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Virtual Desktop Passes 200k Unique Downloads On SideQuest
SideQuest announced on Twitter that Virtual Desktop passed 200,000 unique downloads on the sideloading platform, the first app to do so.
I'm sure it's frustrating, at OC6 and recently at Facebook Connect it was pretty clear you have an appreciation for what @VRDesktop has done, and rightly so because it's pretty amazing.
VD just passed 200k unique downloads on SQ. First app to do it too. πππ
— SideQuest π π₯³ π (@SideQuestVR) October 3, 2020
Virtual Desktop allows you to bring your computer’s display into VR, providing you with a streamed version of your desktop that you can interact with and control from within VR. It requires the Virtual Desktop app on your headset, along with a companion streamer app installed on your computer.
The app is available for purchase on the Oculus Store for Quest, however, an alternate version is available to be patched onto your device from SideQuest. This patch enables wireless streaming of PC VR content, including SteamVR and Oculus games, to your headset from your VR-ready PC. It works similarly to Oculus Link, but is a fully wireless solution.
This feature initially launched for the official version of the app on the Oculus Store, but Facebook forced its removal shortly after launch. Now, the feature can be enabled through SideQuest by downloading and installing the patch — however, the patch needs to be installed over an official version of Virtual Desktop, so users still need to purchase the app through Facebook first.
Reaching 200,000 unique downloads of the sideloaded version is a significant milestone for Virtual Desktop and SideQuest, and proof that there is strong demand for a wireless PC VR streaming solution for Quest. Virtual Desktop won’t necessarily work for everyone, however — the reliability of wireless PC VR streaming to Quest is dependent on the strength of the user’s local network and the layout of the area, as walls and other elements may cause disruptions.
This is one of the reasons Facebook told Godin to remove the feature from the Oculus Store version, as an unreliable connection could cause discomfort for users when streaming PC VR content. Facebook is working on some kind of native version of the technology as well, which John Carmack recently referred to as ‘Air Link’.
Virtual Desktop developer Guy Godin recently got 90Hz PC VR content streaming on Oculus Quest 2 using the headset’s 90Hz mode, but later provided an update that the mode will be disabled at launch but will be re-enabled in a future update from Facebook.
Virtual Desktop Passes 200k Unique Downloads On SideQuest
SideQuest announced on Twitter that Virtual Desktop passed 200,000 unique downloads on the sideloading platform, the first app to do so.
I'm sure it's frustrating, at OC6 and recently at Facebook Connect it was pretty clear you have an appreciation for what @VRDesktop has done, and rightly so because it's pretty amazing.
VD just passed 200k unique downloads on SQ. First app to do it too. πππ
— SideQuest π π₯³ π (@SideQuestVR) October 3, 2020
Virtual Desktop allows you to bring your computer’s display into VR, providing you with a streamed version of your desktop that you can interact with and control from within VR. It requires the Virtual Desktop app on your headset, along with a companion streamer app installed on your computer.
The app is available for purchase on the Oculus Store for Quest, however, an alternate version is available to be patched onto your device from SideQuest. This patch enables wireless streaming of PC VR content, including SteamVR and Oculus games, to your headset from your VR-ready PC. It works similarly to Oculus Link, but is a fully wireless solution.
This feature initially launched for the official version of the app on the Oculus Store, but Facebook forced its removal shortly after launch. Now, the feature can be enabled through SideQuest by downloading and installing the patch — however, the patch needs to be installed over an official version of Virtual Desktop, so users still need to purchase the app through Facebook first.
Reaching 200,000 unique downloads of the sideloaded version is a significant milestone for Virtual Desktop and SideQuest, and proof that there is strong demand for a wireless PC VR streaming solution for Quest. Virtual Desktop won’t necessarily work for everyone, however — the reliability of wireless PC VR streaming to Quest is dependent on the strength of the user’s local network and the layout of the area, as walls and other elements may cause disruptions.
This is one of the reasons Facebook told Godin to remove the feature from the Oculus Store version, as an unreliable connection could cause discomfort for users when streaming PC VR content. Facebook is working on some kind of native version of the technology as well, which John Carmack recently referred to as ‘Air Link’.
Virtual Desktop developer Guy Godin recently got 90Hz PC VR content streaming on Oculus Quest 2 using the headset’s 90Hz mode, but later provided an update that the mode will be disabled at launch but will be re-enabled in a future update from Facebook.
Virtual Desktop To Add MacOS Support This Fall, Beta Available Now
Virtual Desktop is adding support for macOS, allowing you to stream and interact virtually with your Mac computer while using your Oculus Quest, Oculus Go and GearVR.
Virtual Desktop allows to you to bring your computer’s display into VR, providing you with a streamed version of your desktop that you can interact with and control from within VR. It requires the Virtual Desktop app on your headset along with a companion streamer app installed on the computer that you want to bring into VR.
The streaming app currently only supports Windows 10 systems, however Virtual Desktop developer Guy Godin announced on Twitter that he will be adding macOS support this fall. If you just can’t wait, a beta is available now for Mac users to try out and provide feedback before the full release.
Virtual Desktop is coming to #macOS this fall for Oculus Quest, Oculus Go and GearVR. Iβm releasing a Beta today, compatible with macOS Mojave or later. Join our Discord to give it a try and give some feedback: https://t.co/lF0zPDbv0B
— Guy Godin (@VRDesktop) September 9, 2020
The macOS version of the streaming app will not support streaming PC VR content to the Oculus Quest, a feature that is available to Windows 10 users who sideload an alternate version of the Virtual Desktop app onto their Quest.
Godin aims to support macOS Mojave (10.14) and higher, however an issue is preventing the beta version of the streamer app working on Mojave, so you’ll need to be on macOS Catalina (1.15) or higher if you want to give it a try. You can download the beta version of the streamer app for macOS by joining the Virtual Desktop Discord server.
It’s been a big year for Virtual Desktop, which has consistently received updates that improve existing features and add innovative new ones as well.
Valve suddenly ends SteamVR support for macOS to focus on Windows, Linux
The Index VR headset does not support MacOS
Valve Drops Support for SteamVR on MacOS
Valve this week announced that it has dropped support for SteamVR on MacOS to focus on Windows and Linux versions.
For many, I imagine the reaction to this news will be “wait, SteamVR supported MacOS?”
Indeed, though few VR games were actually ported to the platform, modern SteamVR support came to MacOS back in 2017 when Apple finally embraced VR.
While the company was marketing its latest series of computers at the time as being ‘VR ready’, that interest quickly faded. Having worked with Valve for nearly a year to optimized SteamVR on MacOS, by 2019 Apple had essentially gone silent on VR once again.
For Valve’s part, the company had continually updated SteamVR alongside Windows and Linux versions. Simply adding MacOS support to SteamVR didn’t mean existing SteamVR content would suddenly work on MacOS, developers would still need to spend plenty of time porting their games to the OS. With the vast majority of the VR audience (and gamers in general) on Windows, it seems few developers thought it would be worth their time to do so; less than two dozen SteamVR games offer support for MacOS now three years after support landed.
This week Valve quietly announced that it has ended support for SteamVR on MacOS, “so that our team can focus on Windows and Linux.” The company advised that legacy builds will remain, and that developers and users can opt into the SteamVR [MacOS] beta branch via Steam to continue to use those builds.
SteamVR was the only major VR platform to support MacOS since early Oculus development kits; since then Oculus has steered clear of MacOS.
The post Valve Drops Support for SteamVR on MacOS appeared first on Road to VR.
Valve Ends SteamVR Support For macOS
Valve just ended SteamVR’s support for macOS. ‘Legacy builds’ will continue to be available.
SteamVR is Valve’s PC-based virtual reality platform, supporting Windows and Linux. Mac owners can continue to use the latest versions of SteamVR by installing Windows as a secondary OS.
Facebook’s competing Oculus Rift platform hasn’t supported Macs since early development kits, which preceded the Rift. In 2016, founder Palmer Luckey claimed this was due to Apple’s lack of priority on GPU power.
Apple Went All-In
Support for macOS was announced by Apple itself during its annual developer conference in 2017. Craig Federighi, who reports directly to Tim Cook, revealed the support with excitement- VR would be a showcase of Apple’s new commitment to high performance graphics.
At the time, Apple released updates to Metal, its equivalent of Vulkan/DX12, to make it suitable for high performance low latency VR rendering, including via external GPUs on MacBooks.
The company even worked with Unity and Unreal Engine to make this available to all developers.
Later in the conference, employees from ILM gave a live on-stage mixed reality demo of VR on macOS- a Star Wars scene powered by Unreal Engine.
In September 2018, Apple added support for HTC’s Vive Pro, including giving developers access to the onboard stereo cameras, presumably for AR development.
What Happened?
Less than two years later, Valve is announcing ending support for macOS. Apple doesn’t seem to have made a statement on this yet, but we’ve reached out to employees who worked on Metal’s VR support.
According to Valve’s Hardware Survey, just under 4% of Steam users are using macOS, with over 95% using Microsoft’s Windows. Given that just over 1% own a VR headset at all, it’s easy to see just how niche VR on macOS likely was.
Valve states it will now “focus on Windows and Linux”. Despite being even less popular than macOS, Linux is preferred by developers, and required for certain advanced enterprise and government use cases.
Apple is reportedly working on a standalone mixed reality headset slated for 2022. The company may decide to support this in MacOS in a similar way to Facebook’s Oculus Link. Alternatively, it may have decided that the tethered market just isn’t big enough to focus on.
We’ll keep a close eye on Apple this year for any further news about its support for virtual reality.
The post Valve Ends SteamVR Support For macOS appeared first on UploadVR.