The Thread of Broken Meta/Oculus Homes - after update 53 Meta has disabled all Homes

[RuneSR2]

Seems like Meta decided to tear down all Homes with update 53 - with no warning. My Home has been working for about 5 years, I'm extremely unhappy to lose my Home. 

Some months ago I took a few pictures of my Home - feel free to add your shots or video of lost Oculus Homes to this thread.

I really never got tired of that view

It kinda felt like a real home - and depending on your income, could look a lot better than your home in the real world - this effect should not be underestimated

My collection of Stormland statues

Close-up of my small collection

A great statue - I really liked that one

A few more perspectives:

My son usually would use the bow, light saber and gun - and import other stuff, but not hard to clean after him 🙂 

Gonna miss the paintings:

- and gonna miss the carpet...

The reflections look awesome:

My Home was nothing special, many have spent many more hours decorating their homes. I really hope we soon can get our homes back. 

There're also several threads on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/12im1wv/did_they_remove_oculus_home_from_pcrift_can_no/

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/130kasd/urgent_appeal_v5153_kills_custom_homes_we_need_a/

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/13i8fp3/what_has_happened_to_oculus_home/

I've just sent a ticket to Oculus Support about this grave issue. 

[RuneSR2]

Btw, I just made a post about my destroyed and beloved home on Reddit - seems I'm not alone appreciating the great homes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/13j7b99/update_53_broke_oculus_homes_my_home_is_now_gone/

Really hope we can get back our homes - or I could live with getting an app to launch home. 

[RuneSR2]

Meta has confirmed that tearing down homes was done intentionally: 

I fail to understand why this was done - Meta spending billions on VR, and then Homes can no longer be supported? I believe the negative backlash over this goes far beyond whatever Meta may consider positive gains of closing the homes.  Same for Echo VR, but Homes may been a much bigger issue than Echo VR, the homes were available to all users and integrated in the desktop app. 

So after 6 years of supporting Meta and Oculus, I get this new Home:

Last week this was my view from Home;

- and no, another bottom-end phone gpu like inside the Quest 3 does not stand a chance rendering this - it even got my oc'ed RTX 3090 to sweat in high res (but also looked great in 45 fps ASW 2.0 with the GTX 1080)

The birds, water and buildings - a scenic view beyond what most might experience even in the real world

Some other buildings

Loved that ol' pirate-ish frigate

Close-up - some Meta artists spent tons of hours making these close to ultramersion textures - now all their work just got deleted?!

See the markings on the wood - these were awesome textures

I wonder how much Meta paid to make these homes - maybe millions? And now just dead? Makes absolutely no sense to me. After 7 years, the SteamVR homes are still working perfectly. 

I doubt users treated this way ever come back to Meta once they have left. 2c. 

[RuneSR2]

UploadVR has now also published the story about Meta discontinuing support for the awesome PCVR homes, still I fail to see what Meta gains from doing this - apart from angering customers:

https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-ends-oculus-home-support/

Spending billions on VR, surely Meta can afford the homes.

[RuneSR2]

Paradise Decay had the most awesome home and just made this video:

https://youtu.be/_aebBn7IDt0

This was once his home, and also shows the potential of Oculus Homes - and why you simply cannot do this with slow phone gpus, and that includes the Quest 3:

[RuneSR2]

Btw, this may bring back Home - but I have not tested if it works:

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/13ol1zm/get_oculus_home_back_and_dash_home_icon/

The complicated procedure done at your own risk:

1.) Download 2.1.1 Version: Support.zip - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dprJ7QxIzyzb4jZC-H-fQ_sRzOVCFA62/view

2.) Download Oculus Tray Tool: https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/oculus-traytool-download.html

3.) Install Oculus Tray Tool.

4.) Open Oculus Tray Tool.

5.) Click "Service & Startup", and click the Blue Square to stop the Oculus Service.

6.) Exit completely out of Oculus Tray Tool.

7.) Open Support.zip. ( https://imgur.com/UFE0wE6 If you have a hard time finding the big green download button )

8.) Open "C:\Program Files\Oculus\" (or your oculus install folder) in another File Explorer window.

9.) Drag the three files inside the .zip into your Oculus folder. Overwrite them all if it asks.

10.) Open the newly overwritten "C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-drivers".

11.) Run oculus-driver.exe. (If any confirmation window popup, select yes)

12.) Turn your internet OFF completely. No access to the internet at all.

13.) Open Oculus Tray Tool again.

14.) Click "Service & Startup", and click the Sideways Blue Triangle to start the Oculus Service.(maybe they are running after driver installation,skip this point)

15.) Open the Oculus App.

16.) Click "Update" at the top of your Oculus window (Red Bar).

17.) Reload Oculus.

18.) If it asks you to update firmware again, do so.

19.) Find notepad in your start menu, right click it, and hit "Run as Administrator"

20.) File > Open, then navigate to "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\"

21.) Open "hosts"

22.) At the bottom of the file add the following text: 127.0.0.1 securecdn.oculus.com

(So the bottom few lines will look like this:)

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.

# 127.0.0.1localhost

# ::1 localhost

127.0.0.1 securecdn.oculus.com

22.5.) Save the file.

23.) Turn your internet back on.

24.) Oculus may display an error about services unavailable, but this is ok!

25.) Your client will still say v12, 12.1, or whatever you are on, but it's okay because the firmware is the thing that's broken.

26.) To verify that the downgrade was successful, open Oculus, hit "Devices".

27.) It will list each component, "Rift S, Right Touch, and Left Touch". Click the little mask icon next to "Rift S".

28.) A side window will pop up and "Software Version" should say 2.1.1.

After updating all this. I then took out (deleted) the DNS Hosts block address from Hosts File, -- 127.0.0.1 securecdn.oculus.com

Copied my own files from a back up and over write these,

Link from my Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VAhsNauDgIbUSBS9HmKjbcTUvCl-8ypm/view?usp=sharing

Over write this (unzip over write) to path C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support

Update firmware to latest Version 53,

Re add the line to end of hosts file save. (127.0.0.1 securecdn.oculus.com )

Then restart the Oculus service.

Home Icon on Dash and Home should then load."

[NE0NPUNK]

Hey Rune, awesome place and screenshots. I'm testing this now, fingers crossed 😕

[RuneSR2]

Thanks, I think the dude posting the method has a Rift-S. I have no idea if it'll work with a Quest 2 - or my Rift CV1.

[NE0NPUNK]

I have to try, I'll keep you posted with any updates.

[RuneSR2]

Awesome, I have many times thought about freezing my Rift installation by deactivating all updates - might be a great idea. I'm not sure anything is going to get better with future updates, could even get worse...