if not Unity3D then what?

Hi all,

I see most of the showcases and HoloLens applications developed using Unity3D. But are there other good platforms that we can use to create Hololens applications? I know Unreal is one but I am asking this question from a programmer’s perspective who has no prior experience in 3D.

Can we use only Visual Studio(either JavaScript, C#, etc) to develop Hololens application?

Please suggest your experiences and choice of tools you have used so far