The most successful 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 necessary know-how to make Virtual Reality take off, which is something that has been seen in all this time.
Nintendo and VR would be the perfect marriage
We must start from the fact that not everything patented by different companies translates into a real product, but they are proof of what they have been experimenting with in order to develop new devices or simply discard them along the way. The reason why we think that Nintendo and VR go together very well is due to the fact that 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 They were launched a few years ago as trial tests to be able to test those waters.
After all, the Kyoto company has things that Meta lacks, which is having franchises powerful 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 see the million-dollar sales of Nintendo games.
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 VR is enormous and there is no possible discussion about that. 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 serve as a screen and processing unit for autonomous virtual reality glasses appeared. The problem comes from the fact that a 720p screen 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 something that would have more value than the Meta Quest. The reason for this is that you are not limited to just one way of playing, but that you have a system capable of offering all kinds of experiences. Yes indeed,
Nintendo should use much more powerful hardware than the Switch that includes:
- A better display with a high refresh rate, possibly 120Hz.
- Also improved drivers for the whole process.
That is, a next-generation console. Which 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 this 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 feeling that it has volume and Nintendo already wanted to sell this with its 3DS laptop a few years ago.
- As a curiosity, Nintendo New 3DS, the improved version of said console, used an IR camera on the front to follow 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 stage, which is the same thing we do when we move with a HMD through a virtual environment.
Therefore, Nintendo and VR are not two great unknowns, but have already carried out several experiments in the past or taken concepts from it, even if it is for the creation of both failed and successful concepts.
Nintendo and VR, but is such a combination possible?
We do not know if Nintendo is going to launch a device based on virtual reality, but we do have a very important clue in the form of a patent assigned to the brand that talks about the use of a virtual reality helmet or HMD. If we remove all the legal and recurring language in the patent what we have is:
- 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 to the distance and positioning with respect to the second user.
- A second user is holding a smart device in his hands.
- The same virtual space as the first user, but this time from the perspective of the second user.
- 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.
Specifically, of said patent, what interests us is FIG. 2, which explains how this system would be through a network, either local or over the Internet, to which the different devices that share the same virtual environment would be connected. So we will break it down below.
Breaking down 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 control knobs 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 as 10 of FIG. 2 and therefore are:
- Left and right screens (12)
- Left and Right RGB (Color) cameras (13)
- IR (Depth) cameras left and right (14)
This is important, due to the fact that one might think that the patent could refer to the cardboard glasses via Nintendo Labo that they released a few years ago. rather not, this 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, something that they already experimented with very timidly in their day with the 3DS.
In the background we are talking about a possible scenario for Switch 2
Apart from the HMD units, the control knobs and the rest of the devices in the virtual environment, we have an information processing device. In vulgar language it is how Nintendo calls its video game consoles, which is made up of:
- One or more processing chips.
- One or more memory chips.
- A communication module to connect to the network.
His job is simple: run 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 very smart to see that, although it looks like another device in the patent, one of Nintendo’s future consoles in VR or in any other mode can act as a host device. That is, what it does is generate the screen lists of the different units taking into account the positioning information of each one, but then each device within the network will generate the virtual environment from its perspective using its graphics processor.
So in the end we have all the necessary clues that tell us about a future Nintendo console with the ability to be used as autonomous virtual reality glasses, but that would not be the main point of it and would be part of an additional way of using the device that would form part of the potential successor. In any case, this could remain in borage water and be no more than a simple patent that does not translate into a final product, but the possibility exists and we have not wanted to leave it aside.
