Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#1

Post by georgewsinger » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

Simula: A VR window manager for Linux
github.com

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#2

Post by lostmsu » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

Wow, it is written in Haskell.

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#3

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:22 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#4

Post by jitl » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

Well now I have something to use my SteamVR after I finish Half-Life: Alyx

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#5

Post by cjbassi » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:25 PM UTC

Is this for Xorg or Wayland? I couldn't find the answer in the readme.

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#6

Post by georgewsinger » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

cjbassi wrote: post #5

Is this for Xorg or Wayland? I couldn't find the answer in the readme.

It's a Wayland based compositor (using Drew Devault's wlroots) that supports X apps.

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#7

Post by kanetw » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

lostmsu wrote: post #2

Wow, it is written in Haskell.

Yeah, Haskell was an interesting choice. I started working on it _because_ it was a Haskell project.

Overall it was a pretty rough road, but someone has to go first and I'd really like for Haskell graphics to take off.

I ended up writing bindings for Godot so we didn't have to deal with graphics stuff from scratch (like in the first few iterations).

While this lost us some of Haskell's benefits and it's not super functional-y, it's still nice to work with and most of the issues we encounter are related to the bindings being unpolished.

If you have any questions about doing this kind of project in Haskell, hit me up.

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#8

Post by kanetw » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

cjbassi wrote: post #5

Is this for Xorg or Wayland? I couldn't find the answer in the readme.

It's based on wlroots, but Wayland is less supported than the X compatibility layer via Xwayland. That's fixable though.

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#9

Post by georgewsinger » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:40 PM UTC

In case people are curious what it's like to work in VR, here's a demo of me using Simula: https://youtu.be/FWLuwG91HnI

I would argue that working in VR is fundamentally superior to working in PCs/laptops. It's basically 10x the screens, focus, and work immersion. Simula's text quality is also very good (getting around the eye fatigue present in older VR Desktops).

Re: Simula: A VR window manager for Linux

#10

Post by wdroz » Thu, Apr 09, 2020, 5:44 PM UTC

I think that in 1-2 generations of VR headsets, we will no longer need monitors. For now my HTC vive isn't comparable to my 4k screens.