Unity Engine Will Fully Support Microsoft’s Hololens; On Stage Demo of Hololens at Microsoft’s Build 2015

Unity announced that it will officially support Microsoft’s Hololens in Unity Engine. Unity and Microsoft will work closely to optimize Hololens for Unity with tools.

Unity 5 will support Microsoft’s Hololens features, such as spatial mapping, spatial audio, gaze, gesture, voice recognition, and the ability to anchor holographic objects to specific locations in the real world.

Unity for HoloLens tools will be included with Unity Pro and Unity Personal Edition with no additional cost.

Steffen Toksvig, Vice President of Strategic Technology at Unity Technologies, explains:

“Microsoft HoloLens unshackles game and app designers from traditional screens creating a freedom to completely reimagine how we view and interact with information, education, entertainment, creative tools, social networks, remote healthcare and more. We’re happy to be working with Microsoft to ensure Unity is the best development engine for such an exciting new platform. Our work will ensure a seamless and efficient development experience that takes full advantage of the unique features and capabilities of Microsoft HoloLens.”

The Unity toolchain and pipeline are being augmented to leverage the unique characteristics of the HoloLens such as spatial mapping, spatial audio, gaze, gesture, voice recognition, and the ability to anchor holographic objects to specific locations in the real world. This ensures full integration for a seamless and efficient development experience that takes full advantage of the unique features and capabilities of Microsoft HoloLens. And of course, Unity for HoloLens tools will be included with Unity Pro and Unity Personal Edition with no additional cost.

Yusuf Mehdi at Microsoft added:

“Expanding our relationship with Unity Technologies was a natural next step in bringing content to Microsoft HoloLens. We are very excited to unveil this partnership and look forward to the possibilities it will open for developers creating experiences for Microsoft HoloLens.”

Microsoft demonstrated the Hololens headset with Windows 10 and revealed that universal Windows apps can support the technology.

During a live demo at Microsoft’s Build conference, they explained that all universal apps will work with the Windows Holographic platform and Hololens itself.

An on-stage demo showed a HoloLens-wearing employee pinning application windows around his physical environment and interacting with 3D models. Universal Windows apps are also headed to Xbox One later this year, which at least suggests Hololens console functionality will also be possible.