Gamescom, sensor upgrade and other nice news


Glad to hear about the Hinge, and final Tweaks..
The Pixs looks nice from the gamescom, but i ditnt got the time to went to cologne, also there is quite a long way from my Lokation to the Gamescom (about 250 km from Saarbrücken to Köln)
But its seems like the Pyra is a bit bigger than the Pandora, at least if you look at the Pic where the 2 Devices are side by side, then the Top of the open lid is some mm higher than the Pandora top of the lid..
or is this just some sort of optical issue ??
I hope you gather lots of attention at Gamescom for our new most have linux nerds toy :)
 
But its seems like the Pyra is a bit bigger than the Pandora, at least if you look at the Pic where the 2 Devices are side by side, then the Top of the open lid is some mm higher than the Pandora top of the lid..
or is this just some sort of optical issue ??
The Pyra is actually bigger:
Pandora: 140 x 83 x 27 mm [1]
Pyra: 139 x 87 x 32 mm [2]

I guess the added height is mainly due to the piggyback CPU board. The increase in depth seems to be due to the bigger display and maybe the speakers, which are now in the base unit.


[1] http://www.pandorawiki.org/Pandora#Specifications
[2] https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyratech/
 
Im thinking its the battery that is thicker, and also more travel on the buttons.

Width is more buttons and modem, presumably due to fitting a bigger screen to begin with.
 
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According to the specs the width is the same (attributing 1mm difference to measurement uncertainty).
 
I understand that the hinge area is still being tweaked, but when there is a finished version, I hope someone might be able to find the time to show off the whole hinge area and its construction. I have to admit, I'm having a hard time visualizing it right now in spite of the pictures shown so far and what has been said (is it to be just a sort of oval-shaped plastic peg in a plastic hole, or will there be some sort of metal peg/device of some description with lock points involved? I'm just not sure.).

***Oh, one other question that has been on my mind. In regards to the nubs and the click-button function that they have, can someone who knows for certain (ED if you're available :)) confirm if the nub's click-button can be used when the nub is in any position (think: Ape Escape for PS1), or if the nub has to be dead center for it to be able to activate.***

I would like to thank everyone involved with bringing about the Pyra, I'm really looking forward to having one of my own, I'm just very curious to understand as much as I can about it. :)
 
I used a Pyra to code a bit (the Blue one), using the nubs clicks, and I did had any issue "pressing" the nub while moving. I must say I haven't specificaly (and conciously) tried to move and click, but I'm pretty sure this works.
 
Anybody thumb type with the keyboard? Just curious since that's how I type on my Pandora. Literally I only use them now for typing. :)
 
Safely arrived back from the GamesCom :)

Well, about the one who posted about the Pyra:
He most probably only tried it out without asking anyone.

The points he complained about are exactly the points we explained to everyone:
The touchscreen is not the final one (I'll receive samples of the new perfectly clear one in about two weeks), the case is currently getting the final tweaks (so that the nubs don't scratch, the shoulder buttons work perfectly and the hinge will be made more stiff) and the grey case is the old testing case where there were still many issues. It also only was some cheap plastic and not the one we use.

The keymat is almost final: The height of the keys is fine but you still need to push a bit too hard, so we're trying various material strengths soon.

The OS was just a presentation OS, I installed a few emulators from the Debian repo (like stella, so we could make the video above), but there were no other ROMs installed. We didn't show any gaming on it yet.

Usually, there was one from our team at the Pyra all the time and explaining, that it's not the final product, but it seems this guy slipped through our fingers.

If you could point me to those boards or post those informations at the threat there, it would be appreciated.

He told me that there was somebody with him only apologizing for the non working stuff. Don't worry, I'm going to translate and publish the things I had read here :D.
 
And whit the improved Hinge Friktion, dos this means i could use the Pyra on the mill at the gymn to shorten the 1 hour run ??
Or i could play some Dreamcast Offroad Games, whyle i sit on the Unimog ??
 
You know I've been hanging around this dusty old internet a little while, and I'm no stranger to this preorder game and weird hardware projects that offer little more than a glimmer of hope. Almost every time I've had my heart broken or I've been let down. But this time I feel like I've grappled onto something that's going places. The Pyra looks awesome. I'm super stoked to get one. Onwards and upwards, ED and crew!
 
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So, is there no actual video footage of the LED wall?

@EvilDragon Are you still going to upload that video from the Gamescom?
There is actual footage and I will upload it.
Will edit the video tomorrow or Wednesday, we just shipped 60 orders and I'm totally worn out right now.
Need to take a nice relaxing bath now :)
 
Here is a quick review of the GPD Win, as I played a bit with it:

As expected, the keyboard is pretty bad. The layout can be confusing, the keys are to close to each other, and the key "click" like some old joystick button. The keys are a bit hard to press (maybe to mitigate the fact that they are tightly packed with mostly no gap between each).
This is a gaming console, not really a general purpose computer...

Game controls are pretty good. A few games were installed, and I mainly played Mirror Edge (with a long session of half an hour at least). The games is quite smooth, with 30fps (then after 10min or so lowering at 20fps because of the heat, but still playable with no issue). I had a good gaming experience with Mirror Edge all in all.
Minecraft was also present, and can work with an XBox controler. But, Minecraft detect the presence of an XBox controler at start. Once started, plugin in an XBox controler will do nothing. And that's one of the main issue. When the swtich is in "Mouse mode" (like it's suppose to be when you are using Windows), the XBox controler is not pluged in. It is when you switch to "XBox mode" (you hear the little "dingdang" windows does when an USB device is connected). So, to use the integrated controls with Minecraft, you have to launch Minecraft in the XBox mode, using the keyboard or the touchscreen... That's quite counter-intuitive. Once correctly launched, it was running well.

Another point, if your game is a keyboard only game (i.e. some indie title), well, because of the keyboard, and the fact the Dpad is NOT cursors keys (or WASD), you will need to use some software like "joy2key" to be abble to play.

A last point I notices, is about the shoulders buttons. The 4 shoulders are buttons. But an XBox360 controler as 2 shoulder buttons, and 2 analog shoulders. This is used for racing games or flight/combats sims for example. No ideas how it will work a racing game...

In conclusion, it can be nice to play some (not too demanding) AAA Title (but it can be frustarting sometimes), but it will not be a nice machine for hacking (even if Linux can be installed on).
 
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***Oh, one other question that has been on my mind. In regards to the nubs and the click-button function that they have, can someone who knows for certain (ED if you're available :)) confirm if the nub's click-button can be used when the nub is in any position (think: Ape Escape for PS1), or if the nub has to be dead center for it to be able to activate.***
It still works when they're being moved, but they can't be clicked in at the full distance.
 
GPD win sounds a bit lack luster. It looks good, but it sounds like my suspicions were, in fact, correct about it.
Shame always wanted a portable x86 system to play games like DK2 Warcraft 3, and my recent additions Stardew valley and factorio, playing minecraft is something the pyra should be able to do :p
 
Theoretically the Pyra can play Stardew Valley, if Mesa can be made to render OpenGL2 in software, or if glshim is updated to OpenGL2 support.
 
GPD win sounds a bit lack luster. It looks good, but it sounds like my suspicions were, in fact, correct about it.
Shame always wanted a portable x86 system to play games like DK2 Warcraft 3, and my recent additions Stardew valley and factorio, playing minecraft is something the pyra should be able to do :p

Is that confirmed? I've heard lots of speculation but I've yet to see Minecraft running on any pyra prototype or dev board. Am I wrong?
 
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