YouTuber Nintendrew has successfully used the Nintendo Switch with a virtual reality headset. The opportunity to discover what a Zelda VR might look like, while waiting for Nintendo to officially launch into this new market. If you want to replicate the same experience at home, here's how to do it.
Since its release, the Switch has broken all sales records, and Nintendo can rub its hands. Among the three major game console manufacturers, Nintendo is the one that lags behind in the field of virtual reality. Sony already offers a PSVR headset for its PlayStation 4, and Microsoft is directly addressing the PC virtual reality market with its new Windows Holographic platform. For its part, despite several rumors about this, Nintendo has still not announced a VR project.
Last year, however, the Japanese filed a patent outlining a system for using the Switch with a VR headset. Inspired by this document, YouTuber Nintendrew decided to take matters into his own hands by making a virtual reality headset adapted to the new console.
The young man's goal was to check what the VR would look like through the Switch screen. To achieve this, the video maker has equipped himself with a Durovis Dive 7 headset,designed to accommodate any tablet as a screen. Instead of a tablet, it inserted the Switch into the slot provided for this purpose.
Subsequently, Nintendrew used the web browser hidden in the console to get to YouTube and upload a 360-degree video of the classic Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. According to him, the experiment worked, but the width of the screen prevents optimal viewing.
Nintendo Switch: VR compatibility could soon be released
Despite this inconvenience, at the end of this test, the young man is deeply convinced that Nintendo plans to make its console compatible with virtual reality. He refers in particular to a recent interview with Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima, in which the entrepreneur explains that the only obstacle that prevents the firm from adopting VR is the discomfort felt by the user after a few minutes of play.
Indeed, if this problem is not really present on PC devices like the Oculus Rift or the HTC VIVE, the PSVR quickly gives nausea to many users. Game consoles are not as powerful as a VR-Ready PC, and Sony's headset resolution is much lower than that of high-end models. If Nintendo manages to overcome this problem, there is no doubt that the Japanese giant will embark on the development of a Zelda, Mario Party or other F-Zero in VR. In the meantime, there is nothing to prevent you from reproducing Nintendrew's experiment.