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jackwilliambell
Participant
March 29, 2013

OSX and Linux

I am very disappointed to find the SDK is MS Windoze only. :-( I currently avoid using that OS and do not have it installed on any of my personal systems.

When can we expect OSX and Linux versions of the SDK? On the one hand I want to dive into this. On the other hand I don't want to have to buy and install an OS I have very strong feelings against in order to do so.

    46 replies

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    cybereality
    Inspiring
    March 31, 2013
    OSX and Linux support is a goal for us, it just wasn't ready for the launch. We hope to have support soon, but we don't have a firm release date yet. But we're working on it.
    AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV
    steeve
    Up and Coming
    March 31, 2013
    Guys, chill. If you look at the sources, pretty much all the code for Linux/OSX is there. Maybe buggy/not tested enough, but it's there.
    Some dude here even got it to build....
    jackwilliambellAuthor
    Participant
    April 1, 2013
    "nrp" wrote:
    Don't worry, "- OS X, Linux platform support " is at the top of our Upcoming Features list for a reason! We care about these platforms, and some of us here at Oculus use one or the other as our primary development machines.


    Thing is, you still can't say when support will be available. Right now I need to decide if I need to buy a new computer. And I do not want to do so.

    So you say 'don't worry'. But your answer doesn't help me one bit.
    usb420
    Up and Coming
    April 2, 2013
    I'm running the demos in bootcamp on my 2008 imac and getting around 15fps.

    does that help with your decision to buy a new computer?
    Jay
    Participant
    April 3, 2013
    "usb420" wrote:
    I'm running the demos in bootcamp on my 2008 imac and getting around 15fps.

    does that help with your decision to buy a new computer?


    Well, i'd certainly advise *you* to buy a new computer. Were you expecting better results from a 5 year old computer?
    peterept
    Up and Coming
    April 3, 2013
    Hi.

    Not a full SDK: but I posted a fake OculusPlugin to the Unity 4 forum area. It allows you to build Unity apps on your Mac - it does not have any of the USB code - so no gyro. Once the real SDK comes a long it just replaces the fake plugin.

    https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=114&p=1436#p1436

    Atleast it allows me to build & test my game on my Mac for now.

    I haven't got my Rift yet, so not sure if you can just plugin the Rift to the mac to see the video out, or if you need USB functional to enable the video.
    Check out my Unity VR development blog: http://talesfromtherift.com @peterept
    Jimi
    Participant
    April 5, 2013
    It looks like support is already on the way. Taking a look at libOVR, files are prefixed with their designated OS:
    OVR_Linux_DeviceManager.cpp
    OVR_Linux_DeviceManager.h
    OVR_MacOS_HMDDevice.cpp
    OVR_MacOS_HMDDevice.h
    nesqi
    New Participant
    April 5, 2013
    "nrp" wrote:
    Don't worry, "- OS X, Linux platform support " is at the top of our Upcoming Features list for a reason! We care about these platforms, and some of us here at Oculus use one or the other as our primary development machines.


    Why not just release it? If it works for you to do development with I'm sure that the community could make use of it. I think OculusVR would gain allot of going open source all the way and adopt the open source mentality/mindset.

    After all this is a developer kit with the purpose of bringing forth all the problems and possibilities with this new technology. I would say that is best done collaboratively. The sooner we start working as a team the better the results.
    JWB
    Participant
    April 9, 2013
    Mark another down for Linux support please. I would have submitted my pre-order last night if I hadn't signed up for the Developer Center and realized Linux support wasn't already available.
    "cybereality" wrote:
    OSX and Linux support is a goal for us, it just wasn't ready for the launch. We hope to have support soon, but we don't have a firm release date yet. But we're working on it.

    That's encouraging. Enough so to illicit an, "Eff it, I'll just order one", which just went through.

    What's the power consumption of the device? The official unboxing video mentions a 5V power adapter, and a testing video also mentions (YouTube) the adapter is 1.5 amps: so the device is drawing at 7.5 Watt hours, correct?

    My initial interest is pairing the Rift with a Raspberry Pi, a wireless module (none of which I have yet), and the X Window System's client-server ability for quite the mobile experience. Hopefully, porting an existing window manager will be trivial.

    On the topic of porting, Valve gave a talk: Porting Source to Linux: Valve's Lessons Learned (YouTube; 55:47) and released their slides (PDF), which may be helpful to those of us interested in trying to build the SDK before official support.
    jackwilliambellAuthor
    Participant
    April 10, 2013
    "JWB" wrote:
    My initial interest is pairing the Rift with a Raspberry Pi, a wireless module (none of which I have yet), and the X Window System's client-server ability for quite the mobile experience. Hopefully, porting an existing window manager will be trivial.


    I don't think a Pi has the horsepower, either CPU or GPU, to support the Oculus.
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