'Kinect v2 Unity ( + Alternatives?) [closed]

My plan is to develop a simple 3d data visualization and experiment with gesture control using a kinect v2. Right now I read alot about different 3d engines and the kinect, but i am still very unsure, how things will work together. I also don't know, what's best practices in that field. The new Kinect v2 is available and advertises with the possiblity to include it into Unity ( Pro ). I play with the idea to get the systems, but the Unity Pro version is not that cheap for an amateur developer.

I would be happy if you could help me find answers to the following questions:

  1. Do you have experience connecting Unity and Kinect v2? Is there a way to connect to the Basic (free) version?
  2. Do I even need an explicit 3d engine/framework or is there something simple ( I dont need advanced 3d effects ) that works together well with the kinect v2?
  3. Are there good and easy-to-use alternatives to Unity that are able to communicate with the kinect v2?

Thanks a lot!

3dunity3dkinect


Solution 1:[1]

you can use Unity Pro 30 days trial. or you have to create your own add-in by using P/Invoke to call the c++ version of kinect v2 sdk. more info

other than Unity, you can simply use Viewport3D in WPF to display result. you can check the SDK sample for some examples.

Solution 2:[2]

There is still no support for unity developer version(not pro) by kinect v2, but you can still use two different applications like one for kinect v2, you can easily modify the examples which are available in the kinect browser and you can write this application using C# and another one is Unity and you can communicate between those two using some named pipes.

Or else you can use FAAST API. Its a very simple API where you can assign your key board keys for particular gesture. I had tried this FAAST with kinect V1, but there is also an option for V2 which I never tried.

Solution 3:[3]

At this point Unity has many of the features of the old Unity Pro available to the free edition. I can confirm that MS's Unity Pro package for Kinect v2 development can work with the Unity free edition, as of Unity 5 onward.

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Clones1201
Solution 2 Kiran Gani
Solution 3 NPatch

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