As Apple preps VR support in High Sierra, Facebook slashes Oculus Rift price to $400 in su...

AppleInsider

Facebook has launched a six-week summer sale on the Oculus Rift headset -- and while there is no official support for it from the company, it can be used in conjunction with High Sierra and the SteamVR beta.

The headset and set of two Touch controllers normally retail for $500 for just the headset and $100 for the controllers. The "Summer of Rift" promotion, launched on Monday, cuts this price to $400 for the set.

"What we learned with the [March] price cuts is that price matters," Oculus vice president of content Jason Rubin told Fortune on Monday. "This is a good time to test a mass-market price."

Valve's preferred VR hardware, isn't the Oculus Rift, but the HTC Vive -- developed by the company in cooperation with HTC. But, AppleInsider has confirmed both from a Valve FAQ page, and some preliminary testing, that the Oculus Rift functions in the SteamVR beta with the eGPU Developer's Kit connected to a Mac running the High Sierra beta.

Apple's $600 External GPU Developer's Kit is intended to test VR content creation on any Mac with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. The product includes a Sonnet external GPU chassis with Thunderbolt 3 and 350-watt power supply, AMD Radeon RX 580 8-gigabyte graphics cards, Belkin USB-C to 4-port USB-A hub, and a promo code for $100 towards the purchase of an HTC Vive VR headset.

Full support for external GPUs in High Sierra will launch in the spring of 2018.

rotateleftbyte

But... But.... But... Didn't Occulus state clearly that the Mac's were nowhere near adequate to drive the superb, magnificent, unbeatable OR?
Firesale anyone?
Did FB buy a lemon/load of hot air?
Interesting times indeed.

Mike Wuerthele

rotateleftbyte said:

But... But.... But... Didn't Occulus state clearly that the Mac's were nowhere near adequate to drive the superb, magnificent, unbeatable OR?
Firesale anyone?
Did FB buy a lemon/load of hot air?
Interesting times indeed.

To be fair, it still needs an external GPU to work.

MacPro

... "the Oculus Rift functions in the SteamVR beta with the eGPU Developer's Kit connected to a Mac running the High Sierra beta."  Is there information on which Macs this is true of.  My 6 Core 2013/14 Mac Pro booted into Windows with latest AMD drivers and Catalyst on passes the Stream VR Test so I wonder if it will pass muster even better in macOS High Sierra, I never thought to try that yet?  I also wonder if I'd even need an add on GPU kit or is the lack of dual GPU Catalyst under macOS the snag?

SpamSandwich

Personally, I wouldn't even buy an Oculus for a dollar.

schlack

I've used the Oculus headset. It was interesting, but after 30 minutes I had my fill. Uncomfortable and low resolution, I don't see VR being compelling for awhile. Can't see spending my money on it.

techprod1gy

Oculus Rift is pretty awesome.  I own one.  It is plagued by lack of really good content.  Some titles really inspire and show what VR is capable of.  I do agree on the comment above about resolution...while it is ok it could be much better.  Doesn't detract from the good titles though.  Still very niche technology from my perspective.  Good Gen 1 effort.

Mike Wuerthele

MacPro said:

... "the Oculus Rift functions in the SteamVR beta with the eGPU Developer's Kit connected to a Mac running the High Sierra beta."  Is there information on which Macs this is true of.  My 6 Core 2013/14 Mac Pro booted into Windows with latest AMD drivers and Catalyst on passes the Stream VR Test so I wonder if it will pass muster even better in macOS High Sierra, I never thought to try that yet?  I also wonder if I'd even need an add on GPU kit or is the lack of dual GPU Catalyst under macOS the snag?

We've looked at it for just minutes at this point, with it running on a 2017 15-inch i7 MacBook Pro with the eGPU dev kit on High Sierra. 

That's all I've got at the moment.

boltsfan17

techprod1gy said:

Oculus Rift is pretty awesome.  I own one.  It is plagued by lack of really good content.  Some titles really inspire and show what VR is capable of.  I do agree on the comment above about resolution...while it is ok it could be much better.  Doesn't detract from the good titles though.  Still very niche technology from my perspective.  Good Gen 1 effort.

Resolution is my main issue with the Playstation VR, although it is better when you use a PS4 Pro. Sony definitely has some good VR titles. I think as the technology improves, resolution will as well. Overall, I agree it is a good gen 1 effort with VR. 

tallest skil

techprod1gy said:

I do agree on the comment above about resolution...while it is ok it could be much better. Good Gen 1 effort.

Didn't the developer testing units have a higher resolution screen? I mean, what kind of nonsense was that?

brucemc

schlack said:

I've used the Oculus headset. It was interesting, but after 30 minutes I had my fill. Uncomfortable and low resolution, I don't see VR being compelling for awhile. Can't see spending my money on it.

IMO VR for a reasonably sized market - not necessarily the masses but something the size of high-end gaming - is still a couple of years away yet.  VR for the mass market is a few more after that, and not even a guaranteed thing, compared with the broader AR.

For a company like Facebook, blowing stock money on Oculus doesn't affect them, and perhaps is "good enough value" in the long run as an expanded R&D arm to keep up on the developments.  If looking at such a transaction in the general sense of value-for-money, it likely has (and will) bleed red ink for years.

maestro64

rotateleftbyte said:

But... But.... But... Didn't Occulus state clearly that the Mac's were nowhere near adequate to drive the superb, magnificent, unbeatable OR?
Firesale anyone?
Did FB buy a lemon/load of hot air?
Interesting times indeed.

Yes, it is a fire sale, no matter how cheap you make them, the average Joe, or Jane will not buy these which happens to be about 90% of the population. All Facebook did was to piss of the people who spent way too much when they first came out.

jSnively

tallest skil said:

techprod1gy said:

I do agree on the comment above about resolution...while it is ok it could be much better. Good Gen 1 effort.

Didn't the developer testing units have a higher resolution screen? I mean, what kind of nonsense was that?

Nope.

MacPro

Mike Wuerthele said:

MacPro said:

... "the Oculus Rift functions in the SteamVR beta with the eGPU Developer's Kit connected to a Mac running the High Sierra beta."  Is there information on which Macs this is true of.  My 6 Core 2013/14 Mac Pro booted into Windows with latest AMD drivers and Catalyst on passes the Stream VR Test so I wonder if it will pass muster even better in macOS High Sierra, I never thought to try that yet?  I also wonder if I'd even need an add on GPU kit or is the lack of dual GPU Catalyst under macOS the snag?

We've looked at it for just minutes at this point, with it running on a 2017 15-inch i7 MacBook Pro with the eGPU dev kit on High Sierra. 

That's all I've got at the moment.

Thanks Mike, good to know, I hope you continue with your tests in other areas for VR and AR, I envy you getting paid to play ; (this is assuming your are being paid???).

It's for another topic on AI I know, but perhaps  you experts could look at the following points and shine a light on these issue.  

My 2 cents is it would be nice if Apple brought their AMD drivers up to par with Windows releases for the dual GPU machines  (and maybe other Macs but that's not an area I know much about these days) and also added support for Catalyst in macOS  i.e. using both GPUs in tandem where this is of use (it isn't in all cases even with games).  As we all know, Apple in macOS  only uses one of the GPUs for actually driving the monitor, the other for things like filters in FCPro X which is fine but why not offer both options?  Catalyst itself has a by Application specific settings built right in so FCPro X et alia could turn off tandem functionality at launch automatically.  Also, release dates ...  As it is I can only get as far as Crimson 15.3 via the AMD website directly, Bootcamp was still at 15.1 last time I checked. Meanwhile Windows versions are way beyond those releases.  There are hacks out there but I am wary of them due to potential damage by deliberate over clocking and excess heat.  

I would add, if unbeknownst to me, Apple already has plans for GPUs that are so powerful they make dual AMD GPUs redundant then I'm fine with that of course, but one of the main reasons Apple has been slaughtered in the games market is its refusal to support the higher end GPUs, dual GPUs and drivers the driver part is simply idiotic.  Gamer rigs cost as much if not more than a mid to high range Mac Pro so price isn't the issue and it maybe a smallish market I know but it is prestigious and in the mean time we are talking about drivers making the difference not something I would have thought was exactly beyond Apple and AMD to sort out at minimal R&D costs.  From 2013 to today Apple has done nothing with Mac Pro graphics drivers.