Nofio, a Wi-Fi 6E wireless adapter for Valve Index, blasted past its funding goal of $315,530 AUS (~$215,000 USD) in a single day when it hit Kickstarter earlier this month. Late last week project organizers announced all available units were sold out, however now the startup has reopened sales after securing additional units just days before the campaign’s end.
Nofio still has six days left its Kickstarter campaign, which was thought to be effectively over last week when the company announced it had sold out of its last units. Now the company says it’s reopening pre-orders, although it’s not sure how many the project has left to offer in its third batch. That last remaining batch is slated to arrive to backers sometime in July 2023, which may very well allow the team enough time to tack on as many latecomers as possible before the campaign officially closes next week.
Additionally, the company has opened up a developer page on Steam to better communicate updates regarding SteamVR integration. The studio says it will allow them to provide software updates, configuration and diagnostic utilities, and tighter integration with SteamVR. The original article follows below:
Nofio seems to have hit a homerun with the Index-owning community as it has now officially sold out of pre-orders via its Kickstarter campaign, garnering nearly $570,000 USD ($845,000 AUD) from more than 1,300 backers.
Although its early conclusion means there are effectively no stretch goals in sight, the creators say in an update they plan some “very exciting announcements to make over the next couple of weeks.”
The creators say to follow along via Twitter for future updates and behind the scenes info coming soon.
Nofio has managed to nearly double its Kickstarter funding goal of $215,000 USD in the first 24 hours. At the time of this writing the project has attracted around $370,000 USD from nearly 900 backers.
The Brisbane, Australia-based startup hopes to ship its first production run starting in April 2023, which includes a batch of 2,000 units. The response from the community has been so swift though that all first batch units (and their early bird pricing) are gone, with second batch units priced at around $390 USD. Those also have an April 2023 launch date appended, although we’re likely to know more in the coming days.
The team hasn’t issued an update yet, so there’s no telling what stretch goals they have in mind either, as Nofio so far looks to match pace with many of the popular VR hardware Kickstarters such as Lynx and Kat VR’s latest KAT WALK VR treadmill. Check out the Nofio Kickstarter here for more info.
Original Article (July 11th, 2022): The company claims it achieves the “lowest latency wireless video on the market,” which it says works in up to a 5m × 5m (15ft × 15ft) play area.
Taking to Reddit, Nofio additionally claims its device will be able to do “less than 5ms” of latency, which the company says it was able to achieve in larger test area of 5m × 10m (15ft × 30ft).
Nofio says the base transmitter connects via the existing OCuLink connector, and that its on-device proprietary compression helps it achieve such a low latency.
The creators promise a 2+ hours battery life with the supplied battery pack, which is about in line with standalone headsets such as Meta Quest 2 and Pico Neo Link 3. The device is able to support other USB-C battery packs however, so you could either choose a larger capacity battery or simply keep multiple batteries at the ready for longer playsessions.
For now, the device only supports SteamVR on Windows, however the creators are hoping to bring Linux support as well at some point.
And why Wi-Fi, and not a solution such as WiGig as with HTC Vive Wireless Adapter?
“We have a 60GHz wigig solution, and there are serious issues with line-of-sight and wireless range,” Nofio says. “We believe the Wifi solution gives a much better experience.”
Preorders are set to launch through Kickstarter sometime in August, with an estimated delivery window of Q1 2023. Pricing is slated to be between $399 and $499, Nofio says, which will likely position it as an enthusiast-level piece of kit.
Granted, if you already own the full $1,000 Valve Index package, which includes headset, Index controllers, and tracking base stations, you might already consider yourself a VR enthusiast.
We’re still hoping to learn more about Nofio when the company launches its Kickstarter. In the meantime, you can sign up for updates on the Nofio website.
Check out Nofio in action below:
