Hololight Space release notes - v2025.0.0.0

New features

Getting started tutorial

Hololight Space now has a tutorial for first-time users.

To open the tutorial:

  1. Select Load, either from the welcome panel or Space Manager.

  2. When the file explorer opens, navigate to root > demo files and open "getting started.pdf".

Locomotion

Locomotion now supports 3 modes:

Mode

Description

Teleport

Use a ray projected from your hand or controller to teleport to 3D surfaces

Walking

Fly through the space without changing height

Flight

Fly through the space in any direction

In addition to these movement modes, there are additional settings standard to most VR applications that you can use to create a more comfortable experience.

Alignment bar in Space Manager

Space Manager now has alignment modes listed right next to Load and Save. This section contains:

  • 2-point alignment

  • Manual space origin alignment

  • QR-code alignment (Only available on Microsoft HoloLens 2)

  • Drop-to-floor alignment

2-point alignment

With 2-point alignment, you create an anchor on a 3D model that’s already in the space. Additionally, you can select an anchor you created and align it using another 2-point anchor in the real world. You can then place both types of anchors with hands or controllers, which makes the feature possible on all devices.

2-point alignment requires you to have the loaded model aligned vertically. This means you need to orient it correctly with its up vector.

Drop-to-floor

The Drop-to-floor button in Space Manager is now slightly different. Drop-to-floor now moves the current selection down until the lowest parts of the selection are at the height of your floor as defined in the client device.

If you select one part of a model instead of the whole model, you can move the whole model to the floor based on the boundaries of the selected part. This means the lowest point in the single selected part will move to the floor while moving the whole model with it.

On Microsoft HoloLens 2, the device’s floor recognition is used to figure out the floor. VR devices use the VR floor.

Loading cube alignment

Align the loading cube with more options in order to facilitate the placement of 3D models in the space.

Quick alignment bar

Using the quick alignment bar when working with the loading cube, you can align to one of the 4 following options:

  • Align to the position of the loading cube

  • Align to the space origin

  • Align to the first model loaded

  • Align to the physical floor

Aligning multiple imported models

Scaling and alignment settings are transferred to additional loading cubes without the need to confirm them again.

Quick menu redesign

The quick menu has new features that reduce the amount of clicking when using different tools and options. There are also customizable button layout presets.

Quick menu layout customization

You can now switch the quick menu between a 2 x 2 layout or a 4 x 4 layout.

Quick menu button customization

You can now customize what buttons appear on the quick menu.

Hololight Space Server interactive live view

There are now ways to interact with Hololight Space using Hololight Space Server’s live view. When using Hololight Space Server, activating live view now lets you see and interact with Hololight Space through the viewpoint of a connected client device. Since this relies on the view of a client device, an XR device must first connect to the application with Hololight Space Client before this option becomes available.

Spatial mouse

Beyond just moving around, you can use your mouse to control Hololight Space Server’s spatial mouse to interact with all 3D elements in view of the XR user, including 3D buttons and interaction gizmos

Hierarchy

The hierarchy that appears in Space Manager in the application now appears in Hololight Space Server, allowing for the faster selection, hiding, and filtering of parts.

Screenshot tool

You can instantly capture a screenshot of the live view.

Hololight Space Assistant

The Hololight Space Assistant is an experimental LLM-based assistant that answers questions about how to use Hololight Space. The assistant is optional on installation and does not require internet access to use.

Improvements

Selection outline

The outline surrounding selected parts is clearer. Instead of highlighting the whole assembly, Hololight Space will create an outline around the currently selected parts. You can customize the selection outline color in the settings.

Also, the selection is visible even if parts are hidden behind other unselected models.

PBR texture rendering

Hololight Space now has improved PBR Textures for GLB and FBX files as well as CAD Files. Hololight Space also now renders metallic textures more accurately.

Known issues

  • You cannot open two of the same PDF files twice using the load button on the welcome screen or the one on Space Manager.

  • When stacking or comparing models, models do not line up when they have different pivot points.

  • Hand captures created in a meeting do not synchronize correctly if you create the hand capture before all users have joined the meeting.

  • Enabling depth buffer causes some models to flicker.

  • If a loaded model is missing a linked part, the model will not delete when you create a new space. Models missing linked parts might also get stuck in the loading cube and are unable to be removed. In both cases you need to close and reopen Hololight Space on the server machine to remove the models.

  • Dragging and dropping files into the space using the Hololight Space Server does not work when you start Hololight Space as the administrator.