Hey everybody,
I’m trying to use the Kinect V2 with UE4 (4.15).
my c++ is not strong and I’ve never added a .dll / .lib to a UE4 project.
I come from a long experience with ActionScript 3, JS, PHP and other, mostly web and hybrid related, programming. so the use of libraries with c++ and UE4 is strange to me.
the Kinect SDK can be downloaded from here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=44561
Frameworks I’ve been able to use the SDK with
I was able to use the Kinect SDK with Unity (using a specific unity plugin. so it was fairly easy). BUT I WANT THE POWER OF UE4.
I also managed to use the SDK with a WPF Application (using this tutorial: Kinect 2 for Windows - Hands On Lab 1). but these instructions don’t seem to be relevant to UE4. first of all, I don’t have “Extensions” in the “References” menu…
Tutorials and Guides about adding Libraries to UE4
I’ve read a number of guides about UE4 and adding libraries:
and other general information about .libs and .dlls.
first of all, they talk about a library I’ve created. I didn’t created the Kinect SDK and can’t change it (or do I and should I change it?).
in the forum I’ve found:
Including a SDK in plugin - Including a SDK in plugin - Engine Source & GitHub - Unreal Engine Forums - as far as I can tell from the thread, it didn’t end well.
I use Visual Studio Community 2015. windows 64x.
and I’ve found the kinect folder holding all the Kinect goodies (.dll, .libs, header files).
here is its structure (including only what a find important for my task).
Kinect SDK folder content:
-
Assemblies
– Microsoft.Kinect.dll
– Microsoft.Kinect.xml -
bin
– Database…
– NuiDatabase…
– vgbtechs…
– Kinect20.face.dll
– Kinect20.Fusion.dll
– Microsoft.Kinect.Face.dll
– Microsoft.Kinect.Fusion.dll
– Microsoft.Kinect.VisualGestureBuilder.dll
– Microsoft.Kinect.Wpf.Controls.dll
– many .exe files… -
inc
– Kinect.Face.h
– Kinect.h
– other .h files -
lib
– x64
— Kinect20.VisualGestureBuilder.lib
— Kinect20.lib
— Kinect20.Fusion.lib
— Kinect20.Face.lib– x86
— SAME AS x64 -
Redist… (I belive this is only relevant to .NET projects and UE4 is not a .NET environment project)
-
Samples
– HTML…
– Managed…
– Native… (a number of C++ solutions) they don’t have any thing in their “References” but the “External Dependencies” have a Kinect.h and Kinect.INPC.h files.
– WinRT… -
Tools…
THE BIG QUESTIONS ARE:
- How do I proceed from here?
- when I publish the project, will I need to added anything to the exported content? (it will be playing on machines I have full control over and they will have the SDK and the Kinect installed).
- which .dll / .lib files should I include? (I’m betting on inc\Kinect.h)
- any additional tips are appreciated.
by the way, I’m aware of an existing Kinect 4 Unreal plugin but it seems it wasn’t updated since 4.10 and I wish to use new UE4 features.
besides, I’m an “hands on” guy. I’d rather write my own code so I’ll have complete understanding of what is goind on and have control as deep as possible.
thanks for the help.