8th wall vps

We recently built a web based AR experience that overlaid digital 3D content on a physical mural. In order to get accurate tracking on the mural we used 8th Wall’s Visual Positioning System. The VPS system uses GPS location data as well and photogrammetry based 3D scanning to created a digital map of a real world location. This allows us to build AR apps that have an understanding of the three dimensional surface we want to track. This opens the door for highly immersive AR experiences where digital content can interact with real life physical spaces.

We started setting up the VPS system by finding the location of our mural on 8th Wall’s Waypoint map, filling in some basic info about the location and the experience we were building. This all gets sent to 8th Wall where it is reviewed, accepted, and published as an active VPS waypoint. Once our waypoint was public, we began gathering 3D scans of the location.

To get the best tracking possible, we made around 20 3D scans of the location at various times of day and weather conditions to give the system the features needed to accurately track the location at all times. A very time-consuming process, but well worth it.

Once the VPS waypoint mesh was ready, we downloaded it as a .glb file and brought it in to Blender to start positioning our 3D content for the scene.

After we exported the content from Blender we uploaded it all to our 8th Wall app. We then used A-Frame to add the assets to the scene and render them in 3D space. The entire process took a few months to get working well, with many graphic and functionality changes along the way.