At its 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced Metal 2, the next-iteration of its graphics API for iOS, tvOS, and macOS. Metal 2 includes support for VR content creation for the first time, and when Metal 2 was highlighted at the event, Apple said Valve, Unity, and Unreal would bring their VR tools to the Mac.
Epic Games is making good on Apple's promise, and has announced that it is releasing early access support for developing for virtual reality on Mac platforms through the Unreal Engine Github.
At WWDC, Industrial Light & Magic Chief Creative Officer John Knoll took the stage to demo the Unreal Editor running live in VR mode on one of Apple's newly announced iMacs.
Going forward, Epic Games plans to add full support for VR development on macOS in an upcoming release. Mac VR support, along with general Metal 2 support and Mac optimizations, will ship in Unreal Engine 4.18, with previews coming in September and a full release coming in early October.
Valve started offering a SteamVR for macOS beta back on June 5, as did Unity.
Update: According to Epic Games, early access support will actually be available starting tomorrow morning.
Top Stories
Apple Acquires Weather App Dark Sky
Apple has acquired weather app Dark Sky, Dark Sky's developers announced today. Dark Sky is one of the most popular weather apps on the App Store, known for its accuracy and storm warnings.
Our goal has always been to provide the world with the best weather information possible, to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe, and to do so in a way that respects your privacy.
There is no ...
Seemingly Unreleased Version of Logic Pro X With Live Loops Appears on Apple's Education Site [Updated]
Update: Apple has replaced the Logic Pro X image with an older version. Original story follows.
A seemingly unreleased version of Logic Pro X has appeared on Apple's education site, as spotted by a Reddit user. The image from Apple's education products page shows a 16-inch MacBook Pro running Logic Pro X, but with a familiar interface that looks extremely similar to GarageBand's Live Loops ...
Bloomberg: Apple's 5G iPhone Still on Schedule for Fall Launch, But Future Products Could Be Delayed
Apple's 5G iPhone is still on track to launch within the company's typical annual fall release schedule, according to a new Bloomberg report on filed on Monday.
Signs are that Apple's Chinese-centric manufacturing -- of which Hon Hai is the linchpin -- is slowly getting back on track. The next iPhones with 5G wireless capabilities remain on schedule to launch in the fall, partly because mass...
Case for Upcoming Low-Cost iPhone Shows Up at Best Buy With Alleged April 5 Stock Date
Apple has a new low-cost iPhone in the works, which is supposed to be launching sometime in the first half of 2020. Given the ongoing situation in the United States and other countries, it's been unclear if the device is going to launch within the planned timeline, but there are signs that it could be coming soon.
We started seeing cases for the new low-cost iPhone back in early February,...
Testing Brydge's New Pro+ Keyboard With Trackpad for iPad Pro
Well ahead of when Apple introduced trackpad support in iOS 13.4, Brydge announced an iPad Pro keyboard with a built-in multi-touch trackpad. We have one of Brydge's new Pro+ keyboards on hand, and thought we'd check it out to see how it works with Apple's new 2020 iPad Pro models.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The Brydge Pro+ keyboard is similar in design to...
Apple's Work on New Upcoming Products Progressing Normally as Employees Adjust to Telecommuting
Apple's development of upcoming products is progressing as usual despite the fact that Apple employees around the world are working from home, according to a new report today out from Bloomberg.
Apple is still working on new versions of the HomePod, Apple TV, MacBook Pro, budget iPads, Apple Watch, iPhone, and iMac, all of which could be released "as early as later this year" and have been...
Apple Releases ProRes RAW Beta for Windows
Apple today released ProRes RAW for Windows in a beta capacity (via Mark Gurman), with the software designed to allow ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ video files to be watched in compatible applications on Windows machines. According to Apple, the software will let the files be played within several Adobe apps: Adobe After Effects (Beta) Adobe Media Encocder (Beta) Adobe Premiere...
2020 iPad Pro Teardown Provides Closer Look at LiDAR Scanner and Confirms Incremental Update
iFixit today shared a video teardown of the new iPad Pro, which Apple unveiled earlier this month. iFixit found that most of the internals of the 2020 iPad Pro are the same as the 2018 model, confirming that the device is a relatively incremental update.
The most notable new feature seen inside the new iPad Pro was the LiDAR scanner, which measures the distance to surrounding objects up...
Apple Configurator 2 Updated With New Features, Including Support for Restoring Firmware on 2019 Mac Pro
Apple Configurator 2 has been updated to version 2.12 with several improvements, including support for restoring firmware on the 2019 Mac Pro.
The release notes:• Added support for restoring firmware on the 2019 Mac Pro
• Allow access to websites using TLS 1.0 and 1.1
• VPN: Configure Provider Designated Requirement for Custom SSL connection type
• VPN: Configure network options for ...
U.S. Government Using Mobile Ad Location Data to Track Compliance With Curbs on Movement
The U.S. government is using smartphone location data from the mobile ad industry to track people's movements amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Local governments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have received the anonymized data about people in areas of "geographic interest," with the aim being to create a portal of geolocation...
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Wonder what oculus gotta say about mac now......"ooh requirement no gooooooodddd."
I think Apple should find a way to block the rift from working with Macs just to spite oculus.That would be a nice punishment for biting the hand that feeds. :D
But either way, partnering with Valve is much better for Apple anyway, so no skin off Apples nose!
Wonder what oculus gotta say about mac now......"ooh requirement no gooooooodddd."
If Apple keeps packing in mobile GPUs into desktops, his point will still stand.I think Apple should find a way to block the rift from working with Macs just to spite oculus.
Well, they did this a long time ago. They took forever to update OpenGL, and of course OS X didn't support DirectX, so they had no good options. But I haven't bothered checking whether High Sierra will change this.[doublepost=1498038976][/doublepost]
If Apple keeps packing in mobile GPUs into desktops, his point will still stand.
The new iMacs do meet their recommended specs. Their GPUs are smaller than Nvidia's but aren't considered mobile. Also, there are plenty of VR systems that work fine with much weaker GPUs, so I don't know why their requirements are even that high.[doublepost=1498039841][/doublepost]
Probably something along the lines: "finally, welcome to 2015 Apple".
Meanwhile, plenty of game devs are stuck in 2005 with 32-bit single-platform software because everything they do is a hack in comparison to Apple and Valve. Apple's been approaching this like they approach most things (except the effing dongles), very carefully. And Valve has been doing a great job of making their games optimized and multi-platform. I'm sick of Microsoft and pals making a mess of this ecosystem, and for once, I feel there's a great chance of Apple taking some of the gaming market.This is not to justify Apple's lack of support for putting, say, a GTX 1080 into a Mac. You still have to use a pre-2013 Mac Pro for that, which is ridiculous. So, yeah, big middle finger to Tim Cook for that.
Wonder what oculus gotta say about mac now......"ooh requirement no gooooooodddd."
Probably something along the lines: "finally, welcome to 2015 Apple". Ever wondered why Unreal didn't support VR earlier on Mac? Might be because Radeon Pro 580 is first ever GPU in any Mac to meet minimum requirements for VR (and it actually barely meets them).Oculus will follow, trust me.