Oculus Rift Support for Macs Not 'Currently on the Roadmap'

[Seoras]

10 year old phones 8 year old tablets

Your having a laugh aren't you? Or maybe just deluded.
10 year old phone? What about 64 Bit?
We (iOS hardware owners) have had a 64Bit platform for years. YEARS.
Apple's about to pull support for 32bit on iOS. Android anyone? No? Android? <snigger>

"Affluent due to the prices". No affluent due to they spend more on Apps than rival platforms.
That's not hearsay on my part. I'm a developer and I'm utterly sick and fed up with moaning Android users who think they were born to get everything for free. 95% of them are just Cheapskates who think you'll eat out of their hand to change their pathetic 1 star review into a 5 star review. I ported one App to Android. I won't port any more. I might even pull the one I ported.
OK, you and the other 5% might be able/willing to buy top end hardware (yes, "top end") and fork out for decent software but you are in with the bottom end of the market.
Give me the Apple fan-boys and girls, with their eager iTunes credit cards, any day of the week.
Oculus (Facebook) will be very aware of the low hanging fruit that is the Apple platform users.

 

[ddrulez]

Can't wait for the CV2. IRacing or elite dangerous is so immersive with it!
Maybe the price drop is a hint for a sellout before launching new hardware?

 

[steve123]

Is there a future in this tech..absolutely. better than 3D TV or 4k..by an order of magnitude

This stuff will suffer the same fate as 3D TV ...

 

[bernuli]

Please tell me Mr Snark you are at least using Windows

It sounds to me like he is speaking from experience.

 

[BoltmanLives]

Your having a laugh aren't you? Or maybe just deluded.
10 year old phone? What about 64 Bit?
We (iOS hardware owners) have had a 64Bit platform for years. YEARS.
Apple's about to pull support for 32bit on iOS. Android anyone? No? Android? <snigger>

"Affluent due to the prices". No affluent due to they spend more on Apps than rival platforms.
That's not hearsay on my part. I'm a developer and I'm utterly sick and fed up with moaning Android users who think they were born to get everything for free. 95% of them are just Cheapskates who think you'll eat out of their hand to change their pathetic 1 star review into a 5 star review. I ported one App to Android. I won't port any more. I might even pull the one I ported.
OK, you and the other 5% might be able/willing to buy top end hardware (yes, "top end") and fork out for decent software but you are in with the bottom end of the market.
Give me the Apple fan-boys and girls, with their eager iTunes credit cards, any day of the week.
Oculus (Facebook) will be very aware of the low hanging fruit that is the Apple platform users.

You are ignoring us windows users (typical Dev) you ignore 500M on Windows 10, that's your downfall, Us windows users spend money on apps I myself have easily spent the $40 on Widows store apps some just to support the Dev,.. you complaining about Android and suck up to Apl yet ignore what will end up being the biggest store ever. Go pound sand apl dev keep sucking up to apl, talk about a whiner. Your apps are dead to me. Ride that apl pony into the ground... I also boycott store that don't have WP apps so things like Sonos no sale, WF and BoA get my money...simple.

You think you are smart? On average, a Windows Phone developer earns $11,400 per month, which equates to $136,800 per year. In contrast, an iOS developer has to make do with $8,100 per month, or $97,200 per year, while an Android developer makes $4,900 per month, or $58,800 per year. Think again.

 

[niun]

I know you arent comparing VR goggles to modes of traveling.

No.
But VR is moving the tech forward step by step. I've seen some amazing stuff done with it - walking through a virtual Somme battlefield was incredible.

Just rubs me the wrong way when people are so short sighted when it comes to new tech and new ways of interaction.

 

[Abazigal]

You think you are smart? On average, a Windows Phone developer earns $11,400 per month, which equates to $136,800 per year. In contrast, an iOS developer has to make do with $8,100 per month, or $97,200 per year, while an Android developer makes $4,900 per month, or $58,800 per year. Think again.

Colour me a cynic, but I am going to want evidence that the windows App Store is that profitable. You would think that with so much money on the line, we would see more people developing and releasing apps for the windows App Store?

 

[AxoNeuron]

The biggest problem is that making software fast requires a LOT of time and money being spent optimizing the software. Given that OS X is such a small part of the PC Gamer market share, probably less than 3%, it would only make sense to spend 3% of their R&D budget on Mac compatibility. It's just not enough to create highly optimized, high quality software.

If Apple would just freaking make a Mac Pro with a powerful NVIDIA GPU (like the new 1080ti or Titan Pascal), then maybe Oculus would!

YES. THIS. Or at least any Nvidia GPU. AMD is close to being a full generation behind Nvidia in many ways.

Nvidia's GPU's are generally less power hungry...something you'd think Apple would value above a few dollars extra on their profit margins.

 

[MH01]

to all the people buying the latest $4K MacBook Pro....yup it cant even run oculus in windows ....

Though, it's not all bad. You can purchase a core and take advantage of TB3, though buy the one with the weakest GPU.

There is a lot to like about TB in a laptop if you want to use an external GPU
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Colour me a cynic, but I am going to want evidence that the windows App Store is that profitable. You would think that with so much money on the line, we would see more people developing and releasing apps for the windows App Store?

Competition maybe? Very difficult these days to get noticed in the iOS App Store , cause frankly there is so much crap and copies in it.

 

[BoltmanLives]

Colour me a cynic, but I am going to want evidence that the windows App Store is that profitable. You would think that with so much money on the line, we would see more people developing and releasing apps for the windows App Store?

Hint: Devs not that smart

 

[hiddenmarkov]

Your having a laugh aren't you? Or maybe just deluded.
10 year old phone? What about 64 Bit?
We (iOS hardware owners) have had a 64Bit platform for years. YEARS.
Apple's about to pull support for 32bit on iOS. Android anyone? No? Android? <snigger>

"Affluent due to the prices". No affluent due to they spend more on Apps than rival platforms.
That's not hearsay on my part. I'm a developer and I'm utterly sick and fed up with moaning Android users who think they were born to get everything for free. 95% of them are just Cheapskates who think you'll eat out of their hand to change their pathetic 1 star review into a 5 star review. I ported one App to Android. I won't port any more. I might even pull the one I ported.
OK, you and the other 5% might be able/willing to buy top end hardware (yes, "top end") and fork out for decent software but you are in with the bottom end of the market.
Give me the Apple fan-boys and girls, with their eager iTunes credit cards, any day of the week.
Oculus (Facebook) will be very aware of the low hanging fruit that is the Apple platform users.

what's even funnier is if you load up the ads, they complain about that. Disjoin between them not knowing how this goes really. And why devs have this strange desire to get paid.

think it stems from some half asssed idea of well you all just throw some code together, move some widgets around in xcode (or Android developers kit/eclipse modified for android) and it works. Not like that as we know.

Just got into this realm with some classes work paid for. Not even going to lie....I get happy when even basic stuff works when I go beyond the class stuff. Quite a few hours gets burned up here.

 

[Abazigal]

Hint: Devs not that smart

Occam's razor. Nobody develops for the windows phone App Store because the potential addressable market is really that small and there just isn't any money to be made this way. It's a barren wasteland as we know it and looks set to continue that way unless Microsoft succeeds in doing something to completely overhaul the OS and get people to actually sit up and take notice once again.

Like I said - I won't be holding my breath.

 

[KiwiAdventure]

Enjoy damaging your eyes and your brain.

 

[Wildkraut]

As much I like Apple, it isn't a Platform for VR yet. An Apple Computer powerful enough for Oculus VR would simply cost to much for the average user, and on top of that comes the Oculus VR hardware, and the problem with missing game titles. This Oculus decision is just right. An Apple VR hardware could just work with Apple TV, nothing else. And even with for the Apple TV is would be hard to justify the purchase.

 

[PeterL111]

Did they ever figure out how user can snack food while using VR? If not, this tech is not ready yet.

 

[elmaco]

I bought a DK2 for my MBP and it worked fine until they updated the drivers and removed Mac support. I then installed Windows, but then they changed so machines with low spec graphics card didn't start with the Rift. I understand DK2 was Beta, but not allow people to run on less hardware was really evil.

I have no confidence in Oculus and I will probably never buy a product from them.

I like to see laptop kit where they sell the VR headset with an external graphics card. If Vive would offer something like that for a reasonable price I would buy it for my MBP 2016.
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Even instagram glasses won't be around in a year. No one wants to wear something on their face!

This sounds like when the world wide web was new and people said it wouldn't be around.

Augmented reality glasses is going to be huge, but the glasses must look like ordinary glasses and the battery must last a day. If not, no use trying to sell them.

 

[ADMacRumour]

Trying the Vive is one thing - how long did you actually use it (or any VR headset) for? Having a headset strapped to your face for over 30 minutes is not ideal. Hardcore gamers typically play for sessions greater than 30 minutes at a time. Conceptually I find VR interesting, but it is lacking in the practicality department on several fronts still (price, hardware barrier to entry, etc.).

My experience: The longest stretch with a Oculus Rift (CV1) in Elite Dangerous I've had in VR is around 3-4 hours, I decided to stop and stretch my legs because my butt got sore sitting down that long.

In terms of hardware, due to NVIDIA 10-series GPUs offering desktop capabilities in a notebook - I purchased a Asus GL502VS (with an Nvidia GTX 1070) and it is a VERY good performer. I was hoping the late 2016 MacBook Pro would at least supported external GPUs in an official capacity, it would have saved me buying a PC (in my case I found even a PC notebook sufficient to run VR).

 

[hiddenmarkov]

Occam's razor. Nobody develops for the windows phone App Store because the potential addressable market is really that small and there just isn't any money to be made this way. It's a barren wasteland as we know it and looks set to continue that way unless Microsoft succeeds in doing something to completely overhaul the OS and get people to actually sit up and take notice once again.

Like I said - I won't be holding my breath.

that and there is the classical means to push your software that has been in place for years....and probably favored. From familiarity or they just like the model or both.

I tbh don't use apple's mac os application site unless needed. I have 3 out of 15+ apps from the store. Most of the others are on the app store, but have more direct means to their products. I opt for the latter always if an option.

Devs for my stuff...get the full payout. I like that aspect, make great product one should get paid in full for that. Some like BBEdit have components that cannot be on the app store. their CLI tools are not allowed there (apple submission rule). So I have to go their site regardless.

I get day 1 patching/updates, no software verification process. Apps are researched before buy (if applicable) and install. Some apps I use would fail verification anyway. Debug tools and memory scanners (in)famous for this. Uses the same mechanics as viral/malware code do.

All I give up is the convenient oh, you have an update in one spot. Not a great loss to me. And most applications I use run a background check on startup anyway. they pop up and say new version, you want it? Hell even some one off more open source independent apps I run that use github as their repo do this as well.

 

[Deliro]

They should just bring support to major consoles. The high end PC market won't be enough to keep this afloat.

I doubt that either MS or Sony would grant licensing to compete vs their own units.. PS4 already has a VR set. If MS were to get into the game, they would do it with their own hardware coinciding with the X1 refresh at the end of the year.

VR is a gimmick. The Oculus is uncomfortable after more than 3 minutes. VR may be a viable medium in the future as the tech isn't quite there yet.

 

[antonis]

Too many trains are skipping the apple station. Who counts anymore ?

 

[Menneisyys2]

to all the people buying the latest $4K MacBook Pro....yup it cant even run oculus in windows ....

Though, it's not all bad. You can purchase a core and take advantage of TB3, though buy the one with the weakest GPU.

There is a lot to like about TB in a laptop if you want to use an external GPU

Just don't forget Apple doesn't officially support eGPU's and have made their restriction even stronger in 10.12.3 WRT TB3 and AMD. This is what causes the MAJOR compatibility issues, even with the latest, TI83-based enclosures. This is why, for example, I still haven't been able to make my (TI83-based, that is, with the only one controller NOT backlisted by Apple) Node + RX 480 combo work in Bootcamp. And Parallels (even the latest version - earlier ones would be even slower), would incur around 35% speed decrease (according to my own benchmarks) in both windowed and fullscreen mode - that is, Parallels just can't be used for eGPU gaming.

(See my previous posts in this thread on the matter.)
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I was hoping the late 2016 MacBook Pro would at least supported external GPUs in an official capacity

Nope, unfortunately. They have made their restrictions even stronger regarding external AMD eGPU's in the latest 10.12.3 (TB3 only; with TB1/2, there are no stronger restrictions).

 

[MH01]

Just don't forget Apple doesn't officially support eGPU's and have made their restriction even stronger in 10.12.3 WRT TB3 and AMD. This is what causes the MAJOR compatibility issues, even with the latest, TI83-based enclosures. This is why, for example, I still haven't been able to make my (TI83-based, that is, with the only one controller NOT backlisted by Apple) Node + RX 480 combo work in Bootcamp. And Parallels (even the latest version - earlier ones would be even slower), would incur around 35% speed decrease (according to my own benchmarks) in both windowed and fullscreen mode - that is, Parallels just can't be used for eGPU gaming.

(See my previous posts in this thread on the matter.)
[doublepost=1488442046][/doublepost]

Nope, unfortunately. They have made their restrictions even stronger regarding external AMD eGPU's in the latest 10.12.3 (TB3 only; with TB1/2, there are no stronger restrictions).

Cheers. I was not aware of the restrictions. Now that is just stupid, not only do they cripple their own hardware, but also restrict you from utilising it.

This is why I gave up on egpu on my macs and bought a skull canyon . Apple is driving people away on purpose. Though their lies the issue an egpu will extend your time between upgrades, silly profit ahead of function

 

[zen]

"Mac development was put on hold in order to focus on "delivering a high quality consumer-level VR experience," on Windows machines with more robust hardware."

Look, Tim, there is only one path forward - if Apple don't want to make Mac computers the most kick-ass computers in the world (which they deserve to be), then let someone else do it. Licence macOS. Let third-party hardware manufacturers build macOS computers.

I can custom-build the most outrageously specced, high-performance Windows desktop, in the most beautiful, elegant case, for less than the average price of a crippled Mac. I can have form AND function.

macOS is the best OS in the world. It is a pleasure to use. The Apple ecosystem is smart, elegant, often ingenious, often surprisingly clever.

Please, give us hardware that will make Mac users proud. Or if you want to focus on iPads and iPhones, fine, no problem - just hand the computer side of things over to other hardware makers, and let us build our own insanely great powerhouses.

 

[Schizoid]

The most worrying thing about all of this is that 10 years ago, Mac was the perfect platform for the latest graphics technology and any corresponding technological advances in software.
Fast forward to 2017... Mac just doesn't cut it in terms of raw power any more.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

If Apple would just freaking make a Mac Pro with a powerful NVIDIA GPU (like the new 1080ti or Titan Pascal), then maybe Oculus would!

Would people really buy an expensive Mac Pro just to play virtual reality games?