Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 164 posts

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#11

Post by gthtjtkt »

They deserved the backlash for implementing it, and I hope the Rift continues to suffer now that people know Facebook's true intentions. Not to mention how poorly they treated early supporters after the buyout, e.g. stocking Rifts on retail shelves before they'd fulfilled orders for all backers, then telling backers who complained to get a refund and go buy one from a store...

They're only doing the "right" thing because they have no choice. They couldn't pump enough money into third party development to make up for the ill will they'd garnered with this exclusivity DRM, especially not with companies like Valve doing the complete opposite -- giving money to third party devs with no exclusivity deals whatsoever.

Turns out some developers can't be bought[1]. Who'da thunk it?

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4nxpnq/fuck_facebook_... (For the sake of fairness, it was a time-limited exclusivity offer that was made to the Serious Sam devs, but an exclusivity offer nonetheless.)

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#12

Post by ethbro »

jonny_eh wrote: post #9
mtgx wrote: post #5

Because there was backlash. But I doubt Facebook changed its original intentions of locking down the platform. What happens if Oculus Rift takes 80% of the market? Will it still allow the Vive or other headsets to play nice with Oculus-exclusive games? This is Facebook we're talking about here. Why even take the chance?

Jeez, you can't even give them some credit for doing the right thing?

To be fair, doing the right thing after the wrong thing is different than the right thing in the first place.

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#13

Post by asddubs »

throwaway7767 wrote: post #6

I had to google this to have any idea what it was about. The linked release notes don't explain any of the background, the entirety of the content relevant to the headline is this: "I've only just tested this and I'm still in disbelief, but it looks like Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5. As such I've reverted the DRM patch and removed all binaries from previous releases that contain…

to expand on this a little bit;

There were two functions, one that checked whether the occulus headset was connected, and one DRM function. Occulus consolidated those functions into one, in what many assumed to be a move to be able to justify taking down projects like these under the guise of "they break our DRM", which did end up being a talking point against the projects later on.

Apparently they reversed this change now, and you can write a compatibility shim without breaking the DRM once more

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#14

Post by Vexs »

The checks made no sense in the first place, it's a loose-loose on all ends for occulus. A closed ecosystem basically does not work when it comes to PC gaming, and with hardware this expensive it's not like you could buy the valve-sponsored vive and the rift.

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#15

Post by asddubs »

jonny_eh wrote: post #9
mtgx wrote: post #5

Because there was backlash. But I doubt Facebook changed its original intentions of locking down the platform. What happens if Oculus Rift takes 80% of the market? Will it still allow the Vive or other headsets to play nice with Oculus-exclusive games? This is Facebook we're talking about here. Why even take the chance?

Jeez, you can't even give them some credit for doing the right thing?

they're not doing the right thing, they're undoing the wrong thing they went out of their way to do. And it's not the only sleazy thing they're doing, that palmer & co. previously said they wouldn't (read: buying exclusivity)

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#16

Post by balls187 »

In order to support the original intent of LibreVR (allowing any headset to run occulus content), the only way to bypass the hardware check was to remove the DRM checking completely.

This had an unintended consequence of potentially allowing abuse.

With Occulus removing that hardware check, LibreVR was able to revert it's "YANK ALL THE DRM" solution.

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#17

Post by jsprogrammer »

jonny_eh wrote: post #9
mtgx wrote: post #5

Because there was backlash. But I doubt Facebook changed its original intentions of locking down the platform. What happens if Oculus Rift takes 80% of the market? Will it still allow the Vive or other headsets to play nice with Oculus-exclusive games? This is Facebook we're talking about here. Why even take the chance?

Jeez, you can't even give them some credit for doing the right thing?

Oculus didn't announce this. This is an independent developer making the claim. Oculus has now said they won't use hardware checks in PC DRM, but didn't rule out checks on other platforms. Oculus also indicated that they will use methods other than "hardware checks" to implement a DRM scheme.

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#18

Post by 50CNT »

jonny_eh wrote: post #9
mtgx wrote: post #5

Because there was backlash. But I doubt Facebook changed its original intentions of locking down the platform. What happens if Oculus Rift takes 80% of the market? Will it still allow the Vive or other headsets to play nice with Oculus-exclusive games? This is Facebook we're talking about here. Why even take the chance?

Jeez, you can't even give them some credit for doing the right thing?

Someone righting a thing doesn't mean you can't be wary of them.

Re: “Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5”

#19

Post by misiti3780 »

asddubs wrote: post #13
throwaway7767 wrote: post #6

I had to google this to have any idea what it was about. The linked release notes don't explain any of the background, the entirety of the content relevant to the headline is this: "I've only just tested this and I'm still in disbelief, but it looks like Oculus removed the headset check from the DRM in Oculus Runtime 1.5. As such I've reverted the DRM patch and removed all binaries from previous releases that contain…

to expand on this a little bit; There were two functions, one that checked whether the occulus headset was connected, and one DRM function. Occulus consolidated those functions into one, in what many assumed to be a move to be able to justify taking down projects like these under the guise of "they break our DRM", which did end up being a talking point against the projects later on. Apparently they reversed this chan…

forgive me for my ignorance here but what is a DRM function ?
Post reply on HN