run C# and .NET code on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page
I have been researching this topic intensively over the last few weeks.
I think the best solution for you is Marmalade, formerly known as Airplay SDK. It is actually more Windows-oriented than Mac (work in Visual Studio), although you still need a Mac for the final step of getting a signed app onto the store. It sounds like a very capable pure C++ product with iOS and Android as well as a bunch of other platforms, Personal license with splash screen $150 pa, single seat Professional $500 pa for all platforms. They have a 45 day trial license which I'm currently using.
I was tempted by MonoGame, could live with the $400 price tag for each platform (for the needed MonoTouch) but it is just way too buggy. The final straw was a combination of a bug causing it to crash all the samples on iOS5 and that keyboard input is broken on iOS.
Too be fair, I'm pretty sure that is all on the MonoGame side and was very impressed with how well MonoTouch worked and was looking forward to programming in c# with LINQ et al.
Since it is not obvious from the other answers, it should be noted to those who are unaware that the ExEn project and the MonoGame projects both build on the Monotouch platform from Xamarin (formerly from Novell) - which is a prerequisite for both for iOS games.
The Xamarin projects was mentioned in another answer as an alternative to Xna, but is really not. Monotouch and Mono for Android are a way to run C# and .NET on iPhone/iPad and Android.
Game development at least on the iPhone side, is typically done using OpenGL and OpenGL is also wrapped in Monotouch. The Xna implementations in Exen and MonoGame also uses OpenGL as the foundation as far as I know.
It should also be noted that Monotouch and Mono for Android are commercial products.
BTW: Exen also compiles to other platforms e.g. silverlight.