Meta introduces a new API that performs hardware and application checks, targeting piracy among other things.
Meta sneakily introduced "Platform Integrity Attestation API" which basically calls home to see whether the user has a valid license to play.
This means that to run apps user has to have online connection to perform an integrity test. Whether it's only a test on launch or continues call home like Denuvo-like DRMs is not yet clear. This could also mean that modified headsets could fail to pass this test essentially closing down the device for modifications that could damage "platform integrity". Not all details are clear yet but this doesn't look good.
Currently it's optional and up to app developers to enable it.
They took that out a while ago, that's when I picked up the Quest 2. Honestly, it's the best PCVR headset out there, and this article has nothing to do with PCVR, just their own platform. This won't affect your ability to pirate PCVR games at all.
I’m just waiting for the Psvr2 jailbreak. The index is nice, but their choice of display really leaves a lot to be desired. I far preferred even the slightly smeared look of my Odyssey+ to the Index, though the index’s tracking was miles ahead of my Odyssey. PSVR is the best headset on the market, but not worth my time unless it can be used forPCVR.
It seems (seemed) like a pretty good vr headset....just it's owned by one of the worst companies and I have no interest paying them hundreds for that level of access to my personal information.
All the shills promised me and other doubters that something like this would never happen. I'm glad I lost all interest in Oculus the moment Facebook bought them.
Hopefully we'll see some solid info on the Deckard this year.
Those are two very different things. Advertising giants don't actually "sell" your data, it's really not in their best interest, they make money by being the only ones with your data.
The API is being added, it’s optional for developers, and the person that is quoted in the article even says that it’s not really going to be used for that.
Also there’s never been anything stopping developers from making their games “always online” to begin with, so this changes nothing.
This is like saying steam requires always online simply because an api exists for online checking drm.
Not a fair comparison to Steam as it allows indefinite-ish offline access as long as you check in once. This new Quest restriction has nothing like this. It's more similar to DRM systems like Denuvo that call home on startup or during play time. The API also checks device integrity which means access to apps could be disabled for modified devices and Steam does nothing of sort.
The comparison was that the ability to enforce always online exists in steam, just like it will here. Neither will mandate it.
The ability to do this isn’t only being added now, it’s just that meta have made an api for it that developers can use if they want instead of writing their own.
yea, this article is intentionally rage baiting. I hate meta as much as the next guy, but 1) im shocked there wasnt any DRM for their apps already, and b) this just opens an API for apps.
Im just not going to buy games with DRM, same as steam.
We've reached a point that technology is not improving, but degrading -- who on earth is going to accept this as is and let third parties acquire random information about them, including their credit card? I mean, if a hacker manages to bust (whatever feature that allows this bs to happen) and forward info to them instead of the meta HQ -- they are going to have a heck of a honeypot.
This will be removed once thousands of little Billy or grandma's can't get that app to work, just like the Facebook requirement. Their support is a joke.
I had an app stuck in the update queue (still no way to see that queue). The recommendation was to do a factory reset. Not open up queue, restart download, not remove from queue - none of those things you can do! Good thing I had sidequest and was able to open up the quest taskmanger on my computer and do a force quit or I would never have been able to download anything again!
No way they let something that does that on purpose everytime the router goes out. Millions of factory resets? No, millions of returns.
I have trigeminal neuralgia, a painful nerve disorder in my face, meaning I can't wear VR headsets. So when I find out that Zuckerberg's "VR is going to change everything" bullshit has yet another issue, I feel smug. Pretty much the only time I can feel smug about trigeminal neuralgia.
I'm so, so, so sorry. My infraorbital nerve runs through my maxillary sinus and I had really fucking bad 3-month sinus infection that caused nerve pain on that isolated nerve (among a lot of other things). I can't imagine how you are dealing with this even though I do have nerve pain elsewhere.
Thanks. I've had it for 10 years now and I'm on a good regimen of pharmaceuticals that deal with the vast majority of pain, but my face is still too sensitive to have anything on it for more than about 5 minutes. Sorry to hear you're dealing with nerve pain yourself and I hope you find a solution that will at least help.
Can't tell who is more clueless, Zuck or Musk? They both seem to be hell bent on ruining their own companies.
The one thing I am excited about is eventually seeing Meta cancel their entire Quest division and clearing-out all these VR devices for pennies on the dollar. At which point I would expect some enterprising hackers find a way to run them off a regular PC without needing them to phone-home all the time.
Meta has revenue of over $100B. So even if they flushed $10B down the drain on this stuff (10-15% of revenue on R&D), that would be right in-line with industry standards. What's what you can do when you have such a ridiculous amount of money.
Considering it's for existing and future stuff, things could change later on and it break pc functionality. I'm not sure to actually answer your q though
No, not at all, it's strictly on their platform and that's not going to change, because they physically can't install DRM onto your PC's existing non-oculus apps. And no, even though people in this thread are claiming it, they won't stop PCVR integration because that would be suicide for their VR headset. Honestly this is just the way gaming systems are going now, new releases on Steam all have Denuvo, which is even worse.
Anyone who gets a different headset to "avoid DRM" is going to be very disappointed when they see PCVR games released with DRM.
I use a quest headset for PCVR and my advice would be just don’t. Their software treats this use case as a second class citizen and it shows. I haven’t been able to play online in weeks because since the last update the link decides to completely drop after 15-30 minutes of use.
Have one of the original dk1 units in storage gathering dust. I was so excited for it until they pulled Linux support and Facebook buying them out. Never touched it since.
I really hope the Valve Deckard is real and can compete on price with Oculus. I feel like it should be doable comparing the price of the cheapest Steam Deck to the price of the Quest 3, but I don't know a whole lot about how much more hardware has to go into a headset over a game "console" alone.
There is also the pico that costs more or less the same iirc. Although it's not available worldwide and the company was bought by bytedance not long ago, so...
Sure glad I switched to a Pico 4. Well I still have my Quest 2 for certain situations (VRchat when away from PC) as long as they'll graciously allow me to use it, but that helps me decide whether to get a Q3 or not.
This effectively kills beat saber custom maps, which is a large part of quest users. Currently, the custom maps mod already requires hoops to be jumped through but this is possibly way worse.
Lolol only if the beat saber devs willing implement the API that prevents sharing. Christ even on here assholes don't read. It's a optional API and OP is just socially engineering your rage.
Meta never had a good thing. Oculus had a good thing. Meta WAS the bad thing. The writing was on the wall from the start and the open VR community has preached about it for years. It's a shame for the best outgoing PC-Free VR hardware.