Preview your work with Holographic Remoting

You can use Holographic Remoting to stream holographic content to your HoloLens 2 in real time. This is a great way to quickly debug your app without building and deploying a full project.

A fast way to work on your Unity project is to use "Play Mode", which runs your app locally in the Unity editor on your PC. Unity uses Holographic Remoting to provide a fast way to preview your content on a real HoloLens device. Play Mode can also be used with a Windows Mixed Reality headset attached to your development PC.

Run Holographic Remoting Player on HoloLens 2

1. First, you need to install the Holographic Remoting Player app from the Microsoft Store on your HoloLens 2

2. Run the Holographic Remoting Player app on the HoloLens 2 and you'll see the version number and IP address to connect to

   • You'll need v2.4 or later to work with the OpenXR plugin

   

Unity Play Mode with Holographic Remoting

With Holographic Remoting, you can experience your app on the HoloLens while it runs in the Unity editor on your PC. Gaze, gesture, voice, and spatial mapping input is sent from your HoloLens to your PC. Rendered frames are then sent back to your HoloLens. This is a great way to quickly debug your app without building and deploying a full project.

Unity 2020 + OpenXR

The following steps assume that you have already set up your project to use OpenXR (in other words, you've imported the required packages and chosen settings for the OpenXR plug-in). If you haven't yet done this, see Setting up your XR configuration.

1. On your HoloLens 2, go to the Microsoft Store and install the Holographic Remoting Player app.

2. On your HoloLens 2, launch and play the Holographic Remoting Player app. Note that on the Start menu, the tile for the app says Holographic Remoting. After launching the app, make sure to press the "Play" button on the app's interface.

3. In Unity, on the menu bar, select Mixed Reality > Remoting > Holographic remoting for play mode.

   

4. In the Holographic Remoting for Play Mode window, in the Remote Host Name box, enter the IP address of your HoloLens 2.

   Tip

   The IP address of your HoloLens 2 can be found when running the Holographic Remoting Player

   

5. Change other settings as needed.

6. Click the Enable Holographic Remoting for Play Mode button.

   

7. Select the Play button to enter Play Mode, and then view the app in your HoloLens 2.

   Tip

   To debug C# scripts in play mode, attach Visual Studio to Unity.

Unity 2019/2020 + Windows XR Plugin

1. On your HoloLens 2, go to the Microsoft Store and install the Holographic Remoting Player app.
2. On your HoloLens 2, start the Holographic Remoting Player app.
3. In Unity, go to the Edit menu and select Project Settings.
4. Select XR Plug-in Management.
5. Ensure the PC, Mac & Linux Standalone tab is selected, find Windows Mixed Reality in the list, and check its checkbox.
6. Next, go to the Window menu, expand the XR submenu, and select Windows XR Plugin Remoting.
7. Set Emulation Mode to Remote to Device.
8. For Remote Machine, enter the IP address of your HoloLens 2.
9. To connect, do one of the following:
   • To manually connect, uncheck Connect on Play, and select Connect. You should see Connection Status change to Connected and see the screen go blank in the HoloLens 2.
   • To automatically connect, check Connect on Play. The editor will attempt to connect once Play Mode is started.
10. Select the Play button to start Play Mode and experience the app on your HoloLens 2. To debug C# scripts in Play mode, attach Visual Studio to Unity.

Legacy WSA

1. On your HoloLens, go to the Microsoft Store and install the Holographic Remoting Player app.
2. On your HoloLens, start the Holographic Remoting Player app.
3. In Unity, go to the Window menu, expand the XR submenu, and select Holographic Emulation (marked as deprecated in Unity 2019).
4. Set Emulation Mode to Remote to Device.
5. Set Device Version according to if you're using a first generation HoloLens or a HoloLens 2.
6. For Remote Machine, enter the IP address of your HoloLens.
7. Select Connect. You should see Connection Status change to Connected and see the screen go blank in the HoloLens.
8. Select the Play button to start Play Mode and experience the app on your HoloLens. To debug C# scripts in play mode, attach Visual Studio to Unity.

Holographic Remoting requires a fast PC and Wi-Fi connection. You can find more details in the Holographic Remoting Overview documentation.

For best results, make sure your app properly sets the focus point. This helps Holographic Remoting to best adapt your scene to the latency of your wireless connection.

See Also

• Holographic Remoting Overview