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Jpfrancis69
New Participant
April 1, 2021
Question

Oculus Link on Mac M1 Macbook Pro

I recently got a new 16gb M1 Chip MacBook Pro 2020. And I would like to use it to play games on my Oculus Quest 2 through steam. I have steam VR downloaded, but I can't seem to find the Oculus link app available for mac. Please let me know how I play Steam VR with my MacBook, thanks to anyone who can help!

      26 replies

      Anonymous
      April 1, 2021

      I believe that Oculus App (which you need to use Oculus Link) is only available for Windows OS.

        HowieDoodat
        HowieDoodat
        Inspiring
        April 1, 2021

        Even if you find a way around compatibility issues, I don’t think that computer has a gaming GPU. Macs are notoriously awful for gaming, and VR is VERY demanding for gaming. 

          LilyBloom
          LilyBloom
          New Participant
          June 1, 2021

          Actually, the M1 Macs did a pretty big spike back up with gaming by moving to the M1 chip. Most games that did somewhat run on older Intel Macs actually run great on the M1 ARM CPU.
          Even on the M1 Macbook Pro.

            mamanerd
            Participant
            June 1, 2021

            I have heard of people using Parallels running windows and running steam. And I've used the link cable to transfer files to/from macbook using the Android file program. But all the references i've found have pointed to "no" because of incompatible graphics https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/kqcpiw/is_running_quest2_with_m1_macbooks_possible/

             

              HowieDoodat
              HowieDoodat
              Inspiring
              June 2, 2021

              Yeah, transferring files isn’t really relevant to a game performing properly. In theory you can use boot camp to run windows on your Mac. But at that point you’re dealing with 1: Boot camp on your mac is way worse than natively running Windows on a PC, 2: The Quest already runs your computer harder than a PCVR set that doesn’t use a USB cable. So you have a Mac GPU, then those two factors...

               

              Definitely try it out, but I wouldn’t sink money into anything with those unpromising variables. 

              Nandor1254012
              New Participant
              January 5, 2022

              It really isn’t tho. I’m running Windows 10 with boot camp on a 2009 Mac Pro. W3690 and a Radeon RX 580 8GB. And playing half life with airlink

              jboyjeep
              New Participant
              January 24, 2022

              I'm also running WIndows 10 but with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4 GB graphics card. It's not great, but it works. My question to you is... how did you get your airlink working? My Link with USB works great, but Airlink gives me a black screen with the three neverending dots and never loads the PC home screen. I don't have my PC wired to my network, but will that cause the black screen? Anything I should try? Did you have any issues? Thanks!!

              Anonymous
              June 26, 2021

              try using crossover 

              MeTheMon
              New Participant
              July 5, 2021

              Did crossover work?

              Rosha007
              New Participant
              May 25, 2023

              I Have Tried crossover but even when i had more storage then necessary, It Had said that i didn't have enough space...  

              BarryBangs
              New Participant
              September 22, 2021

              What is the latest on this? 

              Such a huge potential Audience is unlocked when Quest II can work with Mac M1 Laptops! 

              Does anybody, on any corner of the internet, have some proof that a high-quality VR app running off M1 Mac can be accessed smoothly on Quest II?   

                HowieDoodat
                HowieDoodat
                Inspiring
                September 24, 2021

                Unfortunately, look to Apple for why they're so hard to work with for gaming, not oculus. The M1 Chip is good for an integrated card, but at best it compares to a mid 1000 series Nvidia. It's not a gaming card. I think you're severely underestimating the power needed for VR.

                 

                At best I'm finding people saying they can use the newest Mac mini to play games like Tomb Raider at 1080p, graphic settings on low,  40 FPS and FPS drops when there's much action. That's nowhere near good enough for VR. 

                 

                The card isn't strong enough and Apple doesn't play well with others. There's nothing developers can do about that. Apple products aren't good for gaming. 

                Dylanxditto
                New Participant
                January 14, 2025

                While all of what you said rings true (coming from an avid mac user as well as a gamer), I think the amount of apple users interested in doing anything like this are either just like myself and the OP of this thread, or rich enough to afford an apple vision pro. Which blows most modern vr devices away from the sound of it.

                That being said, 8GB ram m2 macbook air has no lag cloud gaming xbox, running 20-30GB of 3d printing software and model editors, and like 50 chrome tabs open. 

                maybe not 50 but, either way, I believe those M2's aren't incapable. Using virtual desktop via my quest to type this, and have parallels running after making my way through page 1 of responses here with a few ideas.

                Definitely will report back with any possible victories regarding all of this

                lol

                Anonymous
                June 1, 2022

                bro boot camp windows on it make sure the hardware is compatible 

                Anonymous
                June 1, 2022

                but tbh idk itll work cuz im trying it as we speak

                Anonymous
                June 1, 2022

                naw fam it doesnt work for anyone trying to attempt this at this moment in time at least

                SpinDash2305
                SpinDash2305
                Participant
                June 10, 2023

                Rosha007 yeah, apperantly having over 200gb of space on a drive and installing the quest app fails. maybe try VMWare Fusion? or parallels desktop.

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