It's fast-paced, fun, challenging and full of silly personality. On the other hand, a lack of established processes also means a lack of limits and a great space for growth.I'm really enjoying Anger Foot. VR design is still a very new discipline without established processes, so it can get challenging. To wrap this up, I would just like to encourage you to try things out and don’t get demotivated. Well, aspiring macOS VR designer, that’s all! Now you have all the information necessary to kick-start your design process.
We went through quite a few tools, software options and more. The apple website describing the process is linked below with the resources. It means this wouldn’t work for the new macs with M1 chips, but other than that, you are good to go. VR and games belong to that category, but fortunately, we have Boot Camp.īoot Camp Assistant is software included with macOS helping users to instal Microsoft Windows operating systems on Mac (Intel Processor computers only). BootcampĪs practical as macOS is for most of the productive work, there are few things the os is not adjusted to (yet).
It’s an app that will allow you to install content on Oculus from outside their store, and it will make your life much easier. One final tip consider downloading a Side Quest. Another benefit of using Oculus Quest 2 is a rich library of high-quality content, which has been really helpful to me.
I’m personally using Oculus Quest 2 because it serves my needs, and is portable which I appreciate since I move around a lot. It’s not too difficult thanks to a workaround that will be explained further in the article. You will need to take extra steps to be able to use Vive with your Mac computer. Since then it’s not possible to use Vive headsets connected to a computer running macOS directly. It used to be different until the spring of 2020 when Steam decided to drop Steam VR support. However, be aware that Vive headsets are not natively supported by macOS.
If you have enough space and you’re looking into this category, don’t miss Vive Pro 2 and Valve Index. They excel in performing advanced tasks such as face tracking. The devices you connect to your computer are more powerful. The most common devices of this kind are Oculus Quest 2 by Facebook and Vive Focus 3 by HTC. You don’t end up tangled in cables and you don’t need to place tracking units in your environment. On the other hand, stand-alone devices are portable, and a bit easier to set up. The minuses are that they have a worse resolution than devices using the power of your computer, and you are limited by a battery. Stand-alone devices usually run on mobile chips. We distinguish between two types of devices stand-alone and connected to the computer.
You may already have a device at home, but for those who are looking to buy one, there is some important info. I also made a simple video tutorial it’s linked in the resources. If you’re not familiar with it, you can find tutorials online. Setting up an environment in Unity for Oculus (or other VR headset) is a whole different process. They both run on macOS, and a piece of recent good news for all macOS users is that Unity will be natively supporting M1 chips in future as well.įor both of them, you will use an imported integration of the developer of the headset you are using. There are two big players on the market, from whose software you can choose: Unity 3D and Unreal Engine. Game engines are software for developers, facilitating their needs by providing the base for applications. Alternatively, you can head out to Sketchfab. It’s my favorite place to purchase models for my prototypes. If you feel similarly, you can try the Unity Asset Store. Therefore I get my models somewhere else.
I keep working on my 3D skills, but I don’t consider myself a good 3D designer yet. If you want to explore more options, you can look into Maya, Houdini, Modo, or Cinema 4D. It has all the necessary tools, and it accomplishes everything that’s needed for VR design. I use Blender, which I can definitely recommend. In the end, it depends on your personal preference.
When it comes to 3D software, there is a large variety of good options. You need 3 essential things to be able to design VR applications: 3D software, a game engine and a device to test your design on. Longer answer: it’s a bit more complicated, but there are a couple of good options. Creating designs for VR on macOS Tools & Options