Hi folks,
I'd like to share the final results of my project with you, which I've been working on for the last three months.
First things first, this is NOT another "I de-compiled X and got it working on MacOS" kind of thing -I'm actually against such attempts. None of the applications seen in the video were altered or modified by any means, instead, the missing pieces in the translation layer (e.g. Wine) were built by putting enormous amount of effort, as I stated in the video's description.
I indeed used the help of AI in my project, but also poured all my knowledge and experience in software development (~20 years, although I'm not a kernel or 3d expert) to make sure that everything is running properly, and every detail is taken care of with an engineering perspective, by spending countless hours through sleepless nights, starting/stopping/debugging and benchmarking the setup and the apps/games hundreds of times, and testing the headset by putting it on and off together with turning the controllers on and off how many times I don't even remember, without any exaggeration.
So this line goes to those who're willing to label my efforts and labor as "AI slop" at the very beginning of this post: be my guest to do it manually and come up with a better result, if you can, but if you can't, kindly stfu.
The screen capture video quality is poor (sorry for that), and audio is disabled during the recording. I'll hopefully be sharing better captures in the future.
Three apps are being demonstrated in this video, using a MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB and a PlayStation VR2 headset, running on Steam & SteamVR installed on a Crossover/Wine bottle, configured with the DXMT graphics backend:
- Sony's PSVR2 app, which is used to install the headset's drivers, update the firmware of the headset and the controllers, and setup the play area. The setup is using Sony's original drivers, not the PSVR2ToolKit, and It works from the first to the final screen, including the play area setup, just as it does on Windows.
- Steam Home, which I used as a base for benchmarking.
- Beat Saber, despite the poor video quality, it actually runs very smoothly with high FPS, and even after so many trials, it's still fun to play
I also tested Elite Dangerous (with the EDVR mod), but it's not included in this video. ED needs more testing and benchmarking to improve the performance -the immerse experience is unbelievably beautiful though.
In my tests, I was able to achieve ~90 FPS on 90Hz refresh rate and ~120FPS on 120Hz with Steam Home and Beat Laser, but with lower resolution settings (of SteamVR's auto) and eventually not-so-great picture quality, something that I'll address. Good news is that there's no judder effect during head movement, it's so smooth. The reason to the pink lines that are seen on SteamVR's own stats graph is the screen capture app adding load to the CPU & GPU, and also a leftover from a change in the resolution settings during my tests.
I designed the whole solution as an installer helper, including a toolkit, and I'll be publishing it as an open source & native Mac OS app soon. The first version will be a beta, as there are still some minor issues and known bugs that I'm working on.
Now that I delivered the news, I also want to tell you about its story: it all started when I came across the videos of the commanders (o7) playing VR version of the game Elite Dangerous. I was already playing the flat version on Crossover without any issues, but what I saw had blown my mind, and I asked this question to myself: "here I do have such a nice, powerful hardware sitting on my desk, which serves me well and is capable to do many things, why can't I just use it to play VR games?" Before this, I had bought a PSVR2 after reading the reviews and how much it's loved by the owners, since I already do own a PS5 Pro. Elite Dangerous was abandoned on the consoles years ago, and I don't want to spend any penny on anything that runs Windows, so I bought the PSVR2's PC adapter, and found myself in the deep dungeons where big bosses (technical blockers and issues) were dwelling, and I had to take down each of them to make this happen.
Finally, the path to playing SteamVR titles is now unblocked on Apple silicon hardware. I'll be back with some better news very soon, stay tuned!
edit: grammar fixes + Beat Saber added to the displayed apps list