Location AR

AR scans from players, developers, and surveyors are the fundamental ingredient that Niantic uses to build its AR map of the world. AR scans are recorded and uploaded using Niantic's AR scanning framework, which is a module used inside Pokemon Go, Ingress, and the Wayfarer App. Each AR scan consists of a series of video frames with supporting data from accelerometers and GPS sensors that construct a 3D model of the world from multiple 2D images. AR scans are used by Niantic to build the maps and meshes of real-world locations that make up Niantic Map.

VPS is available at over 170,000 real-world locations on Niantic Map, with more locations being added every day. Developers can scan locations at any time to add them to Niantic Map and enable VPS-powered experiences at them. 

In order for a location to be available on VPS, a sufficient amount of AR scan data must be uploaded at that location and VPS activation must be requested and completed. Developers can see the activation status of locations in the Geospatial Browser.

VPS works best when there is good visibility. In order to maximize the likelihood of successful VPS-powered experiences, it is best to upload many AR scans that cover a wide swath of different conditions (e.g. different times of day, different weather conditions, etc.). If you are building an experience in a location that gets a lot of rain, having some scans from a rainy day is very helpful.

Lightship VPS is a powerful way to make a user’s experience of their environment more magical or to deepen their understanding of a place. Some popular use cases include:

• Social real-world games. VPS lets players interact with the same persistent content in augmented reality, opening up new possibilities for location-based play as well as enhancing classic experiences like geocaching. When combined with Shared AR, developers can create AR games for up to 10 users to play together in real time.

• Scavenger hunts. Developers can turn entire cities into gameboards by challenging players to locate places or items and rewarding them when VPS validates they’ve found them.

• Tours. Tourism boards and community organizations can reveal the histories and secrets of their towns by using VPS to display content about a location as a user points their device at it. 

• Storefront activations. Retailers can transform storefronts without needing to make physical changes by overlaying augmented reality content over them, triggered for potential customers by VPS.

• AR Installations. Venues and artists can decorate spaces with highly immersive creations that blend perfectly with their surroundings using VPS. 

• Verified location. VPS enables powerful anti-spoofing functionality that uses visual information in addition to GPS to prove that a user is at a particular location.

Niantic Lightship Maps for Web is a module that provides easy-to-use and customizable real-world maps to build your location-based WebAR experiences. It makes it easy to create a variety of location-based experiences like:

• Create a 3D character on a map with a user's GPS location.
• Create city-wide WebAR experiences, like scavenger hunts.
• Teleport to any location in the world.
• Visualize project VPS locations and nearby VPS-activated locations on a map.
• Help users understand the distance to various locations.

Lightship Maps supports the following functionality:

• Zoom in to the street level and zoom out to see the entire city.
• Choose from several preconfigured map themes, or deeply customize the look and feel of the map and various content types, such as roads, buildings, parks, and water.
• Enable game-like camera view.