XR Step-by-Step 2023! Hololens 2: Installing the Tools you need! Unity 2022 + MRTK 2.8.3 + Visual Studio 2022

Welcome! I love the Hololens!! It can solve real-world problems by bringing computational vision to industries that have never had anything as immersive as this before…

We need to get more developers working and comfortable with the tools — so together we’ll be doing just that. Buckle up, and welcome to the future of XR!

We’ll start by getting all the tools setup and configured.

• !!! NOTE: Below this Quick Reference is the fully detailed Step-by-Step version with images! !!!
• Install Unity Hub (https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download)
  • Click Installs -> Install Editor -> then click Install next to the latest version of 2022
    • Update! Recommending 2022.3.4f1 – this is the LTS (Long Term Support) Version 🙂
  • Check Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022 (if you don’t have it installed already)
  • Check Android Build Support (required for Meta Quest)
  • Check OpenJDK (required for Meta Quest)
  • Check Android SDK & NDK Tools (required for Meta Quest)
  • Check Universal Windows Platform Build Support (required for Hololens)
  • Check Windows Build Support (IL2CPP) (required for Hololens)
• Run Visual Studio Installer -> click Modify
  • Check Desktop development with C++
  • Check Universal Windows Platform development
  • Check Game development with Unity
  • On the right hand side, check USB Device Connectivity
• Install latest Windows SDK
  • https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-sdk/
• Download Microsoft Mixed Reality Feature Tool
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/develop/unity/welcome-to-mr-feature-tool
• Download the 5 MRTK (Mixed Reality Toolkit) Unity packages
  • https://github.com/microsoft/MixedRealityToolkit-Unity/releases

• Download Unity Hub
  • Unity is constantly releasing new versions of their tools (very exciting to see the investments they’re making in our favorite XR tools) – so Unity Hub is the best way to keep up to date with the newest versions and manage your projects!
  • https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download

1. Click Installs
2. Click Install Editor
3. Click Install next to the latest version of 2022
   • IMPORTANT As of the writing of this blog, Unity 2022.2.9f1 is available BUT it has a known issue with OpenXR, so install 2022.2.5f1 for now! The joys and pains of living on the edge 🙂

• Check Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022 (if you don’t have it installed already)
• Check Android Build Support
• Check OpenJDK
• Check Android SDK & NDK Tools
  • Note, for Meta Quest development the above are required, for Hololens development these are optional but as I do both (and hopefully you will as well) I always check all of these

• Check Universal Windows Platform Build Support
• Check Windows Build Support (IL2CPP)

• Check “I have read and agree…” and click Install

• Unity will install…

• You can have many versions of Unity installed at the same time, I often keep at least one installed version from each of the version years, i.e. 2019, 2020, 2021 and now 2022
• You’ll see several version, the ones with LTS next to them are the “Long Term Support” versions – we however are using the latest version of Unity 2022.2.9

• Run Visual Studio Installer (for example, in your Windows Start menu type “visual studio installer” and click it)

• Click Modify

• Verify that each of these components are installed, if not then check each and click Install
  • Check Desktop development with C++
  • Check Universal Windows Platform development
  • Check Game development with Unity
  • On the right hand side, check USB Device Connectivity

• Download and install the lasted Windows SDK
  • https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-sdk/
• Click Next

• Click Next

• Click Accept

• Click Install
  • Note, I installed everything here, but you could potentially uncheck some of the options

• Download Microsoft Mixed Reality Feature Tool
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/develop/unity/welcome-to-mr-feature-tool
• Click “Download the latest version of the Mixed Reality Feature Tool”

• Click Download

• Check MixedRealityFeatureTool.exe
• Click Next

• You’ve now got the Mixed Reality Feature Tool for Unity installed!

• Download the 5 MRTK (Mixed Reality Toolkit) Unity packages – which we’ll be adding to our Hololens 2 Unity projects in the future – as of now the current version is 2.8.3
  • https://github.com/microsoft/MixedRealityToolkit-Unity/releases
  • NOTE – MRTK 3 is out, but currently using 2.8.3 for this series as that’s what I’m most familiar with, we’ll include MRTK 3 in future series

• Woot! We now have everything downloaded and configured for our next Hololens article!

Love any feedback and see you in future XR blog posts.

Build something amazing in XR! — Lance