Trainers,
our data mine of 0.87.5 is now complete, bringing a lot of new info on the table, especially in the AR department. If this update had an unofficial title, it surely would be “The AR update”, as majority of changes in the APK relate to Augmented Reality.
Update: our AR Plus guide is out. This is basically part two of this data mine. Read it.
Also, don’t go crazy when you read the article, but yes, you will probably be sneaking up to Pokemon with AR Plus.
Data mining contents:
AR Plus is coming
Hold your breath reader, things are about to go crazy.
AR Plus mode is coming soon and it’s a completely new augmented reality mode that seems to be focused around sneaking up on Pokemon. Its currently in testing at the moment and which enables deeper interaction with the Pokemon in AR. At this moment, we know quite a lot about AR Plus:
- AR Plus comes with encounter bonuses and special mechanics. In a nutshell, it seems like you will be hiding from Pokemon and catching them using special tricks
- Pokemon can become frightened
- there are limited AR Plus attempts before the Pokemon flees
- there are special AR Plus encounter values we don’t understand yet
- there will be an in-game tutorial for using it
- AR Plus is not exclusive to iOS or Android but…
- but we’re unsure if it can work on Android as of the time of this writing. Niantic has been working with iOS AR Kit for a while now and AR Core (Android equivalent) is still in its infancy. We don’t expect them to release it on iOS and leave Android players with nothing – that would be silly.
The following code was found:
.ARPlusEncounterValuesProto .get_Proximity .set_Proximity .get_Awareness .set_Awareness .set_PokemonFrightened
The proximity and awareness mechanisms are still unclear, but they seem to have a maximum and minimum and the you probably loose one attempt if you go over those values. Code excerpt about Awareness and Proximity:
.ArPlusModeEnabled .ArCloseProximityThreshold .ArLowAwarenessThreshold .ArCloseProximityMultiplier .ArAwarenessPenaltyThreshold .ArLowAwarenessMaxMultiplier .ArHighAwarenessMinPenaltyMultiplier .ArPlusAttemptsUntilFleeMax .ArPlusAttemptsUntilFleeInfinite
There’s a definite bonus for catching a Pokemon with AR Plus:
.ACTIVITY_CATCH_AR_PLUS_BONUS
The technical side of everything is also fairly interesting, showing that a wide variety of phones will be supported:
- there are two modes: high and low fidelity
- there is support for Experimental AR (likely ARKit)
- there’s a lot of new code supporting this new mode
AR Plus promo image and tutorial icons are already in the APK
We’ve also found the following icons in the APK, titled as AR Plus Tutorial icons, from 0 to 2 (developers use a zero based numbering system for sequences). As far as we can tell, the feature is in testing and it is not iOS exclusive.
We believe that the tutorial describes the following steps:
- searching for a Pokemon
- locating a Pokemon in the bushes
- sneaking up to the Pokemon
This image is the AR Plus feature splash image, probably used for an upcoming news announcement:
Our 0.87.5 data mine is under way! Stay tuned, here's a preview: the upcoming AR plus splash image! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/B5zjo8WNqG
— Pokémon GO Hub (@PokemonGOHubNet) December 19, 2017
AR Kit support
Although most of our readers are already going crazy and practicing their AR Plus sneaky dance by now, there’s more. Initial AR Kit support is now in the APK, however, its far from finished as far as we can tell.
AR Kit is limited to Apple’s platform and it is not available on Android.
Holiday present icons are in the APK
The following icons were found in the APK, probably related to the upcoming Holiday event and sale:
Aside from the icons, there’s no mention of a special event in the APK, so don’t expect a medal or a new badge for this holiday season.
New Pokedex badge icons for Hoenn and Johto regions
New Hoenn Pokedex badge (comes also in silver and bronze):
New Johto Pokedex badge (comes also in silver and bronze):
Other fixes
- A new scaling function has been implemented, called ScaleV2. Pokemon can now scale differently in various scenarios (gym lobby, gym combat, wild, raid, Pokedex). This should make things easier for Pokemon with large models
- A new “I’m safe button” should be now available during Extreme weather conditions. Functionality unknown
- A lot of changes to various warning and bugs that were reported post last release
