Microsoft today announced the HoloLens 2 Development Edition headset. The new Development Edition, announced ahead of Microsoft’s big Build conference in Seattle next week, will cost $3,500, the same price Microsoft gave for HoloLens 2 when it was first unveiled back in February.
It was first announced at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona which is considered to be one of the most important gatherings for the mobile technology industry. However, Microsoft hasn’t disclosed much about HoloLens 2, Microsoft just said at that time that it will be available later this year.
The HoloLens 2 has a diagonal field-of-view stand of 52 degrees while maintaining the holographic density of 47 pixels per degree of sight. Microsoft used its microelectromechanical system (MEMS) display technology that it claims to offer the equivalent of a 2K display for each eye. There is also a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 SoC — alongside a custom-built Holographic Processing Unit.
The kit will be including the HoloLens 2 hardware and Azure credits alongside free trials of Unity Pro and Unity PiXYZ Plugin for CAD data. Microsoft is also revealing that Unreal Engine 4 support for HoloLens 2 will be available for developers to start using by the end of May. This is a key addition for developers, and it will allow apps that include photo-realistic renders for use in manufacturing, product design, architecture, and more.
“Bringing together HoloLens 2, Azure Mixed Reality Services, and Unity Pro, the most widely used real-time 3D development platform, makes it easy for developers to create professional mixed reality experiences using your industrial design data. The PiXYZ plugin gives you the tools to create real-time experiences using Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) or Building Information Management (BIM) data,” said Julia White, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure, in a blog post.
Microsoft also says that Unreal Engine 4 support for HoloLens 2 will be arriving by the end of May. That will make it much easier for game developers to build for the headset. Unreal Engine 4 will be supporting streaming and native platform integration for HoloLens 2, all thanks to an update of the engine that is coming by the end of May. It will also allow developers to create high-quality, photo-realistic renders and immersive, mixed-reality experiences for solutions spanning architecture, product design, manufacturing, and more.