What is Vuforia?

Vuforia is a software development kit (SDK) which is a collection of software tools, libraries, and documentation that enables developers to build applications for specific platforms. It can be used to build augmented reality apps for mobile devices.

Vuforia is not a standalone tool but is rather dependent on other tools like the Unity game engine. Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies to facilitate the creation of game development, virtual reality applications, and even train Artificial Intelligence (AI) models.

Installation and setup

Step 1: Getting started with Vuforia

Visit the Vuforia developer portal and sign up for an account. We may need to provide some basic information and agree to the terms and conditions.

Step 2: Initiating Vuforia download

Click on the "Downloads" Menu and select "Add Vuforia Engine to a Unity Project". The SDK will automatically begin its download on our computer.

Step 3: Installing Unity editor

First, download Unity Hub from the main Unity website.

Next, click the "Download" button, and select "Download for Windows". After this, install the Editor from the Hub. We can select some modules and build supports like the Android Build Support and Visual Studio Editor. Once this is done, we can move on to getting an active license, by clicking on "Manage License", and then signing in.

Step 4: Creating a project in Unity and launching the editor

To do this, click on the "Projects" tab, and then select "New Project".
Change the name while selecting the location and type (e.g., 2D or 3D) for the new project.

Doing this will launch the editor while opening the project.

Step 5: Importing Vuforia to Unity

Once the editor has been launched, import the Vuforia SDK we downloaded earlier.

We can confirm if it has been imported into the unity project by clicking the plus "+" icon, as shown below: