Mission AR

With the Mission AR sample, Unreal Engine, and the Microsoft HoloLens 2, you can experience the thrill and wonder of the most famous space mission in history—take a giant leap for mankind, without taking even one small step.

Mission AR is an interactive experience for HoloLens 2 that follows the launch and journey of Apollo 11 from the Earth to the Moon. It brings high-end PC visuals to mixed reality, featuring 7 million polygons in a physically based rendering environment with fully dynamic lighting and shadows, multi-layered materials, and volumetric effects.

Exploring and modifying this sample will help you learn how to:

• Create immersive narrative sequences and triggered events.

• Implement touch-based input and interactivity.

• Utilize Holographic Remoting to display content streamed from your PC to the HoloLens 2 over Wi-Fi.

Before You Start

You can only experience Mission AR on a HoloLens 2. Before you try to get started with the sample:

1. Make sure that you have Unreal Engine 4.24 or later installed on your computer.

2. Make sure that your HoloLens 2 device is also set up and working, and that it is connected to the same network as your computer.

3. You’ll need to use holographic remoting to stream content from the Unreal Engine to the HoloLens 2. We recommend going through the process described in the HoloLens 2 Streaming Quick Start guide at least once to make sure that everything is working as expected before you try to run Mission AR.

Getting Started

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher to the Marketplace tab. In the filters at the top of the page, choose Free > Epic Games Content. Find and click the entry for the Mission AR sample.

2. Click Free to add the sample to your Vault.

3. Switch to the Library tab and find the Mission AR entry in the Vault section at the bottom of the page. Click Create Project and follow the on-screen instructions to download the Mission AR sample content and to start a new project.

4. Open your new project in the Unreal Editor and follow the instructions in the HoloLens 2 Streaming Quick Start guide to connect your HoloLens to the Unreal Editor.

5. Put on your HoloLens 2.

6. In the main Toolbar of the Editor, click the arrow next to the Play icon and select Play in VR Preview.

7. With the HoloLens 2 on, look around the room for about 30 seconds.

   The HoloLens 2 will map the visible objects in the room.

8. When the HoloLens 2 has mapped the room, a calibration marker will appear.

   Move your head to look at the place where you want to center the 3D content, then tap the white diamond to anchor the content to this location.

You should see the Mission AR startup scene in your HoloLens 2.

Walk around the Mission AR Start display. If you see any tracking issues—that is, if the holographic content does not stay stable relative to real-world objects—follow the instructions in the Calibrating Mission AR section below to recalibrate. Otherwise, tap the Mission AR Start display to begin.

Troubleshooting

Calibrating Mission AR

Calibrating helps attach the virtual 3D space that contains the holographic content to real-world space. When you start the Mission AR project for the first time, you’ll have a chance to calibrate before you get started with the interactive experience. However, you can also recalibrate later to resolve tracking issues, or to control where you want the 3D content of the Mission AR sample to be centered in real space.

To recalibrate Mission AR:

1. With the sample running in the HoloLens 2, press the c key on your keyboard.

2. With the HoloLens 2 on, look around the room for about 30 seconds.

   The HoloLens 2 will map the visible objects in the room.

3. When the HoloLens 2 has mapped the room, a calibration marker will appear.

4. Move your head to look at the place where you want to center the 3D content, then tap the white diamond to anchor the content to this location.

If your tracking issues have been resolved, and the Mission AR Start display appears at the real-world location you want it, tap the Start button in the display to begin. Otherwise, try the calibration process one more time.

Audio Devices

If you don’t hear any audio coming through your HoloLens 2 during the Mission AR experience, it may be that Unreal Engine is playing the sounds through other devices set up on your computer.

Try opening the Windows control panel on your computer and temporarily disabling those other devices.

Objects Visible Out of Sequence

The first time you connect the Hololens 2 and calibrate the demo, you should see the Mission AR Start display shown above. If you see a group of additional objects, close the VR Preview window and restart the VR Preview from the Toolbar in the Unreal Editor. The objects should be gone.

Calibration Not Saving

Once you calibrate Mission AR, it should remember that calibration the next time you start it from the VR Preview.

However, in some cases, it might not be able to save the calibration anchor. For example, this might happen if the Unreal Engine loses its connection with the Hololens 2 at any point before calibration, or if you try to start the demo from the Unreal Editor before you connect to the HoloLens 2. If this happens, you may see the message Anchor not Saved printed to the screen, and you'll need to redo the calibration each time you start the VR Preview.

To fix this, shut down the Unreal Editor, reopen your Mission AR Project, and connect the HoloLens 2 before starting the VR Preview.