Early this month, Microsoft announced MRTK3, the third generation of the Microsoft Mixed Reality Toolkit for Unity. MRTK3 is built on Unity’s XR Management system and XR Interaction Toolkit. Today, Microsoft announced that MRTK3 Public Preview is now available on the MR Feature Tool and GitHub. MRTK3 comes with improved performance, new interaction models, updated Mixed Reality Design Language, improved architecture, and more.

Unlike MRTK2, MRTK3 is a thin layer atop the interaction primitives (input abstractions, interaction, and manipulation) provided by Unity XRI. This makes MRTK3 highly compatible with other XR applications and interaction systems. Since MRTK now relies on Unity XRI for interaction systems, it can focus on offering new ways to manipulate holograms, collections of useful prefabs, volumetric UI/UX, and other mixed-reality-specific building blocks.

The updated Mixed Reality Design Language features the following:

  • Rounded corner geometry for more approachable and friendly experiences
  • Updated visual system (grids and modules) to support various types of Mixed Reality UI scenarios
  • Improved visual feedback for multi-modal input such as eye-gaze with pinch gesture input
  • Modular backplate system for building complex layouts that remain clear and usable
  • Updated bounding box visuals to reduce visual noise and enable fluid gaze-powered interactions

You can download MRTK3 Public Preview here. You can read about the MRTK3 release in detail from the source link below.