Microsoft Corp. today introduced Microsoft Mesh, a service that will allow users to create avatars and project them into virtual environments such as ocean floor simulations.

The service is aimed at developers, who the tech giant says can harness it to build more immersive mixed-reality applications.

Under the hood, Microsoft Mesh runs on Microsoft’s Azure public cloud. The service relies on capabilities in Azure to render users’ avatars and process the virtual content they view. When there are multiple users in the same virtual environment, Microsoft Mesh continuously synchronizes data across their devices so that objects added by one user are seen by the other participants as well.

The company has shared several examples of how it believes developers can put the service to use. According to Microsoft, architects at a manufacturing company could create a rendering of a factory floor under construction and virtually tour it to look for potential issues. An automaker, in turn, can create a three-dimensional model of a new engine design that allows engineers to remove or add parts.

Microsoft and its partners are already working on software based on Microsoft Mesh. The company has released a pair of apps for its HoloLens mixed-reality headset that use the service to power some of their features. Microsoft is additionally collaborating with OceanX, the nonprofit behind the high-tech OceanXplorer deep sea exploration vessel, to create a “holographic laboratory” for researchers. 

“The idea is to take all this amazing scientific data we’re collecting and bring it into a holographic setting and use it as a way to guide scientific missions in real time,” said OceanX Vice Chairman Vincent Pieribone. Microsoft elaborated that the holographic laboratory could, for example, be used to display a virtual representation of a deep sea canyon overlaid with sensory data from tags on nearby whales. 

Besides core tasks such as rendering content and sharing data between users, Microsoft Mesh also promises to simplify other aspects of building mixed reality software. There will be an integration with Microsoft Graph, which will allow users to bring over files from Microsoft products such as the Office productivity suite. Applications aimed at enterprises, meanwhile, may use Active Directory to process employee login requests.

Developers can use Microsoft Mesh to create applications for both the company’s HoloLens system and third-party headsets such as Facebook Inc.’s Oculus Quest 2. The service also works with other kinds of devices such as smartphones.

On the software side, Microsoft Mesh is launching with support for the C++ and C# programming languages as well as the Unity video game engine, which is commonly used to build virtual reality applications. Microsoft plans to add support for more developer tools in the coming months. The company’s checklist includes Unreal, another video game engine, the Babylon graphics rendering system and the React Native application development framework. 

Services such as Microsoft Mesh that ease mixed reality developers’ work ultimately help boost the application ecosystem around the HoloLens. Increasing the number of available applications, in turn, helps Microsoft drive more end-user demand for its headset.

Images: Microsoft