Introduction to mixed reality development

Abstract 3D sphere

Mixed reality is a big place, where real and virtual worlds collide with a bang. The possibilities are endless, and it starts with you. Choose your engine, download your tools, and dust off your keyboard. Welcome to the mixed reality ecosystem--it's time to create.

You can choose a starting point below based on where you are in your journey so far.

New to mixed reality development?

Learn the concepts, products and services

Start at the very beginning with an overview of what mixed reality is and how it differs from Virtual and Augmented Reality. Learn about the HoloLens, immersive headsets, and holograms. Explore basic design and develop concepts and related technologies such as Azure Remote Rendering.

Start building a mixed reality experience

If you're already familiar with the basic concepts and want to get started building something, check out our "HoloLens 2 Fundamentals" tutorial series. You'll build a mixed reality experience where the user can explore a hologram modeled after NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover. This will give you a firm grasp of MRTK and show you how it can speed up your development process.

Note

We recently introduced MRTK3, the third generation of Microsoft Mixed Reality Toolkit for Unity built on top of Unity's XR Management system and XR Interaction Toolkit, with better support for a variety of OpenXR-compliant devices and a new design language. For more information, see the MRTK3 documentation.

Choose your own development path

Are you an intermediate-to-advanced developer with some previous experience in Mixed, Augmented, or Virtual Reality? We'll help you choose the proper tools and get set up, if needed, and then we'll direct you to our curated development paths across Unity, Unreal, Native, or Web.