Can we develop LiDAR apps using ARKit with SceneKit?

Question

I have read on many forums that if we want to develop a LiDAR application, we need to use RealityKit, instead of SceneKit. I am in the middle of development of Apple LiDAR Tutorial. But instead of using RealityKit, I used SceneKit. But now I got a problem since SceneKit doesn't offer sceneUnderstanding feature to render graphics. So I want to know basically:

• 1. Can't we develop LiDAR applications using ARKit with SceneKit?
• 2. Can we achieve sceneUnderstanding feature using SceneKit?
• 3. Can we develop LiDAR apps without using sceneUnderstanding?

Really appreciate your answers and comments. Thank you.

Answer 1

You can use scene understanding with any renderer. But only RealityKit comes with integration for this feature.

The ARWorldTrackingConfiguration comes with a sceneReconstruction flag that can be enabled. Then, ARKit creates ARMeshAnchor instances for you in the ARSessionDelegate and ARSCNViewDelegate methods.

However, because SceneKit does not come with an out-of-the box support for these features you would have to build a visualization or physics interaction yourself based on the ARMeshAncor properties.