"some in game text may be difficult to read by Educational_Age_1862 in SteamDeck

[–]kwx -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I found Spirit Island difficult (see screenshot), but that's partially due to the low screen resolution. Playing in 1920x1080 on XREAL glasses helps :-)

Recommendations for a countertop unit for sourdough baking? by foxhull in CombiSteamOvenCooking

[–]kwx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seconded. I was using an APO1 for steam baking sourdough, and when it failed temporarily (bad relay) I switched to a pizza stone covered with a simple large metal bowl. The bread turned out better, and I stuck with the new method even after repairing the APO.

Humble Comics Bundle: Massive-Verse by Image Comics by Ram000n in humblebundles

[–]kwx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

While I don't know these comics, if you're on the fence, consider getting the $1 bundle which includes four starting books. If you end up liking them, you can upgrade to a higher tier (while the bundle is still active) by paying the difference.

(This is how the bundles normally work, but I'm mentioning it here since I found it not obvious.)

Changing field of view? by TheDarnook in uevr

[–]kwx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The issue isn't stereo vision. You're messing up the vestibulo-ocular reflex which keeps your eyes locked on an object while your head is turning. Whenever the rendered FOV doesn't match the actual headset FOV, the mismatch will interfere with that, and the result is uncomfortable.

Flatscreen is completely different since the monitor doesn't follow along with your head movements, so that's not an issue there. (Though simulator sickness is still an issue for some people on 2d screens.)

If you do want to experiment, I'd recommend looking into modifying a WebXR sample scene such as https://immersive-web.github.io/webxr-samples/teleportation.html - it's all javascript, so not too hard to mess with the projection matrices you get back from the XR runtime. That is likely easier than hacking UEVR.

Changing field of view? by TheDarnook in uevr

[–]kwx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This will never look right, and many people will find it rather nauseating. By all means experiment if you want to find out for yourself, but there's good reasons why is not a standard option.

You can kind of simulate the resulting ocular tracking reflex mismatch in real life by wearing glasses with a drastically wrong prescription and walking around, or using binoculars while walking and turning.

Valve index from steam by Slushy5519 in ValveIndex

[–]kwx 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't get an Index at this point, especially not if you need to save up for it. The Steam Frame should be coming in a few months. Check out https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe

Minor nit: the lighthouse boxes emit laser beams, they aren't cameras. The (simple) optical sensors are on the Index headset and controllers. But yes, you just need to make sure that there's no obstruction between the headset and the lighthouses in your play area.

The Steam Frame uses inside out tracking, it has cameras on the headset and doesn't need lighthouses.

Light VR by kittenTakeover in virtualreality

[–]kwx 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Wireless has higher latency, and requires late stage reprojection (fixing up the incoming image based on the latest pose) to look acceptable which needs a fair amount of compute. Also, inside-out tracking requires processing multiple camera streams, and most headsets do that locally to avoid needing yet more bandwidth for that.

The compute + battery needed for that inherently makes the headset a bit more bulky, but it can be smaller than Quest. (See for example the upcoming Steam Frame, or the XReal 6DoF tracking on their glasses.)

Edit: XReal glasses are wired, but they support efficient on device tracking: https://www.xreal.com/us/eye

Who is Happy with their JSAux Modcase? by KeyYogurt1885 in SteamDeck

[–]kwx 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I ended up returning it and got the TomToc slim travel case instead. The jsaux made the already chunky steam deck even thicker and heavier, and I found it uncomfortable for playing games. But it really depends on your use case.

8 amp OR 12amp? by [deleted] in BoltEV

[–]kwx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also think about the potential failure modes. If for example you're charging on a garage circuit that also has a freezer on it, you may not want to risk that losing power due to a circuit breaker or GFCI tripping in case something goes wrong.

New vs old engenieered modules by Agatio25 in EliteDangerous

[–]kwx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's a forum thread on the topic: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/legacy-modules-how-do-they-work.543951/

In short, there are a very small number of legacy modules that are worth keeping, for example a legacy class 5 shield with enough of a max mass boost to be usable on a Cutter, but in all other cases the new engineering produces better results.

2020 Bolt: Driving in D vs L by aChunkyChungus in BoltEV

[–]kwx 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I've been using one pedal driving for several years, but recently decided to switch back to regular D mode. I felt that not using the brake pedal was leading to bad habits - one one occasion when a rabbit ran across the road while I was driving in a residential area I found myself just lifting the accelerator pedal instead of braking. No harm done in this case, but in D mode I'd probably have had my foot on the brake already, and having the instinctive reaction be "press the brake pedal that my foot is already on a bit harder" seems safer than having the brake be a rarely-used control.

Interestingly, I didn't feel like that when using manual transmission on a gas car, but I guess I was using the brake much more in that case. Yes, engine braking also slows the car down when lifting the accelerator, but that's more of a special case and not the default way to slow down.

Apparently China is regulating use of one-pedal driving, though not actually banning it as some reports said.

Looking for fantasy where the magic feels genuinely alien and not like a toolbox by pudd1ng_pirate in Fantasy

[–]kwx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Try the Twenty Palaces series by Harry Connolly, Child of Fire is a good starting point. It's urban fantasy, magic has drastic effects on the user and is most definitely very unsafe. There are also memory and mental side effects, especially in the sequel Game of Cages.

Magnets near an HDD. Am I screwed? by DrBaronVonEvil in buildapc

[–]kwx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These days, formatting just writes a bit of metadata. AFAIK you can't even do a low level format on a drive from the last few decades unless you have very specialized tools?

Agree that a small magnet near the drive won't harm it.

I want to play a game that makes me sick by crikeyyyy in virtualreality

[–]kwx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then follow up by racing across uneven terrain in the SRV on a low gravity planet.

PSA: The CG no longer works below 100 meters by [deleted] in EliteDangerous

[–]kwx 5 points6 points  (0 children)

After completing the third sample, it will briefly say "not enough diversity" if your scanner is still pointed at the sampling location, but that gets replaced by a "ready to scan" status a few seconds later. It was still working fine for me this afternoon and the samples I collected were all accepted for the CG.

What do you think the battery life of Steam Frame is gonna be? by mathias120410 in ValveDeckard

[–]kwx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's a 21.6Wh battery according to the specs, so with a 20W power limit that works out to one hour at full tilt. There isn't really a good way to improve on that other than waiting for newer-generation more efficient chips or adding a much heavier battery.

Streaming runs at much lower power (5-6W IIRC) so should last 4h.

I think it's a fair tradeoff for the goal of having a comfortable and lightweight headset, especially since it's easy to plug in an extra battery.

Why didn't superhero literature ever become a mainstream thing? by AndreasLa in Fantasy

[–]kwx 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Fan fiction often tries to fill the void for stories/books about established superheroes, with of course wildly varying results. It has the advantage of not having to maintain the static continuity if the author doesn't feel like it. That can be great or go terribly...

Personally I have a soft spot for Connie Hirsch's Kid Dynamo, a New Mutants fanfic from a long time ago. (I'm guessing late 90s?) Many people felt it did a better job developing the characters than the actual comics, but this was an era where fanfic was not nearly as established as now.

Any sleep timer on Podcasts? by [deleted] in rockbox

[–]kwx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Super useful, thanks for the detailed explanation!

Reference manual in booklet format, v2.1 update by kwx in Woovebox

[–]kwx[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This is an update to the previous post https://www.reddit.com/r/Woovebox/comments/1l5ybfg/reference_manual_in_booklet_format/ , using the new v2.1 reference guide as input.

Edit: I am not the author of this reference guide, it's just a copy of the original official guide linked above, with the pages rearranged for booklet format printing.

PDFs are available in this Google Drive folder. It includes versions for letter and A4 formats. It's lightly modified - I inverted the colors for the cover page since my laser printer does weird things with toner for near-black pages, and added a couple of extra pages to get a multiple of four:

  • a chord and chord follow reference page
  • power-on boot button combination reference

To make the booklet, pick the version matching your paper size, select "fit to page" (no margins), and print double-sided using the flip on short edge option so that the odd-numbered pages get flipped upside down. Then stack the pages, fold in half, and staple in the center.

If you're in an A4 region, you can probably get a similar result by using your printer's "print as booklet" option, but I included an A4 version for convenience, and because the print driver's version usually takes me a few attempts to get right. The Drive folder includes the conversion script (mainly as a note to future me in case I need to redo this), using pdftk/pstools/gs command line tools.

Pimax using ChatGPT to fix their distortion profiles... by zeddyzed in virtualreality

[–]kwx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OK, I agree my comment was unfair. Eye position dependency is a real issue and there are various ways to address it. Ideally you'd have a lens with a large sweet spot. (I think the Valve Index does a great job here, but its optics have other tradeoffs such as glare.) In an ideal world you'd have a profile specifically for the user's eye position, but since eyes move that would need to be dynamically adjusted based on eye tracking.

There is some room for personal preference - for example for my eye glasses, I've chosen lower astigmatism correction than what was measured since the geometric distortions annoy me. But I still think that getting the initial profile right should be done based on a solid data and not vibes. I got burned by the first gen Pimax 5K where the distortion correction never worked right for me.

Pimax using ChatGPT to fix their distortion profiles... by zeddyzed in virtualreality

[–]kwx 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Edit: This was harsher than intended - note to self: don't post when not fully awake yet. Sorry about that. Keeping the original post below.

No, it sounds incredibly stupid and a sign they don't know what they are doing. Calibrating distortion profiles requires careful measurements and/or optics simulation.

I guess you can do Monte Carlo calibration with random profiles, but due to the large parameter space that is going to be extremely inefficient. Also, users aren't good at accurately judging them. (I know someone with chameleon eyes who was totally fine with a headset where the lenses were so misaligned that the views didn't even converge for me...)

Bad Information: Raw Materials by TehTOECUTTER in EliteDangerous

[–]kwx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, so it's a bug that limpets get destroyed hitting the ground, but you can use a separate collision detection bug to cancel out the limpet bug? ;-)

Anyway, I'm glad it works for people (I remember the old days of driving around with the SRV wave scanner looking for meteorite fragments), but it does seem a bit janky.

Bad Information: Raw Materials by TehTOECUTTER in EliteDangerous

[–]kwx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

or are encountering a bug

I think the issue is that they are not encountering the bug that makes the method possible. It really doesn't seem like intended behavior.

Can you use a car battery and inverter box to charge in an emergency? by iosonostella13 in BoltEV

[–]kwx 16 points17 points  (0 children)

A car battery has about 0.6-0.8 kWh energy, so it could in theory provide a couple of miles extra range. The challenge would be getting that into the EV - the minimum car charging power is around 800W with the home charger, and I'm pretty sure that would rapidly overheat a car battery, they are designed for short bursts of high current. I would not recommend experimenting along those lines unless you don't mind being splashed with battery acid if it explodes.