This week's release post was about making the VM fast. Today's post is about pointing that VM at the real world. PR #5335 adds two new core packages: com.codename1.ar for augmented reality on ARKit and ARCore, and com.codename1.vr for stereo rendering and 360 media on our portable GPU pipeline.
What is Codename One? Codename One is an open-source framework for building native iOS, Android, desktop, and web apps from a single Java or Kotlin codebase. Learn more at codenameone.com.
The Problem With Writing AR Code
AR development has a miserable inner loop. The code only runs on a device, the interesting states are the ones you can't reproduce on demand (tracking loss, a plane that merges into another, a reference image entering the frame), and every debug cycle involves standing up and pointing a phone at your floor. Add a second platform SDK with different classes and coordinate conventions, and simple ideas become week-long jobs.
So this feature has two halves that matter equally: a portable API over ARKit and ARCore, and a simulated AR backend so you can debug the whole loop sitting down.
