Book Image

Microsoft HoloLens By Example

By : Joshua Newnham
Book Image

Microsoft HoloLens By Example

By: Joshua Newnham

Overview of this book

Are you a developer who is fascinated with Microsoft HoloLens and its capabilities? Do you want to learn the intricacies of working with the HoloLens SDK and create your own apps? If so, this is the book for you. This book introduces and demystifies the HoloLens platform and introduces new ways you can interact with computers (Mixed Reality). It will teach you the important concepts, get you excited about the possibilities, and give you the tools to continue exploring and experimenting. You will go through the journey of creating four independent examples throughout the book, two using DirectX and two using Unity. You will learn to implement spatial mapping and gesture control, incorporate spatial sound, and work with different types of input and gaze. You will also learn to use the Unity 5 SDK for HoloLens and create apps with it. Collectively, the apps explore the major concepts of HoloLens, but each app is independent, giving you the flexibility to choose where to start (and end).
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
6
Interacting with Holograms Using Unity

HoloLens emulator


The HoloLens emulator is a great intermediary for the actual device, allowing developers without a device to get involved and providing a more convenient workflow while developing.

The emulator exposes the inputs from what would normally come from the sensors to the peripherals and the virtual controls on the desktop, allowing the user to simulate gestures using a keyboard and mouse or an Xbox controller.

Deploying to the emulator

Perform the following steps to deploy your application to the emulator:

  1. From within Visual Studio, set the Platform to x86
  2. Select HoloLens Emulator as the target device for debugging.
  3. And finally, deploy by selecting Debug | Start Debugging  from the menu. 

When first launched, the emulator takes a while to boot up, so it's recommended to leave it running while developing and using the emulator:

I have found that the easiest way to navigate around in the emulator is using an Xbox controller but it's possible to use the keyboard and mouse, as mentioned...