Shifty
Member
https://www.techradar.com/news/oculus-rift-vr-headsets-everywhere-get-bricked-for-a-silly-reason
This took my Rift down today, as well as two of the headsets we have at work. You can get around the issue by setting your system clock back to before the expiry and restarting the Oculus runtime service, but that leaves you with limited access to HTTPS websites and various other PC functionality that depends on a properly synchronized clock.
I know we have a PCVR OT kicking around somewhere, but I'm posting this as a thread as I think the larger implications are a worthy topic of discussion:
Given the locked-down nature of the Oculus ecosystem, mistakes like this have a far greater impact than they would if the implementation was based on an open standard rather than a proprietary one that bakes DRM into something so core as basic operation of the headset.
It's not the end-of-the-world 'everything is bricked RIP' situation that the more clickbaity outlets are making it out to be and Oculus are working on the problem, but the fact remains that the entirety of their non tech-savvy desktop customer base is unable to use the product that they paid for or the associated library until a fix is put in place. And that's to say nothing of development houses working to deadlines that involve developing software for the platform- when you have an established software infrastructure to work with, winding back the clock on your dev machine may not be a viable option.
To me, this is a prime example of the downsides associated with the tech industry's gradual creep toward walled gardens and everything-as-a-service. The further it goes, the more power the platform holders have and the greater the ramifications of their actions, or in this case, inaction. Something has to give at some point, but I'm having trouble picturing an outcome where the problem of black-box walled gardens simply goes away.
(Prevent me from using VR for a day if old.)
Rather than being able to jump into VR, Oculus Rift owners around the world were greeted with a dialog preventing them even using their headsets.
As it turns out, Oculus VR – and, by proxy, its owner Facebook – seems to have forgotten to renew a crucial app permission certificate within its Oculus Runtime Service for Windows 10 PCs. Oculus VR forum users the world over have cited the problem seen below in a thread that’s six pages long at the time of writing
This took my Rift down today, as well as two of the headsets we have at work. You can get around the issue by setting your system clock back to before the expiry and restarting the Oculus runtime service, but that leaves you with limited access to HTTPS websites and various other PC functionality that depends on a properly synchronized clock.
I know we have a PCVR OT kicking around somewhere, but I'm posting this as a thread as I think the larger implications are a worthy topic of discussion:
Given the locked-down nature of the Oculus ecosystem, mistakes like this have a far greater impact than they would if the implementation was based on an open standard rather than a proprietary one that bakes DRM into something so core as basic operation of the headset.
It's not the end-of-the-world 'everything is bricked RIP' situation that the more clickbaity outlets are making it out to be and Oculus are working on the problem, but the fact remains that the entirety of their non tech-savvy desktop customer base is unable to use the product that they paid for or the associated library until a fix is put in place. And that's to say nothing of development houses working to deadlines that involve developing software for the platform- when you have an established software infrastructure to work with, winding back the clock on your dev machine may not be a viable option.
To me, this is a prime example of the downsides associated with the tech industry's gradual creep toward walled gardens and everything-as-a-service. The further it goes, the more power the platform holders have and the greater the ramifications of their actions, or in this case, inaction. Something has to give at some point, but I'm having trouble picturing an outcome where the problem of black-box walled gardens simply goes away.
(Prevent me from using VR for a day if old.)