Unity unveils new augmented reality extension MARS

Announced during Unite Berlin earlier today, Unity revealed its new AR extension MARS (Mixed and Augmented Reality Studio), which promises to give developers the tools to build applications that "intelligently interact with any real-world environment," with little custom coding needed. 

As explained in a blog post, MARS is a toolset which will allow devs to build AR apps that are context-aware, customizable, and work in any location with any kind of data.

Because of the flexibility around data providers, an abstract layer was added for useful data sources like object recognition, and location and map data. 

The new MARS toolset will also have templates with simulated rooms, allowing developers to test against different environments inside the Unity editor.

New AR-specific gizmos can be used to easily define spatial conditions like plane size, elevation, and proximity without requiring code or precise measurements.

MARS will be launched as an experimental Unity package later this year, although no set date has been given yet. Interested developers can read more about the new extension here.