Thumbs up: Palmer, who is no longer associated with the company or product he helped create, is under no obligation to fix broken headsets. Instead, he said he is doing it because he feels bad for people who bought a Rift from him that can't properly use it any longer.
Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey is offering to fix a nagging audio issue affecting first-gen Rift headsets.
As Luckey explained in a recent blog post, the Oculus Rift CV1 wasn't perfect. Some issues were the result of carefully considered design trade-offs while others (like this one) are design flaws that didn't become apparent until well after the headset shipped.
For those not up to speed, long-term use of the Rift CV1 can lead to the failure of an electrical path in a ribbon cable that runs through the headset's strap. For most users, Luckey said, this is limited to the ground trace for the right headphone audio module.
The co-founder points out that while Oculus is generally willing to replace headsets with this failure, it's typically only done if the device is still under warranty and in a supported country. Considering that longtime Rift users are the ones most likely to be affected by the issue, that isn't much help.
If you happen to find yourself in this boat and Oculus is unable to help, Luckey has you covered. Simply forward over your support ticket and mailing address and he will send you a free repair kit.
The RR1 repair kit, which Luckey said took less than three hours to craft, was designed so the average PC gamer shouldn't have any issue with installation.
"Most people only need a common ground between their right and left headphone audio modules - just slap the wiring harness on, slip the bypass discs between the pogo pins on the headphones and the strap receptacle, you will be back in business!"
Lead image courtesy Romaset via Shutterstock