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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!

japhwil
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2 Answers2

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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. :)

Lance Larsen - Microsoft MVP
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  • Hey Lance, thanks for the answer! I used to be in the Windows Insider Program, but now I'm actually just running standard Windows 10 with all the current updates. The "Mixed Reality Viewer" (and "Mixed-Reality-Portal" too I guess) are just little tools to place 3D models in your environment using either your camera or an AR-headset respectively (sadly I don't have one to tell you any more). – japhwil Oct 05 '17 at 14:05
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    So the "Mixed Reality Viewer" is something that is coming, but not something that is generally available. As the article suggests - and as I can confirm - it's not in the Fall Creator Edition. So looking to the next Windows release before we see it. If you need something now -- look at AR plug-ins for Unity (such as https://www.wikitude.com/products/extensions/unity/). But regardless, any time you spend in Unity will pay off when the MRV does become available. – Lance Larsen - Microsoft MVP Oct 06 '17 at 14:49
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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.

Shelly Bagchi
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