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End of support for Eyecad VR for macOS
Credit: https://techdaily.ca
After a careful analysis made by the entire Eyecad VR Team about the possibility of continuing or not with the development of Eyecad VR also for macOS environment, and also, following the choices made by the Cupertino company, it was necessary to make a decision about the future Eyecad VR on Apple computers: Eyecad VR for Mac will no longer be supported from now on and in this article we want to explain the reasons for this difficult choice.
Incompatibility with real-time ray tracing in macOS
The Eyecad VR team has always aimed for real-time technology and in the last years, thanks to the real-time ray-tracing technology (that remains under constant development in the Windows environment) it has been possible to achieve an unprecedented speed and quality ratio. Even if this technology is still in a beta phase in Eyecad VR, it has nevertheless given important feedback and it is on this path that we want and that will soon be revealed to Eyecad VR users. Despite the immense efforts of our technical department, it has been impossible to bring this incredible technology to the macOS environment. If we also consider the features of the new MacBooks that, with BigSur, are no longer compatible with external GPUs (black magic) which has offered our users optimal performance for the standard use of Eyecad VR, it’s easy to understand how complicated it is for DIGITAL.ATOM to keep Eyecad VR support active on Mac.
Incompatibility with virtual reality in macOS
The VR technology that has allowed Eyecad VR to enter the AEC market in 2017, giving to thousands of users the possibility to access virtual reality in a simple, fast and intuitive way in the context of rendering software dedicated to architecture. In 2017, in fact, virtual reality saw incredible innovations in the macOS environment thanks also to the support of Steam which had managed to provide tools to developers to create VR software even in the macOS environment with HTC Vive headsets and the development of Steam VR for macOS.
Here we attach Steam’s official (very short) statement about the end of Steam VR support for macOS:
Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/250820/view/2216278054495230717
Considering the Steam’s decision to abandon a support for macOS, virtual reality begins to become a mirage and if we also add Oculus’s choice to never release a setup for Mac, it becomes increasingly difficult to develop a software in the macOS environment, above all for interactive virtual reality in an environment lacking fundamental development tools.
Current macOS users will be able to continue to use Eyecad VR up to version 2020.5.1 or they can install (for free) their own Eyecad VR license on Windows PC and they can continue to receive all official updates and plugins, and also gaining more features and greater performance.
Apple’s choices are certainly appreciated from the consumer point of view and Apple products (desktop and otherwise) will continue to offer excellent performances. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same in CG (Computer Graphics), Apple’s Achilles heel that now it seems to be no longer interesting for the Californian company.
We do not exclude a return to the development of Eyecad VR in the macOS environment in the future but this can only happen when both, hardware and software, will have the tools to create high quality products for our users.
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