So over the past few weeks I have so many academic interested in AR/VR or mixed reality as me question about Hololens. Firstly I am not a member of the Hololens team and have no details on HoloLens other than what is on the public web and you should always check out the official developer site for the product documentation.
Well if your interested in building for HoloLens in Unity then one of the first and important things that you’ll come across is the HoloLens Toolkit-Unity which is referenced from the official ‘Getting Started’ docs here;
- Welcome! Page on the Holographic section of the Windows Dev Centre
- Holographic Community Page on Windows Dev Centre
- GitHub HoloToolkit-Unity
Developing holographic apps uses the Universal Windows Platform
All holographic apps are Universal Windows apps
All Universal Windows apps can be made to run on Microsoft HoloLens
One Windows Platform available on all Windows devices
Full details at http://dev.windows.com/holographic
There are six fundamental building blocks for mixed reality holographic apps:
Interaction with HoloLens has been designed around gaze, gesture and voice. This is sometimes referred to as GGV. The environmental understanding features like coordinates, spatial sound and spatial mapping provide the ability for holograms to interact with both the user and the world around them.
Holograms are made of light and sound, which depends on rendering. Understanding the experience of placement and persistence, as demonstrated in the HoloLens shell is a great way ground yourself in the user experience.
Hololens Interactions
Gaze
Gaze tells you where the user is looking in the world and lets you determine their intent –
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/gaze
Gesture
Gesture input lets you interact with your holograms naturally using your hands or, optionally, with a clicker
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/gestures
Voice Commands
Voice allows you to directly command a hologram without having to use gestures. You simply gaze at a hologram and speak your command
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/voice_input
Spatal Mapping
Spatial mapping provides a detailed representation of real-world surfaces in the environment around the HoloLens, allowing developers to create a convincing mixed reality experience.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/spatial_mapping
Spatial Sound
Using spatial sound in an application allows developers to convincingly place sounds in a 3 dimensional space (sphere) all around the user.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/spatial_sound
World Coordinates
Precisely positioning and orienting those holograms at places in the world that are meaningful to the user.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/coordinate_systems
Developing for Hololens – http://dev.microsoft.com/windows/holographic
You need:
Visual Studio 2015 Update 3
64-bit Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education with a 64-bit CPU (4+ cores)
8GB RAM, GPU (DirectX 11, WDDM 1.2 driver)
Windows 10 SDK (10.0.10586 or newer)
HoloLens Emulator (requires, Hardware-assisted virtualization, SLAT & DEP)
A UWP app that builds for x86
Unity not needed for 2D UWP apps
One of your first destinations when considering developing with Hololens and Unity is the Getting Started with the HoloToolkit-Unity to help you get started on this you can watch the following short intro video by my colleague Mike Taulty.
Order a device today available on microsoftstore.com
Shipping to : US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany
English only
HoloLens Development Edition
$3000 Limit 5 devices
HoloLens Commercial Suite
$5000 Ideal for organizations, the Commercial Suite includes the Development Edition, enterprise features, and a warranty.
For more information see http://www.hololens.com
HoloToolkit-Unity. Cloning and Packaging from Mike Taulty on Vimeo.