Mac development for Oculus Rift VR headset 'paused' ahead of early 2016 Windows launch
Although Oculus VR is going ahead with a Windows launch of its Rift headset in the first quarter of 2016, work on OS X and Linux support has been "paused," according to the company's chief architect and technical director on the project.
Oculus wants to focus on a "high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows," Atman Binstock said in an official blog post on Friday. "We want to get back to development for OS X and Linux but we don't have a timeline."
With technology finally able to keep up, virtual reality is in the middle of a resurgence. Several major companies have announced or already launched VR headsets, including Sony, Samsung, and HTC. The Oculus Rift may be the most anticpated model however, since developer prototypes have been available for some time and are already supported by a handful of games.
Oculus also has the financial backing of Facebook, which bought it for $2 billion in cash and stock in March 2014.
The final shipping version of the Rift will display a 2160x1200, 90Hz image across two eyepieces. Binstock noted that maintaining this quality at high framerates is extremely demanding, and so Oculus has set out equally high recommended system specifications. These include the equivalent of a 3.3 gigahertz Intel i5-4590 processor, an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD 290 graphics card, and 8 gigabytes of RAM.
At a minimum users will need a PC with Windows 7 Service Pack 1, two USB 3.0 ports, and an HDMI 1.3 port allowing a 297-megahertz clock via direct output. The last point may prevent many notebooks from connecting to the Rift, since even systems with separate graphics cards often push their external output through a graphics chip embedded in the CPU.
The issue may be moot, given that very few mobile graphics cards have enough power to support the Rift. That means that few current-generation Macs will be able to support the headset -- even the 5K iMac, which starts at $2,499, uses either an AMD M290X or M295X mobile graphics card. The Mac Pro should in theory have no problems, but starts at $2,999 before adding basic accessories like a mouse, keyboard, or monitor.
Oculus wants to focus on a "high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows," Atman Binstock said in an official blog post on Friday. "We want to get back to development for OS X and Linux but we don't have a timeline."
With technology finally able to keep up, virtual reality is in the middle of a resurgence. Several major companies have announced or already launched VR headsets, including Sony, Samsung, and HTC. The Oculus Rift may be the most anticpated model however, since developer prototypes have been available for some time and are already supported by a handful of games.
Oculus also has the financial backing of Facebook, which bought it for $2 billion in cash and stock in March 2014.
The final shipping version of the Rift will display a 2160x1200, 90Hz image across two eyepieces. Binstock noted that maintaining this quality at high framerates is extremely demanding, and so Oculus has set out equally high recommended system specifications. These include the equivalent of a 3.3 gigahertz Intel i5-4590 processor, an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD 290 graphics card, and 8 gigabytes of RAM.
At a minimum users will need a PC with Windows 7 Service Pack 1, two USB 3.0 ports, and an HDMI 1.3 port allowing a 297-megahertz clock via direct output. The last point may prevent many notebooks from connecting to the Rift, since even systems with separate graphics cards often push their external output through a graphics chip embedded in the CPU.
The issue may be moot, given that very few mobile graphics cards have enough power to support the Rift. That means that few current-generation Macs will be able to support the headset -- even the 5K iMac, which starts at $2,499, uses either an AMD M290X or M295X mobile graphics card. The Mac Pro should in theory have no problems, but starts at $2,999 before adding basic accessories like a mouse, keyboard, or monitor.
Comments
Gaming on the Mac has always lagged- nothing to see here...
It's too violent and the graphics suck.
My friend is a film director and got a demo recently. He said it was startling. Not just games but films in VR will be amazing. Today it requires a high-end PC, but in five years your phone will power it.
This is too bad--I am developing an Oculus Rift game. On Mac.
Then again, my Developer Kit is already supported, and that's what I'll be developing with, so maybe late support for the consumer release won't affect my game's development.
You get one life and then game over.
I will getProject Morpheus for my Playstation 4 instead.
Wait - you mean I can't respawn ?
Mac and Linux developers are suddenly targeting Windows? BS.
How much did Micro$oft pay for what amounts to just a press release?
Wait - you mean I can't respawn ?
You can, but you have to enter the right code in the defibrillator.
I'm not 35 any more and the list goes from there ...
There working on that.
Have to locate the code now - I tried online but no luck so far.
(reading manual frantically)
Which is exactly why Steve wanted to make everything himself. Here we are in 2015 and the Mac still gets neglected. The only way we'd get a good comparable product is for Apple to create one.
Say what? This is happening because Apple puts underpowered mobility graphics cards in its iMacs. The Oculus won't run on Windows laptops with these cards either. Apple has 100% control over what graphics cards they use.
And really, when I think about it further, it's not even that much a problem of hardware, since when it comes to laptops, apple competes fairly well on the hardware side. Where they're really dropping the ball is in software. They simply drag their feet when it comes to supporting the latest versions of Open GL and they have absolutely no excuse. They should be ahead of everyone there, not behind.