OSVR confirms pre-order date for Hacker Development Kit; Launches Content Discovery Platform

[Vor]

I just find it interesting that 10k people registered yet there are only a handful of people participating in these forums. Just goes to show you how strange people can be. Or perhaps the registrants are mostly spam bots (be careful not to over produce)

The early impressions I got were these things would be fabricated on demand to fill a small niche. But thousands of people, that seems like a big factory setting operation just to meet demand.

It is kinda sad that this forum and even the reddit area is pretty barren. Hell, lately there is more spam bots then people crawling the "
OSVR Development" area of the forum. I really wish there was a report this topic button, those bots are starting to get annoying.

[Brenwen]

Just had a thought, Isn't moving a pre-order date pretty much saying that the company isn't confident it can't ship out the device? If only extra time is needed but pretty confident on when things can go through production, then a pre-order date doesn't need to change, its the date when things will start shipping out. In the gaming industry people preorder things months in advance before, so constantly moving a pre-order date just means no one has a clue when they can actually start shipping..

I have same feelings about this project. Very few information about headset, no reviews, game tests, experience from owners. And this forum looks abandoned for a project of such scale. Sometimes I seriously think to foget about OSVR and to wait for Oculus, the only thing that stops me is that the price still looks afordable while Oculus could be too expencive for me (it is only known that it will be higher than 350$).

[mechamania]

Would it be possible that the pre-registered people get a mail that they are on the list for buying this kit?
Because it is not clear to me if I'm on the list. I registered my interest. Is that enough?
I did not see any other registration option.

[Vor]

I love that oculus the other day only said it's more then 350 without saying its actual cost. When they were bought out by facebook they said they'd sell the device at cost to get the eco system going, but I have a feeling that changed. They're going pricing it for some profit. If price isn't being told by oculus or steam, then that means the cost is going to be pretty high and the last thing they need is bad press about their devices costing to much for most people to jump on board. If the devs knew the price point of a device was going to be like 800 dollars, then the incentive to add support or make games around it isn't going to be there since the audience is going to be small and be less profitable.

If I get a code to get the HDK I hope i don't have to use it right away. At this point I want to wait a bit longer for november to see how much the vive is going to cost and if I'm lucky enough to get one. I really like the idea of light house and would be fun to learn how to do full room tracking and see if there is any arduino/raspberry pi projects that can be made to utilize it.

Once the HDK is finally released and all the hardware is specs is opened sourced, how long before a Chinese manufacturer would start cloning the headset, maybe make it look nicer in the process and sell it for a better price point? Feels like razer is missing the boat thats starting to sail, the biggest allure for me was the 200 price point and being released in june but both promises not met. If I knew the hdk wouldn't be out till nov/dec back in jan, I would of just gotten the DK2 then the vive at the end of the year. As a developer I feel like I wasted my time. I could use OSVR with any headset, so I feel dumb waiting for the hdk.

[spekkio]

I just find it interesting that 10k people registered yet there are only a handful of people participating in these forums. Just goes to show you how strange people can be. Or perhaps the registrants are mostly spam bots (be careful not to over produce)

The early impressions I got were these things would be fabricated on demand to fill a small niche. But thousands of people, that seems like a big factory setting operation just to meet demand.

I was one of the people who registered interest but never participated in the forums. The main reason is there just isn't much to participate about without having hardware in hand. It looks like Razer just sent these things to a small handful of real developers (i.e: have released a game) and not hobbyists developers like myself. That seems strange since the OSVR is labeled "Hacker Dev Kit"

I did receive the specs to build one myself, but that's just problematic since the stuff I 3D print may end up being not quite what what Razer makes themselves and I guess I'm not hardcore enough to go figure out how to source parts like lenses, LCD panels, etc. and assemble it.

At this point, I am wondering if I should just wait for a Vive/Oculus to do my hobby development and just screw the OSVR due to all the delays.

[Brenwen]

I dont think price of Oculus will be 800$ or higher - 400-500$ looks more real. Also Vive was anounced as premium headset so its price will be at least 1.5 times higher then oculus. Light house can be great technology but only if it will become wireless. You dont sence wires when you are sitting in a chair but they will we be annoying when you move across the room. And I dont understand why chinese manufactures didnt clone the HDK yet if its specs are open. The really can decrease price to 200$ or less, but with decrease of quality, and first of all - the quality of screen.

[Razer|UrbanVoodoo]

Hi Guys,

Sorry you guys feel there was a lack of communication, so I’ll try to answer your questions:

- Pre- Registrants refer to the people who have been registering their interest through our osvr.org/hardware.html page since early this year. They cover anyone and everyone from developers who have not been chosen to the general public. Our first shipment will not be sufficient to cater to all of the pre-registrations, but we want to minimize the waiting time for those that have been waiting for a long time, so we’ll have units coming out frequently immediately after to keep up with the demand and as we try to clear the backlog we’ll make sure other people also get their hands on their own unit in 2015, so no worries about that

- Regarding the availability of previous design iterations. We will be working towards making those available (E.g. without positional tracking) but we’ll first focus on fulfilling the demand for our latest version, so timing is unknown at this point.

- To clarify the meaning of pre-orders: We’re opening up pre-orders once we know we’re able to ship the first batch of production ready units within 30 days of the date. We feel it’s the most honest way of taking pre-orders as there will be no more surprises and we avoid letting people down.


Hope this clarifies the issues raised. Do let us know if you have further questions.

[Mick P.]

For me personally I'm in no rush for the VR revolution. I think I have a killer app, but the other products don't have the right philosophy for me to get behind, only OSVR does. They also don't seem to know what they are doing if this (http://killscreendaily.com/articles/tec ... l-reality/) article is any indicator. Not only is this so decadent it's off the charts, the Oculus quote is ridiculous, ignores that the price of computers hasn't changed appreciably in a decade, and they aren't going anywhere speed wise either.

"VR is going to go down in price. Computers today that cost thousands are going to be Black Friday specials for $200 in a few years. But that’s not today."

I feel like they are from Mars or meant to say a few HUNDRED years instead

[KydDynoMyte]

...Do let us know if you have further questions.

How's it looking? How far in advance should those purchasing code e-mails go out before you start accepting pre-orders? I'm a little curious because I have never gotten an e-mail response from anything OSVR related after registering interest in the HDK or signing up on this forum.

[Vor]

I finally got the preorder email. Says it won't ship out for 30 days, so I won't get it till December? Also, if I order and at some point in nov I don't want it anymore can I cancel the order?