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Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer

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Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer

#194

So many people are complaining about price of a first gen enthusiast device. You know the Apple II (~1500 in 1977) is 5k in modern dollars, and sold over 5m units, right? If the device solves a genuine productivity problem for you, 3k is cheap.

A first-gen enthusiast device with first-class Linux support, even.

> If the device solves a genuine productivity problem for you, 3k is cheap.

Exactly! I expect my productivity to go up significantly when I upgrade from a few 2D monitors to a 3D virtual space.

Also, "if you're not paying, you're the product" still applies when you pay $300 for a device like the Quest that slurps your data straight to Zuckerberg as fast as humanly possible.

Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer

#195
post #190
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't make upgrading impossible. The compute pack is detachable, replacable, and can even function independently. The benefit is pretty crucial: friction. If you have a tethered VR headset, the amount of work you need to do to set it up is insane. Especially with lower-level software like Simula.

>It doesn't make upgrading impossible. The compute pack is... replacable It is only replaceable and upgradable if this company sells these compute modules separately. There is no discussion I saw on that website that they are committing to do this and there is no guarantee they will be around to still sell you one in the future. Even if they do, you are locked into their ecosystem. >The benefit is pretty crucial: fri…

The modules are available from Intel. You're locked into some of our custom components, true. But this is miles better than anything else on the market.

The friction is both what we experienced as part of adoption and in my personal experience. Actual personal experiences may vary, of course.

Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer

#196
To me this is a near-certain failure in waiting, and here's why:

+ Limited information, bad comparisons (that "simulated" text rendering image is atrocious, where are the actual pulled from device and pulled from the OS images)

+ Very vague presentation, zero background on team members. Who are you? What have you engineered? What have you shipped?

+ Godot dependency does not inspire confidence, this is an opensource game engine geared for homebrew and indie developers. One would expect you'd need a lot more from the graphical foundation (latency, performance) since you're trying to do something that's never been done to a satisfactory degree before.

+ Totally subjective, but my spider sense is going crazy. The overall impression I get is that of a project driven by amateurs. If you didn't have some actual code on GitHub, I'd totally see this as a scam.

Good luck but given how many projects with orders of magnitude better technical teams have crashed and burned, I won't be jumping on this ship. 3000$ is a lot to ask and you'd need to put a lot more on the "can they pull it off?" balancing scales than wishful thinking.

Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upvoted for the excellent feedback. 1. We'll do a better job defining the term "VR Computer" in our sales page. 2. We'll consider adding a keyboard/mouse as optional add-ons. We have thought about including a "keyboard apron" as an item add-on that is actually differentiated from other keyboards, and one that would be particularly useful for VR computing (with the added freedom of movement).[1] Would something like t…

I have the opposite opinion as the parent post re: keyboard/mouse. If I'm buying a piece of kit like this I have very strong opinions already re: my input devices. Unless you can make good margin on the keyboard/mouse option I think you're just adding friction and expense to your internal processes to support it. As an aside: I've tried to learn a chording keyboard in the past without much success. In a desktop setti…

I'm also very interested in chording keyboards, though never tried one yet - but planning to try building a Chordite DIY prototype Some Day. Also thus interested in any AR / video passthrough features (and their speed), esp. from an angle of whether the VR set would be usable e.g. while walking...?

Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer

#198
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The coffee shop video is the sole reason I purchased it. Not that I'd really ever use it that way, but I want to live in a future where I could in principle do so without shame LOL

Actually I'd like to see AR mode when outdoors!

Can't use these headsets outdoors because the sun will destroy the screens (powerful magnifying lens aiming right at the screen). In fact, you have to be careful indoors as well.

These devices need a simple shutter that covers the displays automatically when it's not pressed against your face. This would solve the problem.

Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer

#199
post #184

I'm a bit torn, as on the one hand, I'm squarely in the target demo and appreciate the huge amount of work that has gone into the project, and the PPD is really exciting. (back in 2015 I actually started building my own VR workspace software https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNtZmCDyEyU with an Oculus DK2 but shelved it for other projects waiting for better HMD hardware that never arrived). But sadly, I fear that if I…

We're aware of the micro OLEDs, but they're not able to provide the picture quality we desire (at least within a reasonable R&D budget). uOLEDs force pancake lenses, which have issues with transmission and ghost images.

The Lynx R1 definitely is attractive in its own way. We have all of those specs except for the thinness. We're planning for our AR latency to be sub-frame (<11ms exposure to display photon out), but it needs verification with actual hardware which takes a while.

Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer

#200
In addition to what was linked by the OP, Simula One VR was discussed 10 days ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30318094

> "with a VR computer you can change positions, sit up, lean back, stand, lie down, or even walk while you compute."

You don't necessarily need a VR computer for this. I've created a subreddit to explore this topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/

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