Lightship Maps for Unity gives developers the tools and features they need to display real-world location data and anchor location-based AR experiences. It is the same product that powers our games.

Lightship Maps is also available for WebAR developers through the Niantic Lightship Maps for Web Module on Niantic 8th Wall.

Unlike mapping providers that started by building maps for automotive or data visualization, Lightship Maps for Unity is specifically designed for AR use cases. It prioritizes key features critical for AR like vector-based maps for smooth zooming and panning around the map and map caching for fast loading in areas of low connectivity.

As an integral part of Niantic Lightship, developers have a one-stop shop for building map-based AR experiences without the hassle of managing multiple services.

A map layer is a grouping of related features and content. Lightship Maps for Unity supports the following base layers:

• Boundaries
• Buildings
• Land use
• Places
• Roads
• Transit
• Water

Lightship Maps tiles span from zoom level 0 (one tile for the world) to zoom level 17 (17,179,869,184 tiles for the world).

These features are available at different zoom levels:

• 0-5 | Landmass, major water bodies, country/state labels
• 6-11 | Landmass, major water bodies, large parks (parks, woods, wetlands), railway, highways, city/town labels
• 12-14 | Landmass, all water bodies, large parks (parks, woods, wetlands), railway, highway, major roads
• 15-17 | Landmass, all water bodies, all land use, all roads/paths

Lightship Maps for Unity is platform-agnostic and works cross-platform. Developers can use Lightship Maps directly within Unity to develop experiences for both Android and iOS devices.

Lightship Maps is also available for web AR developers through the Niantic Lightship Maps for Web Module available on Niantic 8th Wall.

Lightship Maps can be used on its own. Built modularly and independent of Lightship ARDK, Lightship Maps is compatible with Lightship ARDK but the products are not tightly coupled.

To get started with Lightship Maps for Unity, register for a Lightship account and download the SDK.

Niantic Map is our third-generation, 3D map for spatial computing. This is the map our VPS queries to localize users and return their precise position and orientation. Lightship Maps for Unity provides the 2D customizable basemaps built specifically for augmented reality experiences.

Lightship Maps for Unity is currently in public beta and will be free during public beta.