Opening of the Microsoft Build 2019 developer conference with a live demo showing the potential benefits of HoloLens 2 and mixed reality using the Apollo 11 mission re-creation example. Due to unforeseen technical problems, it was postponed, but now everyone can evaluate the capabilities of the Microsoft platform thanks to the publication of the video by Epic Games.
Epic Games has confirmed that native Unreal Engine 4 support for HoloLens 2 will be available from the end of May, allowing entertainment, visualization, design, production, and education professionals to take advantage of the engine's rich capabilities. To show the promise, the Unreal Engine team presented an interactive visualization of the first moon landing as part of the Apollo 11 mission, which turns 50 this year.
In the video, ILM Creative Director John Knoll, along with Andrew Chaikin, space historian and author of Man in the Moon, unveiled a HoloLens 2 multiplayer demo that recreates the historic 1969 event in great detail. The demo offers a vision of the future of computing, where managing high-quality 3D content with an AR headset is as easy and convenient as checking email on a smartphone.
The demonstration allows you to see many aspects of the mission, including the launch, a precise model of the Saturn V rocket, its three stages, docking processes, a detailed reconstruction of the lunar landing, and a look at Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon, all reconstructed from data and footage related to with a mission.
The visuals of the demos are wirelessly streamed to two HoloLens 2 devices using Unreal Engine 4.22 running on a PC using Azure Spatial Anchors to create a shared mixed reality environment for two users. With hand and head tracking, HoloLens 2 provides the most natural interaction possible. Two speakers can interact in this environment with a common hologram.
Remote PC calculations enable high-quality graphics on HoloLens: the Apollo 11 mission demo includes 15 million polygons in a physical rendering environment with fully dynamic lighting and shadows, layered materials, and XNUMXD effects.