Jul 23, 2021

Oculus All In on OpenXR: Deprecates Proprietary APIs

Oculus VR

Updated on Apr 15, 2024 with the latest information and timing.

Since 2016, Meta Quest has driven the development and adoption of the OpenXR standard to simplify and accelerate XR application development. Over the last year we’ve seen amazing progress on OpenXR across the industry. Oculus, Microsoft, SteamVR and HTC all shipped conformant OpenXR runtimes, Unity and Epic Games added support to their engines and some big titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator VR were released to users.

OpenXR Enters Full Support

To continue this momentum, starting with v31, new features will be delivered via OpenXR extensions, instead of new Oculus Mobile and PC APIs. OpenXR will enter Full Support and will be the preferred API for all new applications going forward, including those that plan to use Passthrough Experimental API functionality.

Full Support means that we:

Help developers build new applications with OpenXR via our Developer Site
Perform QA testing of OpenXR to ensure features are working
Address bugs when reported
Provide developers API access to new capabilities via OpenXR

Oculus Native Mobile and PC APIs Compatibility Support

Applications built with our Oculus Mobile and PC APIs will continue to work, but the level of support we provide will change over the next year. Starting on August 31, 2021, the Oculus Mobile and PC APIs will enter Compatibility Support.

Compatibility Support means that we:

Can provide recommendations for migration of existing applications to OpenXR via guides but are unable to assist with creation of new applications with Oculus Native and PC APIs
Continue to perform limited QA testing of Oculus Native Mobile and PC APIs to ensure features are working
Triage bugs when reported and fix critical ones as needed. Functional bugs will be resolved on a case-by-case basis.
Will not add new capabilities to Oculus Native Mobile and PC APIs

Oculus Native Mobile and PC APIs Will Eventually be Unsupported

A year from now, on August 31, 2022, Compatibility Support for Oculus Native Mobile and PC APIs will end and they will be Unsupported. Existing applications will continue to function on Meta Quest devices, but our level of support will change.

Unsupported means that we:

Will require new applications to use OpenXR, unless a waiver is provided
Will be unable to provide access to Oculus Native Mobile and PC APIs but will allow existing applications to continue to use them.
Can provide recommendations for migration of existing applications to OpenXR via guides but are unable to assist with creation of new applications with Oculus Native and PC APIs
Reduce QA testing of Oculus Native Mobile and PC APIs to automated only to ensure core features are functional
Fix only critical security, privacy, or safety bugs in Oculus Native and PC APIs

OpenXR in Unity Engine

No action is required by Unity developers.

We are migrating Oculus XR Integration (Meta XR SDK)Meta XR Core SDK) and OVRPlugin to an OpenXR backend, which was released as experimental in Dec 2020 (v23). Starting July 2021 (v31), we will fully support OpenXR through the Oculus XR Plugin with Unity 2020+. For developers using Unity 2019.4 LTS and above, we will continue to provide compatibility support via the legacy CAPI/VRAPI backend through until March 2023 (v50). New features, post v31, will only be available via OpenXR.

We continue to closely collaborate with Unity on their OpenXR plugin, which is currently experimental for Meta Quest devices. We will continue to provide support for the Oculus XR Plugin until Unity OpenXR Plugin is fully ready to be used in production.

OpenXR in Unreal Engine

No action is required by Unreal developers.

We will provide support to OpenXR and migrate the Oculus VR plugin (Meta XR Plugin) to OpenXR backend starting in July 2021 (v31), and deliver it along with the legacy CAPI/VRAPI backend. Developers can choose the backend in the Plugin Settings, where the legacy backend will be the default in v31, and we expect the OpenXR backend to become the default in v32. We will continue to provide compatibility support for the OVRPlugin with the legacy CAPI/VRAPI backend until March 2023 (v50). New features will only be available via the OpenXR backend.

We’re also collaborating with Epic Games to deliver full support to Meta Quest devices through the OpenXR plugin in UE5. We’ll continue to provide support for the Oculus VR Plugin (Meta XR Plugin) until UE5 OpenXR Plugin is fully ready to be used in production.

Getting Started with OpenXR

To get started with native OpenXR development, check out our documentation (Mobile, PC) and join the discussion in the OpenXR Development forum.

Games

Mobile

OpenXR

Quest

Unity

Unreal

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