The ongoing battle between Oculus and those who’d like to use Rift-exclusive software on other VR headsets continues this week. Unfortunately, it sounds like the software developers currently making content for the Rift are going to get caught in the crossfire.
Oculus released a new patch for the Rift last week; an update meant to tackle a variety of issues, from performance and stability to sensor-tracking. But Oculus 1.4 also included new attempts to stop people from running Rift-exclusive software on other VR headsets. But those changes didn’t prove to be nearly as effective as hoped. Over the weekend, the creator of ReVive, software designed to make Rift games/apps compatible with the HTC Vive, confirmed he’d already broken through Oculus’ new DRM. But the changes introduced in ReVive 0.5.2 apparently make software piracy easier than ever before.
Apparently, Oculus’ latest attempt at platform-locking involved modifying the ownership verification process. Previously, when you launched a Rift game/app, Oculus Home would only verify that you owned the game in question. Beginning with last week’s update, Home now verifies that a Rift is connected to your PC whenever you launch a new game. Unless you’re using ReVive.
According to an interview with Motherboard , the latest build of ReVive bypasses the ownership check. As a result, those hoping to run Dreamdeck , Farlands or Lucky’s Tale on their Vive once again have that option. Unfortunately, it also opens up a much larger piracy issue for Oculus, because bypassing the ownership verification also means Home has no way to make sure you actually own the software you’re trying to run outside the Oculus ecosystem. The programmer says he doesn’t support software piracy, though.
“This is my first success at bypassing the DRM, I really didn't want to go down that path,” the creator said on reddit. “I still do not support piracy, do not use this library for pirated copies.”
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