[janoc]

They are also widely used for non-gaming stuff, it is just less visible.

Concerning Mac the main problem is lack of any meaningful driver and hardware support from Apple. And without that there is little point in trying to port the SDKs.

On PCs both Nvidia a AMD are actively working with both Valve & Oculus and integrating support for things like the asynchronous time warping in their drivers. However, on Macs only Apple can really do that.

The other problem is that no current Mac on the market has a GPU that will work well with a Vive/Rift. The solution used in the laptops which switch between the integrated and discrete GPU is not supported and Apple doesn't offer anything else. And their desktop Macs haven't really been updated in ages, with GPUs being below the minimal spec required.

So while this may be a convenient excuse why not to support Mac, until Apple gets their stuff together it is technically not doable.

[zamalek]

My experience has been more with the non-gaming stuff and I fully intend to start exploring that space as a creator. What worries me about supporting Mac is the antique 3D hardware (excluding recent announcements). Irrespective of whether the content is a game or an experience/tool, it is still 3D. This has most-certainly changed but is expensive and not yet pervasive.

[fulafel]

Can you clarify what you mean by "The solution used in the laptops which switch between the integrated and discrete GPU is not supported"?

[hackerfromthefu]

The issue is caused by the way the Nvidia Optimus works - there's a physical connection which always goes to the onboard intel video, then the Nvidia video card outputs to the onboard video, which outputs to the physical connection.

The extra step of routing the 3d video through the onboard video adds very minor latency, but it's still enough to kill the VR experience and induce nausea etc so it's deliberately not supported.

And because the connection is physical it can not be changed with existing hardware. Next generation :)

I'm unsure about the AMD specifics but I expect it's exactly the same issue.

[fulafel]

But this same issue is present on non-mac laptops too, right? Except some niche gaming/VR laptops that use desktop GPUs. It's waiting for GPU and laptop chipset vendors whto get their acts together (and hope they care about VR).

Meanwhile eGPUs seem the way to go, and Apple is already shpping it: https://www.imore.com/apples-vr-dev-kit-egpu-enclosure-ultim...

[hackerfromthefu]

Yes this applies to all laptops using nvidia optimus, PC, Mac etc, the issue is the hardware, it's physically wired to the igpu to enable minimal power usage scenarios.

Agreed eGPUs are the near term future, although cloud gpus are also a possibility ..

[fjksksvdjsjd]

Didn’t apple just ADD support for external, discrete GPUs? It’s certainly disheartening to see them drop support; I understand the latency demands, but the platform tie in is unnecessary.

At least there’s linux! :)