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Oculus No Longer Lets Customers Move Purchased Software To Non-Oculus Hardware (boingboing.net)
AmiMoJo quotes a report from Boing Boing: As recently as 5 months ago, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey was promising his customers that they could play the software they bought from the Oculus store on "whatever they want," guaranteeing that the company wouldn't shut down apps that let customers move their purchased software to non-Oculus hardware. But now, Oculus has changed its DRM to exclude Revive, a "proof-of-concept compatibility layer between the Oculus SDK [software development kit] and OpenVR," that let players buy software in the Oculus store and run it on competing hardware. The company billed the update as an anti-piracy measure, but Revive's developer, who call themselves "Libre VR," points out that the DRM only prevents piracy using non-Oculus hardware, and allows for unlimited piracy by Oculus owners.
Totally open platform with no restrictions, except for Windows 10 spyware, Oculus DRM, Origin DRM, Blu-ray DRM...
Wow. Looks like I definitely made the right decision cancelling my Rift preorder and spending the extra dosh on a Vive.
VR is supposed to be about getting up and moving anyway. I've been looking forward to this for 20 years now.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
Anyone have any more context?
So far it looks like all of this is based on a quick couple of comments by the ReVive developer:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4k8fmm/new_oculus_update_breaks_revive/
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4k8krc/oculus_home_14_update_breaks_revive_adds_specific/d3d3298?context=3
"I'm basing it on the fact that the "Headset not detected" error are now coming from the OculusOnlineSubsystem which is also responsible for entitlement check (DRM) errors.
This is on top of the check for the headset the game does itself. If I don't use Revive I get a different "Headset not detected" error coming from the game itself."
* Only supported OS is Windows
* Always connected to the internet, constanly spying on you
* Now this
Facebook is shady? Who knew.
For this to occur during an election season. The flip-flop that is. Either don't make promises you can't keep, or run for office.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
You made the right choice. Having used both, the Vive is a much more fun and rewarding experience. Room scale makes *all* the difference :)
William George
Palmer Luckey: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further."
Have gnu, will travel.
As many among you, I plan to buy a VR set in the next few months. ...
The choice between the brands was kind of difficult.
Thanks to this, it just became one brand easier.
So, thanks, I guess
Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
Every single company that promises open and freedom goes against those promises.
Honestly Oculus has been sketchy from day one, One of the reasons I backed away from them.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So how is that $2.4 million you "invested" in a company you get no return on and have no control over working out?
The thing is, it is very unlikely that it is Palmer who is making these decisions. He is only the founder and the public face of the company, but does not hold any executive position in the company.
These are decisions made by the Oculus C-level execs and Facebook to protect their walled garden app store. The HMD is pretty much only a prop to rope you in into selling you more stuff through the store.
Of course, that doesn't absolve Palmer from responsibility for what he has said. He shouldn't be promising things he can't deliver. I can only hope that the money he has got through shares was worth selling out his personal integrity and becoming essentially a sock puppet where someone else is making all the decisions and pulling the strings while leaving him looking bad because it contradicts what he has said earlier.
It also means that in spite of what Palmer said at the start, that Rift will be open and what not, it will never happen. DRM and open sourced code just don't work together.
The promised Linux support is likely dead for good now as well - there is no economic incentive for it and since they are so hard pushing for the monetization of the platform, reputation and bad press be damned, it is very unlikely that a "charity project" like that would be approved. Also DRM would be harder to implement and maintain on an open platform like that.
It is sad to see a good project go down the drain like this only because someone got greedy. Alienating early adopters when they are your only customers and basically everyone else is waiting for their opinion before spending the non trivial amount of money on your product is a very rapid way to hell.
For the record, I am one of the early backers of the Kickstarter project and have received both the DK1 and my free CV1 Rift HMDs ...
This must be an extraordinarily hard choice for someone in the market for VR software.
Buy from Facebook and end up locked into the Rift.
Buy elsewhere and use it with any display you want including Rift.
Piracy is the act of committing crimes such as murder, kidnapping, and rape on the high seas. This is the second time that it has been substituted for copyright infringement in two days.
What you are describing does not even rise to the status of copyright infringement. It is more like fair use. The player has paid for the use of the product, now the producer is tying it to their product.
Misleading reporting like this should be blocked.
That would require editorial standards and a staff competent enough to enforce them. Are you new here?
Learn to laugh at our differences. It's better than fighting over them.
I would appreciate it more if the company just came out and stated what they were doing, rather than hiding behind some bullshit "anti-piracy" statements.
I can understand someone trying to sell me shit, as long as they're calling it shit. Once they try to play it off as something else, I lose any respect for them.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
Language changes. You're 130 or so years behind on English is would seem.
Palmer is probably not behind this, but nevertheless, it's a deathknell for Oculus. The people that they NEED to drive their platform are now going to do the opposite and ensure that no one ever buys Oculus hardware.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
Face it! Oculus Rift has screwed all of you and Facebook has is laughing at your idiocy ... and if that's not enough ... you can't do shit about it, except for whining over here and in reddit
You guys are no longer 'movers and shakers' of the tech world, them media heads, aka 'journalists' at CNN or BBC have taken over
Right now they have much more influences than all of you combined
Over at BBC and CNN those so-called 'tech-savvy journalists' are still heaping hosannahs at Oculus Rift, and on their reports, they get some 'researchers' from 'universities', to foretell the 'wonderful future of Virtual Reality', with Oculus Rift
Another fishy thing is that you never hear any mention of "Vive" or any other alternative to Oculus Rift on the same media channels
I smell massive ad campaign looming
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Because I'm insane, I actually own both of them and have spent a fair amount of time using each. (Was an original kickstarter backer so they sent me a CV1, then I also bought a Vive)
I like the actual headset part from Oculus better, and they currently have more games that are actually fleshed out games instead of tech demos.
Built in headphones are also way less of a pain than providing your own as well.
However, the Vive room-scale & hand controllers makes it a better overall experience. Standing, walking around, and using your hands just makes it vastly more immersive. It will be interesting to see if any of this changes after the Oculus touch controllers are released, but I am skeptical that they will be able to do room-scale tracking that's as accurate as the vive just by adding another camera. Even though I don't think they will, I'm hopeful they do, however, because I really do like the greater level of polish the Oculus device has.
Amusingly enough, I ordered a Vive after it was released and got it about 2 weeks ago. A friend of mine who preordered a Rift very early (possibly first day?) still hasn't gotten his.
I have an Oculus DK2 (and DK1), and have been doing room-scale with the DK2 for month, which actually uses an off-the-shelf webcam.
I have no doubt that the CV1, that uses a custom camera with higher resolution and wider field of view, will give even better results.
Using the Leap Motion in addition to the DK2 already gives you unbelievable presence in VR. You have to experience it. You truely have your hands in VR, down to the individual flex of any finger.
My killer-app for VR is MocuMocuDance, which is available from the author (and thus out of oculus shop DRM) and runs on both Oculus and Vive.
Thus I believe my best option is to use the Oculus CV1 (slightly better headset) coupled with Leap Motion.
However, this kind of oculus DRM restriction that is implemented as discussed in the article sure isn't pleasing me, and I would advise anyone to do like I did : determine what your killer-app is before choosing your VR hardware.
Actually, didn't we see this with 3D cards when they came out? We're currently in the Glide phase and will eventually move to OpenGL/Direct3D phase of common interfaces decoupled from hardware (or the whole thing will die off). Combined with the frankly ridiculous price for a niche entertainment product with just a few games or apps, I'd say the best option is to simply wait (or use Google Cardboard if you must).
Being an early adapter is a suckers game unless you're so rich the price is pocket change for you and you enjoy new technology for its own sake.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Language changes, but sometimes such changes are purposeful attempts at propaganda, and should be called out for that. And trying to get ignoring Mickey Mouse Protection Act associated with robbery at high seas is definitely such a case.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Palmer Luckey: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further."
"Emperor Zuckerberg is not as forgiving as I am."
If I remember correctly, initial funding was largely provided by Linux users with the promise their product would work with it. Now it's Windows only. How many times can they backtrack? Is there no end to this bullshit?
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Well, hindsight is always 20/20. When Oculus started, focus on the sitting user with a controller sounded like a very sane first step. There were no good large area tracking solutions available for $100-$200 (the cheapest "pro" starts around $2000-3000 just for tracking). Remember STEM? That was supposed to be the solution.
The concept of "room scale" consumer VR didn't exist until after about 2 years after Oculus has been committed to their system already. I am sure they would have gone with it if there was a robust tracking solution available back then.
The lack of "room scale" is not a problem. The tracking actually works OK for reasonable room sizes (I have the Rift CV1).
The killer is the lack of tracked hand controllers (the non-interactive demos in the Oculus Dreamdeck where you can only passively watch but are unable to do anything are totally ridiculous) - why they didn't bundle at least the Razer Hydra with the headset when they saw Vive being released complete with controllers and their own are delayed until late this year is beyond me. Even a poor motion controller is better than a gamepad. I have used Hydra with my Rift to play with the SteamVR Lab demos and it worked fine for the most part.
The second killer is poor/non-existent content. Right now all you can get are some silly games that will bore you to death after few minutes - even Eve Valkyrie. Eve looks stunning, but ultimately it is just space deathmatch in a small arena with invisible walls and *A LOT* of prodding for you to pour in real money to buy stuff. That gets boring fast. Paying $60-80+ for a platformer only because it is "VR"? (aka you see it 3D and can look around but there is nothing more "VR" than that about it). That's just crap.
They seem to be heavily invested in 360 degree "VR" movies. However, they can't even get the short clips that are bundled with the Dreamdeck right - often poor resolution and short, limited content. Like, few minutes of watching waterfalls from the air, from National Geo ... It is totally non-interactive, the only thing you can do is to look around. The quality often sucks too because the clips are upscaled for the high resolution of the Rift. Watching a normal movie with the hot, fogging up, sweaty headset stuck to your face? They really think someone will want to actually do that? Yet it is offered ... I just don't see anyone who would actually want to watch this stuff beyond trying it out and to actually *pay* for it.
The Vive content, in comparison, is actually fun, even if you don't buy anything and just tinker with the bundled demos from the Lab. Heck, that stuff is fun even if you use it with the Rift and Hydra (which actually works, unlike Oculus' platform locking out Vive users).
Finally, what has actually the chance to sour people over their platform before it had even chance to take off are the recent boneheaded moves with the preorders, shipping, the DRM issue, etc.
The "lack of roomscale" is certainly not the issue with the Rift ...
I don't think you can sue over a company trying hard to commit corporate suicide, at least unless you are a shareholder.
These apparent turn-abouts are a clear indication that management is incompetent. I say this because it appears that Mr Luckey may have come to the realization that his hardware endeavor may suffer sales. It is his company, and he can do whatever. Yet, he really ought to define a solid mission for the company and stick to it.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
I saw this coming the moment they were sold to Facebook. Nobody believed me though....
I had a big CSB for this, but it's gone forever now. I'll write it later as a blog post but not here.
Glide was only for playing games...poorly by today's standards (like tiled 8-bit was when it came out). If initial design was ever done on Glide hardware, I've never heard of it. In 1998, right after graduating from high school, I bought an Intergraph Intense 3D Voodoo card. Voodoo Rush with 4MB for 2D and 2MB for 3D. Still far better than an N64 or PS1. I went from being able to run Quake in a grainy and odd resolution to having smooth visuals that just blew me away... at the time.
That was for playing games. 3Dfx was doing with their Glide API what Faceculus/Ocubook is doing to Revive. "No! Mine! I don't care if you buy my stuff or give me market share! *raspberry spit*" And what happened to 3dfx?
Nvidia went a different direction, especially with the GeForce/Quadro (Transforms and Lighting offloaded from the CPU?!). I bought a Riva TNT2 Ultra card in 2000 that let me play around, creating things in 3DS Max and a program called Jamagic in 2001. Bad stuff happened that nuked that career path, but I was more suited to VR anyway. Hell, I bought a VictorMaxx "vr" HMD for my SNES in like 1996 just to get a taste. In 1999, I got to try a dual VGA HMD that was like being in the back row at a crappy movie theater for FOV. I was still hooked for life. Firing up my Vive for the first time? Same FOV as my racing helmet.
Room-scale VR reminds me of any game that gives the player free roam until they head to the next screen. And a GTX 1080 is still great for creation, not just playing. Hell, I managed to get my Vive working with my 2009 Radeon HD 5870. I just had to connect it to the DisplayPort.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
Fortunately we have been given an alternative in the VR revolution called the HTC Vive.
I tried a friends headset and was sold on the cool experience it provided and decided to order one. I already have mine now and have been enjoying and sharing it's experience even before people who pre-ordered their Oculus Rift on the first day it was available have gotten their headsets.
I'm pretty sure the Berne Convention of 1886 predates mickey mouse propaganda.
You made the right choice. Having used both, the Vive is a much more fun and rewarding experience. Room scale makes *all* the difference :)
I so so so entirely agree. The sparse hairs on the back of my neck stood up the first time I saw the SteamVR Tutorial. I'm not who I was prior to that.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.