SolarSystemExplorer, powered by DataMesh, is an amazing showcase of Mixed Reality experience with seamless integration of spectator view enabled by MeshExpert Live!.
SolarSystemExplorer is a demo app for MeshExpert Live! which comes with many highlighted features:
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The World's First Commercialized 4K Mixed Reality Capture Solution
The Mixed Reality capturing is made easy. From common hardware to broadcasting-grade equipment, MeshExpert Live! provides seamless integration. The produced video content is stable, editable, and of industrial quality.
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Significantly Shorten the Development Cycle of Mixed Reality Applications
With the support of opensource METoolkit, creation of Mixed Reality apps becomes easy and fast.
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Better Collaboration and Shared Mixed Reality Experience
Support up to 1000 users collaborate with different devices including HoloLens, PC, Surface, Smart Phones, and VR headsets etc. and to remotely watch the live show all sharing the same experience.
Now the SolarSystemExplorer supports Unity 2017 with the upgrade of METoolkit. Now the master branch is compatible with Unity 2017, and the support for Unity 5.5 is moved to a new branch Branch_2.2_ForUnity5.5.1.
SolarSystemExplorer On TV Show
In this episode of I'm Future (a popular TV show in China), we helped Microsoft China to create free movement HoloLens Spectator View using MeshExpert Live! and Steadicam. The system is integrated seamlessly with existing broadcasting hardware. It's a pity there's only a few mins left in the final cut. This might be the first in the world to use HoloLens in such way in real TV program.
Collections Captured by MeshExpert Live!
All these videos are recorded by our MeshExpert Live! 4K Moving-Camera Spectator View Capture Solution, a stable MR capture solution that you can easily set up in 10 minutes.
To set up hardware for MeshExpert Live! to run SolarSystemExplorer, please see the Rig Assembly Guide for hardware specifications, hardware shopping list, and detailed assembly instructions. Please do remember to check the hardware requirements within the guide as most of the no-video-stream problems encountered are originated from hardware compatibility issues.
Here is a video tutorial to help you set up Mixed Reality capture in 10 minutes:
Please see the Software Setup Guide for detailed instructions.
See the Configuration Guide for configuring Network and IP addresses.
Open the PC app and run!
Note: METoolkit v2.3.0 and above are shipped with a new UI design that is more user-friendly. For details, see the UI Operation Guide.
Run SolarSystemExplorer
A preview window of the camera is on the right upper corner. You can preview the Mixed-Reality video stream at real-time. You can click thee double-arrow icon to enter full-screen preview mode. The control buttons are at the top middle. You can take high-quality photos of the MR scenes. You can also record the whole scenes as videos with a resolution up to 4K. The recordings will be stored under "C:/HologramCapture/SolarSystemExplorer/". There are also a vertical and a horizontal zoom-in and zoom-out bars for you to control your scenes. Other options are for you to explore.
It will automatically start to follow the HoloLens on the Rig to obtain anchor information. The Follow Statuses are displayed at the top left. If connected, it will show the "Stop Follow" option and if not connected, it would be "Start Follow" option.
As it will automatically start to connect and collaborate with other devices like Surface and another HoloLens. The scene on HoloLens and Workstation (and other devices like a Surface if you have and configured to connect) will all be synchronized in real-time fashion, which enables multiple players to collaborate with multiple devices and share the same experience.
We will show you here a step-by-step tutorial of how to create your own app with METoolkit and integrate with MeshExpert Live!.
If you are new to Unity and HoloLens development, you may take the course at HoloAcademy from Microsoft. For creating a Unity project, see our tutorial.
It is easy to start using METoolkit. You can get the source code from DataMesh-OpenSource. See the tutorial Integrating METoolkit with Unity Project for detailed instructions.
For complete documentation for METoolkit, see here.
Now let's create a simple app with METoolkit using only the Anchor Module. See here.
Follow this tutorial to add collaboration capability to your app so that different people and devices can interact with each other. The core idea for collaboration is exchanging messages among devices through MeshExpert Server. The server defines a simple protocol for message exchange and the METoolkit provides a message wrapper for use.
Now you have built your own app with collaboration capability. Let's compile and run it with MeshExpert Live! to see the results. See the tutorial Run with Live! for detailed instructions. If everything works ok, you will see a cube. And if you move the cube in HoloLens, you will also see the same movement in your PC app, which means the two devices are synching.
The SolarSystemExplorer is essentially the same idea of the first app we just made. However, it comes with more features and involves more work. Check this doc to learn more about SolarSystemExplorer.
If have any trouble making things work, see the Trouble Shooting Guide to see if you can find a solution. If no luck, you can always contact us at service@datamesh.com for support. We will try our best to help.
Visit us at www.datamesh.com