i forgot about the bizarre design of the HTC Vive linkbox
currently in my mind is specifically the fucking USB situation.
so if you're not familiar, it has two separate USB-A 3.0 input ports on the front and back.
one side, is designed to be plugged into your computer, and the other side, to your headset (which has 3 cables attached together in a ribbon-y sorta gender)
this requires a USB 3.0 Type-A plug-to-plug cable
this is a little teeensy bit of a USB specification crime
best way i can summarize is: USB type A sockets are, generally, supposed to mean the device holding them is the "host" - that is to say, it's a computer processing inputs and outputs. the idea of two devices negotiating with eachother to decide which one gets to be the top and which one gets to be the bottom was introduced to the specification with USB-C, and before that point, you generally aren't *supposed* to make cables like these
of course, this is far from the only time i've seen one, and i have several non-vive-related cables for similar crimes floating around, but, yaknow
@MindmeshLink A to A cables are allowed as of 3.0, but they are supposed to be for testing purposes only and have to be very clearly labelled--you are *not* supposed to use them in a product you sell to people
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@MindmeshLink what did valve do with A to A cables?
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@Felthry include them in the Vive? the Vive was, while HTC branded, very much a thing Valve partnered with them for
@MindmeshLink we did not know that
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@Felthry ah! yeah. the vive was the breakout star of steamVR lol
@MindmeshLink we didn't get into vr until the index was a thing so we just associate valve with the index vr-wise
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@Felthry fair! i got in with the vive and it was like, very openly a product of valve R&D
@Felthry oh yeah also actually: the vive lighthouses are forwards compatible with the index! this also means you can upgrade to the index like, piecemeal
@Felthry Ah!
They did not tell Valve and HTC that loudly enough, lol