If you like an audience for your virtual reality antics, then you’ll doubtless be pleased to learn that the Oculus Rift is about to offer all users the ability to livestream to Facebook.
Yes, the first update of 2019 for the Oculus Rift– which is available on the public test channel now, and will roll out later in January for everyone – introduces streaming to Facebook Live, assuming that the game or app you are running supports the feature.
Your Facebook audience will see exactly what you’re experiencing in virtual reality with a live broadcast. The caveat, as mentioned, is that developers have to opt-in and support the live streaming feature for their apps.
Currently, hundreds of apps apparently have support ready to roll, and they include Echo VR, VR Sports Challenge, and Wild West shooter Dead & Buried.
If you want to show off to your friends, family, or anyone else who cares to watch, simply head to the Dash Menu when you’re in VR and hit the Livestream to Facebook button. It’s as easy as that.
Virtual housekeeping
Oculus is also introducing Public Homes with this update, and as the name suggests, this means you can open your VR Home to visitors by flicking a switch to make it public.
Users will be given recommendations of Public Homes they might want to visit, and the idea is to make it easy to find folks who share your interests. And of course you may get some inspiration for how to do-up your own VR space by looking at other people’s homes.
Public Homes will arrive with a raft of tools to manage your privacy and give you control over the guest list of visitors, so you can decline a request to look at your space, or indeed disable the public option entirely, should you think better of it down the line.
Furthermore, it’s possible to report any abuse you get from visitors intent on griefing and the like, and you can mute them, too, if necessary.
As with Facebook livestreaming, this is still in beta and only available to testers right now, with a broader rollout to the general Oculus Rift population expected later in January.
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Via Engadget
