ARKit – detect plane with augmented reality

Draw a grid on the floor using augmented reality and eventually place objects on it.

Let’s see how it works

Create a new project, as usual, choose “Augmented Reality App“.

Few things to add in order to detect plane, first in viewDidLoad, add:

sceneView.autoenablesDefaultLighting = true

Next, in the viewWillAppear set in the configuration the plane detection:

configuration.planeDetection = .horizontal 

Cool, you’re are ready to detect planes.

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Draw the grid on plane

Implement the ARSCNViewDelegate to draw the grid:

func renderer(_ renderer: SCNSceneRenderer, didAdd node: SCNNode, for anchor: ARAnchor) { }

Save the grid image:

And draw the grid on the screen (floor):

func renderer(_ renderer: SCNSceneRenderer, didAdd node: SCNNode, for anchor: ARAnchor) {

     // plane detected
     if anchor is ARPlaneAnchor {
         let planeAnchor = anchor as! ARPlaneAnchor
         let plane = SCNPlane(width: CGFloat(planeAnchor.extent.x), height: CGFloat(planeAnchor.extent.z))
 
         let planeNode = SCNNode()
         planeNode.position = SCNVector3(x: planeAnchor.center.x, y: 0, z: planeAnchor.center.z)
         planeNode.transform = SCNMatrix4MakeRotation(-Float.pi/2, 1, 0, 0)
 
         // add the grid as material
         let gridMaterial = SCNMaterial()
         gridMaterial.diffuse.contents = UIImage(named: "art.scnassets/grid.png")
         
         plane.materials = [gridMaterial]
         planeNode.geometry = plane
 
         // place the grid when needed
         node.addChildNode(planeNode)
     } else {
         return
     }
 } 

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Enjoy.