Hello PalmerTech and good luck with your endeavor.
Will non-US residents be allowed to buy pre-kickstarter units? Can you give an estimation on the shipping costs? How will international buyer pay (paypal, visa...)?

I think that what you're doing is amazing. I've been waiting for a HMD like that for year and, it really feels right that a guy as passionate about HMDs as you is in command!

Thanks!

P.S.: I know that my questions may be a bit premature, feel free to answer them in your own time of course.

Count me in for a pre-kickstarter unit as well, what's the plan for accepting orders? You can accept paypal payments as donations, if you're clear in the language that funding the business is the main purpose and the gift is not guaranteed, you should have fewer problems with complaints about late shipping, chargebacks, etc. Given your stature on the forums and the level of demand, I don't think its unreasonable to ask the early adopters to go on trust.

Count me in as well if shipping will be available internationally. My only worry is that to many will be signing up which will cause work overload and delays / problems.

Will there be a dedicated wiki or community site? I bet there are allot of people out there eager to contribute. I know I am anyway. http://www.reprap.org is a good example of an
open source hardware/software community. Will the Rift strive to be something alike?

Where should I send my money!?

This is exciting. Count me in! I definitely want to snag a pre-kickstarter kit and start some playing/coding with it.

I agree - there is a ton of Q&A going on here now. (It's only going to increase with more exposure).

A Wiki sounds like a good idea at this point. (At least a rough version of some type.)

* Maintains project focus
* Questions about the kit/project will get addressed by forum members redirecting inquiries to Wiki.
* Most questions your going to get from the Kickstarter crowd would already be answered pre-launch.
* Allows you to focus on other milestones in the project while it's in-progress.

Example :

For good questions you can always post answers to questions here and then attach a link to the wiki siting your answer.

A combination of me PM'ing a few key people here, and then first come first serve.



If you are an international buyer, it is probably best to buy through Kickstarter. The shipping costs will not be too bad because I am shipping as a kit, definitely under $25 USD. You should be able to use Visa.



I wanted to avoid doing that, but reading through the Paypal terms of service, they technically don't like any payments for goods that will take longer than 20 days to ship. Because of that, I might have to go with marking it as a donation/gift.



I think that international buyers should probably use Kickstarter, if only because Paypal gets wary when tons of foreign money starts pouring into an account. I will be posting a link to a Paypal page here shortly.

I think MTBS3D works well as a community site, but a wiki is a great idea. Thanks for the RepRap link, looks like a good model to follow!



For sure, it sounds like it would get use. Going to install a wiki on the site in the next day or so.

I was going to say I'd be in for the pre-kickstarter, but after your post I'll hold off for the kickstarter, due to being the wrong side of the pond (UK).

I wouldn't want to upset your paypal account and end up stalling the whole process!

(Will definitely be in for the HMD+tracker+Doom3 pack on kickstarter though, can't wait to get some of my own stuff working with it)

Crossing my fingers that I'm on the PM list just in case I get called into a random meeting and am not able to get in the first come first serve portion.

I'm from the UK too so will wait for the Kickstarter to save you from Paypal's wrath (I REALLY hope the Kickstarter is a success, else I won't get one of these awesome HMDs!). Unless there is another way to pay for one of the pre-Kickstarter kits?

UK here as well; I'd definitely prefer pre-Kickstarter option if it means I could get it earlier and start making some demos for it, if not I don't really mind. If you need the money, I'm happy to pay early, if not I'll just wait for the Kickstarter.

It looks like the webpage is down http://oculusvr.com/

400 Bad Request

It is up for me, and a few of the friends I had check. Are you still having problems?

Still 400 Bad request.

Have you updated the DNS records lately? Maybe it's just the wrong ip-address. What is the correct ip?

Edit:
It looks like some kind of DNS issue. It will probably update until tomorrow. Time for bed.

Here is the IP, looking into the problem: 184.172.146.0

Definitely ran into random DNS issues here as well, though I made it through eventually. Sounds like it was recently registered or there are conflicting hosts for it: "registered recently at namecheap.com" is the page I get on another connection.

It's working just fine today.

I'm in the same boat, I was hoping to start work on some parallax simulation demos, and playing around with some video ideas. I know a guy at the BBC studio here so will work on getting you some press for the Kickstarter, would be easier if I had something to show them though, maybe we could try and find an alternate payment system for international forum members?

Don't forget, Palmer, that some of us aren't ready to buy a kit yet -- some of us just want to give you money, so that you can research and develop Version 2 of this thing. I hope there'll be an option on Kickstarter for that.

Hi Palmer,

I'm a lttle worried for you that this Kickstarter will end up being bigger than you really want. What are your expectations of the number of Rifts you will have to make? 100, 200? What happens if your Kickstarter goes ballistic and you end up with 1000, 2000, 5000? My gut feel is that this will distract from your greater plans that you now have with various parties (software/hardware) you are engaging with.

Is there a way in Kickstarter to limit it? - so that you only have to sell/produce a maximum amount?

Is it actually in your best interest to now cancel Kickstarter entirely, and perhaps just have a limited offer like you already have for folks who have visited this forum?

Best wishes,

Adam Webber

With Kickstarter you can set a limited number of supporters for each level if you want.

Ah cool.

If there is a limit to the kickstarted this mean that you will have to be among the first to order one....
I hope he won't notice everyone via the newsletter because with my gmail account they are flagged as spam :/ !

I am throwing my money at the screen now, I want to be part of this revolution so bad !!

Check Palmer's signature, you can preorder one right now I think.

Pre-order is for US Only ("This page is only for people in the US.")...I am in Toronto :/ !