Oculus Rift and Macs?

Question

Oculus Rift and Macs?

I want to pre-order an Oculus rift and I was looking at the page on the site on oculus-ready PCs. Unfortunately, Macs are not recommended, even running Boot Camp.

Plus, I apparently need a monitor to run the Oculus Rift (even though the monitor is basically the headset) for set up, troubleshooting and other issues. Although a gaming box does not take up a lot of room, I already have a Mac in both bedrooms, and the thought of another screen does not appeal to me.

Therefore, I would like to feed the display image from the PC over to my iMac. On the Oculus forums, they said I could buy an adapter for one of my thunderbolt ports.

Recommendations?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 12, 2016 9:50 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,516 points

Jan 12, 2016 11:15 AM in response to Timothy Arends1

Therefore, I would like to feed the display image from the PC over to my iMac. On the Oculus forums, they said I could buy an adapter for one of my thunderbolt ports.

Recommendations?

If your iMac is a 27" iMac from either late 2009 or 2010 and the PC has a mini display port then yes you can use the iMac as an external display to the PC. Apple explains this clearly in Use your iMac as a display with Target Display Mode - Apple Support. If your setup does not follow these guidelines, then the answer is a simple no.

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Answer 2

Amilixkan

Level 3

563 points

Jan 12, 2016 11:16 AM in response to Timothy Arends1

Hi, unfortunately you can't use Occulus rift on Mac, even if you are using Bootcamp, here is a very good explanation: http://www.macworld.com/article/2922722/no-oculus-rift-for-the-mac-but-your-mac- couldnt-handle-it-anyway.html

That being said, you could buy an adapter and use the iMac as a fancy display, however i am not sure if i would recommend it

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Answer 3

Jan 12, 2016 11:19 AM in response to Amilixkan

My iMac is Mid 2011 so it looks like I just missed the window of opportunity for using it as a display. I suppose if my next Mac is a Mac Pro (a bit of overkill for me) I could at least use the display for both the Mac and PC.

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