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Oculus Rift Support for Macs Not 'Currently on the Roadmap'
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Who cares. This VR lark is just a fad & gimmick anyway. It will never become mainstream, or important.
Yeah right because all Mac users are rich and Windows users poor. I wish I was as poor as Bill Gates.
This information is horribly untrue and misleading. The minimum required to run Oculus is GTX 960 which performs gaming-wise twice as fast as Radeon Pro 460 which is top of the line GPU in MacBook Pro.
Here are real-world gaming benchmarks which you can compare game for game:
Radeon Pro 460
GTX 960
In other words - absolutely no Mac currently available is able to run the least powerful VR headset. iMacs are no different as they use mobile GPUs nowadays. I haven't checked but it is possible that Mac Pro with upgraded GPUs might be able to run Oculus but it's quite pricey.
Why then would any manufacturare even consider R&D for platform that is such a small fraction of computer market and of which just a tiny fraction (Mac Pro users, which might not even be the case) can even use their product?
Blaming Oculus is ridiculous considering that VR-ready GPUs have become very cheap. RX480 is just 200$ and meets all requirements. It's just that Apple always opts for the bare minimum GPUs and people still swallow it. It's funny considering how stale CPU market has become and the only real advancements are coming from GPUs.
I know that FCPX is well optimized and works with these "Potato GPUs" well. But just imagine for a minute how it would work with some real GPU.
I say it now - we'll live to see iPhones with better GPUs than iMacs of the same generation.
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Just go ahead and try it. I don't know if you have such places in UK: VR Project? You can go and play VR games paid per minute. It's hard to reserve time because it's so popular.
I'm not saying that VR is going to be popularized at homes because you need lots of space. However I think it's here to stay and is going to be popularized.
Apples customized mobile GPU - implementations actually do lack the horsepower of what's really needed to deliver a great VR experience. It it what it is, and I don't mean to bash Apple for their choice as it makes sense for what their machines are being used for by most people.
It is always refreshing and admirable to see other companies being transparent about what really is in their pipeline and what not.
I think the concept is good, but the costs prohibit any sort of mainstream impact. Sales of VR hardware has been poor so far, so that will not encourage any serious investment by game studios/publishers.
Whilst expensive VR hardware remains an optional purchase, it will never become popular and will only serve a niche audience.
I've been gaming since the early 80's and I've seen VR fail many times, especially during the early 90's when the hardware just wasn't good enough. Now the hardware is good enough, the substantial costs prohibit any sort of impact.
Wake up call here. People buy Mac Pro's to work, but many in the Mac community would play VR on them.
Playstation 4 is just 250-300$. VR headset for it is 470$. Playstation camera is 40$. Playstation Move is 40$ as well.
It gives the total of 800-850$ for the complete package. It's also worth mentioning that most people own PS4 for the sake of PS4 so the "VR" is actually 550$ for them.
Sony is actually out of stock most of the time. They have sold almost 1 million units and cannot produce enough.
In my opinion the coming years will be for VR what 90s were for 3D gaming. Anybody who's played on HTC Vive in right setup will hopefully agree with me on this. It's not the 3D-glasses gimmick that we are plagued with every couple years when manufacturer "rediscovers" it.
Devs develop for Windows , there are plenty of great apps.We may not get some Apl-only or Apl-android devs but really who cares? Its their loss. They will struggle mightily when there's a shift to 3-in-1's that don't really need an app store. By then it'll be too late as they will be out of the loop. Add in the most lucrative development in AR/vR/MR/AI and the devs putzing around on legacy apl apps are literally wasting their careers on a saturated app store.
Its like the Game of LIFE , you can "skip the next paradigm" or for the short term get ahead a bit until that paradigm catches up. I have an iiPad and am not impressed by Apl AppStore to be honest ists expensive ad galore stuff. I like the pay 1 get 10 in windows store and the much cheaper movies and the several million more songs in Groove which has best version on Windows.
To anyone saying Mac's are too weak to run VR, you should really check out this app that I made:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...mac-in-virtual-reality.2032517/#post-24301323
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...mac-in-virtual-reality.2032517/#post-24301323
Who blames them, support for Macs does not seem to be on Apple's roadmap either!
No one is being short sighted. There may be a powerful use for this tech but VR goggles aren't it.
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This is good so when Apple comes up with its VR solution it will be the default Apple solution.
Truth hurts. Also, you need a significant gaming ecosystem. PC vs Mac, the Mac loses badly.
Not from the benchmarks I've seen - from multiple sources, not just one. RX480 fairs better over all for DX12.. DX11 is a mixed bag for the RX480, and the 1060 is on average better.
There are Android phones that have a better chance at running the Rift before under specced Macs will.
Call me paranoid but I don't want to strap one of these to my head. I'll get done playing a game and my house was robbed and all that's left is my VR and the iPhone in my hand.
If you have to even ask this question, you don't understand the market! The answer is absolutely YES.
The "general public" wouldn't, but any place interested in a revival of the concept of going to commercial "arcades" to play virtual reality titles would invest in whatever hardware was needed to make it work.
Additionally, this really isn't only about VR video games. There are plenty of simulation type applications where a VR headset makes sense. Surgeons could practice and learn new surgical techniques, for example. Flight simulators could be made more realistic by incorporating this technology. Museums could build interesting displays using it too. Perhaps it would assist in building a better driving simulator for driver's ed classes?
And don't forget, it isn't the "general public" buying expensive high-end Macs like the Mac Pro towers, either. It's going to be your software developers (who have a vested interest in learning to code for VR in some cases, so they'd buy one), and your "power users" who have the financial means to invest in the technology they love and use heavily.
The "general public" wouldn't, but any place interested in a revival of the concept of going to commercial "arcades" to play virtual reality titles would invest in whatever hardware was needed to make it work.
Additionally, this really isn't only about VR video games. There are plenty of simulation type applications where a VR headset makes sense. Surgeons could practice and learn new surgical techniques, for example. Flight simulators could be made more realistic by incorporating this technology. Museums could build interesting displays using it too. Perhaps it would assist in building a better driving simulator for driver's ed classes?
And don't forget, it isn't the "general public" buying expensive high-end Macs like the Mac Pro towers, either. It's going to be your software developers (who have a vested interest in learning to code for VR in some cases, so they'd buy one), and your "power users" who have the financial means to invest in the technology they love and use heavily.
My .02...
Longtime MAC supporter. But originally came from PCs in the 90s as an avid gamer.
Switched to MAC in '02. My last MAC purchased is a 2010 27" iMac.
Sorely in need of an upgrade, I kept waiting for a good time.
Also, extremely interested in VR....in January I bought a new PC.
Pretty good specs: i7 6700 with an Nvidia 1070 gfx card...$1,200.
Also picked up an Oculus Rift. Amazing technology. Even in it's infancy.
I am absolutely floored every time I put the headset on.
Yesterday they released a new game (for free) called Robo Recall.
It's as if you are playing in the world from Will Smith's movie I Robot. Simply amazing.
I love MAC products, but it was time to change back for me.
Still have my iMac running, but it will see less of me.
Longtime MAC supporter. But originally came from PCs in the 90s as an avid gamer.
Switched to MAC in '02. My last MAC purchased is a 2010 27" iMac.
Sorely in need of an upgrade, I kept waiting for a good time.
Also, extremely interested in VR....in January I bought a new PC.
Pretty good specs: i7 6700 with an Nvidia 1070 gfx card...$1,200.
Also picked up an Oculus Rift. Amazing technology. Even in it's infancy.
I am absolutely floored every time I put the headset on.
Yesterday they released a new game (for free) called Robo Recall.
It's as if you are playing in the world from Will Smith's movie I Robot. Simply amazing.
I love MAC products, but it was time to change back for me.
Still have my iMac running, but it will see less of me.
You'll note mention of requiring "more robust hardware" from Apple.
Given the legacy bequeathed from Jobs, Tim Cook should be ashamed.
Personally I don't care about a powerful Mac as long as apple trannies can use whichever bathrooms they want. That's clearly the important thing to focus on for a tech company. Keep up the good work, Timmy.
