edwardt / mixed-reality-exploration-toolkit

Mixed Reality Exploration Toolkit (MRET)

The Mixed Reality Exploration Toolkit (MRET) is an XR toolkit designed for rapidly building environments for NASA domain problems in science, engineering and exploration. It works with CAD-derived models and assemblies, LiDAR data and scientific models.

Installation (Built Package)

Download the release package from the release page. Simply extract the zip folder and run MRET.exe.

Non-HDRP

• VR
• Desktop

HDRP (experimental)

• VR
• Desktop (Raytracing)

Installation (Development Environment)

git clone https://github.com/nasa/Mixed-Reality-Exploration-Toolkit into the folder you would like the MRET project to be for your Unity 2019.4.17f1. Yes, that specific Unity version is important!

In Unity Hub “ADD” the MRET project from the folder where you cloned it to. Once Unity opens, DO NOT change the scene to MRET scene, because you want the necessary assets to be included in the project before. Hence import all these assets first into the project under Unity/Assets/AssetsandLibraries/Non-Distributable:

Free assets:

• SteamVR Version 2.6.1
• VR Capture Version 11.6
• MRTK Version 2.7.2

Paid assets:

While MRET is free and open-source, it does rely on third party assets that aren't.

Prices give a ballpark estimate for building MRET as of 2021.03.30. The prices of these assets fluctuate over time and may differ from what is listed.

• Easy Build System Version 5.2.5 - $20.
• Embedded Browser Version 3.1.0 - $75
• Final IK Version 2.0 - $90
• Graph & Chart Version 1.95 - $35
• Non Convex Mesh Collider Version 1.0 - $9
• Universal Media Player Version 2.0.3 - $45
• Universal Sound FX Version 1.4 - $40

Tricky assets:

• Pointcloud viewer and tools Version 2.40 - $100 When importing this one, uncheck the “Editor” folder (otherwise MRET will run in Unity but not compile).
• Runtime OBJ Importer Version 2.02 - Free After importing this asset, modify the string in "Shader.Find" on line 160 of MTLLoader.cs to "Standard" (i.e. Shader.Find("HDRP/Lit")).

Unity Packages

• If the OpenVR Unity XR package doesn't install correctly using the Package Manager, it can also be downloaded from GitHub. Note, you will need to remove the reference to the OpenVR Unity XR package from the package.manifest if going this route.

Now navigate in Unity to Project > Assets > Framework > Scenes > MainScene and open either VR or Desktop scene.

(you will still need the MRET Components to be placed, where they need to be placed to..)

• For Siccity GLTF, Git must be installed and in the PATH. After installing Git, relaunch your user account to reinitialize the environment variables for Unity.

Additional Configuration

Ensure that Project Settings->Player->Other Settings->Active Input Handling is set to "Both". Define "MRET_2021_OR_LATER" in the project settings.

Known Issues

Easy Build System 5.2.5 is no longer available from the Unity Asset Store. Contacting the developer might work. MRET 21.3 will support the latest version of Easy Build System.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For more information on contributing, please see Contributing.md.

License

NOSA