bash - Can't Install ARCore on emulator for Android Studio

Question

I don't know if I'm allowed to ask this question but I really can't figure out how to use ARCore on Android Emulated Device. According to the official guide I'm supposed to use API 8.1 on pixel/pixel 2 device in order to run any app which uses ARCore. Sadly those emulator don't come with the support for Play Store, and without Play Store I can't Instal ARCore on the device. The device images that come with built in Play Store can't run ARCore instead. I'm really confused about how am I supposed to test anything for ARCore in this way. I need it to develop an app for a University program and I need to become familiar with Augmented Reality Development but I can't even get started because of this issue.

Answer 1

Updated: September 15, 2020.

For using this emulator, at first, you have to create a virtual device with support of AR. I'm running Android Studio 4.0 on macOS Catalina 10.15.6.

You can follow the Android Studio instructions to Create a Virtual Device with AR support.

I created two virtual devices: the first is for Google Pixel and the second is for Huawei.

Go to Tools – AVD Manager main menu and create you AVD. My window looks like this:

Make sure that Camera Back is set to VirtualScene.

Here are some steps you have to do in order to get a working emulator:

• Set up Android Debug Bridge. I set up adb for Mac.

• Download ARCore_1.15_x86_for_emulator.apk from GitHub repository.

• Run your AVD.

• Type in Bash Terminal the following command (to be sure that the port is 5554):

    adb devices
  

• Result:

    // emulator-5554    device
  

• Go to the folder where ARCore_1.15_x86_for_emulator.apk is located. For instance:

    cd ~/Desktop
  

• Type in Terminal for installing ARCore for AVD while the virtual device is running:

    adb install -r ARCore_1.15_x86_for_emulator.apk      
  

• Repeat previous steps for additional AVDs you’d like to use.

• Delight!

But remember: Android Emulator does not support ARCore APIs for Depth, Augmented Faces, or Augmented Images. When any of these features are enabled, the camera preview image does not render correctly: the GPU camera texture is entirely black, although UI elements drawn on top of the preview image still render correctly.