pelucidor

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news...app/ar-AABK1m2


Creating your ideal sports car using an online configurator has become even more realistic with a new smartphone app from Porsche.

The AR Visualizer App allows a three-dimensional photorealistic image of your perfect Porsche to be generated right before your eyes.

It means you could envisage how it looks parked outside your home, or even inside your living room. All the app needs is a flat surface to create the 3D image.

Dream machines

The new app includes all the features found in the regular Porsche configurator, which is offered through the company’s website.

This means endless debates about which paint choice is the best, or trying to work out exactly which set of alloy wheels your Stuttgart dream machine must have.

Customers can still make use of the usual website-based configurator, but then send their completed car to the app for the full augmented reality effect.

X-Ray specs

As an added bonus, the AR app also includes a new ‘highlight’ feature. This creates an X-ray-style cutout view of the selected car, showing users exactly where key technical details are hidden. It means future 911 owners can prove the latest sports car from Zuffenhausen is still very much rear-engined.

At present, the AR app can be used with the latest 911 Carrera S and 4S, along with the Mission-E concept car. The latter will be replaced with the finished production version of all-electric Taycan once it is revealed.

There’s an app for that

Porsche also promises to have the entire model range available for use with the app by the end of 2019, meaning Macan and Cayenne customers will have to wait a little longer.

Available to download for both Apple iOS and Android devices now, the augmented reality app is the latest in a series of smartphone offerings from Porsche. Last year, the company launched the Porsche Charging Services app, aimed at helping drivers of plug-in hybrid or fully-electric cars find charging points.

pelucidor

I installed on my iPhone XS Max and also on iPad Pro. Works pretty well - downloads 75MB data file and you can enter your Porsche code to generate your own specs. Uses camera on your phone/tablet for Augmented Reality and places car on surface shown in camera image (in front of house, on desk etc).

Pretty detailed - I can zoom into car and see red seatbelts, smoking option insert for cupholder etc. Plus you can change wheels, colours,'drive' the car forward/backward and watch the wheels move etc.

Sebvelez

AWESOME! I’ll try some shots in the driveway tomorrow....

off/lang

Pretty unusable on my Pixel 3 sadly.

worf928

Ridiculous. Doesn’t work at all without camera access. Waste on bandwidth.

iliveoncaffiene

Kinda cool - but kinda slow and not really useful... rather just look at it online

pelucidor

Agree that it is a pain to have to keep the phone held up and pointing at a location where the virtual car is placed while you are playing with it.
However no bandwidth is used during this viewing as all the Augmented Reality rendering is done locally on phone (needs a decently powerful device) - you can turn off cellular/wifi/bluetooth and it still works.

I would like the option to take a snapshot of the background and then play with the car over that background instead of a live view from camera, and a PC/Mac based version (using any photo for background). I think the AR tool is unnecessarily complex and a bit too 'clever' re trying to show Porsche mobile development skills, but it is better than nothing...

iliveoncaffiene

He specifically meant the 75MB to download the rendering via porsche code, and the bandwidth required to download the app

dichael

I agree - thanks for letting us all know about it, pelucidor!

mallocfailure

Yeah, this is a neat tech demo, but it isn't great as a pure visualization tool for the configurator. It's too jumpy to really examine things closely, it's hard to zoom in to see features on the interior, and as far as I see there are minimal things you can actually configure on the car within this app - looks like just paint and wheels. It's cool that I can load a configured car with the Porsche code, but if I (e.g.) want to compare seats with and without deviated stitching, this tool isn't a good place to do it.
We still need a good 3d configurator that shows configuration changes in real-time ... i.e. something a lot like the Unity web version we had until recently.

Thanks for posting about this, though - I didn't know this app existed. It does work well on my Pixel 3 XL.

worf928

Correct . ~300MB and 5(*) minutes of my life for nothing. (*)This post, download time, and having to enter my AppleId over and over again because ... apple. All for nothin’.

Cromo

Does it show the Motorsport Decals set?

Michael Smith

I actually think its pretty cool. You can even drive the car around!!
Great app to keep me occupied until delivery.

G650

Damn thing ran over my daughter!

G650