I’ve just finished reviewing app Boogie AR by Rasa Vision, and now we I am reviewing yet another app from the same developer called dinosAR. I really liked the previous app, especially the amazing character design and I wonder what’s Rasa Vision has planned for us in dinosAR.
What is DinosAR?
DinosAR or as it’s full name dinosAR – Dinosaurs in AR is what its name suggests, you can bring dinosaurs back to life in your own space. The app uses the latest ARKit augmented reality technology to brings those dinosaurs in their full glory.
You can use the app to move the dinosaur, double-tap to trigger his pre-defined animation, scale and rotate it.
Using dinosAR in Augmented Reality?
I played with the app both in the house and in the street, but I think the place to demo it is in nature in a wide open space.
When you launch dinosAR you have the option to select your language (currently supports 9 languages) and then you reach the main screen. This is where all the interaction occurs. Clicking the big Plus (‘+’) button will bring the dinosaur’s selection screen. There are a total of 12 dinosaurs to choose from. I have all them unlocked, but if you want to unlock them all you’ll need to buy the Full access pack.
These are the available dinosaurs you can bring to your world in augmented reality: Brachiosaurus, Compsognathus, Ankylosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Dimetrodon, Oviraptor, Parasaurolophus, Pteranodon, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus and the last one is Triceratops (finally one with a short name).
All you need to do is to tap on the dinosaur that you want to spawn, find a surface you want to put it on and click again to deploy it. You can put several dinosaurs at the same place if you want.
These are the main interactions in dinosAR:
- Double-tap to trigger a special action from the Dinosaurs with unique sound
- Use two fingers to scale and rotate the Dinosaur
- Move the dinosaurs with the virtual joystick on the right side of the screen, this will cause them to walk toward that direction, each dinosaur has its own unique animations
You can also hide and reveal the UI with a single tap on the top right “Hide buttons” button, records a video using the movie recording button and click the “Reset” button to clear the rea from all dinosaurs and start from the beginning.
Unfortunately, for me, one thing was important and was missing and it’s seeing a description of each dinosaur. If you already make an app like this, why not add an educational value to the app. I’m sure a lot of kids will love this app. I think there should be an option to see a short description of each dinosaur; maybe an info button underneath each dinosaur name.
Just think about it, you see a real virtual representation of a dinosaur right there in your living room, wouldn’t you mind knowing more about it after inspecting him closely and looking at its animations? I know I would.
Character Design, Animations & Sound
This is where dinosAR really rocks. I was blown away by how detailed the dinosaurs models were. Maybe I should be so surprised after seeing the character’s design of their other app Boogie AR. I don’t know if their studio is modeling the app or buying it from a 3rd party, but I do know is that they do care about the quality of the 3D models in their apps. I know that the next time I am going to pick up and app from Rasa Vision, I can expect it to be of a high quality, at least when it comes to 3D character modeling and animations.
The animations of the dinosaurs look very organic and authentic. I really enjoyed using the joystick to move the dinosaur around. It’s not just moving his legs, it has some other body gestures, like looking around as it moves, it was a really delightful experience.I really had to give it to them, the developer did an excellent job there.
If this wasn’t enough, each dinosaur has its own animations (the one that you activate using double-tap). Even the sounds of the dinosaurs just blew me away. I recorded a scene outdoors with the Brachiosaurus dinosaur and the sound just made the video look so authentic. The scene was shot at night and the video was very noisy (not because of the app, but because of the lousy camera on the iPad, bad for low-light shots), yet, we had fun watching it again.
I have a small complaint about the video mode. When I record a video, I can still see the UI. I know that I can hide the buttons using the button, but then I can’t control the dinosaur using the joypad and double tapping doesn’t work either.
Another thing that I would have liked to see is collision detection. In Vixeo AR, for example, there is collision detection. I like this feature because when I spawn several characters and animate them, I don’t get a weird look of two characters just crossing through each other. I think it’s just enabling collision detection for the model in the game developer IDE if I am not wrong. Maybe have it as an option in the UI, so people can enable or disable it—just a thought.
Another thing that was missing is shadows for the characters. This is a must-have in my opinion, especially for an augmented reality app When I recorded the movie outdoors, I just couldn’t ignore the fact that the characters looked disconnected from the ground like it was floating. Then I noticed that there are no shadows underneath the characters at all. If this is a graphics-demanding feature, at least give users the option to turn it on in the menu.
Oh, before I forget and I hope the developer reads it. I wasn’t able to double tap on each dinosaur independently. The double-tap only worked on the last dinosaur that I spawned. This need to be fixed because I can’t animate several dinosaurs when I record a movie with several of them in the same scene.
You know what can be really cool, to make so a dinosaur can talk and read lines that you give him, Kids will love it!
Conclusion
DinosAR – Dinosaurs in AR is a fun app for kids and adults alike, especially if you are interested in those pre-historic creatures that lived in our planets since 230 million years ago and until 65 million years ago. I was always fascinated with those creatures and for me, it was a really nice experience seeing them live so close to me.
That being said, dinosAR could have been an excellent educational app as well. It is categorized under the ‘Education’ category on the App Store. Right now it’s a dinosaur AR display platform and movie recording app accompanied with it. Nothing is wrong with it and I’m sure many people will enjoy it as it is. I just see a missed opportunity here.
I liked dinosAR, especially the authentic looks of the dinosaurs and the animations. Good app overall.