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StarTopic Future Nintendo Hardware & Technology Speculation & Discussion |ST| (New Staff Post, Please read)

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kimbo99 said:
NHL, Madden and FIFA on par with XSX and PS5 with features is likely the play. If you are a sports fan and end up with a Switch 2, get ready for those microtransactions.
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If the next Switch can get both NHL and Madden day and date, that alone is worth the inconvenience of a few micro transactions.
 
Dakhil said:
Although not explicitly related to Nintendo's new hardware, very cool to see someone offering a Nintendo Switch Lite mod to replace an IPS LCD display with an OLED display. (And the mention of a HDMI output being potentially possible, but being capped at 720p, is interesting and intriguing.)

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The only downside to this mod is that unsightly hole on the face of the device.
 
YolkFolk said:
Sub 1% of the Switch audience would care about RT. It’s not even a selling point to me, never mind the average user.
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In my opinion, the main problem with RT in games is that we're so used to rasterization that we can't conceive of its full potential. 90% of current RT applications in games are just putting it into a game designed around rasterization, rather than being designed for it from the ground up. While this design choice makes sense in a PC environment where you have to design around systems that can't do RT, in a console environment, you know you'll always have that tool in your arsenal. I expect most of Nintendo's first-party lineup to make full use of Drake's RT capabilities going forward.
 
Hermii said:
It's more that RT = Power to some people.
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Normal people don’t even know what RT is. Might be a sell to enthusiasts on a gaming forum but not 99% of Switch owners. RT is a bit of sugar on what we hope will be a big tasty cake.

The big sell will be exclusive Nintendo games you can only play on Switch 2 and experiences which stand out as being far and above what the original Switch offered - something like RDR2 - in the same way Skyrim wowed people before.
 
Serif said:
I don't think Nintendo will mention DLSS at all in consumer facing material. It's just a tool for upscaling / anti-aliasing at the end of the day. It makes sense to advertise it in graphics cards since it's an end-user choice to give up native res for more frames. In a console these options will never be exposed except possibly in 30 FPS / 60 FPS modes where the DLSS preset is switched. What matters is the end result which is an image that looks better on 4K TVs. The people who know what DLSS is will find out that the Switch 2 has it anyway, and the people who don't know don't need to know, because they're enjoying a sharper and more detailed image.
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100% agree. At the end of the day dlss is a better version of FSR, which isn't being advertised on other consoles. 4K is the buzzword that will be on the box, how that's achieved is irrelevant.
 
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Most folk don't exactly understand what terms like '4K' or 'HDR' mean. They just know that their brand new TV they were dazzled by in the showroom is capable of these. 'Crisper picture' 'vibrant colors' are what they hear and see, not anything related to pixels, nits, or color gamut. And that's fine - all they need to care about is the end result, not how the sauce is made.

I think ray tracing may be mentioned, in the same breath as 'more immersive visuals'. This is what the PS5 site has to say about it - "Explore lifelike environments with Ray Tracing. Ray Tracing brings new levels of realism with natural shadows and reflections in supporting PS5 games.". And the Xbox site: "Hardware-accelerated ray tracing gives your games a heightened level of realism." Not much technical detail, no screenshots.

The Switch's appeal is as an 'all-in-one' seamless gaming device. It may be prudent of them to mention features that it shares with the 'desktop' consoles, to emphasize that Swiss Army Knife aspect. They don't need to go into detail or loudly advertise it. On the websites I visited, I had to scroll a bit to find the ray tracing blurb. To someone who doesn't fully get what RT is, they may still be impressed that the Switch 2 even has this feature. Not a major selling point but a nod to its capabilities as a miniaturized current-gen console.

Out of curiosity I went to the Switch site and it says "Connect your system using the included dock to enjoy a traditional gaming experience in HD.". HD is a well-known term at this point, so they are still advertising a high definition, high fidelity experience with the Switch. I expect the Switch 2's site to expand that description.
 
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You don't need to spend a lot of time on them, but I'm not sure why you would explicitly avoid mentioning easy tech wins like RT or DLSS. The average user is not going to understand it, but they will go to social media/the internet to get truncated impressions of whether the hardware is "good" or not. It's probably significantly preferable to have those boxes obviously checked, vs having people lambast the device for seemingly not having them(if left unmentioned).

"Delivering 4k, Nvidia DLSS and RT technologies for unparalleled image quality" or whatever as a statement or mentioned in a press release, is a very easy way to check the box without spending much time on it.
 
redmutineer75 said:
Currently having a Wikipedia edit war with myself over whether or not Orin has RT cores, and if so, how many. I've seen technical briefs from Nvidia on Orin that contradict each other.
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Update: I decided on 8 because that's the only number I could find in any Orin documentation that mentioned RT cores, but it was from 2021, so the design may have changed since.
 
thelegendofcap said:
Rumor-wise, your guess is as good as mine.

But if I had to pick a gimmick for the Switch 2, it would be bringing back asymmetrical gameplay and avenging the Wii U. This would be a great way to play DS/3DS games and some Wii U games like Nintendo Land.

They could do this by:

1. Being able to stream to the dock (unlikely)
2. A detachable screen (there's a patent for this)
3. Using a Switch 1 or another Switch 2" as a screen controller (I think this is the best option)

A WW / TP HD port keeping the item menu and map features from the Wii U remasters would be so good.
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As I love the DS and 3DS for having a dual screen, I want to stay far away from Wii U. Yes, that also had two screens, but looking at Star Fox Zero, I don't think I want to see that return. I don't like looking up to the TV and looking down at the console/controller screen constantly. That shit was different with DS/3DS since the screens were next to each other, and thus easier to handle.

As for just regular gaming on TV, just give me 1 screen, that the way I'm used of. 😅
 
bmfrosty said:
A Wii HD that had a modern GPU in 2009 and modern download infrastructure would have probably been able to keep Wii mania going if it could also have solved the big limitations that the Wii had at a reasonable price.
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I would imagine they would definitely capture more of the audience, at least the shooter audience. I think they would have lost the fighter audience however.
 
unit 9s said:
I don't think they will. DLSS is a very jargony term that the average consumer will have no idea about. Instead of trying to explain it, I imagine they will just say something about games running at higher resolutions than ever before, slap a 4K compatible sticker on the box, and call it day. Folks like Digital Foundry will likely be the ones who confirm the technical aspects like DLSS, raytracing, etc.
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Right, specifically bringing up DLSS seems about as likely as them specifically mentioning tiled rendering or texture compression formats. They'll stick with "Play in up to 4K! You will say wow!"
 
epicmartin7 said:
Question. Any thoughts on if the next console will have a unique gimmick? Or will it just be the "Switch 2"?
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At this point I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but here we go:

The 3 pillars would be: ¹better motion controls for the joy-con, making it a 6DoF controller; ²body tracking much ahead of anything microsoft's kinect could do; ³a lightweight and cheap - but high quality - VR headset that would launch 2 or 3 years after the console's launch.

So, for the first two we would basically need cameras. Personally I would put cameras on the tablet itself (I would sacrifice the up bezels making it a bit larger to accommodate the cameras as I believe it would be a great trade-off, and would enable this experience on tabletop mode too.
With an add-on accessory (that would come in the box) you could transform the joy-con on a VR like controller, with sub-millimeter accuracy. It would have that traditional ring shape (from VR controllers) with the IR LED's to be tracked by the cameras. The same cameras would be used to perform the body tracking (it could even do both trackings at the same time, like it's done on meta quest 3)

It would be something like this (it's just an example, don't mind on the quality of the execution here)

MnRpGBK.png

FvYac65.png

3cW8s70.png

Also, Nvidia has a model for body tracking.



All these machine learning algorithms would be running on the Tensor Cores.



About VR, I made this post the other day:

Kise Ryota said:
Or they could just use the tablet (that millions will already have) as the computer unit.

This is an AR device called Magic Leap:

AQLOjLw.png

Just replace that compute unit with the switch 2 tablet:

Arhp6No.png

Yeah, not as clean as a meta quest, I know lol
But hey! Apple is also using cables! (to connect the HMD to a battery lol)

This would be much cheaper, and the VR device wouldn't compete for components (manufacturing wise) with the hybrid console.
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This approach could offer cheap VR (for those who already have a Switch 2, and I'm thinking something between $150-$199) in a very lightweight/comfortable headset that would only contain the 2 lenses, 2 speakers, one or two screens (it's up to them to decide which approach is the best from a price and weight perspective), one IMU, and 4 cameras. Pancake lenses (which enables both the clearest visuals and a slimmer design) are a bit expensive now, but it would get cheaper in 2026/27 (when I would expect Nintendo launching the headset). Although a cheap solution, it would still offer a high quality VR experience.

And, of course, we don't need controllers to be bundled with the HMD because every Switch 2 owner would already have VR ready controllers. Make a Mario Kart for launch and Nintendo would steal a lot of Meta's customers...

I believe that if they did all this, it would greatly expand on how versatile a hardware like the Switch can be. They would be crazy not to do this IMHO :p

BUT... it's Nintendo, so...
1






Kidding...

Sometimes it really appears to be the perfect idea on our minds, but in reality it's just a very subjective take, and most people would not bother lol

Anyway, I'm so convinced that this would make the Switch 2 to sell at least as many units as the Switch that I'm definitely setting myself up for disappointment... and that will be on me.
 
Dakhil said:
Moore's Law is Dead's very unreliable. So his claims should be taken with a very heavy amount of salt.
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Has he ever actually been right about anything? Not in the sense of bandwagoning onto an actual insider's scoop or just guessing something very obvious - has he ever proven himself to have any sources or inside knowledge at all?
 
BreakAtmo said:
Has he ever actually been right about anything? Not in the sense of bandwagoning onto an actual insider's scoop or just guessing something very obvious - has he ever proven himself to have any sources or inside knowledge at all?
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Well, he was the first to report about recalled dev kits, later covered by Nate and John Linneman.
 
Truno said:
I know that many of you disregard Kit & Krysta's opinion, but for entertainment purposes, I'll share that they both think that there'll be a February direct that wraps up the Switch and Switch 2 will be Nintendo's focus starting in March:
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I think we underrate what Kit and Krysta do, but that speech is for a different thread. I'll say that their predictions here match my own, and that the segment on the Direct has some neat insight into how NOA/NCL view these various twitter/youtube drops. If you're trying to reverse engineer Nintendo's intention from their behavior on social media, there probably isn't a smarter, more knowledgeable pair.
 
BreakAtmo said:
Has he ever actually been right about anything? Not in the sense of bandwagoning onto an actual insider's scoop or just guessing something very obvious - has he ever proven himself to have any sources or inside knowledge at all?
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Yes, many times but he still misses a LOT.

For example, he was the first to report:
videocardz.com

AMD developed a compact version of Navi 31 that fits into 40x40mm "Navi 32" package - VideoCardz.com

AMD has a smaller package for Navi 31 AMD has reportedly developed a graphics processor that encompasses Navi 31 die into a smaller package. A 40x40mm package would include one Navi 31 GDC and six MCDs, two of which are dummy dies. Such an intriguing design was supposedly made by AMD to help...
videocardz.com videocardz.com
 
Dimensio said:
Absolutely no, hardware is never announced at directs, even the OLED and Lite were announced in their own separate trailers on Youtube, the Switch 2 will have it's own dedicated event and won't be mentioned in any capacity before then.
Not to mention that even a small tease at the end of the direct would completely steal all the attention and overshadow the game announcements, defeating the point of the direct in the first place.
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good point. Maybe they forego a direct for a hardware announcement, with software revealed at a different date.

Nintendo needs to build hype for the average consumer. Geeks like us are ready for the new switch, everyone else needs to be swooned.
 
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Instro said:
You don't need to spend a lot of time on them, but I'm not sure why you would explicitly avoid mentioning easy tech wins like RT or DLSS. The average user is not going to understand it, but they will go to social media/the internet to get truncated impressions of whether the hardware is "good" or not. It's probably significantly preferable to have those boxes obviously checked, vs having people lambast the device for seemingly not having them(if left unmentioned).

"Delivering 4k, Nvidia DLSS and RT technologies for unparalleled image quality" or whatever as a statement or mentioned in a press release, is a very easy way to check the box without spending much time on it.
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They'll mention 4k, since that's something directly relevant to end users and, but RT and especially DLSS are internal details of how the game is created that Nintendo only ever divulges in developer focused talks.
 
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Truno said:
I know that many of you disregard Kit & Krysta's opinion, but for entertainment purposes, I'll share that they both think that there'll be a February direct that wraps up the Switch and Switch 2 will be Nintendo's focus starting in March:

Click to expand...

It’s almost as if Nintendo told us exactly this back in October of last year.
 
Serif said:
I don't think Nintendo will mention DLSS at all in consumer facing material. It's just a tool for upscaling / anti-aliasing at the end of the day. It makes sense to advertise it in graphics cards since it's an end-user choice to give up native res for more frames. In a console these options will never be exposed except possibly in 30 FPS / 60 FPS modes where the DLSS preset is switched. What matters is the end result which is an image that looks better on 4K TVs. The people who know what DLSS is will find out that the Switch 2 has it anyway, and the people who don't know don't need to know, because they're enjoying a sharper and more detailed image.
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I disagree actually, I think they will do a quick mention. I know times have changed but Nintendo did confirm the 2GB of ram that was in the Wii U in a direct. Sometimes Nintendo is weird when it comes to these things lol.
 
CalmMind said:
The only downside to this mod is that unsightly hole on the face of the device.
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Fortunately (or unfortunately), this mod is only in the prototype stages.


Speaking of a potential HDMI output for a Nintendo Switch Lite modded with an OLED display, I think I've mentioned this before, but I'd personally like to see a feature similar to Miracast, etc., make an appearance on Nintendo's new hardware, especially for a Lite model, if Nintendo plans to release one.
 
omniryu said:
I would imagine they would definitely capture more of the audience, at least the shooter audience. I think they would have lost the fighter audience however.
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I'm not going to argue details on that hypothetical. I just know that Wii sales bottomed out quickly after 2009. People had HDTVs and the biggest games weren't coming out for Wii.

I can imagine a 2009 Wii HD that could download HD updates for Wii games that would be recompiled, but key off of data on the Wii disc and would also have HD Exclusive games.

Give it a way to have a hard drive (what they did on the Wii U was fine) and give it a a proper controller similar to the Wii U or Switch Pro Controller and it would have been pretty fantastic.
 
Serif said:
Most folk don't exactly understand what terms like '4K' or 'HDR' mean. They just know that their brand new TV they were dazzled by in the showroom is capable of these. 'Crisper picture' 'vibrant colors' are what they hear and see, not anything related to pixels, nits, or color gamut. And that's fine - all they need to care about is the end result, not how the sauce is made.

I think ray tracing may be mentioned, in the same breath as 'more immersive visuals'. This is what the PS5 site has to say about it - "Explore lifelike environments with Ray Tracing. Ray Tracing brings new levels of realism with natural shadows and reflections in supporting PS5 games.". And the Xbox site: "Hardware-accelerated ray tracing gives your games a heightened level of realism." Not much technical detail, no screenshots.

The Switch's appeal is as an 'all-in-one' seamless gaming device. It may be prudent of them to mention features that it shares with the 'desktop' consoles, to emphasize that Swiss Army Knife aspect. They don't need to go into detail or loudly advertise it. On the websites I visited, I had to scroll a bit to find the ray tracing blurb. To someone who doesn't fully get what RT is, they may still be impressed that the Switch 2 even has this feature. Not a major selling point but a nod to its capabilities as a miniaturized current-gen console.

Out of curiosity I went to the Switch site and it says "Connect your system using the included dock to enjoy a traditional gaming experience in HD.". HD is a well-known term at this point, so they are still advertising a high definition, high fidelity experience with the Switch. I expect the Switch 2's site to expand that description.
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The Nintendo Crispy Switch
 
The only way I can imagine to announce a Switch 2 would be to show a trailer with a bunch of 2019-2024 games that skipped the Switch due to technical reasons. High profile stuff like Cyberpunk, Baldur's Gate 3, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and the Resident Evil remakes. Find some 'position of strength' language to go with as well as some things like Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, and Metroid footage at 4k60 and maybe something like Waverace to show off cool raytracing if that's available.
 
Shoulder said:
giphy.gif


Some folks don't like Fusion as much as Super, but I think it rivals it in many ways, mostly in the atmosphere side of things, plus the soundtrack is arguably as good, if not better than Super. That's your controversial take of the day, Fami.
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I mean it make sense. They have the engine set up already. Just copy and modernise.
 
bmfrosty said:
and would also have HD Exclusive games.
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That just sounds like crossing the line into "cutting off support prematurely," something that I wouldn't have been willing to get behind. I've already argued that the added complexity of a Pro revision will end up having consequences for owners of the base console, but this is just an even more bitter pill to swallow.
 
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BingBong43 said:
It’s almost as if Nintendo told us exactly this back in October of last year.
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They said they'd drop an unusually large number of Twitter and YouTube announcements in a small amount of time due to a cancelled Live show, proceed to a normal february direct, and then announce hardware before the end of the fiscal in March

How did I miss that?
 
Dakhil said:
Although not explicitly related to Nintendo's new hardware, very cool to see someone offering a Nintendo Switch Lite mod to replace an IPS LCD display with an OLED display. (And the mention of a HDMI output being potentially possible, but being capped at 720p, is interesting and intriguing.)

Click to expand...

I'll follow this mod. I have been waiting for a reason to get a Switch Lite.

While you're at it, you can also change the analog sticks to Hall Effects. That makes it the perfect switch lite.
 
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What do you guys think about Nintendo adding an Nvidia/RTX label on the front of the Switch 2 retail box?

I think it would look cool. Even if the average users is not as tech-savvy as people in gaming forums, they at least relate Nvidia with high-end gaming, which would be a great marketing strategy for Nintendo.

People would talk about it in social media.
 
FernandoRocker said:
What do you guys think about Nintendo adding an Nvidia/RTX label on the front of the Switch 2 retail box?

I think it would look cool. Even if the average users is not as tech-savvy as people in gaming forums, they at least relate Nvidia with high-end gaming, which would be a great marketing strategy for Nintendo.

People would talk about it in social media.
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Call the GPU an RTX 1889. Come on, that'd be cool.
 
Dakhil said:
Although not explicitly related to Nintendo's new hardware, very cool to see someone offering a Nintendo Switch Lite mod to replace an IPS LCD display with an OLED display. (And the mention of a HDMI output being potentially possible, but being capped at 720p, is interesting and intriguing.)

Click to expand...

An OLED lite is all I ever wanted
 
FernandoRocker said:
What do you guys think about Nintendo adding an Nvidia/RTX label on the front of the Switch 2 retail box?

I think it would look cool. Even if the average users is not as tech-savvy as people in gaming forums, they at least relate Nvidia with high-end gaming, which would be a great marketing strategy for Nintendo.

People would talk about it in social media.
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The way I see it: Nintendo probably won't say no if that's what Nvidia wants, but they probably won't see a reason to bring it up themselves either
 
FernandoRocker said:
What do you guys think about Nintendo adding an Nvidia/RTX label on the front of the Switch 2 retail box?

I think it would look cool. Even if the average users is not as tech-savvy as people in gaming forums, they at least relate Nvidia with high-end gaming, which would be a great marketing strategy for Nintendo.

People would talk about it in social media.
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only if Nvidia pays for it
 
crazybenjamin said:
The way I see it: Nintendo probably won't say no if that's what Nvidia wants, but they probably won't see a reason to bring it up themselves either
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51-2+8Re3sL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

There's definitely precedent for it with the GameCube's "Graphics by ATI" sticker, I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia or RTX get something small, like an engraved logo on the dock, but I don't expect that they'll go the full nine yards with the Nvidia branding. This is still Nintendo we're talking about, and their target demographic is people who have no stake in the manufacturer politics.
 
redmutineer75 said:
51-2+8Re3sL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

There's definitely precedent for it with the GameCube's "Graphics by ATI" sticker, I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia or RTX get something small, like an engraved logo on the dock, but I don't expect that they'll go the full nine yards with the Nvidia branding. This is still Nintendo we're talking about, and their target demographic is people who have no stake in the manufacturer politics.
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I think an Nvidia logo on the back of the retail box along with a silkscreened logo alongside the legal details on the rear of the console would be most likely.

Wii had a processor sticker on the retail box, too, and that was the most casual of casual consoles even at the time.

The Nintendo Switch is almost the odd one out, really! Why DIDN'T it have the Nvidia name or logo anywhere on the box when they didn't mind putting it in the website? The lack of customisations, maybe? Wanting to avoid comparison with other Nvidia products?

I think next gen it's a real possibility especially when T239 is so custom and the whole concept of the processor is so different, but I'm not holding my breath for Nintendo to so much as admit the GPU exists, nevermind anything else, although I think this would be a mistake for them, and being up front about its capabilities and the processor would benefit them at launch especially.
 
I think there's a chance that the internal upscaler this time is really, really good. We already know Nvidia can do good upscalers. If things like the MClassic can do pleasing scaling with nothing but the HDMI signal, I think NG Switch should ideally look even better when running OG Switch games.

I think it's possible that "Plays all your Switch games, and they look even better (even without an update)" is a marketing point at launch, like how Xbox Series X provides "good enough" upscaling and autoHDR for Xbox One games with no specific optimisations.

With the Switch brand so healthy and the library still actively bought and enjoyed, I think it would be wise for them to emphasize the Nintendo Switch compatibility (and associated enhancements), but there's no guarantee they will.
 
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Concernt said:
The Nintendo Switch is almost the odd one out, really! Why DIDN'T it have the Nvidia name or logo anywhere on the box when they didn't mind putting it in the website? The lack of customisations, maybe? Wanting to avoid comparison with other Nvidia products?
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Probably because it was an off-the-shelf chip rather than a custom chipset like with all of Nintendo's other consoles. Ain't much point in advertising that the system used a chip wasn't just not unique to them, but was also 2 years old.
 
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I don't know whether Nintendo will market RT or DLSS in a direct manner. But I don't think it matters too much anyway: what they need to market their system well is an impressive line-up of games that showcase what the system can do. And here, DLSS and RT will make themselves apparent by allowing for incredible graphics, which will help in selling that next generation feel for their games.

They could add a sticker to the system or put 4K/"powered by ray tracing" (or something cornier still), in fact a 4K sticker on the box seems likely to me, but ultimately most people, even enthusiasts, will be most convinced by what they see in the next gen games, rather than which abbreviations are being thrown at them I feel.
 
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redmutineer75 said:
51-2+8Re3sL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

There's definitely precedent for it with the GameCube's "Graphics by ATI" sticker, I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia or RTX get something small, like an engraved logo on the dock, but I don't expect that they'll go the full nine yards with the Nvidia branding. This is still Nintendo we're talking about, and their target demographic is people who have no stake in the manufacturer politics.
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I want a holographic sticker like the ones on laptops.


Also, I would like those doom/quake ray trace port as well.
 
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