Home / Component / Virtual Reality / Oculus isn’t happy about ‘hack’ to get exclusives running on Vive

Oculus isn’t happy about ‘hack’ to get exclusives running on Vive

Here on the PC, exclusive games isn't something we've ever really had to worry about but with the launch of VR, we have seen some games become exclusive to the Oculus Rift. Yesterday, someone figured out a way around that and got the Oculus exclusive title, Lucky's Tale, running on a HTC Vive perfectly fine but don't expect it to work for long as Oculus doesn't sound too pleased about it.

In a statement issued in response to yesterday's news, Oculus branded this software mod as a ‘hack' and noted that users shouldn't expect this method to work for long: “This is a hack, and we don't condone it. Users should expect that hacked games won't work indefinitely, as regular software updates to games, apps, and our platform are likely to break hacked software.”

oculus_rift_white-600x306

The hack in question is known as the Revive project, which bridges the gap between the Oculus and Vive to allow exclusive games to run. The project creator commented on Reddit, saying that he doesn't think Oculus will try to prohibit his project but understands that they can't support it:

“Of course they can't condone it, that would mean they'd have to actively support the Revive project, which is completely outside of their control. But from that reaction it doesn't seem they'll actively try to prohibit it either. They're worried people may buy games expecting them to work on the Vive and they may get disappointed. Especially if I can't keep feature parity with the Oculus SDK”.

This is a situation that Oculus has prepared for though. A few months ago, Oculus founder, Palmer Luckey, wrote on Reddit saying that if a customer buys a game on the Oculus store, he doesn't mind what users do with it: “If customers buy a game from us, I don't care if they mod it to run on whatever they want. The software we create through Oculus Studios (using a mix of internal and external developers) are exclusive to the Oculus platform, not the Rift itself.”

However, at the same time, Oculus doesn't want users to expect the company to try to support VR headsets it has no control over: “The issue is people who expect us to officially support all headsets on a platform level with some kind of universal Oculus SDK, which is not going to happen anytime soon. We do want to work with other hardware vendors, but not at the expense of our own launch, and certainly not in a way that leads to developing for the lowest common denominator”.

KitGuru Says: I must admit, I have been a little worried about the ‘exclusives' situation with VR headsets. It makes sense that Oculus can't officially support mods or third-party tinkering but hopefully it doesn't start shutting down projects either. 

Become a Patron!

Check Also

Batman Arkham Shadow

Batman: Arkham Shadow gets October release date for Quest 3

The Batman Arkham series returns in October with a new VR-focused game, Batman: Arkham Shadow, exclusively for Quest 3 and Quest 3S VR headsets.

8 comments

  1. Exclusives, another good reason to skip VR; it’s what I hate most about consoles.

  2. Hopefully developers see fast that Facebook might pay them lots of money to become exclusive to the rift but that an open market supports a better income in the long run. Im not a fan either at all, but if u are a small company and get told that someone will throw money after you if you only publish for their platform its a hard thing to turn down

  3. “good reason to skip Oculus Rift” FTFY. This is Facebook we’re talking about, of course they’ll do anything, the company is morally bankrupt from it’s inception.

  4. I think you miss the message, if you believe them they are only saying that the games are exclusive to their SDK out of the box, they want to make games that use all of the Rift’s features, which might not be present in other VR headsets. They want to focus on guaranteeing the best experience possible on their platform and can’t guarantee or support you doing so with other VR headsets. I think the title is misleading because as you read the article you get a different picture. ‘Hack’ isn’t a bad word, it doesn’t mean they are unhappy. They are just saying that you can’t depend on the games working in the future because of the nature of the SDK evolving and the features the game might utilize in said SDK updates which other platforms might not have yet or implement differently.

    IMO the title is a bit sensational and clickbat-y but that’s just how it reads to me

  5. Well, if we must believe luckey, it’s htc that doesn’t want to support the oculus sdk, which is mandatory for the game to be released on the oculus store.. Also htc already said they would have their own vive store too..

  6. “my room mate Mary Is getting paid on the internet 98$/hr”..,……..!wc293ctwo days ago grey MacLaren P1 I bought after earning 18,512 DoIIars..it was my previous month’s payout..just a little over.17k DoIIars Last month..3-5 hours job a day…with weekly payouts..it’s realy the simplest. job I have ever Do.. I Joined This 7 months. ago. and now making over. hourly 87 DoIIars…Learn. More right Here !wc293:➽:➽:➽➽➽➽ http://GlobalSuperJobsReportsEmploymentsMatterGetPayHourly$98…. .❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦:❖❖:❦❦::::::!wc293……….

  7. Rift and Vive, the AMD and NVIDIA of VR.

  8. steamvr/openvr already has oculus sdk 1.3 support. They bought exclusives and want to protect their investment, nothing more.