I'm working on headware packages for some corporate NPCs, and I'm having some trouble determining what item does what. I think the line that's giving me the biggest headache (no pun intended) is "Datajacks also allow users to
slot and mentally access chips, softs, and BTLs." That suggests that a Datajack is capable of producing the full VR experience of a Sim Module - however, the Datajack listing also mentions adding a Sim Module to it at additional cost.
Here's my question: When looking at the Control Rig, Datajack, Sim Module, and Implanted Commlink items, how much overlap in funtionality is there? Each item would seem to require some sort of DNI, but it's unclear to me what the limitations of it are. Can my Rigger run simsense through his Control Rig? Can a wageslave with an implanted commlink gain the functionality of a datajack with the commlink's wireless signal?
Full Version: DNI for Dummies
QUOTE (MikeKozar @ Dec 30 2009, 09:23 AM) 
I'm working on headware packages for some corporate NPCs, and I'm having some trouble determining what item does what. I think the line that's giving me the biggest headache (no pun intended) is "Datajacks also allow users to
slot and mentally access chips, softs, and BTLs." That suggests that a Datajack is capable of producing the full VR experience of a Sim Module - however, the Datajack listing also mentions adding a Sim Module to it at additional cost.
Here's my question: When looking at the Control Rig, Datajack, Sim Module, and Implanted Commlink items, how much overlap in funtionality is there? Each item would seem to require some sort of DNI, but it's unclear to me what the limitations of it are. Can my Rigger run simsense through his Control Rig? Can a wageslave with an implanted commlink gain the functionality of a datajack with the commlink's wireless signal?
slot and mentally access chips, softs, and BTLs." That suggests that a Datajack is capable of producing the full VR experience of a Sim Module - however, the Datajack listing also mentions adding a Sim Module to it at additional cost.
Here's my question: When looking at the Control Rig, Datajack, Sim Module, and Implanted Commlink items, how much overlap in funtionality is there? Each item would seem to require some sort of DNI, but it's unclear to me what the limitations of it are. Can my Rigger run simsense through his Control Rig? Can a wageslave with an implanted commlink gain the functionality of a datajack with the commlink's wireless signal?
Datajack: A DNI device. It has no functionality other than storage, storage retrieval and external access on its own.
Sim Module: Same as the external version. Allows you to access Simsense recordings. Needs an external DNI, like a datajack or an internal Commlink to "load" the simsense software.
Control Rig: Provides a bonus to full VR direct control of a Drone or Vehicle. No added functionality beyond that.
Implanted Commlink: Adding DNI capability to your commlink. It replaces the need for a Datajack.
I hope that helped.
What D2F wrote is true, but he forgot to mention that a trodenet and nanopaste trodes provide a DNI as well.
QUOTE (Dakka Dakka @ Dec 30 2009, 12:29 PM)
What D2F wrote is true, but he forgot to mention that a trodenet and nanopaste trodes provide a DNI as well.
Yup, I forgot to list those. I was fixed on cyberware solutions only. My apologies.
To expand on what "Datajacks also allow users to slot and mentally access chips, softs, and BTLs" actually means, I would like to point out a few things:
"Softs" in this case, refers to knowsofts, which have been formatted to be consumable by the brain through a direct neural connection. The Datajack, as a DNI device, qualifies. (This is a change from previous editions, where a piece of cyber called the Knowsoft Link was requried.)
BTL simsense offerings "on chip" nearly always have sim modules built in, right on the chip. This is why BTLs chips can be slotted directly to a Datajack, and not any property of the Datajack itself. Quality probably isn't the best, but this offset by the fact that the peaks in the sensory and emotive tracks are allowed to go well past what's considered the "safe" dynamic range. Hardcore addicts will modify a better, consumer grade sim module to remove the safety limitations, and route the sim feed through that instead of the chip's el-cheapo sim module circuitry.
So what about the other chips? Well, the description of the datajack mentions that if you string fiber optic between two datajack users, they can communicate "mentally". It's easy enough to see how the datajack could allow mental impulses to be converted into data that could be sent down a fiber optic, but for that data to be useful to the person at the other end, the datajack at the other end would have to have some limited capability for converting that communication back into something that the brain can process. This same capability could just as easily be used to convert other text-based data streams, such as files on a chip. Of course, given that most files by SR's time are full multimedia experiences that don't always distill well to a text-only interface, accessing chips with a datajack only is a rather inefficient way of doing business. You're much better off piping that data through the Image Link and Sound Link of your choice.
"Softs" in this case, refers to knowsofts, which have been formatted to be consumable by the brain through a direct neural connection. The Datajack, as a DNI device, qualifies. (This is a change from previous editions, where a piece of cyber called the Knowsoft Link was requried.)
BTL simsense offerings "on chip" nearly always have sim modules built in, right on the chip. This is why BTLs chips can be slotted directly to a Datajack, and not any property of the Datajack itself. Quality probably isn't the best, but this offset by the fact that the peaks in the sensory and emotive tracks are allowed to go well past what's considered the "safe" dynamic range. Hardcore addicts will modify a better, consumer grade sim module to remove the safety limitations, and route the sim feed through that instead of the chip's el-cheapo sim module circuitry.
So what about the other chips? Well, the description of the datajack mentions that if you string fiber optic between two datajack users, they can communicate "mentally". It's easy enough to see how the datajack could allow mental impulses to be converted into data that could be sent down a fiber optic, but for that data to be useful to the person at the other end, the datajack at the other end would have to have some limited capability for converting that communication back into something that the brain can process. This same capability could just as easily be used to convert other text-based data streams, such as files on a chip. Of course, given that most files by SR's time are full multimedia experiences that don't always distill well to a text-only interface, accessing chips with a datajack only is a rather inefficient way of doing business. You're much better off piping that data through the Image Link and Sound Link of your choice.
Slotting is so 2050. Everything is wireless enabled - that includes BTLs. So you could just use a trodenet. Where does it say that BTLs have a sim module?
QUOTE (Dakka Dakka @ Dec 31 2009, 02:34 AM)
Where does it say that BTLs have a sim module?
BTL chips come in two playback formats. “Dreamdeck” chips require an old-fashioned simsense deck (a simsense module designed just to play hardcopy simchips) that has been modified to produce BTL signals (easy to do). These are harder to come by as they are not in common use anymore. The second format, which is much easier to get, is the “direct input” chip. These more complex chips contain all the necessary electronics, so a user merely needs to slot the chip directly into an old-fashioned chipjack or datajack (no simdeck required). -- p.259, SR4A core
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