How Is Steam Vr For Mac

Last Updated: November 19, 2018 Macs have come a long way when it comes to Virtual Reality technology and nowadays you can enjoy VR on your Mac – if you get the right headset and an. However, it’s not quite as straightforward as it should be just yet. Here we straighten out the current situation for VR gaming on Mac and explain what you’ll need and which is by far the best VR headset for Mac in 2018. Overview: VR Headsets & Gaming On Mac In 2018 The outlook for VR gaming on Mac in 2018 is extremely bright. VR technology is set to boom on Mac, mainly due to the long-awaited by Apple in 2017 that macOS 10.13 High Sierra would support VR technologies and hardware like eGPU boxes. More recently, Apple at the 2018 WWDC Apple announced that macOS 10.14 Mojave will support the latest head mounted display. Unity VR editing on Mac Gaming however is another question entirely and we’ll go into why shortly.

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Firstly, it’s important to understand that VR requires a few things in order to work on Mac. A High End Graphics Card Most iMacs and MacBook Pros from 2015 onwards already have this. A powerful graphics card is required by VR headsets in order to deliver the rapid frame rate that VR requires. The only Mac compatible VR headset – the – requires an Intel Core i5 or higher which MacBook Pros from early 2015 and iMacs from mid 2015 have or above in more recent models.

In terms of power, the latest iMacs are the best Macs for VR with Radeon Pro 555 or 560 processors and up to 4GB VRAM in the 21.5 inch 4K iMac. The 27 inch iMacs have even higher spec Radeon Pro 570, 575 and 580 processors with up to 8GB VRAM. Apple’s most powerful Mac, the is more than capable of handling VR but it will set you back almost $5,000.

However, even if you’ve got a Max that’s technically powerful enough, you will be really pushing the limits of the internal graphics card and it’s recommend you use an external graphics card in an external enclosure (more on this below). VR requires a minimum of 90 frames per second in order to deliver anything that’s not going to make you feel a bit nauseous while playing. Your Mac’s internal graphics card may struggle with this which us why an external eGPU enclosure and graphics card is the best way to go. If you have anything older than a 2015 Mac, you’ll definitely need an external graphics cards in an eGPU Enclosure.

EGPU Enclosures An external graphics unit enclosure is basically a big box to plug in an external graphic card (see below). The problem until High Sierra was that eGPU units are incompatible with macOS 10.12 Sierra and below. Although it is possible to get eGPUs to work with older versions of macOS, it requires technical hacks which are complicated, messy and not always reliable. However, the good news is that at the 2017 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple announced that High Sierra would finally in any Mac with a Thunderbolt 3 connection thanks to an upgrade to the framework.

You’ll also need a Thunderbolt 3 Port on your Mac to connect to the enclosure. MacBook Pros built in 2016 or later and certain models of iMacs from 2017 onwards already have Thunderbolt 3 ports built in but it is however possible to use a on older Macs that only have Thunderbolt 2 ports. At the moment, Apple is only selling its to registered Mac developers that want to create and develop VR games on Mac. The kit costs $599 and includes a Sonnet eGPU, Radeon graphics card and Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter. The truth however is that any cheaper eGPU unit with a Mac compatible graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 connection will do.

SteamVR is a full-featured, 360-degree room-scale VR experience. Experience high-end VR paired with everything you love about Steam. HTC Vive: Installation Guide. Learn how to set up HTC Vive and SteamVR. Get answers to common questions about SteamVR.

There aren’t many on the market yet but the most notable is the which officially supports Thunderbolt 3 and High Sierra or above. An External Graphics Card To place inside the unit, you’ll also of course need a graphics card. The problem is that not all graphics cards are supported by High Sierra but a few such as the definitely are.

It’s important to check before you buy both the unit and graphics card that they are Mac High Sierra compatible. A VR Headset Finally, you’ll need the really fun bit which is the VR glasses for your Mac. Although there are many models of VR headset out there, there’s only one that officially works on Mac – the. It really isn’t worth buying anything else at the moment if you’ve got a Mac and next we take a closer look at why.

In late April 2018 a rumor emerged that set for release in 2020 although nothing has been confirmed by the company. It’s certainly highly possible considering that Apple has already announced it will in favor of it’s own ARM chips by 2020, due in part by the need to deliver the blistering speeds required for AR and VR technology.

At the 2018 WWDC Apple announced that the latest version of macOS Mojave will even support the. The HTC Vive Pro offers better resolution of 615 PPI and two front facing cameras compared to the HTC Vive. The exciting thing is that Apple and HTC are working together indicating that Apple is definitely taking VR seriously on Mac. HTC Vive: The Best VR Headset For Mac Users Apart from the hardware, the other major requirement to enjoy VR games on Mac is of course gaming developers or platforms that are willing to support it on macOS. The bad news is that at the moment, there are virtually none.

The good news is that the one stand out exception is Valve’s Steam platform and specifically. Steam is one of the biggest distribution platforms for games on both Mac and PC and is the only major gaming platform officially supporting VR gaming on macOS. The was developed by both Valve and HTC to work specifically with the Steam platform which means it is easily the best option for Mac users. With the HTC Vive, you’re guaranteed both Mac compatibility, better stability and far more game support than buying any other headset. Note that on the HTC site, it still says that the HTC Vive is not compatible with Macs. However, we can confirm that it definitely does work and Apple also announced at the WWDC 2018 that the macOS 10.14 Mojave is HTC Vive Pro compatible.

The confusion may be because initially, there were problems with the HTC Vive on Mac until NVIDIA released. The bad news however is that so far, there are still no Mac games on the that support VR. There simply haven’t been many VR manufacturers or software developers focusing on Mac, mainly because of the lack of support in macOS. This will undoubtedly change rapidly throughout 2018 however as more developers add Mac VR support for their games now that High Sierra supports VR. Can The Oculus Rift Be Used On Macs In 2018? The Oculus Rift was one of the first successful VR headsets to hit the market but it still. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey stated in back in 2016 that Oculus would only support Macs “if Apple ever releases a good computer”.

Luckey: It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn’t prioritize high-end GPUs. You can buy a $6,000 Mac Pro with the top of the line AMD FirePro D700, and it still doesn’t match our recommended specs. So if they prioritize higher-end GPUs like they used to for a while back in the day, we’d love to support Mac.

But right now, there’s just not a single machine out there that supports it. However, the situation has changed significantly since that statement was made.

The latest iMac Pros certainly have the specifications to run Oculus Rift headsets without any external hardware or upgrades. And even older iMacs and MacBook Pros can use the Oculus Rift if you buy an.

What You Need to Know RELATED: This feature doesn’t turn any old game into a fully immersive virtual reality game with head tracking. That’s just not possible.

Instead, you’ll be placed in a virtual theater and the game will play on a giant 2D screen you can see in the theater. This works a lot like. It’s cool to sit in a virtual theater and see your game appear to take up most of your vision. But the same downsides apply. VR technology is still new and needs more time to improve. You won’t see as much detail as you will if you just played the game on your PC’s normal monitor.

RELATED: There are other tools for doing this, but SteamVR’s desktop theater mode is free and integrated into Steam itself. It uses the same technology uses. If a game works with Steam Broadcasting, it’ll work with desktop theater mode. If you have an Oculus Rift, you’ll first need to before continuing, so SteamVR can use your Oculus Rift headset. By default, the Rift only allows apps from the Oculus Store, which means SteamVR and Steam games won’r work. How to Start SteamVR’s Desktop Theater Mode To start playing, just open Steam and click the “VR” icon in the upper right corner of the window to launch SteamVR. You’ll only see this icon if you have a VR headset connected to your PC.

If you haven’t set up SteamVR yet–this will be the case if you have an Oculus Rift and have stuck to the Oculus Store–you’ll be prompted to set up SteamVR first. You can (yes, even if you have a Rift), but the setup wizard should be mostly self-explanatory. Just select “Standing” only for your play style.

You don’t need to set up room-scale tracking, which is a feature intended for the HTC Vive. Once SteamVR is set up and ready to go, select any game in your Steam library and click the “Play” button to launch it in desktop theater mode. Steam will warn you that it’s launching the game into a special environment on your virtual reality headset as well as on your desktop normally. Performance may or may not be good enough to play the game comfortable on your headset. This depends on the game, its graphical settings, and your PC’s hardware.

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Click “OK” to launch the game. Put on your headset and you’ll appear to be seated in a virtual theater in front of a large display containing your game. Play the game as you normally would, with a keyboard and mouse or a controller. You won’t see your Windows desktop at all unless you Alt+Tab out of the game–we just needed to Alt+Tab to get a screenshot of the virtual environment.

And yes, you can Alt+Tab out of the game and attempt to use your Windows desktop in desktop theater mode. But we really don’t recommend that–due to the low resolution of the first virtual headsets, text will be almost impossible to read. If you want to play Steam games normally without desktop theater mode getting involved, just quit SteamVR before launching games from Steam.