Updated Object Capure -- needs LiDAR?

Question

Created Nov ’24

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I have two apps released -- ReefScan and ReefBuild -- that are based on the WWDC21 sample photogrammetry apps for iOS and MacOS. Those run fine without LiDAR and are used mostly for underwater models where LiDAR does not work at all. It now appears that the updated photogrammetry session requires LiDAR data, and building my app on current xcode results in a non-working app. Has the "old" version of photgrammetry session been broken by this update? It worked very well previously so I would hate to see this regression to needing LiDAR. Most of my users do not have that.

Answered by DTS Engineer in 827626022

To clarify: the "LiDAR capabilities" requirement refers to both the camera and the SoC (primarily the GPU).

Put another way, only iOS devices with a GPU powerful enough are capable of running a contemporary PhotogrammetrySession. Those iOS devices also happen to have a LiDAR camera.

We agree that LiDAR scanning isn't strictly required for photogrammetry in general but have found that it significantly improves results and have thereby made it a requirement for contemporary RealityKit-based object capture.

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Answer 1

swredcam OP

Nov ’24

There seems to be another major change to photogrammetry session. The OBJ format is no longer supported as an output, only USDZ. What is going on with this code? It's gone from being very useful to not useful at all.

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Answer 2

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

1w

Hello,

Confirming with current documentation that LiDAR is required in a PhotogrammetrySession.

See Check for availability:

"RealityKit Object Capture is only available on Mac computers that meet the minimum requirements for performing object reconstruction, including a GPU with at least 4 GB of RAM and ray tracing support. It is also available on select iOS devices with LiDAR capabilities."

This assumes that captured images must have LiDAR depth data on iOS devices. I'll speculate that ensures a high quality result.

Are you saying that this is a new requirement for the API i.e. something has changed since WWDC21?

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Answer 3

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

4d

Recommended

To clarify: the "LiDAR capabilities" requirement refers to both the camera and the SoC (primarily the GPU).

Put another way, only iOS devices with a GPU powerful enough are capable of running a contemporary PhotogrammetrySession. Those iOS devices also happen to have a LiDAR camera.

We agree that LiDAR scanning isn't strictly required for photogrammetry in general but have found that it significantly improves results and have thereby made it a requirement for contemporary RealityKit-based object capture.

0