Production Pyra photos/videos/thoughts thread

[daveshah]

Any desktop should be at least somewhat hardware accelerated, as the X driver maps EXA stuff like composites to the GC320.

(I should clarify this doesn't extend to stuff that only supports full OpenGL, but all 'traditional' desktops should benefit from this.)

 

[NetBLOKS]

Toastbucket is back!
Big thank you to @daveshah and @ToastBucket and of course all the other contributors, donating their time and knowledge to our devices!

 

[ToastBucket]

I know its GBA and so isn't much but I know how much you guys like candy . I got @daveshah's OpenGL fixes up and running on my Pyra as well as his retroarch port. I don't have sound (looks like my codec isn't properly configured yet) but its pretty neat to see some actual gameplay on this thing after spending my time in the bootloader and kernel code. Big props to dave. Ok back to the battery code for me

 

[matzesu]

GBA is perfektly fine for me, even if you dont have sound yet, its cool to see that the Pyra isnt a expensive door stopper ^^..
Do the Nubs also got iluminated, or is this just light Spreed on your Prototyphe ??

 

[levi]

Nubs are meant to be made out of black plastic in the final units, not clear. There might be some light bleed around the edges, but it won't shine through like it does here.

 

[matzesu]

Ok so this means i have to Learn where the Nubs are in Darkness ?? This could be quite though ^^

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

How is that tough? You can just feel where they are, right? Physical feedback is why physical controls are best.

Post automatically merged: Aug 8, 2020

I'm glad that the D-Pad has a circle around it. +‐shaped D-Pads are really annoying whenever I have to input two directions at once. Circle-shaped D-Pads with a + in them for feedback reign supreme as the best D-Pads.

 

[matzesu]

Was more ironic meantioned, i can type blind on a normal keyboard, i can even bind my boots and open and closes the latches on our Boyscout Tents at night which are these famous German "Kothe", Blacktents,
This is a Scill you need when you have to leave the Tent at night to follow your nature , whitout waiking the others..

I dont know if these German Blacktents are known?? Whe call them "Kothe" (the smaller one) and "Jurte" (the Big One),

EDIT: Lets Explain Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohte

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

I bind my pants blind. But it's just a normal shoe tie knot using right-over and then left-over.

 

[ToastBucket]

even if you dont have sound yet

Sound does work mostly in some builds. It doesn't work on mine for some reason, but I haven't looked into it because my focus at the moment is lower level, power and battery management in the bootloader and kernel. Bluetooth audio does work, I had some fun playing GBA with bluetooth headphones last night.

I'm glad that the D-Pad has a circle around it. +‐shaped D-Pads are really annoying whenever I have to input two directions at once. Circle-shaped D-Pads with a + in them for feedback reign supreme as the best D-Pads.

The D-Pad feels great. I'm honestly a big fan of the controls. I've mentioned it before previously, but the keyboard and gamepad is fantastic. Default configurations need a little bit of work, but that's all software and that's something that will be easily be perfected by the community once the production units start rolling out.

 

[ToastBucket]

Here’s some more. Not sure what’s up with it being sideways

 

[PowerGod]

Not sure what’s up with it being sideways

In Google AI mind: "mmm, all the others Pyra videos had the display rotated... so if I rotate MY video, the display will be perfectly readable !! I'm genius with my learning skills !!"

 

[levi]

Not sure what’s up with it being sideways

Probably because you had your phone/other camera device oriented pointing down, the accelerometer in it got confused. I'm not sure what this looks like on your camera device of choice, so no suggestions on how to stop it happening in future, although if I remember properly, ffmpeg can rotate videos in a jiffy if you spot that mistake prior to posting it.

Also, funky looking framesync issues when you lowered the display brightness. Now I need to look at it again to figure out exactly what I was seeing there.

Edit: Yes, we seem to be seeing strobing at lower intensities, even when you aren't changing the brightness. I assume that isn't visible in real life, just an artifact of the exact camera you're using.

 

[matzesu]

Nice, thangs for the Video,
I found out that at least on this android tablet, i had to fiddle around a bit whit screen turning, and oriantation lock, but then saw the Video fullscreen and landscape ^^

On my User Picture on a diverent board, which i made whit the IPhone, i got the same issue

The nubs are i the middle of dpad and Buttons, so nothing you lost in the dark

 

[edgex004]

@ToastBucket that was the most exciting video I’ve watched in a while! i3 is without question my favorite dm/wm to use on the small Pandora screen. I can’t want to try it on the Pyra.

 

[Binky]

I was just thinking about the positioning of the Pyra in the marketplace. When that Lilliputing post came out, all of the complaints ended up in two categories: either they don't need it or it is too slow.

This is normal, everyone gets that.

I think the video above really shows us the way forward. Instead of positioning the device AGAINST other devices on the market, the better messaging approach would be to do the NINTENDO strategy and stand on your own terms. Don't compete on price or features. Instead, if we can honestly show everyone how much FUN IT IS TO USE THE PYRA I think we can help ED sell a whole bunch of these things. FUN should be the primary messaging push behind the Pyra. The upgradeability, open source, standard linux distro, ports, sata support (? i keep on reading about this, have not looked into what that means ?), etc., should be secondary communication strategy because they provide a bit of a moat around the FUN idea and help overcome a lot of the usual objections.

I think that is the key approach to presenting the Pyra to the world.

Obviously I have nothing to do with the project, I am just selfishly interested in seeing ED sell 10 000 units and build out a bit of an economy to allow for upgrades, addon products and customizations.

I certainly agree that trying to compete on the number of pixels, or cores, or bytes is a bad idea. They're not really useful metrics, and they don't make the Pyra look good.

However, I disagree that "fun" and "open-source" need be traded-off against each other. For a critical part of the market, they are one and the same thing! I have an Android phone, and it is not fun, because I have no meaningful control over its behaviour. Is the vendor junkware spying on me? Probably? I don't know. Not fun.

Open software, and meaningful community support mean that playing around with the device (rather than on it) can be fun. Using a device that I've configured to suit myself is enjoyable. Furthermore, we want to be attracting tinkerers, because they're the ones who will help the OS mature. Without a mature OS, nobody else will want to use the device anyway!

 

[ClockworkCoder]

However, I disagree that "fun" and "open-source" need be traded-off against each other. For a critical part of the market, they are one and the same thing! I have an Android phone, and it is not fun, because I have no meaningful control over its behaviour.

It's exactly this reason I love the (concept of) the Pyra. Having full control over the software and UI and meaningful control over the hardware and upgrades makes the Pyra fun. For retro gaming and for the keyboard layout alone it is great, but they don't do anything on their own to set it apart from other devices in their respective fields (i.e. retro handhelds, tiny computers or palmtops). The Pyra is an amalgamation of everything that is cool from each of those in one neat little package - with a little extra kudos to it being at the epicenter of a cool, active community.

 

[ClockworkCoder]

I see what you are saying. Anyone else got any thoughts on this?

Posted the above just as you asked this. I have one more thing to add though.

Take of the customisability a little further, and imagine... if, for argument's sake, we both own a (enter brand here) phone or retro device. Assuming you had access to my device, then you would be able to use it - everything would be familiar and known to you.

However, when I finish customising my Pyra, certainly the UI will likely not be familiar to you, nor would any shortcuts or settings (although it ought to perfectly fit my chosen workflow for it). The case may also have changed with some modifications. Yours may have changed equally, or it may not - that's the point. Make the Pyra your own: that's damned exciting, is it not!

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

It's good to see that I'm not the only one that considers the Pyra's libreness to be an extremely important advantage of the Pyra. It's advertised on the Pyra's main page and IMO rightfully so because it's very important. It's not good to let malicious vendors lock us in, spy on us, manipulate us, limit what we can do, prevent us from learning, and expose us to security vulnerabilities. I know that the Pyra is not fully libre but it's significantly more libre than most of it's competitors.

 

[ToastBucket]

Edit: Yes, we seem to be seeing strobing at lower intensities, even when you aren't changing the brightness. I assume that isn't visible in real life, just an artifact of the exact camera you're using.

yeah you can’t actually see that it’s just showing up on my camera. The backlight is PWM driven so decreasing the brightness decreases the duty cycle.