Motorsports sim and virtual reality showcase iRacing will add support for the HTC Vive VR headset in a September update, software engineer Shawn Nash revealed during an interview with Road to VR this week.
Today’s HTC Vive announcement follows up on iRacing‘s introduction of Oculus Rift compatibility in June, and could lead to native support for other virtual reality headsets in the future.
Initially released in 2008, iRacing is an online racing league and simulator that offers realistically modeled tracks based on real-world race courses. The game saw numerous expansions and additions in the years following its debut, and recent updates have added support for racing wheels, pedals, and other peripherals in a bid to further enhance realism.
In 2013, iRacing shifted its development focus to consumer VR technology, and later rolled out support for the Oculus Rift VR headset. While many Oculus Rift games have been successfully hacked to add support for VR headsets from rival manufacturers, iRacing remained a notable standout, as its bundled EasyAntiCheat software prevented hackers from using the free Revive injector tool to introduce multiplatform VR.
Seeing interest from the booming HTC Vive market, iRacing software engineer and VR developer Shawn Nash set out to add compatibility for the popular headset earlier this year, and full support will arrive in an update slated to deploy next month.
“Interestingly, because OpenVR is also compatible with the Rift, one can set the simulator’s options to use the Rift via either the Oculus SDK or the OpenVR SDK,” Nash told Road to VR this week, addressing the possibility of extended headset compatibility in the future.
Nash also answered lingering questions regarding the lack of anti-aliasing in iRacing‘s VR mode, assuring fans that numerous fixes and graphical tweaks are in the works, though they may not be finished in time for the next patch. “We’re hoping to add some AA support for both the Vive and Rift but it’s not in yet, so not for sure,” Nash stated.
iRacing will add HTC Vive support in a patch set for release on September 6.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.