23 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 60.6 ms ] thread
I’m keen to try coding in VR.
Try https://lovr.org/ for a really quick and painless way to quickly create a VR app.

"You can write 3 lines of Lua and drag and drop a folder onto an exe to get a working VR scene."

Yep, the Simula One was made specifically with "coding in VR" in mind.

Do you have an HTC Vive or Valve Index? If so, you can try out coding in VR via Simula's compositor right now: https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula

This won't be as crisp or as portable as the Simula One, but should give you a taste for what it's like.

You already can with a Quest 2 in ImmersedVR. I’ve been doing it daily for two years.
I find Quest 2 to be a bit too bulky and low res. But I’m sure once Meta releases Cambria I’ll have that thing strapped to my face 24/7!
VR for Linux! I am in love.

Note there is a typo at the end of the article.

> Note that the images in our VR displays still need to be distorted for them to look correctly when viewed through our lenses

I believe that should be "look correct". Look correctly I think implies that the displays are an agent doing looking.

> Look correctly I think implies that the displays are an agent doing looking.

The images, not the displays, but you are otherwise right.

Doesn't Valve's Index work with Linux?
(comment deleted)
It does, but SteamVR, which does the lense distortion/correction, isn't FOSS. It exposes an OpenXR backend that software can use though. Their goal is to implement this part for themselves/the Linux community, so their hardware can use it without having to rely on SteamVR.
Yep, this is correct. We're moving from SteamVR/OpenVR to Monado (OpenXR) for the Simula One.

With that said: our current compositor (https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula) still works well with OpenVR/SteamVR on the HTC Vive & Valve Index.

Maybe they originally had "to be viewed correctly" and then someone else found this insulting to their editor's pen, resulting in a "when viewed" but leaving the "correctly".
Great article! Thank you for going deep on your development process.
Appreciate the feedback.
I didn't see mention of the type of display, although it looks like an LCD. If so, can you say something about how you "blink" the backlight(s) to minimize apparent "roll" during fast motion orthogonal to the refresh direction?
I haven't gotten too deep into it myself, but the driver outputs a backlight PWM pulse a specific amount of time after a vsync. It's something I'll optimize at some point, but I have bigger problems to work on right now.
I can’t wait to work in VR while I work out on a stationary recumbent exercise bike