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Nintendo's Switch Has Been Hiding a Buried 'VR Mode' For Over a Year (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the lost-and-found dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Hackers have uncovered and tested a screen-splitting "VR Mode" that has been buried in the Switch's system-level firmware for over a year. The discovery suggests that Nintendo at least toyed with the idea that the tablet system could serve as a stereoscopic display for a virtual reality headset. Switch hackers first discovered and documented references to a "VrMode" in the Switch OS' Applet Manager services back in December when analyzing the June 2017 release of version 3.0.0 of the system's firmware. But the community doesn't seem to have done much testing of the internal functions "IsVrModeEnabled" and "SetVrModeEnabled" at the time. That changed shortly after Switch modder OatmealDome publicly noted one of the VR functions earlier this month, rhetorically asking, "has anyone actually tried calling it?" Fellow hacker random0666 responded with a short Twitter video (and an even shorter followup) showing the results of an extremely simple homebrew testing app that activates the system's VrMode functions.

As you can see in those video links, using those functions to enable the Switch's VR mode splits the screen vertically into two identical half-sized images, in much the way other VR displays split an LCD screen to create a stereoscopic 3D effect. System-level UI elements appear on both sides of the screen when the mode is enabled, and the French text shown in the test can be roughly translated to "Please move the console away from your face and click the close button." The location of the functions in the Switch firmware suggest they're part of Nintendo's own Switch code and not generic functions included in other Nvidia Tegra-based hardware.

38 comments

  1. maybe LaboVR? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    resolution is so low though :/

  2. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously. The last time video games were interesting was before and a couple of years after the Nintendo 64 was released. Ever since then, it's as if all the magic was lost. And no, it's not nostalgia and me getting old blabla... It's actually the case.

    1. Re:Who cares? by glitch! · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously. The last time video games were interesting was before and a couple of years after the Nintendo 64 was released.

      I enjoyed Doom and Doom2 two and a half decades ago. Skipped Quake. Then got into Diablo2 a decade later. That lasted a couple years. In between, I played Civilization, Sims, and other popular games. I don't play now, but I would say all of those games are decent. And there must be many other great games I don't know about. It would be improper to condemn them because of shallow emotions or just lack of knowledge.

      --
      A dingo ate my sig...
    2. Re: Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Look. So edgy.

      There are plenty of perfectly fine video games out. Stop trying to play the oldschool cool bullshit.

    3. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You should try Doom2 again. Get Zandronum, load up DoomSeeker (included) find a Complex Doom Invasion server, let shit install, and jump in (don't forget to config both normal controls and CDI controls) and relive some awesome fucking times with a few nice updates.

    4. Re: Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      mods are losers too fyi

    5. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just because you have no interest in gaming and have such a narrow view of what is an interesting game doesn't mean the rest of the world is as closed minded as is obviously indicated by gaming as an industry being orders of magnitude bigger than it was back in the N64 days.

    6. Re: Who cares? by bloodhawk · · Score: 2

      amusingly most gamers show more maturity than you and that is pretty sad state to be in. perhaps you should reflect on what that makes you if they are losers?

    7. Re:Who cares? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      I'm sorry the happy person inside you died.

      In the meantime I am thorroughly enjoying the variety on the Switch, from the AAA titles, to the extensive independent market right along side the actual nostalgic titles that are available which you yourself seem to claim were interesting.

    8. Re: Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jocks rule Nerds drool! O'DOYLE RULES!!!!!!

    9. Re:Who cares? by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      My man, we've probably played skulltag together before the drama and split happened.

    10. Re: Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People have ported those old doom games to vr, so it's a lot of fun if you have a VR headset. They have full controller support and everything.

    11. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm never not amazed by the sheer amount of quality that the Doom community has put out over the years. They aren't showing any signs of slowing down, either. Mr. Icarus has a bunch of videos detailing various mods, if you're looking for something to try. (HDoom's one of my favorites.)

      https://www.youtube.com/user/ICARUSLIV3S

    12. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Game Cube was very good, great hardware, nice controller (the size, and they didn't cost $60 so you can afford having three), the 8cm DVDs were nice to handle, good games like monkey ball, prince of persia, star fox adventure (marvelous but the combat is too easy, mash A button and win). It didn't had enough games and was killed off to make room for Wii while PS2 lasted 10 years.
      Ah yes Metroid Prime 1 was nice on that system (I didn't play the others). Again it should probably be harder but there was one hard boss fight, some giant plant monster you fired missiles at.

      The tech was better too! CRT is superior because of perfect black level and angle of vision and zero latency. Wired controller is superior because of drastically lower cost and zero latency. An offline console when you just want to play a game and not a social media.

  3. Simple by dohzer · · Score: 1

    Well then just switch it on.

    1. Re:Simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like switch it off. Nintendo is known for removing hidden code like this when it's found and not in use. See also Flog.

      Honestly it would be funny if someone managed to actually port some VR apps to the Switch, before Nintendo made VR officially supported.

      Extra points if they get Dolphin Emu's VR port to run on it.

  4. Nintendo did this before everyone else... by MobyTurbo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nintendo did this before everyone else, with the Virtual Boy.

    1. Re:Nintendo did this before everyone else... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was just a 3D effect and didn't include any headtracking. The Sega Master system had a pair of glasses for that.

    2. Re:Nintendo did this before everyone else... by HalAtWork · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the Master System had 3D Outrun among others, same with the NES which had 3D World Runner for example.

      You're right, the Virtual Boy was stereoscopic 3D with no head tracking.

      In the 90s Atari was demonstrating a head tracking stereoscopic headset for the Atari Jaguar at various video store chains but it never made it to market. Disney was also demonstrating goggles at Disney World with SGI and had some Aladdin magic carpet demo in the 90s as well: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=...

      --
      Twinstiq, game news
    3. Re:Nintendo did this before everyone else... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget the Sega VR - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    4. Re:Nintendo did this before everyone else... by MobyTurbo · · Score: 1

      Keeping the old console-wars alive, eh? (I read some old Usenet archives - people were arguing over Nintendo vs. Sega back then.)

  5. Maybe they are still trying to come up with.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the VR Headset Labo design that is comfortable enough to wear.

    1. Re: Maybe they are still trying to come up with.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope not, bad vr is worse than no vr.

  6. Re: is it the mode whereb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I farted.

  7. haxxy haxxy haxx0rz! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    BeauHD taking lessons from msmash, still not k-rad.

  8. Not news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    no, they haven't been "hiding" it. It was found almost at launch over a year ago. Nintendo even talked about VR as a possability during the NX-face in investor meetings.
    It's just code they didn't bother to clean up and remove when they decided to not do VR with the Switch.
    Most likely because of the higher resolution and frame rate that would be needed which would have pushed up the price significantly above where they wanted the device to land.

    1. Re:Not news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's ok. In a few years they will release a new console with a confusing name and identical form factor. People will think it's an overpriced Switch accessory and not new hardware.

  9. At what refresh rate? by HalAtWork · · Score: 1

    If it's just 60Hz it will not work too well

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
  10. Save Files? by Hodr · · Score: 1

    I sure wish they would discover a hidden save-file-backup mode, or a way to lock access to an account. It takes exactly 5 clicks for my toddler to delete my Zelda save game (home-zelda-dad profile-new game-yes) and as far as I can tell there is zero recourse other than not letting the child ever touch the system.

    1. Re:Save Files? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The later seems like a perfect solution. What is wrong with the old adage 'seen not heard'?

  11. Too low framerate by bmxer4130 · · Score: 0

    VR at 720p and what - 30fps? Sounds nauseating.

    1. Re:Too low framerate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's "VR lite" as done on phones and cheap stand alone VR sets. The kind were tracking does rotation only. Think Myst series kind of content, and watching 360 degree video. I never tried it though. I only used VR for a couple minutes in like 1994 with flat shaded polygons and the "cyberpuck"

      It should be quite easy to run at 60fps by keeping the complexity low.
      They likely don't want to bother with it, it's niche and will bring angry bad reviews because PS4 VR is better, etc.

  12. Labo!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can't wait for the Switch Pro with Labo VR bundle!

  13. Th Wii U had a great VR implementation by pots · · Score: 1

    If you ever played Nintendo Land on the Wii U, you know it had a different sort of VR implementation - rather than strapping the display to your head, you treated it as a window to the virtual environment. This is such a better solution that the goggles thing: there's no barrier to getting into your game, you're not cut off from the world around you, so it's very easy to pick up and play and put down again when you need to. No motion sickness, no awkward controls (although those aren't strictly required for VR), no heavy system requirements.

    When the Switch was announced with the same form-factor as the Wii U gamepad, this is the reason why I was excited.