My Journey till #2020, 1 Step at a Time 🥽
Tags: devgrad2020, octograd2020, githubsdp, opensource
Published: 2020-05-20 07:31:35

# Into the Journey
As I began my journey in engineering, I wasn't sure what to do, where to begin and the most important of them all, what I wanted to become! Everything was new and yet there wasn't anything specific that caught my attention or made me say, "This is what I was looking for the whole time!".

To be honest, I had a pretty good understanding of the basics of computer science and have been coding since over 10 years ago (from GW-Basic to Java and beyond), searching the one thing I truly wanted to do, experimenting with all sorts of different technologies in the process (from creating websites via WordPress to Machine Learning and the one thing that took over my heart!!

Yeah, it was Augmented, Virtual Reality!! The concept of escaping into a world of his own is every child's dream come true, and yet here it was, not just a silly dream, but something that can actually come true!!


## A Brief History of Projects
After getting into AR, the only thing that was limiting me was the actual smartphone capabilities. Tech wasn't so advanced yet!

I built Educational projects like Solar System AR 
{% github https://github.com/AgrMayank/Solar-System-AR %}

I also participated in an XR hackathon HackYourReality and made it through the first phase. We build AidXR, a first Aid solution in Augmented Reality.
{% github https://github.com/AgrMayank/AidXR %}

Getting selected as a *#MadeWithUnity* showcase and speaker was a great surprise for me! It was an open-world project I had just started working on.
{% github https://github.com/AgrMayank/Foggy-Forest %}

Last but not the least, I wrote a blog on getting started with AR for fellow students and developers alike who wanted to get started with AR development.
{% medium https://medium.com/@AgrMayank/getting-started-in-augmented-reality-ar-using-unity-e450ee9a3138 %}.

You can view my complete portfolio here - [AgrMayank.GitHub.io](https://agrmayank.github.io/)!


## My Final Project
As my Final College Project, I made an AR navigation and information app of my college using Unity. GitHub Student Developer pack helped me get free access to Unity Pro which is awesome! Along with it, I also got access to ImgBot which reduced the size of my project significantly and JetBrains Rider which helped me code **faster** in C#!


## Link to Code
The code to 90% of my projects is open-source! You can fork and use them as you want. You can download my Final Year Project by visiting the link below and going to the Download Build section or the releases page - 
{% github https://github.com/AgrMayank/Tri-Netra %}


## Building the App
First of all, I built the 3D model of my college using Blender3D! It took a while to make it look as close as possible to the actual buildings. After that, I needed to import the model directly into my Unity project. For the AR part, I utilized ARFoundation by Unity so that I don't have to worry about cross-compatibility issues later on. Then it was all a matter of optimizing the app and adding useful features to it (such as Lean Touch package).
Let me know if you liked my project via [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/agrmayank/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/myid_mayank).


## Final Words
It has been an amazing journey so far and is gonna be even more exciting in the years to come! Sooner or later, the future is gonna change as it did with smartphones and we're gonna be a BIG part of it!