[schwabacher]

The way they chose to present this delay is really infuriating - they have doubled the time to delivery from when the kick starter campaign ended, and made the product worse (a heavier screen farther away from your head).

I understand how hard it is to predict a timeline for a product in development, but I would expect an apology instead of "We’re happy to be able to finally announce that the Oculus Rift developer kits will begin shipping in March 2013."

I am still excited to get mine in March, but this attitude from occulus makes me question weather it is worthwhile to spend much time developing for it.

[schwabacher]

Also worth mentioning - they announced this to backers in an email titled: "Update on Oculus Rift Developer Kit Technology, Shipping Details".

It is easy to skim the email without realizing they are announcing a delay at all. This is the kind of statement that I would expect from AT&T, not a crowdfunded project.

[cma]

Makes sense.. Didn't they hire the CEO from OnLive?

[angersock]

  and made the product worse (a heavier screen farther away from your head).

I think you're being both unreasonable and ignorant--who're you to say that adding 30 entire grams (while exceeding the original specs, most importantly refresh rate) is making the product worse? Additionally, how do you know that a change in screen distance is better/worse?

Don't be a jerk. :(

EDIT: Reworded unkind remark.

[schwabacher]

My problem isn't really with the changes - there is nothing they can do if they can't source the previous panel, and I am sure they chose the best one available. My issue is with how the changes were presented - instead of 'we are sorry, we made a mistake, and here is how we are fixing it' it was 'we are happy to announce..'

The reason a larger screen distance is worse is that the torque on your head is the product of weight, distance, and gravity, so an increase in the distance will cause your neck to tire faster.

[cma]

Put an equal torque on the back of your head, then distance doesn't matter so much (aside from overcoming inertia when moving your head).

[modeless]

Unfortunately they didn't say refresh rate is improved (i.e. 120 FPS screen updates), only that response time (latency) and switching speed (motion blur) are improved.

[angersock]

I stand corrected--I had lumped latency and motion blur into my head under "refresh rate". This is, of course, an error on my part.

[modeless]

Yeah, I had to read that paragraph a couple of times to get it myself. I was really hoping for a 120 Hz panel because I think it could make a big difference. Of course, it's still possible it will support 120 Hz and they just haven't told us yet...