Oculus Rift DK1 is now open source.

[Delaser]

That's right, the Oculus Rift DK1's "Firmware, Schematics and Mechanicals" are now all completely open source.

Reddit thread:
http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2gwvd2/the_dk1_is_now_open_source_design_schematics_and/

Direct Link:
https://github.com/OculusVR/RiftDK1

In my mind, this helps quash the talk of Facebook destroying the company. (Granted, that could still happen, but I've got a little more hope, at least).

It reminds me of Tesla's move of opening up their patents.

This, in theory, sets a baseline for VR headset quality, at least on a technical ability standpoint.
There's no reason to have a headset that performs worse than the DK1, which was actually pretty good, all things considered.

 

VR Tech, it's the future baby!

 

[EChondo]

Sweet, now do DK2 and get a consumer version out there and we are good to go.

[AlexGoesHigh]

this is awesome, really awesome, this could be the biggest thing to kickstart other vr equipment, also is it free to use or does at least the source code is under some form of GPL?

[Delaser]

Oculus hereby grants you a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive,irrevocable (subject to the termination provision below) license under any rights in any patent claims owned by Oculus, to make, have made, use, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Software.

 

It's all there for the taking.

[LAwLz]

 

I was very upset when Facebook bought Oculus, saying that I don't trust Facebook unless they make it open source.

Well apparently that's what they did, at least for the DK1. All the source code for the firmware, and schematics for building the different parts and so on are now on GitHub. There is also detailed instructions on how to build everything.

This was announced at the Oculus Connect Virtual Reality developer conference earlier today.

 

Maybe the Facebook acquisition wasn't as bad as I initially thought. Hopefully they will do the same with the DK2 and future versions as well.

 

There are three reasons why I really like these news.

1) It means that they are still committed to being transparent and open source. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue even after the consumer version is released.

2) We might get other VR headsets that are compatible with software designed for the Oculus Rift. If their statement about selling it at manufacturing cost is true then they don't really have to worry about some other company undercutting them.

3) I haven't looked through the license they released it under, but I assume it will allow people to modify the code. So we might see great mods starting to appear as the community messes around with it.

 

 

Source: RiftDK1 on GitHub

[ERSCreeper]

Interesting

[Oshino Shinobu]

So far, it seems like Facebook has mainly provided funding, then left the Oculus team to do what they were doing. I reckon Facebook's input will become more noticeable once the consumer version has released, probably more on the software side of things. 

[Bogica]

How awesome of them!
I've also been skeptical about Facebook buying them but it might be true that they mainly plan to provide funding.

[Sexy Vanilla Freshness]

Oculus is a flop, nobody cares about it anymore.

[ShadowCaptain]

Wow awesome news

 

Oculus is a flop, nobody cares about it anymore.

 

What are you even talking about? how can something flop, it is not even out yet, there is tons of hyper around it, with tons of companies scrambling to create their own VR experiance..

[Delaser]

Oculus is a flop, nobody cares about it anymore.

I care about it.

My next setup will be built around the rift.