What's the difference between ARKit and RealitKit?

Question

From developer.apple.com, it is described as follows,

ARKit: Integrate iOS device camera and motion features to produce augmented reality experiences in your app or game.

and

RealityKit: Simulate and render 3D content for use in your augmented reality apps.

As I understand, ARKit is AR SDK acts on object detection and tracking, RealityKit is rendering module.

In my project, I imported only RealityKit framework into Xcode for making the AR Application. Plus, I used Reality Composer for creating the experience attached to the image. Finally, my AR application can work completely.

However, I have 2 questions:

Is RealityKit an AR SDK?
Which part is responsible for detecting and tracking the image anchor?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 16 '23 at 14:37

1

RealityKit vs ARKit

The RealityKit's ARSession is based on the ARKit's AR session, but has its own add-ons that allow you to automate the tracking of several anchors' types. However, the difference between two is that RealityKit has engines for rendering, physics and animation. And do not forget that ARKit is umbrella containing SceneKit and SpriteKit.

answered Mar 16 '23 at 14:37

Andy Jazz

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Does the model entity represent the virtual objects on the anchor? – kkk Mar 16 '23 at 17:09
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What do you mean by saying this? Please decipher. (model entity is your 3d model) – Andy Jazz Mar 16 '23 at 17:12
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OK, I got it. (I meant **Does the model entity represent the 3d model?**) – kkk Mar 16 '23 at 17:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 07 '23 at 10:15

RealityKit is Apple’s 3D framework integrating virtual objects into the real world using the augmented reality framework ARKit which helps to find and track real-world surfaces and objects. All of this can be kick-started using Reality Composer Pro as an easy visual drag-and-drop way (think of Interface Builder for iOS/macOS apps) to create a scene before moving to code with RealityKit.

What's the difference between ARKit and RealitKit?

2 Answers2

RealityKit vs ARKit