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Comment by georgewsinger | Hacker News Reader

If anyone's comfortable sharing: what is the price point you'd be willing to spend on a Simula One? (Unfortunately our unit costs are pretty stuck at these low volumes, but it'd still be really useful to know what people's long-run price expectations are for a Linux VR Computer).

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It's really hard to say without actually using the device.

If this can genuinely make reading text about as easy as it is on a current hiDPI screen - I don't think this price is unreasonable.

My issue is that - having gone through several VR headsets (Oculus, Oculus Quest, Vive, Vive Cosmos, and Valve index) None of them are even close.

Reading text in any of them is basically a non-starter outside of maybe game menus, and even then it's annoying.

Index is closest, but it doesn't support a wireless mode - so I end up using the vive cosmos with the external tracking faceplate and the wireless adapter the most.

Basically - I don't think anything around ~3k is really a deal breaker if you can get the latency/resolution to a point where text is easy. But if reading text gives me a headache after 30 minutes... it's a toy still, and competes with oculus at the ~300 price point.

To give a comparison, 35 PPD is equivalent to a 1080p screen 60cm away from you.

So the resolution is basically there, but what about latency? Output-to-photon is as direct as possible (NUC Displayport -> DP-to-MIPI -> Displays), so the only question is how low we can get the motion-to-output latency.

Unfortunately that's not a question I can answer yet. Tracking is hard, especially when you're designing for a portable headset. But I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get it to sub-frame latency if my mmWave idea works out.

I actually think the (backer) price is about what I would expect for what you get. My issue is that it's a big investment for something that's really cool, but not necessary, so my current finances don't justify me getting one. A professor I work with is big on buying every bit of AR/VR tech that comes out, I'll have to see what he thinks of it.

I'm an outlier but I'm ready to jump in at these prices, which is pretty much what I would expect for the hardware.

A bigger factor than price for me is payment options. If my only option is Paypal/Stripe/Google/Apple, I will most likely hold off; accept BTC and you've got me for sure.

I have a feeling that my preference may be unusually common among the people excited about dropping thousands on a Linux headset.

I'd prefer crypto as a payment option too. Not sure if Kickstarter offers it as an option though, so I presume that would be the core constraint. sometimes I've seen projects running on Kickstarter and Indiegogo at the same time. Maybe there is some kind of workaround like that, except for adding crypto as a payment option.

Ah, that’s unfortunate.. Having to ask a friend to borrow their card for that amount might be tricky.

EDIT: What would you think of something like this? HMU if you’d like to discuss setting it up, I’d be happy to help

https://medium.com/@BtcpayServer/btcpay-crowdfunding-abbb845...

Right now, here on the bleeding edge of VRPC, it would be something like $999. I'm seeing it as a Chromebook when they first came out — interesting concept, but not yet proven in an actual working environment.

Alternatively, some sort of money-back guarantee would be nice. "Try working in VR for 30 days, see how you like it."

It's about what I'd expect for a premium piece of productivity hardware. It's in line with specced-out laptops and workstations. At this price there will be certain expectations though, in particular regarding the finish and build quality (and even colour accuracy).

In any case, I've been toying with the idea of using a VR headset for work after having seen a post on HN from a guy who described his whole setup, but I'm not at the point where I'd jump into investing much into it.

I think your product is for people who have already a lot of VR experience and want to graduate to something more adequate. It's a hard sell for the mere VR-curious.

You're selling a new way of working on your computer, something supposedly greater than the sum of its parts. Such things can't be expressed in numbers and tables, they can only be experienced. That experience won't be for everybody; they might get sick, they might decide it's a worse experience and make things take longer, etc. Those are my fears.

Spending $2800 (or, gulp $3500) just to see if I'd barf while in vim is a really big stretch. Perhaps those with way more disposable income wouldn't mind trying, but that's not me. If there was a trial period with free return, that would help.

I did not realize the specs. I was hoping for like 600$usd but I might have reached for 1000$usd. I love the idea, however, most of my heavy lifting is done in a remote machine. I spend most of my day in a kitty terminal ssh-ed to a beefy box somewhere else. I dont think I am ready to early adopt a VR desktop yet.

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