basically, i'm wondering about the simrig, and it's potential usefulness.

now, it says it can record emotions, etc from one person.

i assume it can also perform all the functions of trodes, but is there anything that supports that?

can it also be used to replace all your links (ie, image link, scent link, touch link, etc)?

any answers are welcome, answers with quotes or page references from the BBB are even more welcome, and answers from TinkerGnome are extremely welcome, as ultimately it is his decision on anything that is not explicitly spelled out...

sorry if this has been asked before, but a quick search didn't turn anything up...

It has an inbuilt sim module.

AFAICT, all a sim module lets you do is access VR as opposed to AR. my question (or at least part of it) is, can i access AR via a simrig, without need for AR goggles (image link), earbuds (soundlink), feedback gloves/clothing (touchlink), etc.

i'm basically trying to figure out why it would be a relatively easily available item for just anyone to pick up, and more to the point, why would runners want to buy it? if it's just a sim module, and maybe trodes as well, what's the big deal?

A sim module + DNI can handle AR without needing anything else.

so i don't need an image link on a pair of glasses to use a smartgun then? (as a specific example of the general question).

also, you haven't indicated (though i think you've kind of implied it) whether or not a simrig could act as the DNI as well...

also, next question: do you think it would be possible to record and send specific sensory data? (for example, could you record what you see and hear, turn it into a video file, and send it to someone else's commlink, the same as if you had cybereyes/ears and recorded stuff?)

A Simsense rig does exactly what it says on the tin, Simulated Sensory data, so yes a Simrig can replace an image link, audio link... because it affects the sense interpreting parts of the brain. Your Simrig can handle Smartgun input without trouble.

A Simrig might replace the need for imagelinked glasses, however it can't be upgraded to Thermo, for example, because it is direct input to the brain from another piece of hardware.

why couldn't you get thermo vision through a simrig? i mean, presumably you need something to transmit the data to you (ie, you need goggles, much as you need smartlink equipment to be able to access your smartgun and such), but why wouldn't you be able to have goggles with no image link that simply transmit the data to your simrig, which translates it into simsense data and tells your brain what to see?

I was under the impression that the sim module did all this anyway, and that the simrig was only for recording out said sim to another device for playback later.

Yeah, that's how I figure it. The simRIG can record your experiences and probably not a lot of people will use that, while the sim module is what most people will use to go VR and stuff.

I've always thought it would be interesting to have a character who records stuff (and maybe edits/blurs faces) and sells it to a producer or journalist. That'd probably be some pretty exciting stuff for the sim audience.

well, consider also that if it records it, that gives you much of the same function as cybereye and ear recording abilities. or maybe it does.

that was one of the things i was asking... can it convert simsense data into audio/video/trideo data? if you had an appropriate attachment could it do that? could it transmit that data wirelessly to someone else, realtime? could it translate the data as simsense to someone else, realtime?

Makes sense to me. This, by the way, is pretty much what Molly and (Case?) did in Neuromancer, when she's stealing the persona construct thing. But yeah, a live simsense feed makes sense. I would expect there to be a good deal of editing that would be done in a sim-cinema (simema?) work, and I don't see why a decent computer wouldn't be able to provide you with just the video or just the audio or whatever subset you'd like and do that in realtime. But there's nothing in the rules about that as far as I've seen.

As for AR, I don't know. I don't think AR is really supposed to work the same way as VR; although I can't say exactly why, I don't think that a sim module would be good at superimposing text, windows, pictures and such over your real view. However, given the descriptions of some of the BTLs (like the one that enhances sensory input and you're able to walk around "normally"), I guess it makes sense that the module would be able to do that. Wouldn't you still have the penalty for doing stuff in meatspace while using VR?

The external SimRig has an advanced trode net that covers your body. It also doesn't specify that you need to modify it to make it hot.

So far as I can see, a character with a SimRig doesn't need separate goggles, force feedback suits, or taste links - that's all included in the SimRig package. A character with an implanted SimRig doesn't need to put trodes all over their body in order to experience and create full body simsense.

-Frank