The most capable device in the world of virtual reality headsets is the Meta Quest 2, which does not depend on any type of console or external PC and therefore eliminates this barrier. However, Mark Zuckerberg’s company does not have the resources and the know-how to take off Virtual Reality, which has been seen for all this time.
Nintendo and VR would be the perfect marriage
We have to start from the fact that not everything that is patented by different companies translates into a real product, but they are proof of what they have experienced to develop new devices or simply throw them along the way. The reason we think Nintendo and VR go very well together is because among their own titles there are a series of franchises that go very well with virtual reality.
Not only the classic Wii sports that were a hit in their own right in the mid-2000s, but concepts like Luigi’s Mansion, Metroid Prime, not to mention that Nintendo version of Mario Kart that launched a few years ago in as trial tests to be able to test these waters.
After all, the Kyoto company has things that Meta lacks, which is having franchises strong enough to make the public’s interest in VR much higher. After all, a console is nothing more than the box you buy to play certain games and we only have to look at the millions of dollars in Nintendo game sales.
How about a version of the future The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom adapted to VR and with a high level of interactivity with the environment? The power of Nintendo franchises to promote virtual reality is huge and there is no arguing about it. So you can get an idea of what this idea can sell.
A way to complete the concept of Nintendo Switch
In the original Nintendo Switch patent, the possibility of being able to place the base unit of the console to act as a display and processing unit for standalone virtual reality glasses appeared. The problem is that a 720p display has too great a distance to be viable, not to mention that the refresh rate is too low for an application of these characteristics.
The fact is that a Switch 2, which we can not only use in portable and desktop mode, but also as a virtual reality system, would be more valuable than the Meta Quest. The reason for this is that you are not limited to just one way to play, but have a system capable of providing all kinds of experiences. This, yes,
Nintendo should use much more powerful hardware than the Switch which includes:
- A better display with a high refresh rate, possibly 120Hz.
- Also improved drivers for the whole process.
In other words, a next-gen console. What we know is under development. Although the question that comes to mind is: will virtual reality be Nintendo’s gimmick for its next generation?
Nintendo is stubborn with its ideas
And by that we mean that if they fail, they seek to do them in a much better environment.
- Anyone who has tried a virtual reality headset knows that the stereoscopic effect creates a real depth effect on the environment. That is to say, it gives the impression that it has volume and that Nintendo already wanted to sell it with its 3DS laptop a few years ago.
- As a curiosity, the Nintendo New 3DS, the improved version of said console, used an infrared camera on the front to track our retina and calibrate the screen according to the position of our eyes.
- Another more experimental concept was the portable window with the Wii U Remote, which had a screen, which allowed the user to virtually move a window around a 3D scene, which is the same thing we do when we move with an HMD in a virtual environment.
So Nintendo and VR are not two great unknowns, but have already carried out several experiments in the past or have taken concepts from them, even if it is for the creation of concepts that are both failed and successful.
Nintendo and VR, but is such a combination possible?
We don’t know if Nintendo will release a VR-based device, but we have a very important clue in the form of a patent assigned to the brand that talks about the use of a VR headset or HMD. If we remove all the legal and recurring language from the patent, we get:
- An image processing system where:
- A first user wears an HMD or virtual reality headset.
- A virtual space where the position of the camera is relative to an observation point and the distance and positioning relative to the second user.
- A second user holds a smart device in their hands.
- The same virtual space as the first user, but this time from the second user’s perspective.
- A first user wears an HMD or virtual reality headset.
- Both users see the same virtual world and can interact with it, any changes made by the first user are seen by the second user and vice versa.
- Additional users can be added to the virtual environment whether they are using an HMD, smart device or game console.
More specifically, of said patent, what interests us is FIG. 2, which explains how this system would be done through a network, either local or on the Internet, to which the various devices sharing the same virtual environment would be connected. We will therefore detail it below.
Breaking Nintendo’s Virtual Reality Patent
If we look closely, we will see how the devices marked as HMD and Smart Device have precisely the same components. The other two elements are clearly two command buttons and a server element, which ensures that the virtual environment data that reaches each viewer is correct. However, the devil is in the details and in this case we have IR and RGB cameras mounted on the HMD in the style of Meta Quest, Valve Index, PS VR 2 or other virtual reality headsets. All this is confirmed if we look at Fig. 3, of the same patent.
The numberings correspond to the HMD device indexed 10 in FIG. 2 and are therefore:
- Left and right screens (12)
- Left and right RGB (color) cameras (13)
- Left and Right IR (Depth) Cameras (14)
That’s important, because you’d think the patent might refer to the Cardboard Glasses via Nintendo Labo that they released a few years ago. rather not, it shows that it is a new deviceIn addition, it confirms that it is a mixed reality device where augmented reality applications can also be added, which they have already experienced very timidly in their time with the 3DS.
In the background we talk about a possible scenario for Switch 2
Besides the HMD units, the control buttons and the rest of the virtual environment devices, we have an information processing device. In vulgar language, this is how Nintendo calls its video game consoles, which consist of:
- One or more processing chips.
- One or more memory chips.
- A communication module to connect to the network.
His job is simple: launch the game and manage the positions of each of the objects in the virtual environment that he will then send to the rest of the participants. The device has its own screen and you don’t have to be super smart to see that, although it looks like another device in the patent, one of Nintendo’s future consoles in VR or any other mode can act as a host device. In other words, what it does is generate the lists of screens of the different units taking into account the positioning information of each, but then each device on the network will generate the virtual environment from its point of view at the using its graphics processor.
So we finally have all the necessary clues that tell us about a future Nintendo console with the possibility of being used as autonomous virtual reality glasses, but that would not be the main interest and would be part of a mode of development. further use the device that would be part of the potential successor. In any case, it could sit in the borage water and be nothing more than a mere patent that doesn’t translate to an end product, but the possibility is there and we didn’t want to leave it out. side.
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