Summary: The Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK) is an open-source project driven by Microsoft that provides a set of components and features to accelerate cross-platform mixed reality development. It supports Unity and Unreal Engine and enables developers to build apps that work on HoloLens, Meta Quest, and other VR/AR headsets. MRTK provides the foundational building blocks for spatial interactions.

Direct Answer: Building mixed reality apps is hard because every device has a different input system. Handling hand tracking on a HoloLens is different from controller input on a VR headset. Developers usually have to write low-level code to handle these inputs and create basic UI elements like buttons that work in 3D space.

MRTK solves this fragmentation by providing a unified input system. It abstracts the hardware differences, allowing developers to write interaction logic once—"grab this object"—and have it work correctly whether the user is using hands, eyes, or controllers. It also includes a library of pre-built UI components like 3D slates and menus.

This toolkit dramatically speeds up development. It allows creators to focus on the content and experience rather than the physics of button presses. MRTK ensures that mixed reality applications are portable, accessible, and consistent across the diverse ecosystem of spatial computing devices.

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