How to access camera preview frames with MediaCapture class in Unity?

Question

Using the Windows MediaCapture class we can capture videos and images on the HoloLens 2. The class also offers preview capabilities (see here). However, I am not sure how to get the preview stream within Unity and then display it to the user. In the docs they suggest to connect a XML CaptureElement to the mediaCapture object. What's the equivalent for use in Unity/on Hololens 2? A similar question without an answer has been asked 7 years ago here

Answer 1

Hello, Welcome to Microsoft Q&A,

You can use the WinRT API to capture frame data, convert it to a Unity-compatible format, and then apply it to a Texture2D.

Alternatively, you can also implement camera preview function using PhotoCaptureFrame or WebCamTexture provided by Unity, without using the WinRT API.

If you use the WinRT API with Unity for HoloLens, ensure that the preprocessor directive ENABLE_WINMD_SUPPORT is wrapped around any WinRT-leveraged code. Note that this directive won't work in Unity Play mode. For more details, see - WinRT APIs with Unity for HoloLens - Mixed Reality | Microsoft Learn.

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