SteamVR and external GPUs are coming to Mac

Virtual realty has so far required a Windows-based PC with power chips from Intel, AMD, and Nvidia. Mac users have had to make the switch if they wanted to access the metaverse through HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. But that’s changing now because Apple is expanding its VR efforts behind the iPhone and iOS.

Mac is getting SteamVR, according to Apple at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference event in San Jose today. SteamVR is Valve’s open platform for enabling VR headsets to work with games on the Steam PC gaming store. With this software, the HTC Vive will work on Macs, but so should Oculus Rift, OSVR’s HDK 2.0, and most other PC-based VR headsets. This will also enable developers to port a huge number of VR experiences to the Mac when SteamVR launches on the platform at some undetermined point in the future.