Oculus finally allows Rift VR games to work on HTC Vive

NEW DELHI: Facebook-owned Oculus, which till now blocked its Rift VR headset games from working on the rival HTC Vive wearable devices, has now removed the particular feature in its latest software update. According to a report in Ars Technica website, the company has issued an update to its Oculus Runtime software that removes the headset check from DRM.

The virtual reality technology company, however, has not revealed the removal of the controversial DRM from the software in the change log. The news came from Revive’s head developer on the Github page. "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,” the developer said. For those unaware, Revive tool lets HTC Vive VR headset owners play Oculus games.


The company has confirmed that it "will not use hardware checks as part of DRM on PC in the future."

This goes in line with what the Oculus founder Palmer Luckey told the website back in March this year. Palmer said, “Right now, at this stage, of course I want people to buy the Rift [over the competition]. Our goal is not to lock every piece of software to it, just like we have software that's on the Rift and on Gear VR, and I don't care which of those they buy it on. Eventually there's going to be a lot more headsets to support.”


To recall, at the time of launch it was found out that while Oculus Rift users could easily access the HTC Vive software hub, SteamVR, but the HTC Vive headset users were not able to access Oculus’ Rift platform, Oculus Home. Hence, an unofficial plugin named ‘Revive’ was made by some developers. Revive plugin works with Oculus Home and makes the software think as if the HTC Vive is an Oculus Rift.

In May this year, Oculus brought more VR content to Samsung's Gear VR headset. The firm introduced ‘Nomads’ a VR-based video series that gives an insight into the various lifestyles of people from different parts of the world. An upcoming video game called 'Tactera' was also announced for the platform.