AMD Cards Not Compatible With DK2 After Oculus Platform Update

[kcarbotte]

Earlier this week, Oculus started rolling out a new version of the Oculus Home software. Shortly after that, multiple Reddit users complained that their developer kits stopped working properly after they received the update.

AMD Cards Not Compatible With DK2 After Oculus Platform Update : Read more

 

[Mr5oh]

So wait Oculus's update broke it, but "don't expect them to fix it?" Sounds like a real good reason to avoid them. If you aren't going to support it, don't update it either. Especially if you aren't going to be willing to fix it when you break it. As the old saying goes, don't fix what ain't broke.

 

[NamelessBryan]

I'm not saying Oculus is in the right here - but it's not on them to maintain developer tech forever. When it comes to developer preview hardware, it is buyer beware. It's unreasonable for us to expect prototype and dev hardware to remain supported forever. If I had a consumer model I would be pretty bummed if they held back performance boosting updates so that the older Developer-focused models wouldn't break. And even if Oculus could have prevented the issue on their end, the cost wouldn't be free in terms of development & QA resources.

Kinda sucks for AMD because it generates some bad publicity for them when the problem is obviously on Oculus' side. Would love to see AMD step up with a driver update and save the day for anybody with a DK2, though.

 

[steve15180]

I'm really scratching my head on this one. Let me see if I get this. Oculus
builds a device, Oculus releases drivers, Oculus breaks compatibility with AMD
graphics cards. Got to be an issue with AMD, they can fix it??? How do you
get there? Last I checked, AMD and Nvidia use different hardware. Could be
the way Oculus accesses the hardware. Why would it be incumbent on AMD
to fix Oculus product if they won't? Why don't you just say "see, Oculus users
should have bought Nvida cards". Makes as much sense.

 

[cryoburner]

For now, DK2 owners with AMD graphics cards can either put their headset away or get an Nvidia graphics card.

Or, get a headset from another company that properly tests and supports their hardware. The DK2 might technically be considered a "developer kit", but most of the people buying them undoubtedly weren't developers. And up until last year, it was considered the current version of the Rift . If they truly no longer support their previous generation of headsets, then moving to a different video card might only offer a temporary fix, as another update might break functionality on that hardware as well. It's possible that Oculus may fix the issue though. They may have simply done a shoddy job of beta testing the update, and it's probably in their best interest to not have people reporting about their updates being broken.

 

[alextheblue]

Consider it a nice thank-you to early adopters.

"Your cash was appreciated, but it's time to throw away your expensive garbage and give us more cash in exchange for the latest model. Love, Facebook."

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

There happens to be a complaint from a Vega 56 user also.

Depending on the issue, AMD may or may not be able to fix it.

Instead of telling folks to shelve either their DK2 or AMD equipment, why not tell them to turn off automatic updates to their software if they aren't already on version 1.20.

 

[Martell1977]

I think this is a black eye for Oculus...if they don't fix it or work with AMD to fix it.

They have a product
They EOL it, but decide to update it anyways.
Update breaks functionality.

How are they not on the hook to fix this? If they aren't going to support the product further, then don't update it further.

 

[cinergy]

" For now, DK2 owners with AMD graphics cards can either put their headset away or get an Nvidia graphics card."

This pretty much sums up which side Tom's hardware is in GPUs. If I'd to buy VR headset it wouldn't be Oculus because its inferior to Vive. And when I'm going to upgrade my AMD GPU it will be another AMD GPU.

 

[warmon6]

I'm not saying Oculus is in the right here - but it's not on them to maintain developer tech forever. When it comes to developer preview hardware, it is buyer beware. It's unreasonable for us to expect prototype and dev hardware to remain supported forever.

What im more surprised about is that DK2 has been "supported" for so long even though it is prototype/developer hardware. I mean, it came out in July 2014... Over 3 Years ago... Then the final retail version been out for a year and a half....

The fact that nothing really broke DK2 till now so long after the launch of the retail version is quite impressive IMO.

Granted, Oculus should of had a system in place to prevent updates to EOL products but then again... anyone that did bought DK2 should of known that it was prototype/developer hardware and these prototype stuff always run the risk of problems. Before and after consumer version launches.

 

[bennie101]

Intel Nvidia can do no wrong but amd or the radeon line up or vega always something negative about it here, I wonder how much is paid for toms to be bias toward other companys. If it wasnt for amd right now Intel would still be sitting on all those wonderfull new chips they suddenly manage to pull out of a rabbits hat!
Its not amd fault that they updated there code and now it wont work with amd,, maybe they should have informed them beforhand so amd could work on a driver?
And lets talk about the all mighty Nvidia clan I have never in my life had so many driver errors from any card maker then I have had from them I cant count the times a message pops up your driver has stop working!!!!! I have seen years of this not with one car not 2 cards but a boat load of card from Nvidia... It seems the 2 kings Intel and Nvidia has some issues as well.

 

[none12345]

I dont own a vr headset, they arent good enough for me to consider yet. Waiting for at minimum 4k/eye resolution(with the gpu to drive it at ~100hz).

But, if i dont see them fix this, i will not be consider buying an oculus anything. Ya its a dev kit, but its barely removed from their current hardware. If thats their level of support, then just no thanks.

 

[redgarl]

Typical Toms AMD bashing... it`s AMD fault all the time here... it`s obviously Oculus lack of support that is the problem.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

This isn't Oculus's lack of support, this is a proactive update for unsupported hardware that is taking away functionality.

If it was known there were issues with certain configurations running DK2, and from reading a few forums it seems that it was an unresolved issue, a simple test is all that is needed to prevent upgrading the Oculus software on systems where it obviously won't work correctly.

Not knowing how serious the change affects games, I do wonder if clients running under an older run-time would have issues when gaming with clients running the newer run-times. If that's the case, for the purposes of multi-player just restrict older versions of the Oculus software from connecting with the newer clients. It doesn't seem to present as a difficult problem for a competent developer to work around, unless this is intentional.

Since the DK2 isn't even supported, Oculus shouldn't be pushing Oculus platform updates to the software running DK2 hardware.

 

[photonboy]

Can't you just reinstall the previous version of Oculus Home Software for now?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

The understanding I get is that, upon installing an old version, it updates to the most recent software, not the next incremental version. So, I assume at this point until a fix is released, if you can manage to install an old version of the Oculus home software, you will have to prevent any auto updating, and stay with an old version, losing any improvements that have made to this point.

Whether that prevents any installed apps from functioning, I have no idea.

 

[Sakkura]

I think this is a black eye for Oculus...if they don't fix it or work with AMD to fix it.

They have a product
They EOL it, but decide to update it anyways.
Update breaks functionality.

How are they not on the hook to fix this? If they aren't going to support the product further, then don't update it further.

It's a prototype, not a consumer product.

That said, it would be nice if people could just pick an older SDK version to stay on.

 

[10tacle]

Intel Nvidia can do no wrong but amd or the radeon line up or vega always something negative about it here, I wonder how much is paid for toms to be bias toward other companys.

Typical Toms AMD bashing... it`s AMD fault all the time here... it`s obviously Oculus lack of support that is the problem.

And right on queue, here come the usual suspects complaining about a non-existent Tom's bias against AMD. Yes, because reporting an issue related to AMD hardware instead of shoving it under the rug helps keep people informed. Now let's just see where all this alleged bias is in this article, shall we?

As we dug deeper into the online reports, we noticed a pattern: Everyone who complained of a problem appeared to be using a Radeon graphics card of one type or another, including the R9 280, R9 290X, and R9 390 Radeon. Meanwhile, we found no issues reported from people with Nvidia graphics cards.

I see fact, not bias.

Our test machine features an Intel Core i7-5930k and a Zotac GTX 980Ti graphics card, so we swapped in a Power Color RX 480 and--bingo. We replicated the issue with the AMD card installed.

I see fact, not bias.

For some reason, AMD’s graphics driver is not compatible with the Oculus DK2 hardware combined with the latest Oculus driver software.

I see fact, not bias.

For now, DK2 owners with AMD graphics cards can either put their headset away or get an Nvidia graphics card.

I see fact, not bias. Now someone here, ANYONE, show me the bias that Tom's has against AMD. I'll wait. In the meantime, there are arguments for both sides on who is the root cause of this issue. But the bottom line is that AMD cards are broke with the DK2 update. You can't wash it, you can't spin it, and you can't hide it.

And another thing that gets lost here is what Sakkura said above: we are not dealing with an off-the-shelf consumer ready piece of hardware here. Buying the DK2 is nothing more than buying an early release game on Steam and being a non-paid Beta tester through different phases of updates before the game goes gold. I've had my share of that where games got broke or performed worse with either/both AMD and Nvidia GPUs with certain updates.

 

[AjvarXX]

I see fact, not bias. Now someone here, ANYONE, show me the bias that Tom's has against AMD. I'll wait.

No need to wait, it has been pointed 5 times already but I will underline it for you:

For now, DK2 owners with AMD graphics cards can either put their headset away or get an Nvidia graphics card.

THIS. This BS is a biased responce as if ditch Radeon now or continue taking pain.
It's BS and biased because normal reaction would be ditching Oculus and buying Vive instead and for all.

 

[10tacle]

I see fact, not bias. Now someone here, ANYONE, show me the bias that Tom's has against AMD. I'll wait.

No need to wait, it has been pointed 5 times already but I will underline it for you:

For now, DK2 owners with AMD graphics cards can either put their headset away or get an Nvidia graphics card.

THIS. This BS is a biased responce as if ditch Radeon now or continue taking pain.
It's BS and biased because normal reaction would be ditching Oculus and buying Vive instead and for all.

FACTS. Still waiting, fan boys.................

 

[ajcroteau]

To make life easier for developers, hardware manufacturers should be supporting an abstraction layer that developers can subscribe to and it should just work... That being said, I've noticed that oculus software has been labeled BETA which basically not done or incomplete software. That being said, oculus is most likely not extensively testing their software on multiple configurations...

 

[Midnitte]

The logic seems a tad lacking, if Oculus' update broke it, it seems clear it isn't something AMD did or something that should or even have to fix. That said, AMD has pretty fantastic support for drivers so I'm sure we'll see them fix it, but this is pretty clearly Oculus changing something.

For now, DK2 owners with AMD graphics cards can either put their headset away or get an Nvidia graphics card.

Jeez, tell us how you really feel Tom's.

 

[10tacle]

Instead of downvoting my above comment, why don't one of you actually challenge my argument instead of cutting and running?

 

[phobicsq]

I just don't buy amd cards and so many issues went away.

 

[redgarl]

I just don't buy amd cards and so many issues went away.

I had more problems with all my Nvidia cards than my AMD cards.

My BFG 8800 GTX and two EVGA 1080 GTX FTW were RMAed.

My 9800 Pro, my two HD 6850 HIS, and my two 290x Powercolor never had similar issues.