A system and method for providing an augmented reality environment in which the environmental mapping process is decoupled from the localization processes performed by one or more mobile devices is described. In some embodiments, an augmented reality system includes a mapping system with independent sensing devices for mapping a particular real-world environment and one or more mobile devices. Each of the one or more mobile devices utilizes a separate asynchronous computing pipeline for localizing the mobile device and rendering virtual objects from a point of view of the mobile device. This distributed approach provides an efficient way for supporting mapping and localization processes for a large number of mobile devices, which are typically constrained by form factor and battery life limitations.