Microsoft HoloLens support?

I wonder if we are going to see support of Microsoft HoloLens in Unity. Really hope so!

 

Ever since I watched Dennou Coil (anime about kids with VR glasses), I've wanted this happen. The HoloLens glasses are still bulky, just like a Rift, but it's the same concept the anime had. Adding on to the real world.

I believe we'll have it one day, especially since AR is getting such attention today with both HoloLens and Google Glass.

 

Of all the engines I'm guessing Unity will be the first one to adopt it. I think this has huge potential for a new paradigm in games and interactive experiences, moreso than VR in some cases.

 

This is not a new concept, is simply augmented reality, and we have several products already, like Epson Moverio. Only Google Glass is not AR…

"Holographic computing", they say

 

Just like straping a kinect to a tablet, so you dont need a image to track from, Im quite sceptical to be honist about it

 

True, but I think it's the first product to take on AR/CR in a big way with the introduction of inbuilt processors specifically for holographic image processing.

Kinda like how Oculus is the first to take on VR in a big way.

 

My vibe says vaporware by microsoft. In the 90's we saw the same claims by SGI and Microsoft with the advent of VRML. Overlays of data in a AR display has been around since the 70's for the military. Coordination of data objects, in a 3D space has also been around since the 90's.

What will not make this vaporware is if Microsoft can get past the Intrusive factor of the hardware on the user. A few people have already said it looks bulky. Will it actually be a chained device to another device? eg. Is it just a smart device that relays on Windows 10 to manage the displays from a Surface/PC? All the internal parts add to Intrusive nature of the solution.

Should Unity3D support it? Sure, it should already support it, because we have support for Windows.

 

We could handle photorealistic graphics like the bike in the ad with Euclidion tech.

 

By that same token, Unity should have had Oculus Rift support, since they already had the ability to output to a display (and Windows, etc etc), but the truth was that it needed special help to get there. Simply being able to output an image to it isn't "support". Unity has official support for other things and that means a certain level of quality and easy of use.

 

It looks amazing, this will tie into 3D games very quickly, the gesturing will be bad for a while, but it will improve.

 

+1

 

Hololens is different in the sense that it actually does what we expect from augmented reality...
I agree this is not a new concept, but it's the first device to actually achieve it, (in my opinion).
* Plus it's Microsoft, if anyone can standardize VR its them, it may even benefit devices like Oculus.

I think it will change everything, no office will be the same after it's release... For us developers at least.
No longer do we need 5 monitors for an efficient workflow.

 

In my personal opinion, the Hololens has the highest potential for allowing the widespread adoption of synthesizing and augmenting human sight. I love Oculus and VR, and I believe the company has been an incredible catalyst in this exploding field, but let's be honest in that most people won't have a use for pure VR unless they're a gamer or fanatic to some degree. (note: I own DK1 and 2).

We all use monitors and television sets everyday and this new tech will remove the need for those in an intuitive, inexpensive and social fashion. In 10 years time, a static monitor (such as the one you're reading this post on currently) will seem outdated and begin being phased out due, in part, to the Hololens and its likely predecessors. Younger generations won't know a household with a television set or a monitor (apart from old films and media). Pretty soon your natural line of sight (with the aid of glasses such as the Hololens) will contain all of the monitors and digital displays you'll ever need.

Google Glass was nothing. It was the phone you already had in your pocket in an inconvenient and socially unacceptable location. The upgrade in efficiency was minimal and inversely proportional to the wearer's perceived social value... The Hololens will enable the wearer to do all of their computing and have all of their entertainment encompassing and satisfying the one organ that most notably benefits from it: their eyes.

As the technology becomes smaller and able to be worn discretely (considering culture and the social acceptance of such headsets hasn't changed in this time), the uses will then extend from the privacy of the household.

Again, this is in my opinion.

 

Btw, in case anyone missed it - support for HoloLens by Unity has already been announced:

Unity Blog (2015-04-29): Announcing Support for Microsoft HoloLens

I've also mentioned this on my book-blog (in case anyone here also knows German):

Das Unity-Buch Blog (2015-05-05): AR: Direkte Unity-Unterstützung für Microsoft HoloLens angekündigt

 

Hi
I am very interested and excited about making games with Unity / Hololens but I'm doing only one question myself since I have not seen a concrete answer about when Unity plugin will be available to allow us to develop some Hololens build (except that in the future Unity will support Hololens) Does anyboby know about it ? or Could any people from Unity answer me about this topic?
Thanks for your time
Best Regards
Alejandro Castan
Ps. sorry for my little english

 

I believe at the moment it's not even clear when developers will actually have access to Hololens development kits (or even if such development kits will exist). So I guess this will probably still take a little while.

 

FYI, hololens dev kits are still some time away: http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/1/90...s-availability-ship-date-developer-v1-edition

After talking to people at both Microsoft and Unity, my impression is that Unity support is well on its way and could be expected to be available with the dev kits.

 

Developers can now order the hololens.
Any official statements from Unity about how our engine is supporting it (plugins)?