01-05-2017, 01:01 PM
Want to develop for Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed-reality platform but don’t want to pay $3,000 for the developer kit? Until now, it looked like you were out of luck, but as Microsoft announced today, you will soon be able to use a HoloLens emulator to write your applications, even if you don’t own the actual hardware. The emulator, as well as all of Microsoft’s other developer tools for HoloLens, will become available before March 30, the shipping date for the first batch of HoloLenses. Using the emulator, developers will be able to test their apps in simulated rooms and walk around it using keyboard commands, a mouse and an Xbox controller.
Microsoft will soon offer a HoloLens emulator for developers | TechCrunch
Today at CES, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that the company is planning to take its all-in-one Project Alloy VR headset into productization by year's end. To do so, it's working with some of its "top OEM partners." "We're committed to really making Project Alloy an open platform," he said. So, open source is a given. The question is if any of its hardware partners actually will makes the headset. It could turn into a quagmire very quickly; OEMS can make these, but they have to want to first. A quick, hypothetical example: ASUS not supporting the headset because Acer might make one. That's before taking into account that people already own proven hardware like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive setups.