Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Valve drops VR support for macOS

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 287 posts

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#241

Post by CDSlice »

protomyth wrote: post #109
wpietri wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few? I was just looking at getting MacOS hardware so I could do iPhone builds of a Flutter app. The bottom-end Mac Mini is $800 with 8 GB of RAM, and $1400 with 32 GB, which is what people on forums were recommending for running XCode properly. Is that what you'd call a few? Looking at System76's equivalent mini, it's $555 for the low end, which has the same RAM and a faster, newer processor. Going to 32 GB takes i…

The Mac mini amazingly has user expandable RAM. Crucial sells kits for up to 64GB. It is still too expensive a machine got what you get.

Only the old Mac Minis from 2012 and before have user expandable RAM, the newer ones have the RAM and storage soldered on.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205041

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#242

Post by damnyou »

mattbee wrote: post #196
jay_kyburz wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Apple Arcade was a nice idea, its clear now that is has been out a while they they are still not taking gaming seriously. New game releases are slow and the games are very shallow. There are very few games in the Arcade that you would play for more than a day or two.

Do you not suspect that the marketplace for "shallow" games is a lot bigger and more valuable than whatever section of the market you think they're missing?

So then why are you in this thread at all? Apple goes its own way, people who like interesting, mechanically deep games with cool tech go their own.

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#243

Post by lostgame »

baby wrote: post #222
wpietri wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, I don't think it can be a niche forever, assuming it's a gaming platform. As we see from game developers in this thread, a platform with a too-small audience is uneconomical. That's true even when the platforms are as similar as Windows and Mac. It'll be way more true given that VR is a very different experience. Apparently Quest sales figures aren't public, but I see estimates that they sold a million…

Dude, Half Life just came out on VR. It's not a niche anymore.

‘Doom just came out for the Atari Jaguar. It’s gonna be huge!’

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#244

Post by baby »

013a wrote: post #240
baby wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So the entire game needs to be build around that constraint to maintain immersion I haven't tried the new Half Life, so I'm wondering if you're right.

HL:A definitely does more with something resembling an adventure formula akin to the traditional HL games, versus most other VR titles. Per my original comment; I think I have to consider it as experimenting, and it's only partially successful. (low-level spoilers) There's one moment early on where you're asked to solve a vorgon puzzle in a drainage ditch. Every person I've asked who has been through this area dislik…

> And, head yaw can also suck in VR.

Aren't tethered headsets a thing of the past now? I have a Quest and never had that issue.

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#245

Post by baby »

ashtonkem wrote: post #234
baby wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think VR is for everyone, like any medium, it's just that you haven't found a game/app that makes you come back. For me it's the multiplayer games that I like, more of my friends are getting VR headsets right now and I suspect that as more of them get into it the more we'll end up playing VR together.

Not every medium is for everyone; human preferences don’t work that way.

If you see VR as another medium like a laptop or a smart phone, then I believe they are for everyone.

People underestimate the amount of applications for VR. But Mark my word, in a few years your comment will have poorly aged as every household will have a VR headset the same way every household had a printer or a desktop PC 20 years ago.

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#246

Post by baby »

wpietri wrote: post #230
baby wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, Half Life just came out on VR. It's not a niche anymore.

That doesn't prove it's not a niche, dude. Valve, like a lot of other companies, hopes that VR will become a thing, so they're making a headset. Because they'd like to sell headsets, they took a major property and made a VR version. If they lose money on their VR version of Half Life, they're fine with that. Some game makers will surely try VR versions as well. This could be a big wave, and they want to be ready, so…

You can try to reason all you want, the fact is that today there is a Half Life game that is only playable on VR. It's a significant fact.

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#247

Post by mattbee »

damnyou wrote: post #242
mattbee wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not suspect that the marketplace for "shallow" games is a lot bigger and more valuable than whatever section of the market you think they're missing?

So then why are you in this thread at all? Apple goes its own way, people who like interesting, mechanically deep games with cool tech go their own.

Sure we can go out own ways! But I was challenging the Apple "not taking gaming seriously" accusation.

Mobile gaming is gaming now, if you count where gamers spend their money. Apple sell the easiest, most powerful mobile platforms for developers, and theres are loads of iOS exclusives as a result.

Big budget, cutting edge graphics, fiddly controls, single player big screen adventures... Those games are a shrinking niche for developers. And in that niche, MacOS can only be a 3rd place behind consoles and PCs.

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#248

Post by baby »

Fiezah7e wrote: post #236
baby wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think VR is for everyone, like any medium, it's just that you haven't found a game/app that makes you come back. For me it's the multiplayer games that I like, more of my friends are getting VR headsets right now and I suspect that as more of them get into it the more we'll end up playing VR together.

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I'm totally mind blown by what I've seen. No Man's Sky and Skyrim VR most notably were just game changing compared to what I experienced in flat screens. But yeah, VR requires my full and undivided attention, and this will just not happen :)

Have you tried multiplayer games in VR though?

It's the same for me and gaming in general, I have very little patience except if I'm playing warzone or rocketleague with friends. It's just not the same :)

I wrote about my mind-blowing experience playing the Catan board game in VR: https://p1x3l.com/story/239/social-virtual-reality-and-the-o...

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#249

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

ashtonkem wrote: post #27
dralley wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But "decent" isn't really good enough for VR, where high refresh rates matter quite a bit. Another factor in play might be that, if rumors are to be believed, future Macbooks will be shipping with ARM chips, with yet-to-be-determined CPU and Graphics performance. That might be a bridge too far for crossplatform projects who are already frustrated about having to maintain a Metal backend just for Mac.

Totally fair. VR has much higher requirements than regular gaming.

And yet it works and sells well on a 3 year old mobile chipset in the Oculus Quest.

Re: Valve drops VR support for macOS

#250

Post by alyandon »

stouset wrote: post #218
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* 3. Small market. Mac users make up a share of sales similar to Linux. "What are you talking about! Linux is 1% while Mac is a whole 4%!", nope! Those numbers are the same insignificance per a video game business plan* As a Mac user, I buy other hardware to play games on! Probably the only real Apple game platform is iOS. And even then I’m a bit more careful of what games I buy. The only Mac gaming I do is with emul…

On the flip side, I have and maintain a Windows computer for the sole purpose of gaming. I hate it to the point where I can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily subject themselves to Windows other than sheer ignorance. You can’t swap sound outputs while an application is running. Fullscreen Direct3D games can freeze in a way that obscures all other windows, including the Task Manager , preventing you from ever k…

> You can’t swap sound outputs while an application is running.

Then the application in question wasn't properly written and assumes that the output sound device never changes. About the only application running on my Windows gaming desktop that doesn't follow the sound adapter I select (headphones, integrated, USB DAC, etc) is the Java version of Minecraft.

I use MacOS, Linux and Windows and every single one of them has their own different pile of warts to deal with.

Post reply on HN