Will there be a Sansar download for Mac? Many tens of thousands of users are Macs.... I am an artist and Blogger in SL with a sizable reach... think of the exposure and influence as well as artistic opportunities you will have open to you if Mac Users could get in...
amandamagick
also my flickr
Hello Amanda,
I second your request, I think a lot of potential users and creators are being lost with the lack of Mac compatability. I assume it is coming soon, given how critical of a feature cross-platform compatability is for something that is looking to democratize VR and bring it to the masses.
Furthermore I have looked at your blog am very impressed by your content. As a creator I would like to speak to you about the potential for collaboration when you are able to join Sansar properly. What would be the best way for me to contact you so we could discuss this?
and not a single of those thousands of Mac users can use VR =)
probably you could run a second Windows system on your Mac? not sure if the hardware is compatible
Yodra,
Here is my email
Sounds good to me and I look forward to hearing from you.
--AmandaMagick
Malakina,
that may be true but look at how many Windows users are NOT using VR in Sansar anyway...... smh.
yea and complain how sansar doesnt fit their needs just because they dont use VR..when the intention of Sansar is all about VR :) if you are so hot for using Sansar, why dont you install a second windows system on your mac?
I mean.. theoretically they could also make it run on.. idk.. gameboy color... just that it doesnt have a purpose there... and for sure not a priority
ok I'm sorry. I shouldnt be that sarcasting. From what I heard there is no Mac version planed for now. They got quite a lot to do and it seems a mac version is currently not on the list. Just find a way to deal with it. Others also got issues that their system simply dont fit the requirements. So now you got some options. You either find a partner to work with and focus on the content creation or you install a windows system on your mac, or you buy a new computer and possibly even VR headset and controler for the full experience (which currently is still in a deal at oculus I belive)
Find a partner and focus on content creation?
Installing a windows system on a Mac is sacrilege.... and opens it up to all kinds of viruses... I have done that in the past and its just not a good idea.
Its better for Sansar to cross platform honestly....
Finding a way to deal with it is to wait... and find out when or if LL will cross platform. And that my friend was my initial question and all I need to know.
Problem is Sansar requires DirectX 11 or higher which is PC only. Mac is pretty much pushing Metal as their graphics api..which doesn't run on PC. The only way I see Sansar coming to OSX is if it gets rewritten (huge endeavor..) to say Vulkan which is the spiritual successor to OpenGL. Vulkan itself has a long way to go.
It's not a simple thing to do for sure.
VR support has barely been announced on Mac so pretty much all the focus for VR development has been on Windows for the last few years. I don't know of many projects supporting VR on Mac. It looks like Apple is also focused on AR with the release of ARKit. (Which is getting some traction with IOS devs).
I was using Oculus with my mac to experience games and explore the early second life HMD viewer. This was before oculus dropped support for macs.
This fall the next macOS update will gain extra support from Valve with Vive and steamVR. Oculus support is apparently still 'not in the forseable future'.
i expect to make mac vr experiences with unity long before sansar supports macOS.
Im currently bootcamping windows on my mac to use Sansar which is as frustrating as you can imagine. I do not see myself investing much time to sansar for this reason, but i get a chance to see what Sansar turned out to be.
I'm a Mac user since 1992. I don't think it needs to be re-written from the ground up. Maybe create a plug-into compensate for the directX? I agree with Amanda. Lol! windows has tons of viruses and malware.
I do miss the days when Steve Jobs was at the helm (even he was slave driver). The new guy is getting to involved in politics. He needs to concentrate on updating the Mac. I just bought the "new"trash can" mac 2 mos ago. It's already old technology. Still fast as heck though. The 6GB video card helps.
I hope they create a Mac version soon. I wonder, if we can create a change.org account to petition a Mac version? Regards to all the Mac Daddies and Mamas.
Ask to Steve Jobs why Apple neglected VR until now... how Linden Lab can build a software if the necessary hardware is not supported, starting from a decent graphic card?
Apple don't ship discrete GPUs anymore; although eGPUs is a nice solution, since it allows easy upgrades by users (but seem only for who have a thunderbolt 3, all the others nothing).
It's a bit of a shame that SteamVR's API is a gigantic mess (there's no API for finding out what kind of controller a user is using, for example.), because this will probably cement it as the standard.
The biggest issue I find with doing 3D on macOS is the fact that the OpenGL stack there is about 6 years out of date, and Metal 2 (which plugs a lot of the holes) is still unreleased and likely will be unstable for quite some time.
Problem is much more complex and involve lack of support from OS and lack of hardware, i think this take a lot of time for be resolved by Apple, and after all this Linden Lab can think on a Mac client. Before is simply useless and for sure not working...
Uh you do know Steve Jobs died right?
uh what a useless comment... you can do more well, i am sure.
@ Allessandra you know DirectX is a Microsoft made standard? Where the (Direct)Xbox got its name from. I dont think that would happen.I think the most they can agree on is the USB plug XD Also the support of the directX standard depends on the graphics card model. even now not every graphics card supports every DirectX standard
It's a shame that Sansar wasn't coded in something cross-platform like OpenGL. That also closes the door on a Linux build too, not just Mac.
This doesn't, however, mean a Mac or Linux build is impossible, though. They could rewrite it someday (not simple or cheap to do, of course). Or use some sort of wrapper like Valve did:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/ToGL
Valve wrote a DirectX-to-OpenGL wrapper to make their games run on Linux. It's limited and coded solely for their own games, so Linden couldn't just grab this and use it out of the box. It'd need serious work first. But Valve at least showed this conversion layer is indeed possible.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
http://hwstats.unity3d.com/pc/os.html
So this is Steams hardware survey along with Unity3d.
OSX makes around 3% of users on Steam with Unity's standalone being less than 1%.
Linux is even lower.
Wish I had Linden Labs hardware statistics as well.
VR adoption on PC according to Valve is pretty low among their existing customer base. It's barely a percent.Though the Oculus sales helped it didn't help move the needle that much. It's concerning but still early.
Opinions and feelings on operating systems and graphics APIs are one thing.
The data is another unfortunately.
Does it make sense to invest developer time and money into supporting these platforms instead of core dev? Honestly, If it were my decision I would say no.(It's not though.)
@Malakina Yes I'm aware of DirectX is a microsoft standard. I use to use both operating system. when I went to school for Graphic design and 3D Character creation, I saw a big difference. so I went for the Mac. I might still try to use bootcamp. Crosses fingers.
A different social VR platform, High Fidelity (by a much smaller company with less money and manpower) supports Mac and Linux. In fact, they're now working on an Android port too.
So I hope Linden Lab reconsiders other OS's eventually, regardless of the statistics. High Fidelity is basically going to have a monopoly on social VR on those other operating systems. Having some healthy competition would be best.
I wonder if anyone's tried running Sansar through Wine yet?
Everyone gets a +1 from me for participating in this conversation :)
I hate to ask this because i'm biased against Apple products, But do Macs even have the power to run VR?
@Tyler, mine does.
I am a long-time iMac and MacBook user and would love to see Sansar come to the Mac world. However, I actually agree that it's better for Sansar to focus on one platform for now. I went out and bought a new PC so I could participate in this little revolution. So far, I think it was worthwhile.
@ Theanine. #AplleAndOranges This is because High Fidelity seems to be based on Stingray. A game engine created by Autodesk. All the implementation for other systems is already pre done. Sansar could also use another companies game engine, but they dont for in other posts mentioned reasons..
@Loki , With a little help from Gates =P
@ Malakina - Fair enough. I do understand it just can't be a priority right now, when the Windows build still needs so much work. They understandably have to get it working right for the biggest audience first. That's the audience that will most determine how successful Sansar becomes.
But once the Windows version is mature I do hope they look at other platforms.
I think Playstation could be another end user market since they got their own headset at a more affordable price I belive?! and gives whole new posibilities for a rich enduser market, which is also going for a more general audience rating.
@Tyler Mine is so powerful and multitasking fast it could launch a rocket. Or maybe run circles and labyrinths and never get lost . I was amazed when I first got it. Now if I had decent internet I would be unstoppable. Waiting for fiber... lol