Dev Report: Microsoft Unleashes Trio of Updates & Meta 2 Supports SteamVR

It has been an interesting few days in developer news. The Microsoft blog has been busy with information relative to the augmented reality space. Meta 2 has also announced an interesting development this week. Here is a collection of various tidbits that have been collecting up.

Fall Creators Edition Coming Oct. 17

According to one recent blog post, Microsoft has set Oct. 17 as the release date for the Fall Creators Update. This is a major update adding quite a few new features to Windows 10:

Better inking
A new tool that NR50 member Lorainne Bardeen showed off at Build 2017 for remixing photos and videos
Xbox-PC connected gaming with support for the coming Xbox One X
The new One-Drive On Demand service
Upgraded security features
Better accessibility with eye control
Windows Mixed Reality

For us here at Next Reality, it is the support for the Windows Mixed Reality ecosystem, including head-mounted displays and controllers, that sticks out as the most important. Under their initiative called "3D For Everyone," Microsoft is working hard to put together a system that supports many paths to a 3D world.

Latest Windows 10 SDK Preview Build Released

This week, Microsoft also announced the release of the Windows 10 SDK Preview Build 16278. Along with the usual number of updates and changes, now the comes official Visual Studio 2017 support.

Microsoft Dream.Build.Play Enters Phase 2

Finally, Microsoft provided an update on their efforts with the Dream.Build.Play game development contest, announcing that the process and site have entered phase 2. Aside from the updates to the contest's website, this post contains a number of other updates, including the addition of The Developer Diary Contest.

For those unfamiliar with the contest, Microsoft is giving away $225,000 in prizes to game developers to release products on the Windows Store by the end of the year.

A Little Ointment for That Bleeding Edge

Anyone attempting to develop for the Windows Mixed Reality devices at the moment has likely had a struggle. Especially if you are also developing for the HoloLens. Between the constant changing of Unity, HoloToolkit-Unity, and Visual Studio versions, the number of problems trying to build, compile or deploy an app to the HoloLens and related devices has steadily increased.

Fortunately, Hololens developer and community leader James Ashley published a blog post this week for just such a situation. This is a useful break down of which versions of the software and SDKs work together for the device you are working with. Hopefully, the current fragmentation is very temporary and will soon be alleviated, but until that point, this is your solution.

Meta 2 Now Supports SteamVR

Meta Company announced this week that the "shipping" tethered headset Meta 2 now supports SteamVR, joining the club occupied by Windows Mixed Reality.

While not really advertised for its gaming features (rather, the opposite), it makes sense that this type of headset would offer this type of support.