Version 1.16 of Oculus Rift software is beginning to roll out to all Rift users, adding support for Mixed Reality capture, a redesigned interface for future updates and issue reporting, a new Home environment and multilanguage support. The Store now supports 360°-only apps, and provides alerts before purchases if you don’t have an appropriate tracking setup.

Following the recent version 1.15 update, which added further optimisations to room-scale support and dropped the ‘experimental’ tag, Oculus have taken another step towards embracing room-scale VR experiences with version 1.16, which now allows 360°-only apps. Until now, all Rift content on the Oculus Store was required to support the ‘front-facing’ tracking mode, i.e. with one or two Oculus Sensors pointing in the same direction. When Oculus launched the Touch motion controllers in December, it included a single Oculus Sensor in the package, to add to the existing Sensor used for the Rift headset. The recommended setup of placing the two Sensors 3-6 feet apart directly in front of you remains the default configuration, but is no longer a requirement for Store approval. Now, developers can choose to support 360°-only, which is achieved by placing the two sensors diagonally opposite each other across the play area, or with the recommended three-sensor configuration.

Early support for mixed reality capture has also been added, but the release notes warn of a delay before this is practical, as developers will likely need to update their apps to fully support the feature. Mixed Reality footage has been shown with Oculus hardware before using custom solutions; this update marks a positive step towards simplifying the process.

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The new update also improves the language support and redesigns the interface and technical process for updates, with the ability to read the full release notes from the Oculus software. Users will now be able to report issues directly from the software too. Oculus Home has also been given a new Cityscape environment, with the promise of more environments to come.

Full details and a recent history of Oculus software release notes is available here.

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Dominic Brennan
The trial version of Microsoft’s Monster Truck Madness probably had something to do with it. And certainly the original Super Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. A car nut from an early age, Dominic was always drawn to racing games above all other genres. Now a seasoned driving simulation enthusiast, and former editor of Sim Racer magazine, Dominic has followed virtual reality developments with keen interest, as cockpit-based simulation is a perfect match for the technology. Conditions could hardly be more ideal, a scientist once said. Writing about simulators lead him to Road to VR, whose broad coverage of the industry revealed the bigger picture and limitless potential of the medium. Passionate about technology and a lifelong PC gamer, Dominic suffers from the ‘tweak for days’ PC gaming condition, where he plays the same section over and over at every possible combination of visual settings to find the right balance between fidelity and performance. Based within The Fens of Lincolnshire (it’s very flat), Dominic can sometimes be found marvelling at the real world’s ‘draw distance’, wishing virtual technologies would catch up.
  • Tommel

    Nice. Every kind of improvement is much appreciated, although the current Oculus room-scaling already works quite well. Next update VIVE support then? Thanks in advance, Zuckerberg! Love you. :-*

    • Firestorm185

      Vive support in an update would be awesome, but from what I’ve heard HTC won’t give Oculus their code to get it working on there…

      • G Vandom

        of course they won’t. Why would anyone give their technology to a direct competitor?

        • VR Toast

          I agree with Robbie and G, there’s no way HTC would help Oculus get Vive support…unless of course Oculus buys Vive, but we’re probably a few years out from that even being a possible reality.

          • G Vandom

            HTC VR is based on technology developed in cooperation with Valve. So to fully get the Valve tech they would need to buy Valve as well.
            Atm the bigger problem for Oculus tough is their legal battle with Zenimax who are still in the process of getting a court to grant their injunction that could hold Oculus Rift sales completely.
            Plus after a year of many lies and deceptions Oculus has quite the damaged image thanks in no small part to Palmer Luckey.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            What lies, and what deceptions? let’s not forget the promises Luckey made where long before the DK1 arrived and with the DK2 it would have been as promised, but then they got bought by Facebook and they had money to develop it further. If they hadn’t been bought, the DK2 (with some minor improvements) would have been the CV1 and then it would have been as promised. But after the DK2 they never actually said anything about pricing, it was the community that brought the earlier statements up.

          • G Vandom

            They promised even after FB takeover that the Rift would remain an open VR headset but they went back on that after launch.
            They promised they would not do any exclusivity but then started to push it hard.
            Both causing major backlash and ruining their image

          • NooYawker

            Anyone who believes anything Facebook says is an idiot. It’s a company that makes it’s profits from invading privacy data mining.

          • Justos

            Nobody is being invaded when they use facebook. Its a service which they give information to.

          • NooYawker

            Yea and my extension which blocks frackers blocks Facebook and google on nearly every website out there including this one. I don’t have a Facebook account why are they tracking me?
            But you are 100% correct that people who use anything from Facebook is freely giving up their pricacy.

          • yexi

            What lies ? what deceptions ? are you serious ?
            We can speak about:
            – The price (Oculus+Touch > Vive)
            – The tracking (better now, but not perfect)
            – Almost no roomscale (they say it’s useless. Meh…)
            – The release date (HTC Vive was out before Oculus…)
            – The Touch tracking quality and their release date
            – Touch work with not refillable batteries (seriously ?)
            – Hard to configure (a little better now, but not perfect)
            – The OculusService send screenshot and logs to Facebook almost all the time (and use all bandwidth).
            – Very close platform. I want to remember that at first they made special DRM to avoid Oculus game on Steam (not the case anymore because people scream about it).
            – The reliability (In do a lot of shows: 3 Oculus dead (2x sound, 1x screen) on 3 shows, for an 1 HTC cable dead in at least 10shows. I stop use Oculus in shows, like almost everyone)
            – The fact of buying finished game to avoid them to be out on others headset.

            Btw, the lighthouse system is almost open-source, and you can find hardware and software easily… so saying that Oculus in not Vive compatible because of that is false.

            It’s true that the color and contrast is a little better in dark environments on the Oculus that on the Vive, but it’s the only advantage on this headset actually.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            -Price? nope, the 300-400 was when it was still refered to as the DK2 being the final product.
            -Tracking? nope, no deception/lie there, it is what it is and always have been.
            -Almost no roomscale?, nope, no deception/lies there, they never said they would do roomscale, but in the end they added it (so it’s no lie or deception).
            -Releasedate? the never actually said a release date only an aproximation (and they certainly never said it would be out before vive).
            -the touch tracking and their release? again nope, they never said anything definite about it..
            -hard to configure? that in the eye of the beholder, enough people say the same about the vive, and what has that got to do with lies and deception.. and it’s not even that hard..
            -Oculusservice sending screenshots and logs to facebook almost all the time? proof it, as that’s just bullocks..
            -Very close platform? not really, it’s HTC that doesn’t want to support the OculusSDK, not the other way round (but that’s understandable, as they partner with valve which has only one intention, and that’s selling games through their steam platform, THAT’s valve’s cashcow, nothing else). As a developer I can put my game on the Oculus store or Steam, Oculus doesn’t limit me (but I am required to use the OculusSDK for the Oculus store, but that’s understandable as it’s their API to the store, just like Valve demands you use SteamVR if you want to use Steamrelated features (but you can put your game in their store if you don’t use SteamVR). ohhh, they used DRM on games they financed… it’s not like Steam doesn’t have DRM if you want to use it (check how many cracks there are for ripping the steam DRM from pirated games)…
            -Reliability? Don’t know, haven’t heard that problem before, but also heard enough failures of the Vive (let’s not even get to the controllers).
            -Fact of buying finished game? uhh what has that got to do with lies and deception?
            All things (at least 90%) you mention are just your feelings and not actual lies/deceptions.
            But hee if you like vive, you just stick to that.. I don’t care, just as I don’t care about Oculus, still have the DK2 and I’m not planning on buying a CV1 or Vive (especially won’t be buying the vive at the moment now they presented their new lighthousesystem, which is cheaper to produce but not compatible with the current vive, and expect new vive’s to ship with the new lighthousesystem by the end of the year..

          • NooYawker

            Gabe would never sell to Facebook. There’s a reason Valve is a private company, so they would never end up being run by dick heads like Zuckerburg.

        • Firestorm185

          I never said they wanted to, duh. Just saying that’s exactly why we won’t see vive in any Home updates for the foreseeable future.

          • G Vandom

            sry came over to me that way ;)

          • Firestorm185

            It’s fine. No bigee.

      • Dylan

        uhhh “won’t give” ? are you kidding me? Vive is open source. OpenVR is open source. Every “vive only” game is also oculus compatible out of the box already. It’s the opposite that isn’t true – even though the OVR runtime is relatively open, its HTC that isn’t making the effort to program their hmd to work int eh Oculus ecosystem. They’re both being shits about it. Remove barriers to exclusivity and you won’t have problems, or just legitimize ReVive and and be done with it.

        • Firestorm185

          Um… so I hate to be a nit picker here… but you just said HTC isn’t putting in effort to get Vive working in Home…. which is the point I was making… whether or not the SDK is Open source doesn’t make any difference if the company won’t make their HMD work with the other company’s software albeit hacks.

  • Shaun

    It looks like the cameras Oculus uses will help them utilize mixed reality. The Vive has some advantages right now with easier tracking but Oculus may hold the long- term advantage.

    • Jason Mercieca

      Oculus is always 2 steps behind vive (tracking and wireless)

      • Andrew Jakobs

        How do you know for real? Oculus hasn’t shown anything on what they are developing right now, at least not to the public. If the Intel wireless solution works on the vive, it will also work on the rift.

        • yexi

          no. Vive use an HDMI, not the rift, it’s the problem. The Intel system use the HDMI signal, and is not compatible with Oculus.

          For now, nobody have manage to made the Oculus wireless, it’s more or less impossible (or at least way harder that on Vive).

          For the tracking, it’s better that before, but way behind Vive… In addition lighthouse new laser technology is awesome (but not backward compatible).
          Proof that the Constellation tracking suck ? Oculus say they will use laser/IR base tracking in the future products, like on the Vive.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            uhhh, the rift is also using HDMI…
            I think it’s good if Oculus is gonna use lighthouse, if only for having one standard tracking system. but have you got any links to where it is said oculus will be using laser/ir tracking on future products, as I have never heard about it, especially because they don’t say much about future products.

          • G Vandom

            i think there will be differences between wireless for rift & vive mostly due to them having different layouts for their sockets for HDMI USB etc. the rifts are straight while the vive are at an angle due to the design placement of the sockets.

          • JeanClaude

            Ya, I think rift would be smart to use Valve’s lighthouse tech. I’m not sure if Valve will allow it though, since oculus runs its own store.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            But that’s not for valve to decide anymore as they said anyone could use their tech..

      • Jason Lovegren

        Tracking is no longer lagging. I have perfect tracking and the image quality is better than the vive. I have test both out extensively and although the rift is harder to setup the software is better. The games are better, I like home better than steams layout. ASW is better than reprojection which is defiantly a plus since I have a gtx 1080ti and know I have some future proof in the game. And yes the vive is also awesome but I feel like software is king on Oculus. Yes you have doom VR and Fallout VR, but this will simply be the birth of Re-rift. The vive hardware is looking promising but honestly once the hardware is established there will be much better headsets anyways. I do get it though, you must protect what is yours but Oculus as of right now is on point.

    • G Vandom

      At this point it is more the question if they can continue at all. the lattest argument they brought forward in court where not to overwhelming. They pretty much admitted that their headset won’t work without ZeniMax code and ZeniMax seems determined to stop sales of the Rift no matter what.