SoC: Back and forth!

[Hồng Thất Công]

No return policy for windows users

-duck-

 

[SNESFAN]

The Pandora advertises android and windows and dos(emulated) which is in a pretty bad state of function compared to laptops and phones. How many people return Pandoras because it doesn't run those as they had hoped? Those that know what an x86 could do, know this advertises Linux and not windows, shouldn't go into it thinking it will run windows as a shoe in. You are giving the low end of people too much credit, and the middle end not enough.

 

[TrashyMG]

Things were much nicer when the SoC choice was fixed.

 

[Askarus]

Things were much nicer when the SoC choice was fixed.

Totally agree.

Let's go for the OMAP and we're all happy again .

If only Qualcom had never contacted us .

 

[fusion_power]

Lol, exactly what I thought about this Thread, nice Logo. ^^ Just replace the Snake with a flaming Dragon, write PYRA in the middle and it's ready to use.

The difference is:

You can change the character sizes on a desktop so that it is readable.

You can't do that in most of the PC games.

That's actualy an easy fix, just lower the resolution of the Game. Of course nobody will play a PC game in HD resolution onto an 5" screen, that's why mobile games have completely different font and GUI sizes. At least many PC games can be modded so the Font size should be fixable more or less this way.

 

[slaeshjag]

question is; will the game allow you to lower to a meaningfully lower resolution? I actually doubt many games will let you go lower than 720 pixels in vertical resolution.

 

[ghostpatch]

I posted a video where someone is playing. But will he be able to play for hours or will the CPU overheat and throttle the turbo boost that might be used. That's my concern.

you should be able to play hours because SoCs are heating up pretty quickly under load. Thats when throttling takes action to prevent overheating. Its not meant for saving battery life. Meaning the current they can take is limited. Otherwise you'd damage your device or worse.

I'd like to note there are GPU intense games for ARM as well which have also a huge impact on battery life. But again, what you are using your device for is up to you

 

[Askarus]

I think we should rather focus on Android games than PC games.

Android games don't eat that much battery as most of them are not designed for A 15 but to run with lower specs as well.

Targeting PC core gamers would be the wrong direction I think.

Most of them prefer a real mouse and keyboard anyways and want some real good graphic.

 

[_jr_]

I think he meant that the throttling might make the game unplayable, because the frame rate might only be good enough at highest clock.


Additionally there are games (old, but unfortunately playing old games is an important part of being Pyra) that don't expect the clock to change and get all confused if it does.

 

[Natsu]

Things were much nicer when the SoC choice was fixed.

That's funny. Are you saying that because of your purchase.

 

[Askarus]

Things were much nicer when the SoC choice was fixed.

That's funny. Are you saying that because of your purchase.

I didn't purchase anything and share his opinion.

 

[rohezal]

The problem with andoid game is that you can't run them in the Pandora OS (well apkenv helped a bit, but only a bit). With x86 games you can run them from debian (like steam).

 

[CrazyIvan]

They bought a Tablet, and not a PC. That's a huge difference. I don't say this will necessarily happen, but it could.

 
OK, let's mention intel chromebooks then...

But yes, I see the problem there. You can't prevent bad sales anyway but is there an option to not allow (or heavily reduce) such returns? Something like a more strict return policy.

No, unfortunately not.

You may return anything without a reason within 2 weeks.

So you basically can buy a good linux notebook by trying some windows notebooks and returning them if linux doesn't work correctly?

2 weeks is not enough to produce 'windows' return surge big enough to cause serious concern I think.

If something like this happens bad news will spread fast enough to prevent other such customers to buy pyra.

And by the time pyra is out there will be enough intel chromebooks for average customer to understand that there are some slow and crappy x86 PCs that can't run windows with pyra being one of them.

And about android - I think it's not wise to directly compete with android handhelds as pyra will lose on price and performance. It won't be more powerful than current shield already and by the time it's out it'll be crushed by next-gen shield for example. And then there are smartphone+gamepad combinations like moga that could crush pyra on speed and battery life if smartphone is equipped with aftermarket external battery.

Android could be a good bonus for otherwise good device but not a selling point.

 

[sepulep]

probably pro OMAP5 here... just wondering: can you run virtualbox on z3770 or z3680D??

 

[Askarus]

slow and crappy x86 PCs that can't run windows

Do you want such a thing?

Or rather a fast ARM computer that is even capable of emulating some old Windows games .

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Lol, exactly what I thought about this Thread, nice Logo. ^^ Just replace the Snake with a flaming Dragon, write PYRA in the middle and it's ready to use.

Don't look at this logo in a negative way. I look at it like this:  Self-fulfilling, Self-sufficient - Pyra doesn't depend on any outside forces, it has its own ecosystem, it can sustain itself (well until it eats its own head)

 

[klapse]

But it doesn't matter actually. Unless someone decides to create another pocketable linux computer with good hardware keyboard people who want such device (including the ones flaming here) will buy pyra even if they hate SoC, wi-fi chip, yourself or anything that can be hated about this device.

That sums it up for me as well. But pyra will have to be significantly better in what it can emulate for me. 

EDIT: I am in the OMAP5 camp. Intel is actually an evil company for reasons I am not at liberty to divulge.

 

[vcoleiro1]

Just seen some Youtube vids of the Asus T100 with Baytrail TZ3740 running some games like Crysis, COD 4, Fallout 3  etc.  Ok, have to say it, wow, pretty fricking awesome. I Imagine the z3770 Baytrail would be even better .

Pretty tough decision ED has. Be interesting to see the SOC comparison pros/cons when he puts it together.

 

[Grench]

@ED- I am shocked at that statement, "characters too small to benefit" are you joking me? Make the decision based off benchmarks or even just preference, fine, because it's yours, but don't discredit it because some games wouldn't look right on a 5" display. That's just mad... 


tell you what is mad, squeezing a full desktop environment on a 5" display... just saying...

The difference is:


You can change the character sizes on a desktop so that it is readable.


You can't do that in most of the PC games.


A LOT of reviewers and gamers would complain about that... is that what you'd like?

Sorry ED, but that is just shy of complete and utter nonsense and you know it.

Claiming that it's a bad thing for an additional set of software to be playable - it's now bad to add more function and capability?  When did that start?

Native X86 games, when played at -native resolution- of 1920x1080 the font is going to be very tiny - but JUST AS DETAILED as it is on a big screen TV.  It will be too small to read at a half meter, may be readable at 6-8" from the users face.

That is not the point.

Every single one of those games can be set at 720p or even 320x240 and the hardware scaler will bring it back to full (or full with bars) screen with nice chunky fonts for the vision impaired.

You can run Any of them at a lower resolution and get faster refresh rates AND bigger fonts.  It's the EXACT SAME THING that many of our favorite emulators do now.

It feels like you're searching for reasons to exclude the possibility.  You don't have to.  You could choose ARM by proclamation.  This is not a democracy.

 

[Grench]

You forgot about a dock station or plain video out. There's nothing wrong with the ability to run such games. Reviewers will appreciate that if pyra won't be advertised as handheld only device

If you want to use a PC at home, use a PC.


The main reason to get a Pyra is to have a mini PC on the go.


I am the one with the risk here, so having a HUGE demand of people who want to buy it because they expect to play their favourite games on the go together with a ramped up production will lead to sudden death if they all start shipping it back to me because they can't play the games as they thought.


Our niche is full of smart people - telling the world there's a handheld that can play stuff like FF14 on the go will lead to thousands of new customers who don't think ahead...

So you're afraid that people are going to get a $700 palm top Linux OS computer confused for a full desktop with Widnows 8 and twin bleeding edge graphics cards?

"Our niche is full of smart people"

Yes.  It is.  So is the gaming on Linux on X86 world.  It would be cool to bring them together.

However it seems your comment was centered on wanting to avoid the know-nothing riff of smelly X86 people - they must be ugly indeed.

Sheesh.  Can we get back to rational logic instead of fears and insulting people we don't even know?