Nvidia puts out very good kernel extensions (drivers) for OS X. Only issue is they only work for people with the 1st gen, pre-2013, Mac Pro.
Games run better on Windows because of DirectX. OpenGL just isn't as good.
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Oculus Rift Development on OS X 'Paused' to Focus on Strong Windows Launch
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Games run better on Windows because of DirectX. OpenGL just isn't as good.
AR > VR. VR is a toy for nerds with too much time and not enough of a life, whereas AR is a useful addition to anyone's workflow and life, and allows you to carry on in the REAL world.
VR: Sucks you out of reality, serves no real purpose for life and to work more effectively, AND makes you feel sick.
AR: Reality++ - superimposes UI elements on top of reality (you know reality - the REAL world?) and assists you by placing UI elements and objects in such a way as to be perceived as being in your physical space.
Guess which one Microsoft chose?
VR: Sucks you out of reality, serves no real purpose for life and to work more effectively, AND makes you feel sick.
AR: Reality++ - superimposes UI elements on top of reality (you know reality - the REAL world?) and assists you by placing UI elements and objects in such a way as to be perceived as being in your physical space.
Guess which one Microsoft chose?
Yeah you're pretty much right on most of those things. They're all genuine problems. One of the most promising things is a combination of RGB, depth sensing, time of flight and SLAM cameras to recreate the real world and overlay it into your virtual world. You'll know where you keyboard and cup of water is exactly, because the headset will recognise them and where they are and overlay them into the virtual world as objects within that virtual world. It's really hard to do and they aren't there yet, but expect to see that kind of thing in 3, 4, 5 years time. As for looking out the window, well that might be a tricky one to solve. But your desk will be placed on the middle of a beautiful beach in Hawaii, so you won't want to look out your window
Though think how much people use headphones, despite the fact it stops you from hearing your door bell, people speaking to you etc.
If the screen I'm working with remains stationary in the VR world and the physical object in the real world are overlaid into the VR world, why not just use a real display like we already are? Where's the improvement? Display that can dynamically adjust in size for the task on which we're working? Other than that, I'm not sure I see it.
Looking out the window (vs the VR beach) has advantages, I can see what the weather outside is like, I could see the school bus dropping off my child, I can see that Jahovah witness coming down the sidewalk, etc
I like your analogy of headphones, but at the same time, it is different than that as well. I can see when people want to talk to me, eye contact and all that, even with headphones on (vs a VR headset, where even if the physical is mapped, you can't have real eye contact without taking them off).
Will definitely be interesting
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You do know that the PC Gaming market exceeds 30 Billion USD annually right? The iOS App store hasn't even reached those quantities lifetime yet.
I not sure we are actually disagreeing. For the sake of argument, I'll freely concede that it's perfect and has no glitches whatsoever. I'll agree that it's awesome and that most people, including myself, would absolutely would love it if they tried it.
I just don't think it will be a mass market success.
I think that mass market adoption failed on older models due to social issues and a lack of universal game support, two things that I don't think haven't changed for the Rift. Yes, they may have sucked too, but making them not suck doesn't automatically solve the other problems.
I think the first VR set that can crack universal game support will be the first to have a chance at achieving mass market adoption, but even then it will have to defeat social acceptance problems.
Different topic, but similar problem... Google Glass. From what I hear, those were great. Sure battery life could be better and lighter/small would be good. But their biggest problem, BY FAR, was the "Glass Hole" effect. Social acceptance is HUGE.
They've always been pretty stingy with their graphics, it's true. But at least in that time graphics were upgradable.
I was looking forward to the Rift, but I will not support anything from Facebook. It seems like the Facebook acquisition helped kill most of the momentum that VR was gaining over the past few years. I'm now hoping the Rift goes the way of the Facebook phone and another company comes out with a better option. I'd even be happy with a Microsoft version instead of Facebook.
Considering Valve is a multi billion dollar business, and Steam has over 100 million accounts, with 10 million active at any given time, Windows gaming is far from being an also ran.
Why would you waste the time developing for an OS that does not have players? Brand loyalty? It's like a developer wasting their time developing for windows mobile after having a successful iOS app.....
Sorry I doubt there are many developers who would waste Thier time, you assumptions about developers numbers I believe are way off when we are talking non mobile games.
I'm continually baffled that people outside the corporate world still voluntarily use windows for anything.
You're taking that about 10 steps further than it needs to go. Seriously, just stop because gaming on a Mac is not "shockingly bad" neither are the GPU's "garbage".
If your benchmark is a 4xsli gtx 980 all the way down to 1x gtx 980, apple mobile GPUs are garbage. Do you realise most gamers run desktop cards? Are you seriously going to enter the reality distortion field and argue how a mobile GPU is great for gaming? Don't bother, you would would be very wrong, and just cause you have not gamed on a high end GPU does not mean the experience is not much better than a mobile GPU, all relative.
You effectively going to argue that a core duo is fine, compared to a quad care cause it can run an OS, boy are they different when you push them and the OS can untilize all the cores!!!
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The current generation are not as bad as before. Tech has come forward a long way, and games do not need as much power to run at adequate setting. The problem is running games at their max settings, and high for, macs cannot do that, not the latest titles.
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ever notice how a lot of software out there does not run on macs? Could be why?
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Exactly. PC gaming is doing very well.
Gamers are high end buyers, I highly doubt any self respecting gamer would buy a Mac for gaming. A LOT of gamers are going to be lining up to get Windows 10. Why? 1) DirectX12 is a Windows 10 exclusive and brings some pretty insane changes. 2) Windows 10 is a FREE upgrade the first year.
For example DX12 is supposed to have Explicit Asynchronous Multi-GPU, which means you can use more than one GPU even if they are different cards, manufactures, etc. You an even use a motherboard GPU to help power graphics alongside a regular video card.
Look at the minimum specs Oculus announced, I may be wrong but I don't think a Mac computer with those specs even exists. Oculus wants the experience to be seamless, Apple users should understand this best of all.
You threw in so many words that were never said or even suggested by me. I never said anything about Macs being good for gaming or anything about the Core 2 duo. I just said Mac GPU's aren't "garbage". Please move on.
I didn't say I wouldn't support Windows. I'm just not going to make a feature that only works on one platform and not another. That's the kind of crap that EA does.
Look, I agree with most of what you say, but the number of PC gamers is quite small compared to those playing games on Xbox or Playstation and casual gamers on iOS. If they want Oculus to have a bigger long term number of customer, hard core PC gamers only limits their goals.
Exactly, console gaming (Xbox ONE/PS4) is on top of it's game now. PC gaming is declining badly. The more recent popular games aren't even being released on PC at the same time as the Xbox ONE and PS4.
Not really. Going by sales, players, and number of consoles sold, the PC is almost always neck and neck with the individual consoles. It's only when you compare the console market as one whole among the three consoles that it starts dwarfing the PC scene.
To give you an idea of the size of the PC scene, the PS4, which is the currently best selling console, has moved 24 million units globally. As of speaking, there are 8 million people on Steam. Now considering the fact that people with PS4s and Xbox One's aren't playing their machines simultaneously, you can kinda see that things are far from being out of whack in favor of the consoles.
Plus you have to add in the fact that for VR to work without making people motion sick, you have to have a machine that can push a high resolution image at a constant, never dipping 60+ FPS. Right now, only the PC can do that consistently at current gen graphic levels.
This thread is full of LOL's... Windows PC gamers are low end consumers, but don't put down the console gamers.
You have to consider that PC gamers, like myself, have both an Xbox one and PS4 to play exclusives, but I still prefer to play multi-plat games on my gaming rig. Playing current games at 100+ fps on ultra settings... on high refresh rate 3x monitors doesn't compare in look and feel.
Looks like I have upgrade my GPU's for Oculus Rift. My Tri-SLI 780's still beats a 970 but it might need the extra vram. I was planning to SLI Titan 10's for my next upgrade anyway.
Actually, the opposite is true.
GTA and?
Heck, GTA is not even a good example - considering Rockstar has always done this. Not only that, GTA5 is a far superior porting effort than previous releases. If PC gaming was doing badly, you would not increase the amount of money you spend on making a good port along with giving it exclusive features.
And 7 million active World of Warcraft subscribers, a 10.5 year old game. With a 15 USD monthly fee.
League of Legends - the largest MOBA by users, has tens of million users that start the game daily. Last report was 67 million users monthly.
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This thread is full of LOL's... Windows PC gamers are low end consumers, but don't put down the console gamers.
You have to consider that PC gamers, like myself, have both an Xbox one and PS4 to play exclusives, but I still prefer to play multi-plat games on my gaming rig. Playing current games at 100+ fps on ultra settings... on high refresh rate 3x monitors doesn't compare in look and feel.
Yeah. The real hardcore people have all three. My props to you and yours. You'll never be bored.
Looks like I have upgrade my GPU's for Oculus Rift. My Tri-SLI 780's still beats a 970 but it might need the extra vram. I was planning to SLI Titan 10's for my next upgrade anyway.
Damn, man. You plan on bringing down satellites when you're not playing games? Two Titan X's. You could buy a retina iMac with what they'll cost you, and still have a little money left over.
Yeah. The real hardcore people have all three. My props to you and yours. You'll never be bored.
Some console exclusives are worth it... plus I have kids that play with the consoles. They aren't allowed to play with my rig.
Two? Tri-SLI man... so I don't have to cut anymore acrylic tubing for my watercooling system.
Yah... going to go for the VRAM for future proof for 4K... and update later to either Broadwell-e or Skylake-e... with the hopes that DDR4 comes down in price. Planning on updates and building is another reason why I stick with Windows PC's.... but I'm a technology fan... so I like Apple products too. I think us lower end consumers can get along with Mac people too.