SteamVR For Linux Gets Improved Radeon Performance

[L_A_G]

Still no mention of RADV. Also I would like to ask a question regarding Mac and Vulkan: we all know that Mac doesn't support Vulkan, but is there something preventing AMD to develop a driver for MacOS X despite Apple not being interested?

As far as I know graphics are one driver area in which Apple is in completely in control. AMD and Nvidia have from what I've heard helped them a few times, but it's always been Apple who has been in charge of it all. If I'm not mistaken the graphics driver API isn't even public so even getting the documentation necessary to make your own driver is going to require you to get Apple to give you this documentation.

My understanding of why Apple does this is that they're very pedantic about drivers always rendering things exactly the same way regardless of what hardware you're using. They're even known to keep known bugs in so that they don't end up breaking workarounds if they fix them to ensure compatibility across driver versions.

[roothorick]

Anyone know if the hmd Acer, Lenovo, dell, hp will be compatible with linux steam?. I haven't seen either steamvr GPU requirements. It is the same as in windows? Gtx 970 or amd r9 290?

They'll likely not see SteamVR support even on Windows. They were built specifically For MS's Windows Holographic project. We'll see Valve-official support for the PSVR hardware first, and that may not ever happen.

LG's headset is a different story; it is built specifically for SteamVR, and will probably work with Linux day-1 due to (expected) hardware interface similarities to the Vive.

[starshipeleven]

They'll likely not see SteamVR support even on Windows. They were built specifically For MS's Windows Holographic project.

I don't think so. They are VR (aka fully virual world view through goggles) and marketed as such, while MS's holographic stuff is AR (augmented reality, aka "project holograms on real life objects") which is another thing entirely (also much harder to pull off).

Given how they think on average, it's highly likely that they will do their best to NOT be compatible with each other or with anything else, although I don't know how easy it is to do that without shooting themselves in the foot. I doubt that game developers will target 5-8 different headsets with different APIs.

[bridgman]

but is there something preventing AMD to develop a driver for MacOS X despite Apple not being interested?

Are you familiar with the phrase "biting the hand that feeds you" ?

[darkbasic]

Are you familiar with the phrase "biting the hand that feeds you" ?

Yes, I am but I somehow suspect that there is more than that. I'm also wondering what prevents an external contributor from porting RADV to OSX: I bet Apple didn't want to take the chance.

[cusa123]

Unfortunately the requirements for vr in linux, are much larger than in windows?.
Windows - gtx 970 or R9 290
Linux - gtx1060,gtx1070?,RX480?
I ask someone if you can do a test with the requirements of windows on linux and see the difference in performance that is missing.

[Geopirate]

Unfortunately the requirements for vr in linux, are much larger than in windows?.
Windows - gtx 970 or R9 290
Linux - gtx1060,gtx1070?,RX480?
I ask someone if you can do a test with the requirements of windows on linux and see the difference in performance that is missing.

Well if there is a delta in non-vr titles from windows to linux, would there not be the same delta for VR titles? Also aren't there still performance regressions on Vulkan?