Getting Started with StereoKit

Prerequisites

Before we get started, you’ll need some software! You may have some of this already, but here’s the list!

• Visual Studio 2019 - not 2017, the Community version is great! Use these workloads:
  • .NET Desktop development
  • Universal Windows Platform development
  • .NET Core cross-platform development
• An OpenXR runtime, pick one or more:
  • Windows Mixed Reality’s runtime - Ensure this is installed and enabled!
  • Oculus’s runtime - Requires the Oculus App v19 or later
  • SteamVR’s runtime - See their setup
• StereoKit’s Visual Studio Template - The fastest way to set up a StereoKit project!
  • You can also directly install the NuGet package into your project of choice.
• Enable Developer Mode (for UWP/HoloLens builds)
  • Windows Settings->Update and Security->For Developers->Developer Mode

The source for StereoKit is available on Github if you’re interested in peeking at the code or modifying it yourself, but it’s a bit more complex to dive into! If you’re just getting started with StereoKit, you won’t need anything from the repository to get up and running :)

The Template

There are two templates to pick from! One is for UWP, and one is for .NET Core. Choose the UWP one if you’re deploying to HoloLens 2, and choose the .NET Core one if you’re doing development on a Windows Mixed Reality headset! When using UWP, iterating is fastest with Debug/x64, using desktop VR or the flatscreen mode.

The starting code is pretty simple! Initialize StereoKit in Mixed Reality mode, create a 3D model that’s a rounded cube with a default material, make a floor grid with a custom shader, and then draw them every step of the application! We also use UI.Handle to make the cube something we can do basic interactions with, as well as only rendering the floor if we’re in a VR headset

With that, you automatically get hands, environment, interaction, and lighting right away!

using System;
using StereoKit;

namespace StereoKitTemplate
{
	class Program
	{
		static void Main(string[] args)
		{
			// Initialize StereoKit
			StereoKitApp.settings.assetsFolder = "Assets";
			if (!StereoKitApp.Initialize("StereoKitTemplate", Runtime.MixedReality))
				Environment.Exit(1);


			// Create assets used by the app
			Pose cubePose = new Pose(0, 0, -0.5f, Quat.Identity);
			Model cube = Model.FromMesh(
				Mesh.GenerateRoundedCube(Vec3.One * 0.1f, 0.02f),
				Default.MaterialUI);

			Matrix floorTransform = Matrix.TS(new Vec3(0, -1.5f, 0), new Vec3(30, 0.1f, 30));
			Material floorMaterial = new Material(Shader.FromFile("floor.hlsl"));
			floorMaterial.Transparency = Transparency.Blend;


			// Core application loop
			while (StereoKitApp.Step(() =>
			{
				if (StereoKitApp.System.displayType == Display.Opaque)
					Default.MeshCube.Draw(floorMaterial, floorTransform);

				UI.Handle("Cube", ref cubePose, cube.Bounds);
				cube.Draw(cubePose.ToMatrix());
			})) ;
			StereoKitApp.Shutdown();
		}
	}
}

Alternatively, you could replace all this with the barest minimum amount of code. While the template provides some basic functionality, it really doesn’t take much to make StereoKit functional! Here’s the bare essentials:

using StereoKit;

class Program
{
	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		StereoKitApp.Initialize("StereoKitMinimum");

		while (StereoKitApp.Step(() => {
			Default.MeshSphere.Draw(Default.Material, Matrix.Identity);
		}));

		StereoKitApp.Shutdown();
	}
}

Awesome! That’s pretty easy, but what next? Why don’t we build some UI? Alternatively, you can check out the sample painting application repository, which contains a finger-painting application written in about 220 lines of code! It’s well commented, and is a good example to pick through.