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Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

simulavr.com

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Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#191
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been meaning to use a proper service but it works right now and once we're actually sending I'll import the emails and do an opt-in and such.

no I like it -- it feels like I'm interacting with a person who's using powerful tools

both me and george are avid wolfram users. incredibly good stuff

Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#192
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often find myself wondering what the 'killer app' of purely functional programming languages is. For the longest time I assumed they would become much more popular as multi-core cpus proliferated, but pretty much every purely functional language out there is relegated to a dusty corner.

The absolute killer app is compilers, static analyzers, and similar. Other languages don't even come close for anything in that space. However, I think that purely functional languages are useful for basically everything. Haskell is my general purpose language of choice, unless libraries or system constraints force me to another language.

> The absolute killer app is compilers, static analyzers, and similar.

In other words, those problems that don't involve users and the outside world.

Pure languages for pure problems. Impure languages for impure problems. It computes.

Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least the software never deliberately works against the user, and never is defective by design.

> At least the software never deliberately works against the user I look at some of the Gnome 3 design choices and I start to question that.

What do you expect from Red Hat/IBM? We've all seen how poorly they handled OpenOffice.

Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#194
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's written in Haskell, it's highly likely that it'll be far harder to modify than something written in, well, not-Haskell. Haskell might be easy when you get the hang of it, but the vast majority of programmers haven't, and the language ideas are alien compared to the mainstream ones (Python, JS, C++, Lua). The design of Haskell also encourages users to be very clever, which only makes code harder to read.

> The design of Haskell also encourages users to be very clever, which only makes code harder to read. This is BS - find me some "clever" code in one of these Haskell projects and I bet it's not clever but simply using a set of abstractions there maintainers like and grok and the reader just doesn't understand.

Maybe I'm being overly pedantic but I think that's a textbook description for overly "clever" code in any language- it makes perfect sense to the authors but is nontrivial for the reader to understand

Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#195
post #142

One of the founders of Simula here. We're flattered that someone posted us to HN, but we were honestly not ready for this much publicity at this precise stage of our project. It would have been better had this happened a few weeks from now, when we have more accurate footage of our actual prototype to show. Let me explain: 1. *Video footage.* The video footage on the front page of www.simulavr.com is taken against an…

Another founder here, with some more comments on the tech side of things: 1. The software is relatively usable, and you can try it out right now on https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula 2. The hardware is still being worked on, and the website is kind of a list of expected specs/placeholder in that regard: 2.a. The compute unit is tested and works, but requires a custom carrier board to fit the form factor. This is a bl…

What are the potential advantages of an mmwave tracking system? The only previous commercial application I can think of was the pixel 4, which was very range and accuracy limited and power hungry.

Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#196
post #142

One of the founders of Simula here. We're flattered that someone posted us to HN, but we were honestly not ready for this much publicity at this precise stage of our project. It would have been better had this happened a few weeks from now, when we have more accurate footage of our actual prototype to show. Let me explain: 1. *Video footage.* The video footage on the front page of www.simulavr.com is taken against an…

Another founder here, with some more comments on the tech side of things: 1. The software is relatively usable, and you can try it out right now on https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula 2. The hardware is still being worked on, and the website is kind of a list of expected specs/placeholder in that regard: 2.a. The compute unit is tested and works, but requires a custom carrier board to fit the form factor. This is a bl…

does the device have a cpu or it needs to connect to a pc?

what is the predicted price point?

how to fit prescription lens ?

Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#197
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another founder here, with some more comments on the tech side of things: 1. The software is relatively usable, and you can try it out right now on https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula 2. The hardware is still being worked on, and the website is kind of a list of expected specs/placeholder in that regard: 2.a. The compute unit is tested and works, but requires a custom carrier board to fit the form factor. This is a bl…

What are the potential advantages of an mmwave tracking system? The only previous commercial application I can think of was the pixel 4, which was very range and accuracy limited and power hungry.

You get position/velocity/angle data directly, and it's less power hungry than running high-res cameras specifically. Also some research papers show an increased tracking accuracy with mmwave+IMU than RGB+IMU.

So less processing + potentially less power + better performance, in theory.

Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The design of Haskell also encourages users to be very clever, which only makes code harder to read. This is BS - find me some "clever" code in one of these Haskell projects and I bet it's not clever but simply using a set of abstractions there maintainers like and grok and the reader just doesn't understand.

Maybe I'm being overly pedantic but I think that's a textbook description for overly "clever" code in any language- it makes perfect sense to the authors but is nontrivial for the reader to understand

Except in Haskell, it's not just some pet bit of code by the authors. It's a shared abstraction with well understood laws and theoretical underpinning.

What people call "clever" code in mainstream programming is not in any way similar to the Haskell being referred to.

Luckily in the Haskell world, we don't ascribe negative attributes like "cleverness" to code that isn't outsider-friendly. We gain a lot by not requiring that all our code is understandable by a mainstream programmer.

Re: Simula One: an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux

#199
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another founder here, with some more comments on the tech side of things: 1. The software is relatively usable, and you can try it out right now on https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula 2. The hardware is still being worked on, and the website is kind of a list of expected specs/placeholder in that regard: 2.a. The compute unit is tested and works, but requires a custom carrier board to fit the form factor. This is a bl…

does the device have a cpu or it needs to connect to a pc? what is the predicted price point? how to fit prescription lens ?

Compute module based on NUC will be included, and is pluggable on the back of the headset.

About 2-2.5k predicted price point.

Prescription lens we'll figure something out. We're trying to keep enough eye relief to support glasses, and we'll have at least provisions for mounting prescription lenses.

If we can, we'll be able to supply prescription lenses with the headset (for a surcharge) or collaborate with an existing vendor to provide lenses.

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