Oculus will no longer try to block HTC Vive users from playing Rift games

[Jos]

Oculus appears to be reversing course on a previous decision to prevent competing headsets like the HTC Vive from playing Oculus games. As noted by the developers of Revive this morning, a new update to the Oculus software that started rolling out to users today has now removed the headset check. The Verge was also able to confirm the news with Oculus.

"We continually revise our entitlement and anti-piracy systems, and in the June update we've removed the check for Rift hardware from the entitlement check. We won't use hardware checks as part of DRM on PC in the future," the company said in a statement.

If you recall, back in April the folks at LibreVR released a little tool called Revive, billed as "proof-of-concept compatibility layer between the Oculus SDK and OpenVR" that basically allowed Rift exclusives to be played on the Vive. Oculus took steps to break cross platform compatibility, only to have the move backfire on them, with Revive circumventing Oculus’ DRM altogether and actually opening the door to playing pirated games.

Oculus’ move to enforce hardware-centric exclusives in an open platform like the PC generated quite a bit of criticism from parts of the VR community, including Valve's boss Gabe Newell. It was specially baffling given a previous statement by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, saying that players could mod games in order to play them on "whatever they want" as long as they buy the games from Oculus' online store.

Oculus hasn’t changed its stance on exclusivity but it’s decided to let the modding community do their thing. Revive developers responded in kind by pushing an update that reverted the DRM circumvention and removing all binaries from previous releases that contained the patch.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/65338-oculus-no-longer-try-block-htc-vive-users.html

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Well this is good news. As cool as it would have been to have another 'competing hardware war' like BluRay Vs. HD DVD.

I'm surprised it's just a DRM thing. I dont' know much about VR, but I would have expected a game to be optimized for a specific brand of hardware. It's pretty cool that games built for one can be easily played on the other.

 

[Panda218]

Well this is good news. As cool as it would have been to have another 'competing hardware war' like BluRay Vs. HD DVD.

I'm surprised it's just a DRM thing. I dont' know much about VR, but I would have expected a game to be optimized for a specific brand of hardware. It's pretty cool that games built for one can be easily played on the other.

The difference is mainly in the tracking of the headsets, besides that they're both just monitors with the same specs mounted to your face.

This is a move in the right direction for Oculus, but if they actually intend on competing with steam as a software distribution resource they'll need more titles and less mark ups on games...

Example: I can buy Project Cars on steam for 14.99 on sale (29.99 w/o sale) or I can go to Oculus home and buy Project Cars for 39.99 on sale (49.99 w/o sale).

 

[Brock Kane]

Now is this reversible? I mean, can I play all Vive games on my Oculus Rift?

 

[Puiu]

Now is this reversible? I mean, can I play all Vive games on my Oculus Rift?

that was never the issue. the problem was oculus closing off the games you bought on their platform to only the Rift headset, something the said multiple times they won't do.

This was a PR disaster for the guys at Oculus.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Good news... lets hope it sticks.

Focus on hardware, that is where we need improvements. We want higher resolution displays, wireless video transmittal, and good controllers and tracking. Now don't screw the rest of it up that is actually good.