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spemanig said:

Motion controls were trying to replace traditional controls in all games. VR is completely different.

There's really nothing I can say to smooth over your fear. It's simply not the same situation. The jump to VR is like the jump from 2D to 3D. It's not "fad-able." It's just about doing it.

Yeah, I was actually thinking about that. We know that the Switch can somewhat communicate with the dock when undocked because of the patents, but nothing suggests that there is streaming tech, so that would be a very valid issue, especially because Nintendo has specifically criticized VR for not being social.

One thing they could do is have a wireless dongle come with the HMD that can connect with the Switch Dock and stream the image that way. I'm pretty sure that stuff is pretty cheap now, so that would solve that. If that's the case, I guarentee you there will be asynchronous gameplay with many Switch VR games that use the TV screen as an interactive part of the experience.

Can you explain inside out head tracking to me, please? Something tells me that if Nintendo planned on using tech like that, it would have been detailed in the HMD patent. I expect an external headtracking solution like everyone else.

Inside out tracking simply means the headset looks at its surroundings to figure out how it is moving, instead of relying on external observation like PSVR, OR and Vive to place it in 3D space. Thanks to gravity you don't need any external observation for pitching and tilting. For rotation you have gyroscopes which isn't as reliable and needs some reference point to combat drift. A magnetic sensor (compass) can help but isn't that accurate. 3D positioning can be done with accelerometers yet those also need some extra reference points to combat drift.

Inside out can be as simple as having a cheap camera on the headset or Switch with a hole where the camera is. The software will need to scan the room, and find some good identifiable anchor points to use. The wii mote relies on the sensor bar which is nothing more than 2 infrared LEDs. There's a camera inside the wii mote that films those dots, thus inside out tracking. Ofcourse that only works if you point the wii mote at the sensor bar, you would either need cameras all around the headset, or sensor bars all around the room. MS uses a simplified version of Kinect for inside out tracking, mapping the 3D environment around it. Perhaps there are other ways too.

Actually you can get pretty far with just a simple camera. If you have good gyroscopes and accelerometers you only really need it to compensate for drift. Two simple infrared LEDs on the docking station could be enough of an achor point. It doesn't have to be in view all the time for a good enough experience, assuming that most of the time you'll be facing forward. Or bring back the sensor bar. Does the switch have a camera on the back?