Oculus Rift Headsets Around the World Stopped Working Early Today
Early today, Oculus Rift owners put on their headsets to discover that the headset itself was offline. The issue surrounding the Oculus Rift ‘great darkening’ (a term I am hoping to coin) is all on Oculus’s end and will require a patch to be released. Until that time, owners of the VR headset will be met with a “Can’t reach Oculus Runtime Service” error when attempting to use the headset.
An Expired Certificate is the Reason
The reason the Rifts have become unusable appears to be due to an expired certificate, which expired today. Since news of the great darkening has been spreading around the web, an Oculus spokesperson has posted to their official forums this statement,
“We are aware of and actively investigating an issue impacting ability to access Rift software. Our teams apologize for any inconvenience this may be causing you and appreciate your patience while we work on a resolution. We’ll share more updates here as we have them.”
As of the time of writing, there has been no update issued out of Oculus Rift. Some users on Reddit have provide a temporary workaround in turning back the system clock on Windows 10, but that is only a short term solution.
Until Oculus Rift addresses the problem, there isn’t much you can do. Maybe wear the headset outside as some type of designer headpiece? Or use the downtime to take in more simpleton entertainment like going to the movies? If these options don’t appeal to you, I recommend enjoying some of the many memes that are coming out of this debacle, including this brilliant Ready Player One inspired GIF from U/EgoAnt.
