Tuesday 21 July 2015

Creating Kinect-enabled apps with Unity 5

So many blogs, so little time. Ever feel that way when you realize it’s been a long time since you’ve checked in with one of your favorite bloggers? Well, that’s how we’re feeling today, after reading this four-month old blog post from Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) James Ashley. It seems that while we were busy watching demos of Microsoft HoloLens and wondering what’s next for Cortana, Ashley was busy sussing out the possibilities for using the Kinect for Xbox One sensor (along with the Kinect Adapter for Windows) with the March 2015 release of Unity 5.

 Kinect MVP James Ashley captures himself in a Kinect-enabled Unity 5 app.
Kinect MVP James Ashley captures himself in a Kinect-enabled Unity 5 app.

With his usual attention to detail, Ashley takes the reader through nine steps to build a Kinect-enabled application in Unity 5 by using plug-in support available in Unity’s free Personal Edition. As he explains, this plug-in makes it “very easy to start building otherwise complex experiences like point cloud simulations that would otherwise require a decent knowledge of C++.”

Unity has long been the preferred platform for game developers, but until now, plug-in support was only available to those who purchased a costly Unity Pro license. With such support now included with the free Unity Personal license, there’s no cost barrier to creating Kinect-enabled Unity apps.

Let the games begin!

The Kinect for Windows Team

Key links



Read the full article here by Kinect for Windows Product Blog

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