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Virtual Reality is just another iteration of 3D, and 3D has failed from the red/blue glasses for Creature from the Black Lagoon to the polarized glasses of the 1980s to the 3D televisions that have gone nowhere in the past few years. The fact is that vanishingly few people want to wear the headgear required to immerse themselves in 3D or VR, because it is an order of magnitude more isolating than, say, just wearing headphones for teamspeak or similar chat functionality. Add in the wires and power requirements, and you have a non-starter for 99% of the population.

Produce a holodeck like those on Star Trek: TNG and we can talk. Until then this will remain a niche market.

Sorry - VR is another iteration of 3D? No.. I respectfully disagree.

LOL! So my 2013 Mac Pro is a lame computer? Yeah, right. How about releasing your product with specs for any platform and let me decide whether my computer supports it.

Touchy much? They didn't say Macs were lame. That was you. And again I put forward - why should Oculus sacrifice their user experience for Apple users. I see so many people on this forum talk about how Apple works and doesn't want to sacrifice quality on their end....
 
Yes, i agree with you... i just don't think gamers and competitive players own macs (as their gaming platform) to begin with. So even if macs had better graphics capabilities, i don't think they would be there.
Shyly raises hand. I competitively play CSGO on Mac running Windows 10 and I have a couple of friends that do as well. We're definitely a minority and get a lot of crap for it among gamers, but we're out there. (Though if my office were bigger and I had the space for a second PC desktop, I'd move all of my gaming there.)
 
Mac machines, even the high-end ones, don't have the graphics power to handle that kind of system load.

The current high-end Macs don't have the graphics power. My 6 year old Mac has a GTX 980, and there are people with a Titan X. All of us with PCIe slots buy whatever PC GPU we want.

Apple, bring back the PCIe slot for the Mac Pro. Make the iMac MXM. Stop blocking eGPU efforts on the mobiles and Mini.
 
Hummm... so I doubt 95% of the PC users will be able to use it either. Sounds like very high-end video requirements. Not something your average PC (of any brand) is going to have.

Agreed.

It's a niche product, at least at this point.
 
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Pretty sure the 5k iMacs have Dedicated AMD Graphics, as an option.

But Macs these days have horrible prices for their specs, your getting Intel's Integrated Graphics for £1500.
they don't. 5k imacs have custom mobile cards that have been tweeked to put out higher frame rates.
 
Macs weren't built for Oculus Rift. They were built for their intended purposes. Apple is working on their own VR anyway, so I don't care.
The truth, she'll set you free!
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The situation will be no different for those. VR requires a fast GPU since you need to be able to maintain a good framerate. Otherwise people will get motion sickness.

In the age of thunderbolt 3, there is no reason a GPU couldn't be included with a VR headset......except that the cost of the headset would double, and you couldn't use the GPU for anything else. Sounds like something Apple might do.....


I really wish apple would release a decent gaming system, im dreading my 2009 mac pro breaking.


Me too. There is nothing in the current line up i'd want to replace my old Mac Pro with.
 
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LOL! So my 2013 Mac Pro is a lame computer? Yeah, right. How about releasing your product with specs for any platform and let me decide whether my computer supports it ... or whether I want to strap a massive pair of goggles to my head.

Touchy much?

VR requires consistent high frame rates or you will get motion sick. You are basically asking them to change the biology of our brains if you want this kind of VR to work with lower specced computers. And you can decide if you want to purchase an oculus or not, I dont think they are forcing them on you like you seem to imply.
 
VR is focused on gaming for now, but it may soon be adopted to design industries (architecture, interior design, AutoCAD, etc). Apple surely wouldn't want to lose out, so I'm sure Apple will do something to optimize Macs for Oculus or other VR headsets. Or maybe they will build their own VR headsets.
 
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Hummm... so I doubt 95% of the PC users will be able to use it either. Sounds like very high-end video requirements. Not something your average PC (of any brand) is going to have.

Most will have to buy a new computer to work with the current VR offerings. Your normal Dell isn't going to drive it. Expect to spend $3k or more to meet those requirements. Some even package in the computer because they're pretty specific on what's needed.
 
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Point is you can upgrade your pc.
Very few PC's in the consumer market are upgradable outside drive and memory. If they want success, other then niche market, they need to design more intelligence and hardware into their product as opposed to relying on the mass market hardware. Apple will most likely take this approach. Might even work with the next generations of iPhone.
 
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Honestly think the Mac Pro will be around for much longer? I doubt it as not that many buy them these days. The days where video professionals waited for the latest and greatest Mac announcements have faded away.. The Mac is dead, long live the iwatch?
 
And yet there will be individuals on this thread shocked and horrified by apples lack of a feature it has NEVER previously had, a powerful desktop GPU ....

Also VRs success will be determined by the crowd that has always had the hardware for it, gamers. Sure other applications will follow if it's successful, but if it flops with the gamers, the appetite for it will be gone damn fast.

my money is apple ignoring the desktop/Computer range and joining VR with its flagship product, the iPhone.
 
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VR is focused on gaming for now, but it may soon be adopted to design industries (architecture, interior design, AutoCAD, etc). Apple surely wouldn't want to lose out, so I'm sure Apple will do something to optimize Macs for Oculus or other VR headsets. Or maybe they will build their own VR headsets.

Very cool idea, I'd love that. Would I use it on a regular basis? Probably not.
 
Pretty sure the 5k iMacs have Dedicated AMD Graphics, as an option.

But Macs these days have horrible prices for their specs, your getting Intel's Integrated Graphics for £1500.

My 27 inch has a dedicated 4 GB card, but it was both an option I opted for and still not fitting for what they're talking about here. Their build quality is excellent, they're just not gaming machines.
 
I expect the next generation of the Mac Pro will include at least one model that can render 400 million shaded pixels per second.
 
Pretty sure the 5k iMacs have Dedicated AMD Graphics, as an option.

But Macs these days have horrible prices for their specs, your getting Intel's Integrated Graphics for £1500.

5k iMac have gimped GPU's as well. They might be dedicated but they have to run under clocked because of heat issues due to the all in one design :-(

You can not deny what Palmer says - Mac GPU's are crappy especially at the price you have to buy the gay and snobbish macs!
Also Apple should have done something like the Metal API years ago...
Really sad how crappy the GPU situation with mac is.
 
Because Oculus isn't thinking short term. They know that specs get better and better quickly. Why design a system that leverages lower tech when they can have a system that will last longer over time?

I think that comment is a little bit too shallow of context given the current status of hardwave development. The general computing Industry is following Apple and Intel's lead in pushing for highly efficient integrated GPUs over dependent with high expenses ($, pwr, space) for dynamic usages - the results give us things like rMB, but also mean that those requiring wider range of usage from GPUs will be pushed into a niche category (a very large one, of course). The benefits aren't independent, but they aren't necessarily parallel (like nvidia 750m vs Iris Pro on Skylake)
Ideally, the iGPU roadmap will lead to improvements that benefit Oculus across the spectrum - but setting the benchmark to work on lower-grade hardware means that when you are given access to higher-grade hardware, you can do so much more. You're not requiring the best just to try-and-get the job done - the fundamentals are there and you can capitalize on the extra - this is what worked really well for iOS.

It's also important because capitalism drives development: If Iris and the like are capable and more useful to the market, they will be prioritized. If they are "good enough" for the mass amount of users, then vendors will begin looking to follow that lead without the bells or whistles (or an added expense). It would different if something like Oculus encouraged users to want those bells and whistles, but I don't think it will beyond any other hard-core software, at least for a long while.

Though, that's not an argument for lowering the bar by any means... just future concerns for hitting a growth cap in the consumer market by assuming the hardware development cycle will match the pace and trajectory we've seen in the last decade. Time's are a changing'.
 
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