Meant to be Seen

For the ~30 pre-kickstarter $500 paypal backers, this thread is for us.

I paid $500 on Jun 14, 2012. I requested the $200 difference refunded and Palmer emailed me back on August 25 saying it would be a couple weeks for the refund, which I have yet to receive.
So I could follow along the official kickstarter updates, I pledged an extra $10.

Should all the pre-kickstarter backers respond to this thread so we know who each other are?

When does everyone expect to get the prototype? With the estimate I expect/hope within 60 days!

I'm on the pre-kickstarter. I didn't ask for a refund, added an extra bit to the kickstarter to follow it as well I have no specific expectations on when it will arrive, early is always awesome but I'll wait till I get contacted. I'm very content working on my project to have something ready to play with day 1 Palmer said something about taking care of the pre-kickstarters and I have no doubt that will be the case Too many smiles? You can never have enough! You must believe

pre-kickstarter here as well. I always thought $500 was a fair price for the device so he can keep the extra cash. I also bought a Kickstarter unit, so I could be sure to have at least one that was assembled properly. But I'm proud to be getting one of the first-runs. I hope they look different than the Kickstarter devices in some way. Looking forward to November.

Gave him 600, not asking for a refund or anything. The main driver in giving him some early money for me was allowing him to spend it on kits to give to to developers to help move the kick starter along. Until the first run is complete, id assume he's pretty swamped. Considering how swamped he probably is, he's responded to all my emails in what id consider a great time frame. Id imagine you'll get your refund, just have to wait till things get settled re: manufacturing...etc when he has time to make sure things get done properly.

Not a pre-kickstarter, but looking forward to any info you guys can provide when you get the hardware. Pictures, tech specs, reviews, demos, mods, anything.

" I hope they look different than the Kickstarter devices in some way. Looking forward to November."

Wont the pre-kickstarter gear be a diy kit? Thats how it is for the first 100 kickstarter Rifts.

Pre-kickstarter for $500. Hoping to give Palmer some more money and upgrade to 2 Rifts at the new price, but PMing him is just about useless right now. Even so, I'm happy to let them have the extra money.

Has there been any updates for kickstarters only that involved the SDK? I think the kickstarters have gotten an address request but other then that curious if i'm missing something. Id imagine anything big would make it to the forums, but worth asking for those who tossed a little into the kickstarter fund.

I emailed Palmer about this roughly a month ago, he said he would be getting in contact with the pre-kickstarter backers closer to ship date. Hopefully that's coming up soon

Well we are exactly 2 weeks away from November and I'm starting to get excited. I wonder when we can expect to get info about the expected ship dates for the pre-kickstarter units? I'm guessing it won't be on Nov 1 - more like mid November, but I sort of hope that we do get a decent (1 month) head-start on the main Kickstarter batch. We should be rewarded for taking that blind plunge before all the fancy videos and reviews.

Keep in mind that some of us were not aloud to order the pre-kickstarter units as we are out of the US. Luckily I was able to secure one of the first 100 units on kickstarter while in the middle of the bush camping with my family lol! Can't wait!

FingerFlinger wrote:Pre-kickstarter for $500. Hoping to give Palmer some more money and upgrade to 2 Rifts at the new price, but PMing him is just about useless right now. Even so, I'm happy to let them have the extra money.

Ditto. In for $500, hoping to shore that number up so I can get two.

November is half way over! Any of the pre-kickstarter funders receive any hints of progress?

Not yet

I just hope the pre-kicksters had an appreciable affect, and somehow greased the wheels on this whole project - not for personal glory - just for a sense of community. I'm fairly sure that more than a handful of us know far too much about alienation, in this world that touts human social interaction as a highly prized norm. Dare we think the doors, to what is most deeply important about human experience, are about to be flung open?......?



(ok..... maybe I do need to get out more) . and thx again Palmer, I sure am happy to have been here for all of this!

It had to be asked - pre-kickstarter preorders also delayed till march? Great update and looking forward to getting it March or earlier, hehe... the design looks really solid and I hope the 7" display will make a difference in clarity and show less spacing between pixels.

I also would like to know. And I still have not received my $200 refund.

The new design looks big, lets hope if feels good to wear and not too heavy!

Can't wait!

The over the head strap should add stability I think not too worried about weight, but I do want to test out my VR desktop! Also, maybe write a nice VR iPhone game.... Not sure how to get sensor data in though, maybe through the headphone jack?

I seem to remember that there are only about 20 pre-kickstarter orders. If Oculus can acquire all the raw parts I wonder if they could just make 3D printed shells for the pre-kickstarters to avoid the factory tooling delay. 20 printed shells would not be a big deal to create. Hell, even if they just put up the CAD design and let us print it ourselves that would work for me. They probably still have some work to do on the tracker and the control box, but it would be great if we could these units in the Jan/Feb time frame.

I imagine the DIY thread will start getting a lot more posts

The problem for me with the DIY is that it is probably too late to get all the parts And now I'd have to buy a 3D printer? ... but you're right, its probably for the best... wish the Form 1 was cheaper though, I'd like as smooth and clean a case as possible

There are online services that will print designs for you. It costs a bit more which is not ideal since we already paid $500 for the unit, but it would be worth it for a 2 month speed up in delivery.

I'm considering building a DIY unit, but since it will obviously be substandard compared to the dev-kit and I already have two dev-kits on order - I'm not sure it would be worth it.

brantlew wrote:I'm considering building a DIY unit, but since it will obviously be substandard compared to the dev-kit and I already have two dev-kits on order - I'm not sure it would be worth it.

There might be somebody on this forum with previous experience who would be willing to create them manually for some of the pre-kickstarter people.
Not for profit, but just for his fellow enthusiasts.

There's also the lead times for the (likely bespoke) PCBs for the driver board and tracker, as well as electronics testing.

EdZ wrote:There's also the lead times for the (likely bespoke) PCBs for the driver board and tracker, as well as electronics testing.

Sure. I'm sure nrp is breathing a sigh of relief not being held to a December release date. But hopefully all that work would be completed sooner than the factory is ready for manufacture.

From the kickstarter page:

"The unassembled kit rewards will ship before everyone else (along with the handful of pre-Kickstarter orders from MTBS3D). More details later as they're nailed down. For everyone else, we'll ship kits out as quickly as we receive them from the factory. This depends on how many we receive in the first shipment (though we *expect* more than 3,000)."

So, possibly Jan or Feb, we'll see. The other posts suggested these might be a bit rough, hopefully not wonder what the preorder surprise is if any

Just a quick bump in case this got lost in all the commotion yesterday. I know it's a long shot, but I hope I speak for all of us poor pre-kickstarters, whom entrusted and supported Oculus from the beginning. Before all the fancy videos and corporate backing. And gladly paid nearly twice as much as the kickstarters units without complaining. And whom devotedly never asked for a partial refund or traded up to two kickstarter Rifts. And basked in the glory of owning the first, raw and unpolished prototypes...

Might Oculus consider rewarding this small but faithful lot with a 3D printed case version of the Rift - ahead of the manufactured units once all the components have been completed? If this were to happen we would be forever indebted to your graciousness.

I thought there was a post about the pre-kickstarters somewhere recently. Where somebody had mentioned that they were gonna send that initial first run of production as the pre-kickstarters and DIY kits. Can't find the link now for the life of me.

But that requires the finalized structural design be completed and molds created. Give me a working screen, lenses, tracker, control box, and basic shell - and I'm happy. Others may feel differently.

Same here, I could care less as long as I get it in my hands asap I haven't seen any details about the status of the DIY kits, does anyone have confirmation that they're still going to be kits, or are they just going to be the first batch from the regular production run?

From Oculus at Kickstarter, the recent update

Oculus wrote:What about the DIY-KIT?
@Benjamin – (From my other comment on the Project Comments page) We're still working out the details around the Unassembled Kits and we'll keep those backers posted on progress. We're working hard to get those kits out as quickly as possible. We can't guarantee anything today except that we'll make sure unassembled kit backers are happy with the way it all shakes out.

This was quoted on the same update as well, from another post it appears

Oculus wrote:The unassembled kit rewards will ship before everyone else (along with the handful of pre-Kickstarter orders from MTBS3D). More details later as they're nailed down. For everyone else, we'll ship kits out as quickly as we receive them from the factory. This depends on how many we receive in the first shipment (though we *expect* more than 3,000).

My highlight :P

There was also a message sent out to those in the DIY tier:

This message is specifically for people in the "Unassembled Kit" tier who were supposed to receive their DIY Oculus Rift developer kit within the next few days.

Sorry for pushing out the shipping date for these kits at the 11th hour. Obviously, we'd love for you all to already have these.

We haven't nailed down the specifics, but we have a few ideas for getting the DIY kits out 2-4 weeks earlier than the rest of the rewards. We don't have the exact date, but we'll keep all of you updated on progress.

Will the pre-kickstarter glasses be unassembled kits or assembled kit?

They were originally supposed to be unassembled.

"originally" seems to be a key term that, hopefully, will only be positively affected by the most recent developments. I am not going to be upset if the "assembly required" sticker was somehow lost in most recent turn of events.

Yeah, I could care less if they were assembled or not. That's just how they were advertised originally but I doubt anything that was planned for the pre-kickstarter kits has carried through. If I wanted to get my hands dirty with construction, I would just make a DIY Rift. But I still hope that the pre-kickstarters are in the front of the line and hopefully can get the kits a little bit earlier - maybe with some special swag. Some sort of acknowledgement of their early support and higher price.

A few notes from previous posts by Palmer.

- The price will not be any higher than the Kickstarter price. (depending on tier selection)
- They will be assembled
- They will be sent before the Kickstarter ones.

I believe we are going to be able to get a Paypal refund for the difference, depending on what "tier" we may decide to go with.

They will be sent before the Kickstarter ones. I think I recall Palmer mentioning they might be the initial batch that they get from the factory to test for approval before they go into full scale production. So they may be slightly different than the final, depending on if they need to make any more tweaks before going to full scale.

Hey Palmer,

You wouldn't have any updates for the preKickstarters by any chance would you?

On a related note, is it March yet?

While I wasn't among the pre-kickstarter crowd, I do hope Palmer et al does a little something special for those people who have, just as a kind gesture to those who had faith in you and your project before everyone else.

Getting closer to the ship date I'm guessing the 40 pre-production units mentioned in the latest update are reserved for internal testing, anyone heard what the latest plan is for the pre-kickstarter orders?

Last I heard from Palmer via email in November is that a section on OculusVR would be created for us to manage our early pre-orders to get them settled the way we want. I emailed him recently but I guess he's been in China so I can understand why I haven't received a response yet.