Microsoft has declared Windows Mixed Reality functionalities obsolete.
Virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality are three notions of the same concept. Three notions that are logically linked to each other, but which are sufficiently distinct to have created three terms. The first consists in the creation of totally fictional worlds in which it is possible to wander, and which require a "virtual reality" headset in order to enjoy them. The user is cut off from the real world. Augmented reality, on the other hand, is based on the world around us. Still using a headset - but different from the previous ones - we have a modified vision of reality: the headset enables us to see our world, but thanks to the computer tool, many elements are added to it. In video games, this translates into superimposed elements, but many other fields are concerned, and it is thus possible to conjure up "fictitious" models that other users will also be able to see and manipulate.
HoloLens 2: Microsoft's latest Windows Mixed Reality device © Microsoft
Logically, mixed reality is halfway between the two, or rather, it borrows from both. To take advantage of this on its operating system, Microsoft came up with the Windows Mixed Reality module. The idea was then to build a real ecosystem on our PCs and, from 2017 onwards, Microsoft tried, brick by brick, to put something coherent in place. In addition to the software layer, Microsoft had developed headsets designed for this mixed reality, but never seemed to find success. It has to be said that, simpler, but also better presented to the public and less expensive, virtual reality with the SteamVR ecosystem has largely taken the ascendancy with, for example, games that are both more numerous and more accomplished. Over time, however, mixed reality headsets have become rarer and rarer, and are now hardly to be found on the market.
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has now turned off the ventilator and declared the Windows Mixed Reality ecosystem obsolete. As Windows Central explains, it will soon be withdrawn from future versions of Windows. May its soul rest in peace.
