At Apple’s WWDC conference this week, the company announced that the Vive Pro will be fully supported on the newest version of MacOS, ‘Mojave’, soon to launch in public beta and available widely later this year.

Speaking during a session at WWDC 2018 this week, Karol Gasiński, part of Apple’s GPU Software Architecture Team, announced that the Vive Pro is getting “plug and play support” on MacOS 10.14 (Mojave). “We’ve been working very closely with both Valve and HTC to make sure Vive Pro is supported in SteamVR runtime on MacOS,” he said.

Support for the newer headset builds on top of SteamVR/OpenVR/Vive support which Apple and Valve brought to MacOS 10.13 High Sierra. The latest Mac computers can be equipped with GPUs meeting VR Ready specifications, and support for external GPUs in High Sierra and beyond means that older systems can add an eGPU to achieve VR readiness as well.

Karol Gasiński speaks on stage at WWDC 2018 | Image courtesy Apple

In Mojave, the Vive Pro will be fully supported, including its pass-through cameras, Gasiński said at WWDC. It hasn’t been confirmed whether or not this will include support for the Vive SRWorks SDK, which was announced back in April and brings additional functionality to the headset’s cameras to help developers build passthrough AR applications. We’ve reached out to HTC about their plans for the SRWorks SDK on MacOS.

A preview of MacOS 10.14 Mojave is available to members of the Apple Developer Program today, with a public beta beginning in late June. Mojave will launch publicly in the Fall as a free update for Macs introduced in mid-2012 or later, as well as 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro models with recommended Metal-capable graphics cards.

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While Valve, HTC, and Apple are steadily maturing their support for VR on Mac, Oculus remains non-commital to the platform, telling us recently that the company doesn’t have any news to share on MacOS support; while development versions of the Rift had supported MacOS years ago, the company “paused” its development for MacOS back in 2015, and the consumer Rift launched only with support for Windows.

Update (6/9/18, 11:54PM PT): A previous version of this article stated that the version numbers for MacOS High Sierra and Mojave were 10.3 and 10.4 respectively, when in fact they are 10.13 and 10.14. This has been correct in the article above.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • MarquisDeSang

    2 overpriced makers join force to make the priciest VR on the market with the lowest specs.

    • Blaine Miller

      I hate Apple even more now.

    • sebrk

      This statement makes no sense. This is just anti without facts.

      • Why doesn’t it make sesnse for you? Vive Pro is overpriced, and Mac too. Also, Mac doesn’t have immpresive specs for that money, so it’s really the most overpriced VR system with the lowest specs in terms of money. ;D

        • sebrk

          Nobody has “joined force” here. It’s just anti bashing without facts. Sure the macs are pricy but in the long run you would not exclude that market just because of that. Of course VR will come to mac eventually.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            No, in the long run you exclude it because that market is just too small, and Apple is even trying to close MacOS like it did with iOS, so they only way to sell something is through their store.. (that’s long run apple)..

          • sebrk

            Nope that is not true and you are misinformed. While it is true that the stock iOS device is locked down (and I as an advanced user oppose it personally), I can see the reasons. The opposite is the Google platform which is nothing short but a security nightmare.

            The macOS allows for third-party installations. Do you think that academia (not including servers, which usually runs Linux derivatives), video, audio production also should be excluded? I wonder why Apple basically has a monopoly in this area?

            You and so many before you simply hate Apple for no other reason that it is expensive and you don’t own it. I am both a PC and a Mac user and I can clearly see the benefits of both platforms without bashing one or the other because I’m close minded.

  • impurekind

    Shame Oculus can’t work something like this out with Apple too.

    • MarquisDeSang

      Apple products dont have VR ready GPU. No one will do VR on Mac. That is pointless.

      • sebrk

        Sure has, except for macbooks which now support eGPU. Get your facts correct.

        • First sorry for my english. So you are telling me, that VR companies should rewrite at least a part of thier API, because a small part of Mac users that have eGPU, out of smal number of Mac, out of small number of Mac overall in market want to play/develop VR content? Get your reality correct, I think it’s better for them, us and VR market overall to spend thier time/money to refine existing systems instead.

          • sebrk

            No I never said any of that. What you just said is something you thought I said. Also if push comes to shove the Mac can run Windows. Finally, Oculus DID support Macs from start. They just scrapped it because of laptop level GPU didn’t cut it. There is no huge task like “changing API” involved. If you ever programmed anything you would know that.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            But back then it still supported OpenGL, now Apple is phasing it out for wanting people to use their Metal API, and THAT’s extra work a lot of developers just don’t have the resources for. With OpenGL you could have it run on multiple platforms without having to change a line of code, now you have to rewrite a portion for a small group of users (MacOS isn’t widely used).
            And if you ever programmed anything you would know that changing from API 1 to API 2 can certainly take a lot of time, yes sometimes it’s very easy, but a lot of times it isn’t..
            Ofcourse it also depends on which engine you’re using, if you’ve written your own engine, than it’ll take quite some time (let’s not forget the testing part). If you’re using a commercial engine like Unity or Unreal, than it’s propably no biggy as these already support Metal (or will soon)..

          • sebrk

            For a reference Unity added a Metal API in about a week. They even said it themselves when it was introduced. So yeah there is that.

            I can assure you that I DO support open software before anything that is closed but what you mention is not the reason here.

            Finally, because of OpenGLs flexibility it is slower than Metal which is more streamlined towards the hardware. I cannot see anything wrong with that per se. I do however think that dropping OpenGL support altogether was pretty shitty of them.

          • Right, you just said about eGPU, it just looked to me like something else. Also I think it’s harder to support two OS, even if most of the code is compatibile. I sometimes do programming, but in C and I know it isn’t the best language for code compability.

  • Jistuce

    Pity they make this announcement right after they announce OpenGL is dead to them. It makes for a much harder sell to developers, knowing their code will need a massive rewrite to be used with the computers most of the market owns.

    VR’s a small enough market as it is without exclusively targeting the smallest niche within that niche.

  • IMHO it is a great move by HTC, considering that the Pro is targeted at professionals and Apple is used by a lot of creative professionals

    • Lucidfeuer

      No it’s not, unless you’re a blogger or just UX designer. Most creative professionals have switched to PC these past few years.

      • LowRezSkyline

        Simply not true. Most if not all the software developers I know are on Mac’s. Really depends on the industry, my current gig we support a large legacy windows app, a web-app version of it and an iOS field app. Most of us run Macs with Parallels so we can do all our development on one machine.

        • Lucidfeuer

          That’s what I call “UX design”, try developing a platform, B2B product, code research, interactive or 3D experience on Mac…

          Mac are great for everything flat and high-level libraries, but for anything requiring serious code crunching, database, research, simulation, even movie or music or just 3D overall, Apple has dropped the ball a long time ago.

  • Lucidfeuer

    I think we wouldn’t take anyone working with Mac on 3D/VR project serious. There’s not a single one in the profession that still uses a Mac, there’s no reason to in fact unless you’re more susceptible to manipulation than rationality. And I say that after having had 5 or 6 Macbooks, but since Steve Jobs is not around and since they have abusively pushed from crazy overpriced, inpractical, obsolete and uninnovative products as much as they could, you really must be a degenerate or a teen to still get a Mac.

  • NooYawker

    Apple should spend some money and build some VR content. Stop throwing money at those horrible TV shows.

    • Steven Wang

      second this!

  • Kenji Fujimori

    Meh.. Tim Cock already destroyed Apple as is

    • sebrk

      Yeah Apple is the most valuable company in the world on the way to get a 1000 billion valuation. You are so right.

      • Kenji Fujimori

        Not referring to the valuation.. (that was during Steve Jobs time fyi, market share of iphones dipped) referring to their products lately, nothing innovative.. iwatch sucks, does not even play youtube or browse the internet properly if you compare it to some Android smartwatches on the market. Current iphone face scan is a knock off from Galaxy.

        • sebrk

          Yeah you seem full of insight calling the Apple Watch the iWatch. And you CAN play YouTube on it (if that is your preferred screen). Oh and please read up on the technology of the Apple Face ID. It’s not even in the same ballpark as Samsungs shitty image analysis. Face ID uses infrared and dot camera with 30 000 points. Typically when Apple does something they do it right. Not a first-to-market gimmick like Samsung. Also Apple has about 90% of the revenue in the mobile market. Go figure. You are nothing but a stupid troll. Take your shit elsewhere.

          • Lucidfeuer

            Really, degenerate like you still exist?

          • Kenji Fujimori

            Compare iwatch to other offerings on the market and you can see that the iwatch is just a simpleton shitty design with a limited cpu and interface.

            I’ve seen android SmartWatches with a FULL youtube app, FULL browser to actually use the net properly rather than a vague crap cut down version.

            Look I’m no troll and not mocking Apple. I’m only disappointed with their offering lately. That’s all..
            Good to see things from multiple prospective and to compare the competition, am I wrong?

            Have an open mind to tech and all things. Not just be a brand whore that’s all I’m saying..

            I like Apple again I repeat. Just disappointed with their offerings.

            Heck the freaken headphone jack is now replaced with shit that’d $40 with shitty sound. Isn’t that a sign of fantastic plastic shit of what’s to come from them perhaps??

    • Lucidfeuer

      Tim Cook didn’t destroy it, the investors who pushed away Steve Jobs as soon as possible to corrupt it (I mean they entered the NSA surveillance program, artificially inflated it’s value, and got in debt despite their huge cash reserve…), destroyed it.

      Tim Cook is an excellent CEO and stock manager, that’s why they chose him instead of Johnny Ive or Scott Forstall, but there is nobody left at Apple to do Steve’s jobs, so they’re going to milk his legacy more rabidly that any other company has ever.

      • Kenji Fujimori

        Why can`t they leapfrog the competition in terms of mobile, smartwatches and laptops? its always the `we can do it too` type mentality.. take a look at the iphone x and compare it to Galaxy, its a clone.. as Galaxy came up with face scanning and the crappy AR..

        • Lucidfeuer

          Look I’ve been using Apple product since I was 14 but for the good reasons: Steve Jobs. Back then there were reasons to use their products even though most people didn’t, because that’s how you don’t follow trend and have your own opinion.

          But today? Apple is a crap overpriced, badly designed, underpowered and uninnovative product company. You really must be what they call a “sheeple” with no mind of your own to follow a company when there’s not the main reason to.

          Also the Galaxy S8 is way better than the iPhone X, which is ugly, fat and stupidly design, the S8 (and Mi Mix) came before with the full screen design, and nobody gives a shit about a face scanning notch or crappy ARmoji.

          • Kenji Fujimori

            If you read carefully, I also was like you and liked Apple crap during Steves time, so saying steeple is silly.. I like originality just like you, so I rather see innovation rather than Apple just be the ‘ me too’ in copying others

          • Lucidfeuer

            Then I misread. But it’s clear to me that Apple can’t innovate anymore, because they simply don’t have the people. So they make little iterations but so does every companies, with the difference that their last phones are badly designed (even ugly), underspec’d, crazy overpriced and not innovative.

            In other word they’re just like any other companies now, except they’re accumulating mistakes and quickly falling from expectations because they simply have nobody with a vision to meet them.

          • Kenji Fujimori

            Like any tech company to stay ahead, you just need to come up with new products or better features not just catchup. Same goes with the specs under the hood.

      • Kenji Fujimori

        He isn’t an excellent CEO sorry friend but your wrong on this.

        An excellent CEO would make sure their companies products are beyond others and at the forefront to lead by example.

        Take a look at the specs of the iphone x and their other product range.. Nothing spectacular at all WHEN comparing to their competitors.

        Heck even the shitty Chinese Huawei phones have better specs, processor, GPU and camera wise..
        ( not that Huawei is popular in Japan, but they do pimp their shit here too FYI)

        • Lucidfeuer

          Of course, you’re absolutely right. When I say he’s “excellent” I mean for the purpose of Apple which has become to just milk jobs legacy while putting in the minimum cost, iteration or R&D possible, and in that Tim Cook is great.

          But he’s not indeed an “excellent” CEO when it comes to making great products and building a great legacy that can last decades, but then neither can Samsung or Huaweï.

  • LowRezSkyline

    Where the hell are the VR games for Mac? I am ready to buy an eternal GPU box and give this a try but literally there is NOTHING to play. How does Apple or even Steam expect anyone to take VR on the Mac seriously when nothing runs on it?

    So instead of supporting the VIVE Pro (which nobody cares about) how about throwing some cash at developer to port there games to Mac? That would seem to be a better use of money and Apple developer resources.

    Meanwhile Sony PSVR is slowly becoming less of a silly toy… if Space Pirate Trainer drops on it I might dump this entire PC rig since it’s just a nonstop pain in the ass to keep it running without issue… love that whenever a Windows update drops I’m guaranteed a 30-60 minutes of fucking around to get my shit running right again… case in point I still don’t have audio fully working since last weeks windows update. I can’t believe in 2018 PC gaming is still such a touchy, fickle pain in the ass… reminds me why I stopped PC gaming and switched to consoles 15 years ago…