Everything VR That Apple Announced at the WWDC 2017

Image credit: Apple

The wait for Apple’s entry into virtual reality is finally over! Although the Cupertino-based tech giant has yet to announce a VR headset of its own, Apple makes a fresh new entry by introducing several new hardware upgrades and VR-ready GPUs to its new line of iMac Desktops and MacBook machines.

Additionally, Apple has also extended support for some famous third party content creation tools like Unity and Unreal Engine as well as support for platforms like Steam VR.

So, let us check out one-by-one what things Apple has put in your VR kitty!

Apple’s New iMac VR-Ready Computers

Image credit: Apple

Finally, Apple has come up with enough hardware prowess to cater to high-end VR graphic and processing requirements. Out of the entire lineup, the 27-inch iMac is the new VR-ready PC which packs Intel’s 7th generation “Kaby Lake” core processors. Also, Apple says that using the AMD Radeon Pro 580 GPU as your graphic options coupled with 8GB of RAM processing will be enough to enjoy high-definition immersive VR content.

However, by not limiting your VR experience just to this end, Apple has also announced its new ultra-fast high-end iMac Pro computer which packs multi-core Xenon CPUs making VR-specific processes, like 3d rendering and 4k video production, a lot faster and easier. The graphic processing is said to be taken care of by the raw power of the Radeon Vega graphics cards.

To deal with this ultra-fast processing, Apple has put behind its iMac Pro a new cooling system which delivers much more power while keeping the sound levels low.

Image credit: Apple

Metal for VR and External GPU Support for MacBooks

Apple is bringing considerable improvements with its new Metal 2 graphics API. The new API is specifically tuned and optimized for virtual reality and is said to bring a 10x improvement in performance over its earlier counterparts. Metal 2 will introduce features like viewport arrays, display pipelines, frame debugger stereoscopic visualization and others. It is also said to bring support for Steam VR SDK and Unity, Unreal Engine making its new High Sierra macOS a true VR native.

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Vale is soon said to get SteamVR to Mac, which means Vive users can play their favorite VR games on Mac systems.

The other good announcement coming from the company is that it will be offering a new external GPU enclosure having the AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics card and can be connected to lightweight MacBooks via the Thunderbolt connectors.

Image credit: Apple

This is a great new way in order to provide your MacBooks the extra processing juice so that they can deliver graphic-intensive tasks and 3D rendering at ease.

The New Final Cut Pro X for VR Video Editing

Apple’s much famous video editing app, Final Cut Pro X, is set to receive a new update which can support 360-degree video editing for VR. However, this update is said to be included straight away as you upgrade to the new High Sierra macOS.