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Nintendo Switch and head mounted display : VR speculation time
- Thread starter Buggy Loop
- Start date
Ninja Scooter
Member
That's not nintendo's style though imo. If anything they are the opposite. They wait until an idea/market/tech is fully cooked before jumping in with their trademark polish.
Releasing half ass VR could have the opposite effect of turning their audience off of VR, and making them that much more skeptical and that much harder to sell to them a few years down the line once the tech is ready for prime time.
Nvidia, i believe, is behind all this tech mainly. I want to point out to a research Nvidia did 2 years ago on VR display tech, called cascaded displays.
https://youtu.be/0XwaARRMbSA
Or it's just a dead patent that will never come to fruition, but i just want to point out a possible scenario.
This is interesting tech, but it would almost certainly be cheaper and simpler to just use a higher resolution display in the first place, and you would have to render at at higher resolution to support it anyway. It seems more focussed at cases where the bleeding edge of display tech isn't quite good enough (i.e. you can't make an 8K screen small enough, but you can use two 4K screens instead). However, it seems to be limited to LCD displays, rather than OLED, which would limit its usefulness in high-end headsets.
That actually sounds awesome in VR though.
Dreamwriter
Member
No, now we know that someone thought the idea worth patenting so that nobody else does it. Nintendo patents a lot of things they never plan on doing, as does Apple, as does Microsoft, as does Sony. And many of the ideas have never been attempted even by those companies.
GoldenCrow
Member
I hope Nintendo get into VR as many of their franchises would be perfect for it but not a half assed job, the phone headset stuff is rubbish and PSVR is as basic as it should get when it comes to VR. Ideally Nintendo would go third party because proper VR isn't cheap and NIntendo doesn't have the best record of third party support but damn after playing Windlands I want Metroid in VR so much, the atmosphere and the exploration would be amazing I would also love a Mario Galaxy style platformer in VR as well.
Skittzo0413
Member
I don't know all that much about current VR products but do they typically contain wide-angle lenses like those detailed by the patent:
I'm assuming yes, but I just want to be sure this isn't doing anything new.
I'm assuming yes, but I just want to be sure this isn't doing anything new.
It all depends on Nintendo's ambition with VR. They might not see this as an important segment to capitalize on (they've already failed twice with 3D display tech), they might use the tech, as I've mentioned already, pretty much like AR with the 3DS.
Prevolition
Member
It shall be called Switch On.
Awesome video.
Things just got really interesting.
I knew there had to be other ways to increase fidelity besides brute forcing IQ by increasing resolution. The latter method pretty much guarantees that quality VR never becomes more affordable as the tech improves since it just increases the screen resolution as well as the power of the hardware needed to take advantage of it.
If Nvidia and Nintendo pull this off, the Switch will be such a homerun for both companies.
Good catch.
It's so obvious, that it's staring people right in the face and they don't see it. In fact, from how we've seen the Switch used, there is no reason you'd be using the motion sensors in the Switch since they would either be held in your hands while attached to the Joycon or detached while the screen is either docked or propped up with a kickstand.
Not only that, it would seem the Switch has one sensor the Joycon don't, if I'm reading it correctly, which are magnetometers. That is inside-out positional tracking, the same that the Wii U Gamepad had or GearVR and the Google Pixel has for VR. That may not give you "roomscale" but it should allow for a good range of VR experiences that don't include physically walking around, which I would assume are a majority of them, of if that isn't true, soon it may be.
edit: reading about the magent sensor in the patent, it would seem it's not a magnetometer but it would be used to detect when the Switch is docked to turn off the screen.
You forgot $200.
Wasn't sure if I should bump this but what the hell.
Given that we've actually seen the Switch's screen now (people have had hands on with it and we have video of its quality) and seen games, even though they're not fully taking advantage of the system since some are ports, indie offerings, and not fully made 100% for the Switch running on it (from Zelda, Mario to Bomberman R to Sonic) does that some how change any thoughts, better or worse, regarding what was presented in the opening post? Even just on the proof of concept scale?
Given that we've actually seen the Switch's screen now (people have had hands on with it and we have video of its quality) and seen games, even though they're not fully taking advantage of the system since some are ports, indie offerings, and not fully made 100% for the Switch running on it (from Zelda, Mario to Bomberman R to Sonic) does that some how change any thoughts, better or worse, regarding what was presented in the opening post? Even just on the proof of concept scale?
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
The screen is the least of their worries. I'm in love with the Switch but it would be a shit VR device. It's sorely underpowered for VR, and it's too large and heavy to be worn on the face. And, yes, of course that 720p screen would be awful.
I hope to god they don't shoehorn in VR with the Switch. Even if they later release a version with better specs. VR is amazing, but the industry is taking a hit from shitty first experiences from consumers from devices like google cardboard and gear VR. Even PSVR is a pile of shit compared to the Vive.
I personally really want VR to take off, but mediocre first impressions have killed tech innovations in the past (see: 3D) and it makes me nervous that a vast majority of first-impressions are *not* on the Vive or Rift, which are really the only two VR experiences worth a damn right now.
(Source: I own literally every consumer VR device available.)
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