Game makers applaud Apple’s support for AR and VR

Apple surprised the emerging industries of augmented reality and virtual reality with broad support for the technologies at its Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, California. During the keynote, Apple showed off ARKit, which could transform hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads into AR devices.

Both the AR and VR demos that Apple showed were based on support from Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. For instance, the AR demo from Wingnut AR used the Unreal Engine to superimpose a 3D science-fiction scene on a tabletop. And Apple also showed how developers at Disney’s ILM special effects studio could design a 3D-animated Star Wars scene from inside VR, using Unreal Engine 4.