While virtual reality promises flexibility and endless worlds, the major players have begun implementing mechanisms that block access to “exclusive titles” using other headsets. The Revive project enabled running Lucky’s Tale on the HTC Vive in mid-April, but last Friday Oculus blocked Revive with a software update. Revive’s response? A new version that removes the block. The war has begun.
The Revive Project
New territory, same old argument: a developer’s rights against a user’s desires. For a moment, we all hoped virtual reality would escape that vicious cycle, but reality hits like a hammer. The story began between the last days of March and mid-April, when GitHub user LibreVR started a project called Revive. The description is simple: a compatibility layer between the Oculus SDK and OpenVR, so players can access titles available on Oculus Home using an HTC Vive. The process is a bit “dirty,” since the executables of games and apps on Oculus Home include a verification mechanism, and Revive modifies the .exe files. Lucky’s Tale was one of the first games to work with Revive, and soon others based on both Unity and the Unreal Engine joined. Given that SteamVR can be accessed by Rift users, the idea of an “exchange” seems logical.
Oculus Strikes Back
Last Friday, Oculus published a major update, and Revive went up in flames. One of the entries in the changelog specifically mentions “updates to platform integrity checks.” Oculus’s official reason for the change is none other than the magic “combat piracy,” but there’s a detail. The creator of Revive explained that the first version was responsible for “deceiving” the applications, indicating that a Rift was connected. Now, the new Oculus software not only maintains that verification in apps, but extends it to the Oculus platform itself. In other words, the new changes aren’t just about checking if a game was legitimately purchased. They also seek to verify whether the connected headset is a Rift. It’s the same function used for two different tasks, so you can’t disable one without knocking out the other.
Revive Fights Back
LibreVR’s response on GitHub was blunt: “I didn’t want to go down this path, but I feel there is no other way.” Twenty-four hours later, Revive received an update (0.5.2, to be precise), which completely disables DRM on the Oculus platform. The only app evaluated with this build is Oculus Dreamdeck, but it should work with other Unreal Engine games (Unity support is on the way). LibreVR added that he is not interested in removing the verification in apps, and if he finds a way to keep Revive with that mechanism active, he will do it. All he wants is a way to play legally purchased titles via Oculus, with a headset that isn’t the Rift.
The Bigger Picture
This is what Palmer Luckey hinted at in his Reddit AMA last December. Five months later, Oculus and Facebook seem to have gone back on their word. Decisions like this could destroy virtual reality before it fully takes off. We’ll be watching.
