As gamers await Oculus Rift's March launch, Mac users shouldn't hold their breath for support
Last year, Oculus suspended Mac development for its Rift virtual reality headset. Comments from the Oculus CEO suggest work on Mac support is unlikely to resume anytime soon, leaving the device's forthcoming launch a Windows-only affair for the foreseeable future.
At this week's Consumer Electronics Show, the Facebook-owned Oculus gave concrete details on its forthcoming Rift, including a $599 price point. No mention was made of support for Apple's OS X platform, because all current Macs aside from high-end Mac Pro models lack the hardware needed to power the virtual reality technology.
Oculus originally announced last May that it "paused" Mac development for the Rift. At the time, the company said it planned to return to Mac development, along with Linux, but that no timeline was available.
And again last month, Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey commented on Twitter about potential Rift support for the Mac. His response suggests that Apple hardware won't be on Oculus's radar anytime soon.
"Mac support is on the roadmap post-decent Apple hardware release, whenever that is," Luckey said.
In an effort to keep its Mac lineup sleek, stylish and light, Apple has eschewed dedicated graphics cards in most of its lineup, most notably all 13-inch MacBook Pro models. Instead, most of Apple's Macs rely on integrated Intel graphics, which are not as powerful or capable as a discrete graphics card.
One possible route Apple could take would be allowing external graphics cards to connect to Macs via the high-speed Thunderbolt port. Gaming hardware maker Razer demonstrated this capability at CES this week, with a new product called Razer Core, which will connect to a laptop and allow for supercharged graphics performance when docked.
Apple, however, has shown little support in expanding the role of gaming support on the Mac, leaving that market largely to PC users running Microsoft Windows. Microsoft has even partnered with Oculus for the forthcoming Rift launch, as all orders will ship with an Xbox One controller.
Because of the high system requirements for the Rift, the company is certifying "Oculus Ready" PCs and working with vendors to offer computer bundles that include the headset. These will be available to preorder in February starting at $1,499.
The Rift requires a PC with at least Windows 7, a Core i5-4590 processor, and an Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 video card. Owners will also need HDMI 1.3 output, three USB 3.0 ports, and an extra USB 2.0 connection.
Those requirements mean that among Apple users, only Mac Pro owners running Windows via Boot Camp will be able to use the Oculus Rift.
At this week's Consumer Electronics Show, the Facebook-owned Oculus gave concrete details on its forthcoming Rift, including a $599 price point. No mention was made of support for Apple's OS X platform, because all current Macs aside from high-end Mac Pro models lack the hardware needed to power the virtual reality technology.
Oculus originally announced last May that it "paused" Mac development for the Rift. At the time, the company said it planned to return to Mac development, along with Linux, but that no timeline was available.
And again last month, Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey commented on Twitter about potential Rift support for the Mac. His response suggests that Apple hardware won't be on Oculus's radar anytime soon.
"Mac support is on the roadmap post-decent Apple hardware release, whenever that is," Luckey said.
In an effort to keep its Mac lineup sleek, stylish and light, Apple has eschewed dedicated graphics cards in most of its lineup, most notably all 13-inch MacBook Pro models. Instead, most of Apple's Macs rely on integrated Intel graphics, which are not as powerful or capable as a discrete graphics card.
One possible route Apple could take would be allowing external graphics cards to connect to Macs via the high-speed Thunderbolt port. Gaming hardware maker Razer demonstrated this capability at CES this week, with a new product called Razer Core, which will connect to a laptop and allow for supercharged graphics performance when docked.
Apple, however, has shown little support in expanding the role of gaming support on the Mac, leaving that market largely to PC users running Microsoft Windows. Microsoft has even partnered with Oculus for the forthcoming Rift launch, as all orders will ship with an Xbox One controller.
Because of the high system requirements for the Rift, the company is certifying "Oculus Ready" PCs and working with vendors to offer computer bundles that include the headset. These will be available to preorder in February starting at $1,499.
The Rift requires a PC with at least Windows 7, a Core i5-4590 processor, and an Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 video card. Owners will also need HDMI 1.3 output, three USB 3.0 ports, and an extra USB 2.0 connection.
Those requirements mean that among Apple users, only Mac Pro owners running Windows via Boot Camp will be able to use the Oculus Rift.
Comments
What will be the equivalent name for this similar to Glassholes, This is really unimportant in the big scheme of things. This ranks right with Google Glasses and 3D Glass for TV. Most people will not be seen dead with these strapped to their heads. It has the same social stigma of the wearing the geeky 3D glasses.
We know most gamers especially those who can not wait for these spend most of their time in their parents basements so they do not care what the rest of us think.
Yeah the will sell some and make money, but this will not make Face money like other Apple products make for Apple, Even Apple hobby products will make more than this will.
I am also willing to bet once people use these we will begin hearing about issue like people were getting headaches from wearing Google glasses and the 3D glasses.
So you have no idea what an Oculus rift is, then? Or haven't followed the 2+ years of devkit usage that's been public for ages? Headaches aren't the problem, it's motion sickness.
Oculus' beef with Apple is that Apple doesn't have a computer, or a computer cable of having, a graphics card that meets the minimum system requirements to use the oculus on a playable level. It's a device for gaming, Apple hardware is not. This whole article is about as irrelevant as saying I can't boil water pouring it in my toaster. Different machines, different purposes.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-buys-artificial-intelligence-startup-emotient-1452188715?mod=yahoo_hs
Top-of-the-line Mac Pro users are going to be left in the dust here as well. You can probably boot stuff up, but you won't be running it at 90hz, which is going to lead to a bunch of people ... getting sick. I think they probably expect to sell 2-3M units of CV1 over its lifespan. This thing isn't a mass consumer device yet, and won't be for another 3-5+ years. Right now they're addressing the 'core' base of about 20M 'hardcore' PC gamers, around 10% of which have the hardware required to run this stuff in the first place. PC gamers haven't had a compelling reason to do a serious upgrade in a very long time, so I'm sure there will be some upgrades caused by this stuff.
The timing is just super unfortunate with Pascal and Polaris right around the corner (April-ish). That's the major GPU performance bump people have been waiting way too long for *shakes fist at TSMC*
Mac sales unaffected, continue to outpace the rest of the market, and continue to sit atop consumer satisfaction reports.
How this Oculus story is *relevant* news in light of the way Apple positions and targets Macs is beyond me, but I still love ya, AI.
Why use a 90" Flat Screen when you can immerse yourself in a movie ? You think you dont see your kids now, just wait until April.
You just described the high-end iMac 27". It has:
• Core i5 or i7
• AMD Radeon R9 M395X
• 4 USB 3.0 ports
• 2 Thunderbolt ports (for Thunderbolt to HDMI)
What's missing? This thing absolutely SCREAMS in Windows 10.
My crappy notebook runs W10 very well, but the R9 M395X is still a gimped laptop GPU and is about half that of a desktop GTX970. Also for the price of the iMac with that card - $2500 for the 4GB version - you can buy and build yourself a PC dedicated for gaming that by far passes the imac in specs - example.
This is what the small group of people who work themselves into a frenzy posting on the internet fail to see. Unless Oculus finds a more mass-market application for their hardware (or can continually find a source of investors to dupe), there's no way they're going to be able to fund development of it beyond a couple of years based purely on sales to this small group of people.
Oculus is correct to skip the Mac gaming market since the vast majority of people buying Macs aren't buying them for gaming (Apple understands this too), but they should be expanding to the console gaming market instead of going after Linux gamers (which is an even smaller market) IMO.
And stop the childish shots at Apple, it just makes them look ignorant. Apple's not going to put niche-market GPUs in their mass-market machines (that's what the Mac Pro is for). I mean, should they put pro audio hardware in Macs too? How about pro RAID hardware standard too? Might as well cover all of the niche markets.
That being said, $600 is a lot more money than I (or probably a lot of people) are willing to pay for the thing and I do have a $3000 computer sitting at home. I would have bought it at $300 or $350, maybe mulled for a few months at $400 but $600? Not a chance. I wholeheartedly agree with here, and think once the competition arrives (Most the HTC Vive) it'll be forced to drop its price drastically.
Also, what shot at apple? If you're referring to my shot at AMD, don't mistake me criticizing parts for criticizing Apple. The M395X is literally a Tonga XT GPU that's been downclocked for heat/power reasons to fit in laptops. My criticism of Apple would have been why they chose to put it and not a desktop class GPU (Such as the 380X, which is the Tonga) which is far more suited for desktops and would make the thing actually quite a decently performing gaming machine. But again, different target market and discussion for a different thread.
people were 3D glass in their home too and it was failure, it the whole geek factor. This is the problem with the geek world they think everyone is like them which they do not care what other people think of them, BTW I think is good trait to have, but the mass majority of people are vain and worry how they look.
You made my point, these kinds of things have side effects which most people will not deal with, or learn to over come the short comings. Keep in mind Google Glass and the whole headaches and other issue did not show up until a few thousand people tried using them all the time. The geeks in Google labs either did not notice the issue or they just ignore it all together.
It does not mater if these do not work with Apple products, Apple is not going to loose any customer of a product like this.