Oculus VR adds Mac OS X support to new Oculus Rift virtual reality SDK

Facebook-owned virtual reality startup Oculus VR on Tuesday announced the availability of version 0.4.1 of its software development kit, bringing developer support for the popular headgear to Apple's desktop operating system.

Alongside the new SDK come Mac OS X-compatible versions of the Oculus Runtime and Unity Tuscany demo, according to industry blog Road to VR. Oculus says that because they do not ship a display driver for the Mac, the Rift will work in Extend Desktop mode.

There are a few lingering issues with the Mac-focused SDK. Developers will need to manually restart the Mac OVR service after updating firmware, for instance, and Unity apps will experience higher latency on Apple's platform.

The Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset whose development is led by legendary Id Software co-founder John Carmack, has long supported gaming on the Mac. Until now, however, Mac-based developers were unable to compile Rift-compatible apps, forcing them to use Windows instead.

Facebook purchased Oculus earlier this year for $400 million in cash, $1.6 billion in stock, and a $300 million earn-out.

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12 Comments

tallest skil

said about 9 years ago

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Oculus says that because they do not ship a display driver for the Mac, the Rift will work in Extend Desktop mode.

So... why not DO that instead?

smiles77

said about 9 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Oculus says that because they do not ship a display driver for the Mac, the Rift will work in Extend Desktop mode.

So... why not DO that instead?

Because that takes time and this is the first step towards delivering a great Mac experience. Their first priorities were to get the custom runtime operating on OS X. After this, we should see additional features and support. They're still only on version 0.4.1 – there's a lot of work yet to be done (1-2 years til v1.0 if rumors are correct).

booga

said about 9 years ago

This should say they're bringing back Mac compatibility. 0.3.x had it, but 0.4.0 omitted it so they could ship it with the DK2 hardware on time. Now, a few weeks later, it's back.

tallest skil

said about 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Smiles77

Because that takes time and this is the first step towards delivering a great Mac experience.

Ah, so laziness. It exists in the PC version already; why not here?

nagromme

said about 9 years ago

Misleading headline and article. Oculus Rift has supported Mac for a very long time. I myself have compiled Mac apps for Oculus. Over a year ago. Certain VERSIONS of the SDK have come to Windows first. 0.4.1 must be one of those cases. But I know I downloaded an official new SDK release--for Mac--in the past couple of months. "bringing developer support for the popular headgear to Apple's desktop operating system" That happened last year! Also, the Rift works on Mac in both extended AND mirrored modes. Not sure what specific situation may be referred to there. I think a problem lies in forgetting the difference between the standalone SDK--for developers NOT using a game engine--and tools for developers who DO use an engine (like Unreal or Unity). I favor Unity myself.