Hi!
So, HoloToolkit is gone (until you see the code on the new toolkit) and now it’s time to start using the new Mixed Reality Toolkit. There are a couple of ways to do this, IMHO the best one is to import a custom package in Unity3D with all the contents of the Mixed Reality Toolkit.
I’ve used to create and maintain my own custom packages for HoloToolkit, however I’ll follow the guidelines and now I’ll start to use the official ones. We can find them in the Release section on the GitHub repository (link). Then we need to click on [Edit / Packages / Custom package] and we have all the assets in our project.
In the releases page
- We are going to see the status of the latests releases. That’s mean current bug, new features, fixed bugs and more.
- We will have 3 different packages to download and import in Unity3D
- Toolkit
- Toolkit + Tests
- Toolkit + Tests + Examples
- We will be able to download the source code of the toolkit (if you don’t want to clone the git repository)
If you already know how to work with the Mixed Reality Toolkit, the 1st package is all you need. On the other hand, if you want to see some examples on how to use it, maybe the 3rd package is the best option. In example, the 3rd package contains several samples, one of them is a interaction demo such as the following animation.
Among the innovations included in this version, we can find some very useful such as a keyboard to be used in AR / VR applications. We have a Prefab that we can use in our applications in [Assets / HoloToolkit / UI / Prefabs]
Important: this new virtual keyboard does not automatically appear when you focus or gaze in a TextBox. There is some code required to do this, I”ll write a post in the near future on this.
Other elements to consider are the assets that allow us to manage the transitions between Scenes. In [Assets / HoloToolkit / Utilities / Prefabs] we can find a button to launch the navigation to a new Scene and also a prefab to return to the previous scene.
Finally I have to highlight the gallery of examples that are included in this release. In [Assets / HoloToolkit-Examples] we can find all the samples. At first glance I detected that there are a couple new ones, like the scenes of “Medical” and the scenes of “Prototyping”.
The 2nd one is especially interesting since it shows different forms of interaction with elements in a world of MR. The animation at the beginning of the post corresponds to the “CycleArray” scene.
Happy Holocoding!
Greetings @ Burlington
El Bruno
References
- GitHub, Mixed Reality Toolkit Unity
- GitHub, Mixed Reality Toolkit
- GitHub, Mixed Reality Toolkit Releases
El Bruno, my posts
- Device Portal Basic Features for Developer
- How to Import the HoloToolkit Unity
- How to place a Hologram using AirTap and HoloToolkit
- Creating a menu with options with HoloToolkit
- Using voice commands to display a menu with HoloToolkit
- How to create a 3D text always visible using HoloToolkit
- How to create a HUD (3D text always visible without HoloToolkit)
- How to detect hands using HoloToolkit
- Windows 10, Xbox One Controller, Bluetooth and some lessons learned
- How to use Fire Buttons actions with an XBoxOne Controller
- HoloToolkit compiled packages for Unity3D in GitHub
- How to detect AirTap and Click actions using HoloToolkit
- Detect user hand interactions using #HoloToolkit
- Moving and rotating Holograms using an XBoxOne Controller
- Spatial Understanding vs Spatial Mapping, and a tutorial on how to use them
- Spatial Mapping, tutorial to search for simple surfaces, like a 1×1 tile on the floor
- Alternative to fix the Tap to Place and World Anchor issue, until the official release of HoloToolkit for Visual Studio 2017 and Unity3D 5.6
- How to save a #3D model of the environment around the device
- How to improve the App deployment time from Visual Studio 2017 to Hololens using an USB cable
- How to use the Developer Portal when the device is connected via USB
- Lunar Module, new Sample App from Mixed Reality Design Labs with some very cool tools and prefabs for Unity3D development
- Tutorial to use buttons dialogs and more with MRDesign Labs
- How to select a Hologram, change the size or position and more using MRDesign Labs
- Goodbye #HoloToolkit, now it’s time for #MixedRealityTookit for Unity
El Bruno 