HoloTour
More actions
| HoloTour | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| VR/AR | Mixed Reality |
| Developer | Microsoft, Asobo Studio |
| Publisher | Microsoft |
| Platform | Windows Mixed Reality |
| Device | Microsoft HoloLens 1, Windows Mixed Reality immersive headsets |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Type | Experience |
| Genre | Educational |
| Input Device | Gaze, gesture, voice, HoloLens Clicker (optional) |
| Release Date | 8 March 2016 (Windows Store listing for HoloLens) |
| Price | Free |
| App Store | Microsoft Store |
- See also: VR Apps
HoloTour is a virtual tour application published by Microsoft for the first-generation HoloLens and later for Windows Mixed Reality headsets on PC. It takes the user on guided tours of Rome and of Machu Picchu in Peru, combining 360-degree video, spatial sound and holographic scenery, with a narrator named Melissa acting as tour guide.[1] Microsoft announced it in February 2016 as one of the first experiences for the HoloLens Development Edition, and the app was free from launch.[2][3]
The Microsoft Store lists Microsoft Corporation as developer and publisher. The French studio Asobo Studio announced HoloTour as one of three titles it made for Microsoft for the HoloLens launch, together with the games Fragments and Young Conker.[1][4] Microsoft later published two developer case studies describing how its team captured video and audio for the app, including a custom rig of 14 GoPro cameras.[5]
Gameplay
HoloTour has two tours, one of Rome and one of Machu Picchu.[1][6] Each scene is mostly 360-degree video recorded on location. Objects close to the viewer, such as the fountain outside the Pantheon, a painting in Piazza Navona and the hot air balloon the user stands in for aerial scenes, are rendered as 3D objects, so that nearby objects have depth as the user walks around their own space.[5] On HoloLens, the untethered headset lets users walk around within these locations.[2] The tour guide, Melissa, gives historical facts along the way; according to the store listing she takes the user "to impossible heights" or steps "back in time", and the app offers "impossible perspectives and cinematic moments".[1] Microsoft's case study names the hot air balloon ride and a gladiator fight in the Colosseum as two of these "impossible perspectives".[5]
Users interact with the tour through gaze, gesture and voice, and the store listing names the HoloLens Clicker as optional.[1][7] Some sounds are triggered by where the user looks: looking toward the street-side cafe in Piazza Navona, for example, brings up the sound of a busy restaurant.[6] WinBuzzer reported that the app also overlays 3D text labels on objects and monuments.[7]
Scenes named in Microsoft's case studies include:
| Tour | Scenes and moments described by Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Rome | Piazza Navona; the Pantheon, whose facade dissolves to reveal the oculus; a hot air balloon ride; a gladiator battle in the Colosseum at the end of the tour[5][6] |
| Peru | Machu Picchu, including a train shown with moving spatial sound; Aguas Calientes; the Salinas de Maras salt pans[6] |
Development
According to Microsoft's case study, the team's goal was to "make you feel like you're really there".[5] The team found that off-the-shelf 360-degree camera rigs did not meet its needs for resolution, cost or size, so it built its own. The first version was made from cardboard, Velcro, duct tape and 14 GoPro cameras, chosen because the cameras were small and affordable and could be placed close together, which reduces stitching artifacts. After a test shoot on Rattlesnake Ridge near Seattle, the rig was rebuilt with a 3D-printed camera housing and external battery packs and tested again in San Francisco. That version was used for most of the captures in the finished app.[5]
Rome was the first location the team planned to ship. A six-person team of artists, designers and producers made a scouting trip of about nine days before filming; for Machu Picchu the team skipped the scouting trip and instead researched in advance and booked extra filming days. To limit stitching errors, the crew kept people away from the camera, worked with local guides on crowd control, and often filmed very early in the morning.[5]
Footage from the 14 cameras was stitched with PTGui and composited in After Effects, giving a video of around 8K resolution. Because decoding video at that size was too costly for HoloLens, the team split each scene into many smaller video regions, replaced regions with little motion by still images, and decoded only the regions inside or just outside the user's field of view. If the user turns quickly, a still image shows briefly before the video resumes. The final playback system included custom tools, built within Unity, for setting up the video in each scene and monitoring playback. Real objects near the camera, such as the Pantheon fountain, were removed from the video and rebuilt as 3D models from photogrammetry scans.[5]
For audio, a four-microphone array under the cameras recorded sound in four directions into a four-channel recorder, and separate stereo and mono recorders captured ambient sound at points of interest. In the app, world-locked spatial sound emitters play the audio from each microphone in the matching direction. Other techniques described by the audio team include spline emitters that move with an object, such as the train at Machu Picchu, and music and sound effects for the more cinematic scenes.[6] The capture case study credits David Haley (senior developer), Danny Askew (video artist), Jason Syltebo (audio designer) and Travis Steiner (design director).[5]
Asobo Studio described the HoloLens titles as developed "pour le compte de notre partenaire Microsoft" (on behalf of its partner Microsoft).[4] HoloForge by Asobo, Asobo Studio's immersive and mixed reality studio, lists HoloTour among its projects and says that Microsoft "trusted us to push the technical boundaries" on it.[8]
Release
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 29 February 2016 | Announced by Kudo Tsunoda as one of the first experiences for the HoloLens Development Edition[2] |
| 8 March 2016 | Release date given on the Windows Store listing; WinBuzzer reported the listing as a HoloLens-only app on 9 March[1][7] |
| 30 March 2016 | HoloLens Development Edition begins shipping in the United States and Canada; HoloTour available free from the Windows Store for HoloLens[3] |
| October 2016 | Asobo Studio said HoloTour would be available free at the launch of Development Edition pre-orders in several European countries[4] |
| 26 October 2016 | Introduced at Microsoft's Windows 10 event in New York, where Microsoft also announced Windows 10 VR headsets from partner PC makers[9][10] |
At the October 2016 event, Microsoft used HoloTour to show how the upcoming Windows 10 VR headsets would support 3D environments; Pocket-lint wrote that it was "demonstrated via HoloTour".[10] The app was later made available for Windows Mixed Reality immersive headsets. Microsoft's Windows Mixed Reality Enthusiast Guide used HoloTour as its example of how to install and launch a first immersive game from the Store in the Mixed Reality home.[11]
As of October 2026 the Microsoft Store still lists HoloTour as a free download for HoloLens and PC. The listing requires Windows 10 version 16257.0 or higher on an x64 system and a Windows Mixed Reality immersive headset on PC, carries an ESRB rating of Everyone 10+, and lists English, Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish as supported languages.[1] Microsoft has since deprecated Windows Mixed Reality for PC headsets and removed it in Windows 11 version 24H2; existing headsets keep working with Steam on Windows 11 version 23H2 through November 2026, after which the platform receives no further updates or support.[12][13]
Reception
Writing at the announcement, when Microsoft had not provided any illustrations of the app, PCWorld's Mark Hachman said HoloTour appeared to be a HoloLens-specific version of Google Earth or Bing Maps.[14] Reporting on its appearance at the October 2016 Windows 10 event, TechCrunch wrote that "despite the name, this app makes more sense with a VR headset".[9]
In a 2019 retrospective review of the original HoloLens, Hachman wrote that HoloTour, from Microsoft Studios, offers "genuinely interesting 360-degree recorded video tours of Machu Picchu and Rome", with a "friendly, informative narrator". He added that, on reflection, the tours "aren't much different from a HoloLens-specific version of Myst", as the user explores "hotspot after hotspot".[15]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "HoloTour". Microsoft Store. Microsoft. https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nblggh5pj87. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kudo Tsunoda (2016-02-29). "Introducing first ever experiences for the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition". Windows Blogs. Microsoft. https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2016/02/29/introducing-first-ever-experiences-for-the-microsoft-hololens-development-edition/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Emmanuel Forsans (2016-04-14). "Asobo Studio annonce la disponibilité de ses jeux Hololens". AFJV. https://afjv.com/news/6161_asobo-studio-annonce-la-disponibilite-de-ses-jeux-hololens.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Emmanuel Forsans (2016-10-16). "Asobo Studio accompagne le lancement des précommandes de l'édition Microsoft HoloLens Development en Europe de trois de ses créations". AFJV. https://afjv.com/news/6829_asobo-accompagne-le-lancement-de-l-hololens-development.htm. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 David Haley, Danny Askew, Jason Syltebo, Travis Steiner. "Case study - HoloTour". Microsoft Learn. Microsoft. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/out-of-scope/case-study-capturing-and-creating-content-for-holotour. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "Case study: Spatial sound design for HoloTour". Microsoft Learn. Microsoft. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/design/case-study-spatial-sound-design-for-holotour. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Markus Kasanmascheff (2016-03-09). "HoloTour: Microsoft Publishes Hololens Virtual Sightseeing App". WinBuzzer. https://winbuzzer.com/2016/03/09/holotour-microsoft-publishes-hololens-virtual-sightseeing-app-xcxwbn/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "HoloTour". HoloForge by Asobo. https://www.holoforge.io/en/projets/holotour. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Romain Dillet (2016-10-26). "HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Acer will all ship VR headsets for your PC starting at $299". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/26/hp-dell-lenovo-asus-and-acer-will-all-ship-vr-headsets-for-your-pc-starting-at-299/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Elyse Betters Picaro. "Microsoft October Event: All the announcements that matter". Pocket-lint. https://www.pocket-lint.com/laptops/news/microsoft/139108-microsoft-october-event-all-the-announcements-that-matter. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "Using games and apps in Windows Mixed Reality - Enthusiast Guide". Microsoft Learn. Microsoft. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/using-games-and-apps-in-windows-mixed-reality. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "Deprecated features in the Windows client". Microsoft Learn. Microsoft. 2026-09-23. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/deprecated-features. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "Before you start - Enthusiast Guide". Microsoft Learn. Microsoft. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/before-you-start. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Mark Hachman (2016-02-29). "Here are the first amazing games and apps for Microsoft's HoloLens". PCWorld. https://www.pcworld.com/article/419815/here-are-the-first-amazing-games-and-apps-for-microsofts-hololens.html. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Mark Hachman (2019-02-22). "Microsoft HoloLens retro review: What made it great, and what a new HoloLens needs to succeed". PCWorld. https://www.pcworld.com/article/403327/microsoft-hololens-what-made-it-great-and-what-a-new-hololens-needs.html. Retrieved 2026-10-15.