HTC is planning to install Vive arcades in China, the U.S. and Europe. (Photo : Getty Images)
HTC Vive users can now rejoice as there has been another partial workaround for the Oculus Rift's lock on their games with the new Oculus App 1.4 DRM update aimed at locking them down.
Initially, users were disappointed to know that the hack to run Oculus Rift games on the HTC Vive was now prevented by the 1.4 DRM update. However, the maker of the of the hack has a workaround to make some of the games work with other hardware.
The new update contained security updates and bug fixes. What is interesting is that it also had updates that were designed for platform integrity checks which could pertain to the inspection of any hacks available.
Revive, which is the software that allowed Oculus games to run on the HTC Vive VR headset, was initially blocked by the update. This meant that only Oculus Rift users were able to play their games, PC World reported.
The so-called integrity checks of the new update prevented Revive from running. Many users were disappointed as Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said before that they will not care whether the games will be modded to run on other hardware.
Fortunately, there is now a workaround available for the hacking software. Revive developer Libre VR told Motherboard that he was able to bypass the DRM on the Oculus App 1.4 update.
Libre VR, which translates to "Free VR," said that he did not make the software for people to be able to pirate games for the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift. In the future, he could still disable the ownership check which will make it harder for users to use pirated versions.
Locking down games on a specific hardware is usually how companies profit better. Sony has their own PlayStation exclusives like the "Uncharted 4" title.
However, users of the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift headset would like to experience as many games as possible for their devices. The first wave of VR devices is considerably expensive.
In addition, the gaming rig setup needed to run the headsets smoothly is also expensive. The current recommended video card is the GTX 980 but NVIDIA has recently unveiled the more powerful but cheaper GTX 1080 that can be used instead.
Oculus has not responded yet to the Revive workaround for the HTC Vive headset. It is not known whether the DRM accidentally locked or if the company meant for it to happen.
