Nintendo patents system for 4K gaming on Switch 2

nintendo switch 2 This is not far off, and gradually we will learn more and more details about it. The Japanese company aims to unveil it before the end of the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2025, and new documents suggest the console will offer one of the features fans are asking for the most: 4K gaming support.

The patent was published this week (via eurogamer) that Nintendo registered for the system graph scaling using artificial intelligenceand there are already rumors that it could debut on the Switch 2. The technology is similar to other solutions that already exist in the gaming market, such as NVIDIA’s DLSS or the PS5 Pro’s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR).

The paper details how the use of neural networks will allow titles to be played in 4K without losing the ability to distribute them through a physical medium—a cartridge that would not be suitable if it natively supported that resolution. As such, Nintendo will be aiming to make Switch 2 games playable in 4K resolution, but without the size of them. exceed maximum 32 GB free space in cartridges.

Here is what a fragment of the patent document indicates:

“[…] The techniques described here can reduce the overall amount of memory (eg, file size) required to create higher resolution images. For example, an application that generates higher-resolution images may also require resources (such as texture data) that are sized to produce those high-resolution images. Therefore, by reducing the size of the image that the sample application renders, the data used for that rendering can be similarly reduced in size and therefore can take up less memory or storage space.

For example, you can reduce the size of the textures used by the rendering engine. Therefore, the overall size required to deliver an application (eg, a video game) may be reduced to accommodate relatively smaller physical media in terms of the amount of storage space provided and/or require less bandwidth or data to download. .

As an illustrative example, a video game originally designed to generate 4K images might have a total size of 60 GB. However, if the size of the images produced by the game engine is 1080p, then the total size required for the game can be reduced to, for example, 20 GB. Even if the images are generated by the game engine at 1080p resolution, the techniques described here can be used to convert those images to 4K at runtime.”

Nintendo Switch 2 will use an AI upscaling system for 4K gaming.

Although the patent was published on December 31st, Nintendo filed it in July 2023. This suggests that the Japanese firm has had more than enough time to implement it in its next console.

Use the upscaler system to play in 4K resolution on Nintendo Switch 2 without having to replace cartridges. could cooperate on two decisive factors. On the one hand, in costs, since the development of physical media with more memory will cost more and will ultimately be passed on to the price of games. On the other hand, because it will make it easier to be backwards compatible with the original Switch.

Let’s see if this is really the case. The fact is that the public It’s been clamoring to be able to play in 4K on the Switch for years.. Rumors at the time suggested that the OLED model would offer this capability when connected to a TV via a dock. However, this did not happen and the device remained locked to a maximum output resolution of 1080p.

Apart from using AI graphics upscaling for 4K games, the Nintendo Switch 2 has also been in the news in recent days. new leaked images. Several photos have appeared on Reddit that match the motherboard of the new Japanese console. As for the device itself, it is expected to have a similar design to the original version, but with a larger screen, a magnetic Joy-Con mount, more RAM and storage, and performance that could be similar to the PS4 and Xbox. One.