I wanted to try Kinect from the day it got released but i didn’t have the chance till yesterday. It really is an incredible little thing, you can use for many different projects. Below you can find easy steps in order to install the necessary drivers on your PC in order to have a working connection with Kinect. Also at the end you can find some additional information if you want to use it in Unity 3D, which is awesome by the way.
Before we begin please note that for some drivers you will have to choose between Development and Redist editions. If you want to have the samples ( with which you can try your Kinect connection at the end ) and extensive documentation you must choose Development
Procedure
- Disconnect Kinect from PC if it is connected and visit OpenNI website: OpenNI downloads page
-
First we are going to download OpenNI Binaries. Select that from the 1st dropdown. Choose either stable or unstable from the 2nd one ( I myself chose stable ) and from the 3rd choose your system’s version ( right-click on Computer and then click Properties if you are on Windows and want to find out if you have 32-bit or 64-bit ) and then Download.
I downloaded: OpenNI Stable Build for Windows x86 (32-bit) v1.5.2.23 Development Edition
-
Now we move on to OpenNI Compliant Middleware Binaries so choose that in the 1st dropdown. Again choose stable or unstable and then your system’s version and click Download. If you would like to use Unity afterwards download the PrimeSense Unity Wrapper too and then move on to step 3.
I downloaded: PrimeSense NITE Stable Build for Windows x86 (32-bit) v1.5.2.21 Development Edition
I downloaded: PrimeSense Unity Wrapper Stable Build v0.9.7.4 -
It’s time for OpenNI Compliant Hardware Binaries. Again find it in the 1st dropdown and then again stable or unstable in the 2nd and your system’s version in the 3rd, be careful to select PrimeSensor Module and not anything else like Asus Xtion firmware upgrade tool.
I downloaded: PrimeSensor Module Stable Build for Windows x86 (32-bit) v5.1.0.41
-
Please note that i recommend you to be consistent on your choice between stable and unstable, which means choose the same in all downloads.
- As a verification step you should have the following files:
- (step 2) — openni-win32-1.5.2.23-dev.msi
- (step 3) — nite-win32-1.5.2.21-dev.msi
- (step 3) — OpenNI_Unity_Toolkit-0.9.7.4.unitypackage (this is optional)
- (step 4) — sensor-win32-5.1.0.41-redist.msi
- Install them all in the order you downloaded them ( openni , nite, sensor )
-
Now we must download Kinect drivers: SensorKinect at Github
Click the Downloads button at the right and then choose Download as zip
- Extract the files from previous step and go to Bin folder and install the driver choosing your system’s version
- Now you have all the drivers installed and you just need to plug in your Kinect. Make sure it is powered otherwise the camera may not be detected. Connect Kinect with the usb and wait until the driver software is found and installed (it should succeed)
- Open Device Manager ( right-click Computer and then choose Manage, from the left choose Device Manager ) and you should see something like below:

-
You have successfully installed drivers for Kinect on your PC. The last thing you need to do is try the sample projects in the following directories in order to verify that everything is fine. Note that you may have to restart your PC if you get an error for missing .dll
You can find sample projects in the following directories:
C:\Program Files\OpenNI\Samples\Bin\Release C:\Program Files\PrimeSense\NITE\Samples\Bin\Release
Multiple Kinect Drivers
If you want to have a different Kinect driver then do the following:
- Open Device Manager
- Right-click Kinect Camera under PrimeSense
- Select Update driver software
- Select Browse my computer for driver software and Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
- Choose the driver you want (CLNUI for example)
Use Kinect in Unity
If you want to use Kinect with Unity, obviously you need to have it installed and fortunately there is a free version available here.
- Create a New Project in Unity but do not choose to import any assets
- Navigate to Assets — Import Package — Custom Package
- Find the package you downloaded in step 3, OpenNI_Unity_Toolkit-0.9.7.4.unitypackage and click open
- Wait Unity to decompress the package and choose to import everything and click ok
- Now from the Project Window open OpenNI folder and then Samples Scenes
- Double-click to load any scene and try Kinect yourself by clicking the Play button
I hope i was descriptive enough and you managed to install Kinect on your system. If there are any questions or if you find a mistake don’t hesitate to comment below.
Happy Kinecting
