Does the Oculus Rift have a future on Mac computers? Maybe one day, according to creator Palmer Luckey, but it won't happen until Apple makes more powerful machines.
"That is up to Apple. If they ever release a good computer, we will do it," Luckey told ShackNews.
He expanded further, saying even the priciest Macs cannot match Rift's recommended specs. If Apple decides to prioritize higher-end GPUs, maybe Rift can be supported on Mac, he said.
"It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn't prioritize high-end GPUs," he explained. "You can buy a $6,000 Mac Pro with the top-of-the-line AMD FirePro D700, and it still doesn't match our recommended spec. So if they prioritize higher-end GPUs like they used to for a while back in the day, we'd love to support Mac. But right now, there's just not a single machine out there that supports it."
Luckey went on to say: "Even if we can support it on the software side, there is just no audience of people that can run the vast majority of software out there."
It's not just some Mac computers that apparently aren't beefy enough to run Rift. Earlier this year, big-time chip-maker Nvidia said said only 13 million PCs around the world, less than 1 percent of all the computers on the planet that will be in homes by the end of the year, will be powerful enough to run VR games.
For its part, Apple has expressed interest in the VR space. CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings briefing this year that VR is "really cool," while Apple has also reportedly hired a researcher dedicated to VR.
2016 is shaping up to be a big year for VR. The $600 Rift headset ships at the end of March (for people who managed to secure a preorder early enough), while the $800 HTC Vive device comes out at the beginning of April. Sony's PlayStation VR is also set to launch in the first half of 2016, though a specific release date and pricing details for this system has not been announced.