Month: January 2018

HoloLens and MR Device Dev Advisory Jan-2018

James Ashley1 Comment

I’ve come to accept that doing HoloLens and MR Device development means working with constant issues. As long as I can stay on top of what these issues are, I feel less like pulling out my hair. And I’m not just a member of the hair club for men – I also want to help you avoid hair loss with monthly updates.

I’m currently doing HoloLens development with VS 2017 v15.3.3, Unity 2017.2.0f3, MRTK 2017.1.2, and W10 17074 (Insider Build).

shared_buffer

This month saw the release of Unity 2017.3.0f3, which introduced a fix but also some new bugs. The fix is to the HoloLens stabilization issues introduced in December’s Unity 2017.2.1 release which caused holograms to be jittery. In Unity 2017.3.0f3, a new player setting in the editor called shared depth buffer fixes this. Just expand the Windows Mixed Reality node under XR Settings and check off Enable Depth Buffer Sharing. On the other hand, this seems to conflict with the stabilization logic in the MRTK, so you may see some jumpiness (but no jitteriness!) so you’ll want to remove that older logic from your code.

2017.3.0f3 also introduced problems with WWW (Unity’s older internet communication class). Basically, it doesn’t work when running in UWP anymore (though it does on other platforms and in the editor), so if your code or any assets you may be depending on for internet communication depend on WWW, you’ll have issues.

If you are using older stable builds of the MR Toolkit (up to 2017.1.2), you’ll start getting warnings and errors in 2017.2.0f03 and above about outdated APIs. Unity introduces API changes with each monthly release. The UnityEngine.VR.WSA namespace, for instance, is now UnityEngine.XR.WSA (sometimes the Unity editor will automatically fix this  for you when you migrate a project but often it doesn’t). In a couple of cases (like in the HandGuidance class) you’ll notice that the InteractionManager APIs have changed.

UnityEngine.XR.WSA.Input.InteractionManager.SourceLost += InteractionManager_SourceLost;
            UnityEngine.XR.WSA.Input.InteractionManager.SourceUpdated += InteractionManager_SourceUpdated;
            UnityEngine.XR.WSA.Input.InteractionManager.SourceReleased += InteractionManager_SourceReleased;

becomes:

UnityEngine.XR.WSA.Input.InteractionManager.InteractionSourceLost += InteractionManager_SourceLost;
            UnityEngine.XR.WSA.Input.InteractionManager.InteractionSourceUpdated += InteractionManager_SourceUpdated;
            UnityEngine.XR.WSA.Input.InteractionManager.InteractionSourceReleased += InteractionManager_SourceReleased;

The signature of the event handlers also change. Just follow Visual Studio Intellisense’s notes on how to fix the signatures.

Is there a mixed-reality dress code?

James Ashley

Not to derail us, but how should MR devs dress?

Trunk-Club-Box

My feeling is we shouldn’t be wearing the standard enterprise / consultant software dev uniform of a golf shirt and khaki pants with dog walker shoes. That isn’t really who we are. ORMs are not the highlight of our day and our job doesn’t end when the code compiles. We actually care how it works and even if everything works we care if it is easy for the user to understand our app. We even occasionally open up Photoshop and Cinema4D.

    silicon-valley

    We aren’t web devs. Hoodie,  jeans and Converse aren’t appropriate either. We don’t chase after the latest javascript framework every six weeks. We worry pathologically about memory allocation and performance. Our world isn’t obsessively flat. It’s obsessively three dimensional. Our uniform should reflect this, also.

      GivenchyVR_10

      This is the hard part, but here’s the start of a suggestion of the general style (subdued expensive) for men (because I have no clue about women’s fashion): faded black polo shirt buttoned to the top, slightly linty black velveteen jacket, black jeans, Hermès pocket square, leather dress shoes. It signals concern with UI but not excessive concern. Comfort is also important (UX) as is the quality of the materials (the underlying code and software architecture).

      Finally, MR/VR/AR/XR development is premium work and deserves premium rates. The clothes we wear should reflect this fundamental rate, indicating that if what we are paid doesn’t support our clothing habit (real or imagined), we will walk away (the ability to walk away from a contract being the biggest determiner of pricing).

        sid

        Black, of course, suggests the underlying 70’s punk mentality that drives innovation. MR devs are definitely not grunge rockers. The pocket handkerchief suggests flair.

        [This post was excerpted from a discussion on the Microsoft MVP Mixed Reality list.]