Meta Releases Anti-piracy Tools for Quest Devs, Including Hardware-based App Bans & More

vrcoin on July 26, 2023

Meta announced it’s introducing new anti-piracy measures for Quest developers that the company says will protect VR apps from “unauthorized modifications and potential security breaches.”

Called the Platform Integrity Attestation API (Attestation API), Meta says its new system is designed to detect whether an app’s server is interacting with an untampered VR device, thereby ensuring whether an app is authentic or not.

The Attestation API includes things like secure device authentication, hardware-based app bans, protection of financial and enterprise app data, prevention of external data misuse, and other anti-piracy measures.

In a developer blogpost, Meta calls it “increasingly important to instill a consistent method for validating the integrity of apps in order to provide a secure and safe user experience for everyone.”

It remains to be seen what effects this will have on modding communities, since modders for Quest games such as Beat Saber may inadvertently run afoul of the new token system at the core of the Attestation API.

“Once integrated, the API will provide you with an ‘attestation token,’ which you can use to determine if an app running on a Meta device has been tampered with,” Meta says. “This token is cryptographically signed by the Attestation Server to reinforce the security and reliability of the attestation process.”

At the time of this writing, we have not yet received a response for comment from Meta on what effects it may have on those communities. We’ll update this piece when/if we do.

Meta is allowing developers to opt-in now for their Quest apps, which spans Quest 2, Quest Pro, and the upcoming Quest 3, whcih is slated to launch in late 2023. Meta has published documentation for both Unity and Native.

This article was originally published on roadtovr.com

Why Mark Zuckerberg Won’t Own the Metaverse

vrcoin on May 26, 2022

I can’t remember a period in my lifetime where the political and social conversation was more polarized. For every opinion, no matter how inane, you can find someone on the internet to vehemently disagree. However, one take is nearly universally endorsed across the sociopolitical spectrum: Mark Zuckerberg is not a force for good in the world. The recent news that Meta can take nearly a 50% cut of goods sold on Horizon Worlds, its metaverse platform, received widespread condemnation, uniting everyone from Fortune 500 CEOs, to left-wing Twitter, to whatever category Elon Musk falls into. The headlines hit many of the familiar talking points levied against Meta: greedy, hypocritical, unfriendly to creatives, and run by a cruel young cyber-monarch. But, more importantly, this news also sheds light on Zuckerberg’s troubling concept of the metaverse: a top-down, closed system controlled by a single organization. .ud361b6b33f4172bfc566fdcd954594e4 { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important;

The XR Week Peek (2022.04.10): Epic releases Unreal Engine 5, Meta cancels F8, and more!

vrcoin on April 10, 2022

I know you weren’t expecting my newsletter for today, but since I’m going to have a very busy next week, I’ve anticipated the release of my roundup! This afternoon I’m flying to Paris to then go to Laval to attend Laval Virtual, one of the oldest events about virtual reality, where I’ll be as an attendee, a virtual speaker (about the game HitMotion: Reloaded), a host of the AWE Nite Florence (featuring great speakers like Charlie Fink… ), and also as a.. I can’t tell you the last one because it will be a surprise! I have written a little blog post about my participation there. It’s going to be very interesting and very busy… I hope to meet you in Laval! Top news of the week (Image by Epic Games)Epic Games releases Unreal Engine 5 Epic Games has finally released the latest iteration of its popular game engine: Unreal Engine 5. UE5

Apple Reportedly Wants Nothing To Do With The Metaverse

vrcoin on January 10, 2022

A source claims the company’s highly-anticipated mixed reality headset will prioritize shorter experiences. Last year rumors began circulating that Apple is in development of its own combination VR/AR headset. As for when we can expect to get our hands on this long-rumored mixed reality device, some sources are reporting a potential 2022 release date, though the company has yet to comment.That said, whileApple CEO Tim Cook has stated that AR technology is “critically important” for the company’s future, it appears as though they have little to no interest in the “metaverse,” aka the future of everything.Image Credit: The InformationIn Mark Gurman’s latest “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg, the Apple and consumer tech expert claims that Apple has little to no interest in bringing the metaverse to its mixed reality hardware and will instead be focusing its efforts on delivering shorter experiences best enjoyed in small “bursts.” These experiences could include

The XR Week Peek (2021.12.13): Horizon Worlds is now in open beta, Among Us VR is coming, and more!

vrcoin on December 13, 2021

This has been a pretty interesting week for me, having spoken at XR Safety Week and Stereopsia, and having published two cool articles about creating innovative SteamVR controllers and using Application SpaceWarp in Unity to almost double the framerate of your application.  But now, before starting the new week, it’s time to look back at the most important news of the previous one! Top news of the week (Image by Meta)Horizon Worlds goes open beta Finally, after two years in the works, Meta has decided to open the gates of its social VR space Horizon Worlds (previously known as Facebook Horizon). Or at least, sort of: the experience is still in beta (so this is officially an open beta stage) and it will be accessible without an invite only in the US and in Canada. Ah, and you must be 18+ years old.  The North-America-only limitation is quite a bummer for us Europeans, but