Author: Chad Carter

HoloToolkit / MRTK Popup Menu Issue

Back in April, one of my members, Leo, had a question about a master class I did in December. In that master class I talked about gaze, gestures and input. I showed an example scene from the toolkit that actually showed a popup menu.

Unfortunately a bug was introduced into the HoloToolkit after I did that master class. When I tracked it down, I meant to open an issue in the repository on GitHub, but I forgot.

But I just saw that someone else created an issue.  The issue (#880) can be found here:

https://github.com/Microsoft/MixedRealityToolkit-Unity/issues/880

So I decided to take an excerpt from the Live Q&A I did with the members and make it public on YouTube.

Unfortunately, when I did this particular Live Q&A my machine crashed and ended the live stream. I tried again, and it crashed again. It ended up being an issue with a bios setting…

Fortunately, none of my Live Q&A’s prior or since has suffered that fate.

The actual issue is in the DehydrationDeactivation.cs file under Input/Tests/Scripts. The OnStateExit needs to be changed back to OnStateEnter. That allows the menu to work as expected, but it was originally changed to fix an issue with the animation. So the true fix may be more involved.

If you are interested in becoming a member of LearnHoloLens, simply head over and jump on the notification list for when the doors open.

https://LearnHoloLens.com/

Chad Carter Leave a comment

HoloTour on Mixed Reality Headset

Back in April of last year, I talked about the top 5 apps on the HoloLens. It was a pretty popular video… I guess “top x” usually are…

Anyway, one of the top 5 apps was the HoloTour app. When I first ran this on the HoloLens and saw the cobblestone appear I was truly amazed.

About a month later, I did a “Deeper Look” into the HoloTour app as a request from a subscriber.

Well, here we are well over a year later and I’m doing another demo with the HoloTour app.

This is also by request from another subscriber. It appears the app was crashing for them, but I didn’t have any issues running the app.

As of 8/23/2017 I’m running the Creators Update and for the machine I was running this on, I did not have any preview builds of Windows. My understanding is the latest fast ring is actually a lot more stable. Two of my machines are using that build, but neither have a powerful enough graphics card to run these MR devices. I prefer for my main development machine to stay in a stable state.

My machine is currently running a NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti. You don’t need anything that powerful to run it, but I did want to mention it in case you aren’t able to get the app to run.

It is interesting that even though HoloTour is definitely a VR experience, I enjoyed it more on the HoloLens. Even though the FOV was small, I was blown away originally.

I believe I feel that way simply because it was so new and I was amazed that my carpet turned into cobblestone. Truly being able see environment through these headsets was very nice. I guess I just wasn’t as impressed as I was originally since I already knew what was coming.

It looked really good.

So if you have a device and haven’t tried out HoloTour yet, go ahead. I’d be interested in knowing if you had any problems in getting the app to run.

Here’s a video of me playing HoloTour…

Chad Carter Leave a comment

Paint 3D and Unity (and HoloLens)

I remember being all excited about Paint 3D when I saw Microsoft announce it.

I even remember trying it out during one of my Live Q&A sessions with my Learn HoloLens members.

But I forgot about Paint 3D … or didn’t spend any more time thinking about it.

Well, this week I created a video showing how dead easy simple it is to take an object from the community in Remix 3D and export it to a .fbx file and drop it into Unity.

Then I bring in the HoloToolkit and build and compile the program to get the creation all the way from Paint 3D and into my physical room looking at it on the HoloLens.

You can check out the video here:

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Acer vs HP Mixed Reality Headsets

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I received the Acer Mixed Reality Headset back on 7/25 and I did an unboxing video and talked about the headset in that video.

I received the HP Mixed Reality Headset a week later on 8/1 and I did an unboxing video and talked about that headset in that video. 

When using the Acer headset, I actually played the PC game Forza 6: Apex a little. I was playing the game on the headset.

When using the HP headset, I played the Xbox game Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. I was streaming the Xbox game to the PC and actually playing it in the cliff side house.

This worked better than trying to play a AAA game on the same PC I was using the headset on, and trying to stream live on Mixer and record. It was too much for the PC and the gameplay suffered.

The two headsets have the exact same hardware specs. Same FOV (95), same resolution (1440×1440), same refresh rate (90Hz) same everything really…

But they do differ…

They differ in the way they look, their price, their weight, their comfort level, their cables, and their padding.

Headset Weight (grams) Weight (pounds and ounces)
Acer MR HMD 410-411 0 lbs. 13 5/8 oz.
HP MR HMD 513-514 1 lbs. 2 1/8 oz.
HoloLens 580 1 lbs. 4 1/2 oz.

While the HP is heavier than the Acer, it has more padding.

Subjectively, I think the HP is more comfortable. But your mileage may vary.

Their cables are basically the same length. The HP is a 2 to 3 inches longer, not enough to make any real difference.

The price of the Acer is $299 and the price of the HP is $329.

The biggest difference between the two headsets are how they adjust for you to put them on and take them off of your head.

The Acer uses a belt like feature, which can’t easily be adjusted with one hand.

The HP uses a knob that you turn to loosen or tighten the headset. It is much easier to work with.

To see the full comparison, check out the video:

I’m looking forward to getting some development done on these devices!

Chad Carter Leave a comment