augmented reality - Why ARGeoTrackingConfiguration is not available everywhere?

Question

I already posted this question on the apple dev forum without any answer, so I try my luck here : The ARkit is a great tool, I have my small app doing things, and it's fun !

but I wanted to try to migrate from ARWorldConfiguration to ARGeoTrackingConfiguration

and then we can see that this configuration is limited to a couples of USA cites only ! But I can't manage to figure Why and most importlantly if, in the near future, this will be expanded world wide ?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65870115/why-argeotrackingconfiguration-is-not-available-everywhere

Answer 1

That's because ARGeoTrackingConfig doesn't use Google Maps. Apple runs its own LiDAR-equipped vehicles for digitizing cities to supply Apple Maps with all necessary information stored on Apple servers. That info contains precise GPS coordinates and Machine Learning mlmodel that visually recognises every pre-digitized location. And that specific info is indispensable when you're running ARKit's app with geo anchors.

At the moment only several US cities are available for seeding ARGeoAnchors. However, in 2021 some European and Asian cities will be available for ARKit's geo anchoring as well.

Look at this post to find out how to implement ARGeoTrackingConfig.