Valve has announced that it its officially ending support for SteamVR on the macOS. The announcement was made on the Steam Community page and was picked up by Apple Insider afterwards.
As per the announcement, the team at Valve explained that it was ending SteamVR support on macOS because it wished to focus its resources on Windows and Linux. It’s not all doom and gloom for macOS-centric developers though; Valve also said that legacy builds of SteamVR will still be available. For coders who still wish to play about with some VR-based codes that run on Apple hardware.
SteamVR was first made available on the macOS back in 2017. It was one of the first OS to allow the use of an external GPU through the Thunderbolt 3 port. Giving developers additional firepower that would, in turn, allow them to run higher-end VR application on their Apple machine.
While the end of support from SteamVR is sad, many sources have pointed out that there were signs of Steam’s desire to push its VR program forward without Apple. As it stands, Valve’s own VR headset, the Index, lacks support for macOS. Steam’s decision is also a little ironic, if not odd; near the end of last year, it was reported that the two companies were working hand-in-hand in order to help Apple develop its own AR glasses. Sadly, little is known about said glasses and as it stands, we’re still in the dark about its development stage.
(Source: The Verge, Engadget, Apple Insider, Steam Community)
