Pushing new prefabs to app without updating the whole app

I'm Stuck
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1

Hey,
I couldn’t find a matching category, so I went with “I’m stuck” although this is more of a “can this be done and how” question.

I have built and deployed an AR app previously (not using Lightship) that features AR objects at specific locations based on GPS - This worked well but did not allow placing of objects at a very specific position.
Now that I have discovered Lightship, I am thrilled by the idea of being able to position objects at a specific point and have multiple users experience them in the same intended way.

Now with my previous app, I had to place all the objects and GPS points in my app, build it, and update it on Google Play/Appstore to have my users get new objects at new locations.
I always wondered if I could somehow place new objects without having to update the whole app on playstore/app store

Using Lightship, is there a possibility to add new objects to my application without actually having to update the whole app, making it possible for users to experience new objects at new or old locations seamlessly?
So basically I want to be able to make some sort of Admin panel, that lets me upload prefabs to a server, then have maybe a database to check if users are at a specific location and then download the prefab and place it at the correct position.

In a more basic expression:
Can prefabs be stored on a server and downloaded at a specific location while getting new information from a database I can manage?

If yes, does someone have a good approach, idea or example on how to start?
If no, is there a specific reason to not do it this way?

Thanks

2

Hello Eugene,

Yes, you can accomplish this, but you would need to set up some sort of dictionary or database on the cloud for your anchor payloads.

For the sake of simplicity, all our samples for VPS use the PlayerSettings as an easy place to save anchor payloads, but you could save it on a server that only the admin has write access to like you described. Users can always localize to any wayspot, so there would be no need to update anything on their side for them to load a new anchor from the server.

We do not have a sample for this, but there should be plenty of samples out there on how to write to and read from the cloud. I’d recommend checking out our Remote Content Authoring (RCA) sample but to try out other samples and read our documentation first. The RCA sample can get confusing if it’s the first place you look, and it wouldn’t be as easy to modify.

I hope this helps!

3

Something that’s even more flexible is using Assetbundles, this way you can have players download new models, textures, prefabs and even content like audio and video and have it displayed somewhere in your app: Unity - Manual: AssetBundles