Your site doesn't mention the weight or the battery life.
I guess the real answer is in the dog-food. Does your team use VCRs to develop it?
Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
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Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#12Hey George, I think you need to remove the `www` from your shop link above. This link (found from the page) seems to work fine[0].
Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#13Is the computer in the headset? Why? (!!!) Looks like a great way to cause your neck muscles to spasm horribly painfully. If I were designing these, they’d either be completely transparent so AR or the headset would be only the LCD and maybe sensors.
Actually, it probably isn't that bad if it's well balanced. I own a Meta Quest 2 and I added an external battery at the back of the headstrap because it helps balancing the headset while playing, preventing it from dropping on my nose too much.
Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#14The pricing is absolutely nuts. If it was $1,000 or so, maybe I'd be open to trying it, But at nearly 3K there's no way I'm risking that much money. If your company goes bankrupt tomorrow, and the headset bricks itself, I'd have no recourse. At the same time, I hope you're able to raise funding or something and get the cost down to $1,000. I would absolutely love to have an open source VR headset.
I understand your concerns about pricing. We made a post earlier this year discussing why our expenses are so high.[1] TLDR: Low economies of scale and high launch costs. With that said, our pricing and specs are still competitive with ultra-premium VR headsets and premium office laptops (which we have essentially combined into one unit).
We also have a pricing option to reserve a headset with a partial deposit: pay $1,499 now, and then $1,499 right before we ship (Q4 '22/Q1 '23 target). This allows you to reserve a headset now at a lower price, see more proof throughout the year that we are performing our manufacturing duties diligently (via weekly updates), and then only paying the remainder of the balance ($1,499 + taxes/shipping) once we have the headset fully ready to ship to you.
We also just made a discount code for this thread: "DISCOUNT_HN" (limited to 10 for now) which adds an extra $100 off.
Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#15Edit: shop had the wrong link
At $3,000+, you are leaving very little room for people who want to see you succeed to support you.
Best of luck.
Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#16This is a really interesting project
I hope it succeeds and future iterations are either more affordable OR gains so much traction that its easy to justify the cost. At this price point I could only talk myself into it if the Simula was my primary computer which I think I'd have a hard time using it as such.
Anyway, I am probably one amongst many who are watching this space waiting for experience reports and emerging ecosystems from braver early adopters.
Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#17Edit: shop had the wrong link At $3,000+, you are leaving very little room for people who want to see you succeed to support you. Best of luck.
We're using Shopify and it's up on my end. Looks like George somehow added a www. -- the URL is https://shop.simulavr.com
Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#18Is the computer in the headset? Why? (!!!) Looks like a great way to cause your neck muscles to spasm horribly painfully. If I were designing these, they’d either be completely transparent so AR or the headset would be only the LCD and maybe sensors.
The compute pack is detachable, but leaving it in the back of the headset is good for front/rear balance. Most gaming headsets on the market today are very front-weight biased.
Our headset supports an "AR Mode" with two front-facing high-res RGB cameras.
Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#19Your site doesn't mention the weight or the battery life. I guess the real answer is in the dog-food. Does your team use VCRs to develop it?
The software side does; there's videos of George working on Simula in Simula. Trickier for the EE/ME side as it's all Windows.
Re: Show HN: Simula One – Portable Linux VR Computer
#20Edit: shop had the wrong link At $3,000+, you are leaving very little room for people who want to see you succeed to support you. Best of luck.
We're using Shopify and it's up on my end. Looks like George somehow added a www. -- the URL is https://shop.simulavr.com
My mistake, okay.
Edit: standalone is ~$2k. At these kinds of prices, will have to wait it out and see if they can deliver.
The price has to come down somehow to make this more readily available / accelerate use.