Well the Apple conference is now over and while it didn’t quite have the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) announcements of rivals Google and Microsoft, it certainly wasn’t absent. The majority of the conference focused on new OS High Sierra for the Mac’s and iOS 11 for mobile devices, with VR and AR both appearing, with a surprise collaboration alongside HTC Vive. To high the power of the new top-of-the-range iMac’s Apple enlisted the help of Epic Games, its Unreal Engine and ILM with a VR Star Wars experience.
Plugging into the new iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, Epic ran the HTC Vive on its Unreal Engine using content provided by ILM, with Epic Games’ Lauren Ridge demonstrating real-time placement of an Imperial Shuttle and even making Darth Vader appear.
This showcase followed announcements for Metal, Apple’s API for high performance graphics, and the biggest reveal that made it all possible, support for Steam VR. On the AR side there was also ARKit for iOS 11, for developers to create AR applications.
Checkout the demonstration below, and for any further Apple updates keep reading VRFocus.