Hololink is a web-based Augmented Reality editor which enables creation of AR through a visual no-code solution. AR created in Hololink is served directly in the mobile browser without the use of an app, making the whole process from creation to end-user 100% browser-based. Hololink gives creators access to: A visual storyboard to ensure a clear overview of all end-user interactions and the entire user journey, making it possible to use rich storytelling. The…
$59
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Unity
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Unity Technologies headquartered in San Francisco offers the Unity real-time 3D and 2D development platform.
I only know Hololink from an educational point of view, but as a teacher, I find it easy to use and a fun way to incorporate tech in reports and presentations. My knowledge of the demands in other traits is too little for me to decide whether Hololink is up for the task. For the tasks I've had at hand, Hololink has been a good choice.
Unity is excellent for 2D and 3D games and educational experiences. It is well-suited for VR and AR development. It is also a great platform for mobile games. It is less-suited for non-game purposes (although it can certainly be used for those as well), or educational experiences. It is also less-suited for AR experiences that are highly complex, where you will probably want to write the native code in Android Studio or Xcode, as the case may be. It is theoretically less-suited for cases where performance is a huge concern as well, although, in my experience, performance has never been a problem.
As opposed to all other AR creation tools that I know, Hololink does not require consumers to download an app, thereby bypassing the primary problem of creating AR experiences, which is getting people to download an app. Let it be known that native apps are going away, the future is web-based because it is easier.
The Hololink image-tracking, which enables AR elements to be projected upon real-world objects and images is exceptionally good compared to other AR projects that also use image-tracking. In Hololink your buttons, 3D models, and videos do not sail away from the objects that they're supposed to be attached to.
The people working on Hololink are very focused on UX, and the few times that I have had suggestions, they have been very attentive.
Unity is a multiplatform game engine. It has more than 20 options for exporting your game, ranging from desktop, mobile, console, web and, lately, VR and AR. Unity was one of the first game engines able to export games playable on internet browsers and it helped to cement the World Wide Web as a place fit for gaming.
Unity has a very smooth learning curve for beginners. It is easy to start and soon you are seeing some tangible results of your efforts. The game engine has all sorts of helpers and shortcuts to facilitate some frequent tasks in game development.
Another of Unity's advantage is the access to Assets Store from within the game engine, allowing the user to import instantly objects, scripts and textures from the store into their projects. Such easy access to these elements from inside a project greatly enhances speed production and is particularly helpful to beginners.
Hololink comes pre-packed with a lot of 3D models there are cases where I would like to write text on models directly, instead of using the annotation function which Hololink provides. It would be easier than having to upload my own 3D models, which is also possible.
It's actually incredibly easy to use given the complex tasks you have. Once you learn the various windows it becomes second nature. Compared to something like Blender (which I would probably rate as a 2 on usability), the learning curve of Unity is a breeze! The only improvements I can think of would be to streamline some common workflows so you don't have to dig through menus to find them.
I have not had to use Unity's support extensively. This is likely because there is so much documentation and so many classes available for free online. Due to this, there is little need for support. They were very responsive when I requested educational licensing. Setting it up and providing it all quickly.
A long time ago I use Aurasma. As I recall it was quite heavy because you had to transfer the Aura from your computer to the student's smartphones through signup on the internet and making them connect to your user with an invitational code, and if it didn´t work it was hard to figure out why. Hololink is just a scan away and you don´t have to connect to any user accounts to see other student products.
We love utilizing unreal engines but we seem to have a better use case for the architectural visualization side of things. This has given us the ability to find better more photo-realistic assets from not only the marketplace but 3rd party sites that have a unity bases file to work off of.
AR is hot right now and thus helps attract people. In the future, the AR-excitement might lessen, but it has clear affordances in terms of communication that will continue to be relevant as long as people have smartphones or google-glasses or the likes.
