Windows Mixed Reality for Surface App

Question

I'm currently at the very beginning of developing an Augmented Reality App that's supposed to run on Surface Pro devices. I should probably mention that this is the first time I ever dealt with AR.

While most solutions seem to favor iOS, Andoid or the Unity platform, I have also stumbled across Windows Mixed Reality.

I'm aware that the website explicity says that it's only for use with headsets. However, I have Microsoft's "Mixed Reality Viewer" on my Surface Book which includes pretty much the functionality I want to deliver myself and I think the name and background suggest, that the two belong together.

Does anyone know any more about this? Ideally straight up if it could be useful for my purposes.

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

So interested to hear more about the "Mixed Reality Viewer" application you have on your Windows 10 -- did you have the Microsoft Insider "Skip Ahead" version of Windows installed?

https://winbuzzer.com/2017/09/06/microsofts-new-windows-10-mixed-reality-viewer-app-leaks-online-xcxwbn/

I'm on the "Slow Ring" for Windows Insider and already have the Fall Creators Edition installed - and no "Mixed Reality Viewer" - just "View 3D" - which sounds like it will morph into MRV

Either way -- you will likely want to do all of your development in Unity -- which can be used to not only make Hololens application, but also application for the new Mixed Reality Headsets. Going to guarantee that this will also be the case for MRV when it is generally released.

Love to hear more about what you are seeing - and know any time you spend looking at Unity development will be time well spent. :)

Answer 2

I think what you are looking for is Vuforia , a VR/AR SDK that is now integrated into Unity. You create apps in Unity with C#, and then deploy them to UWP (Universal Windows Platform), which can run on Surface devices and use the cameras for AR. Vuforia lets you do image and object recognition and alter the virtual parts of your app based on the real world environment - if you don't need those features, you can use Unity on its own to create virtual models, UI, etc.