(New) Change AR engine to 8th Wall for 2026

[kfarr]

As a user with an Android or iOS mobile device, I don't want to download an app or require WebXR support which is not supported on many devices (see blog post here). We will use 8th Wall as the AR engine for 2026 and then research a potential future solution such as Babylon Native or open-source 8th Wall after its platform sunset.

This will affect the Bollard Buddy repo. This transition will also discontinue our use of Variant Launch WebXR Polyfill for iOS.

Backstory:

• Users have reported challenges with using webxr for mobile AR "bollard buddy" app on android and ios devices.
• iOS support via variant launch works but is still a cumbersome process on some browsers / devices due to various app clip restrictions
• Variant launch has an accumulating backlog of bugs / feature requests that are not being resolved therefore there is increasing risk of the app not working in the future