Hardware New 3DS -> why a 3DS Player for Wii U wasn't made before?

[Foxi4]

Vita TV is there to compete against micro-console. I'm not sure if Nintendo even wants to tap into this type of market.

Pretty much. The PSTV does emulation (PSOne, PSP), PSVita games, PS4 streaming, PSNow streaming and multimedia, among other features. The 3DS lags behind technologically, nobody wants to watch YouTube at 240p on an HD screen, let's be realistic here, the 3DS is just not good material for a micro-console and a 3DS player would not be able to compete in that market. I can see it being semi-successful as a Wii U add-on utilizing the gamepad as the bottom screen and the TV as the top screen, but even in that format it would have limited appeal.

 

[shinkodachi]

Pretty much. The PSTV does emulation (PSOne, PSP), PSVita games, PS4 streaming, PSNow streaming and multimedia, among other features. The 3DS lags behind technologically, nobody wants to watch YouTube at 240p on an HD screen, let's be realistic here, the 3DS is just not good material for a micro-console and a 3DS player would not be able to compete in that market. I can see it being semi-successful as a Wii U add-on utilizing the gamepad as the bottom screen and the TV as the top screen, but even in that format it would have limited appeal.

I hear what you're saying, good points you brought up...

However one thing I'd like to know... What micro-consoles are you all talking about? Ouya? And that Android game stick or whatever it was called? They're always surrounded by hype from Kickstarter to launch and then... ? I haven't heard of Ouya in a long time now. Why would Sony go after a market that doesn't even have competition.

 

[Foxi4]

I hear what you're saying, good points you brought up... However one thing I'd like to know... What micro-consoles are you all talking about? Ouya? And that Android game stick or whatever it was called? They're always surrounded by hype from Kickstarter to launch and then... ? I haven't heard of Ouya in a long time now. Why would Sony go after a market that doesn't even have competition.

Because they always invest in stuff that might be the next big thing - Amazon did the same, along with Google and their new Nexus Player. The OUYA's... well... it's alive, it has an avid fanbase and a couple of exclusives, but with the rate at which Android platforms face obsolescence it quickly became irrelevant hardware-wise.

Micro-consoles aren't really dedicated to usual gamers - gamers buy full-scale systems. Micro-consoles are designed to please the casual gamer who just wants to watch Netflix and play an occasional game of Angry Birds or another smartphone game on the big screen, and in that regard I think Android-based solutions and the PSTV fare better than the 3DS would.

 

[SSG Vegeta]

Here a picture of the idea found on the web.

Source:http://davesgeekyideas.com/2012/11/29/wii-u-peripheral-for-playing-ds-and-3ds-games/

http://www.google.be/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0CAMQjxw&url=http://purenintendo.com/2013/01/29/ds-u-a-concept-peripheral-that-plays-ds-and-3ds-carts-via-wii-u/&ei=cQRUVNaeGs3raKaXgLAK&bvm=bv.78677474,d.d2s&psig=AFQjCNHOiuHgP0eicsHK9aa3gOE2qF4pyA&ust=1414878696374184

If this is real just saying god yes more awesomeness comes to WiiU but I only see a DS logo & no 3DS logo O.O

 

[WiiCube_2013]

I hear what you're saying, good points you brought up...

However one thing I'd like to know... What micro-consoles are you all talking about? Ouya? And that Android game stick or whatever it was called? They're always surrounded by hype from Kickstarter to launch and then... ? I haven't heard of Ouya in a long time now. Why would Sony go after a market that doesn't even have competition.

The Ouya seems like a great little device to run emulators from and more so considering that Vita TV is limited to playing PS1/PSP games through the PS Store it's a deal breaker (I don't want to re-buy the games for fucks sakes). Vita TV is only really useful to play Vita games and YouTube (as if it wasn't on a bajillion other devices already).

List of emulators that run on Ouya: http://dayoftheouya.com/a-list-of-all-known-emulators-for-ouya/

It's dropped to £83.99 on Amazon but that still feels a bit of a stretch, plus that controller looks fucking cheap (I'd rather use a 360 or PS3 controller).

 

[TecXero]

I don't think it will ever happen, at least not as a peripheral for the Wii U. It would have to connect through one of the Wii U's USB ports. That would make it so much easier to dump 3DS games. Now I could see Nintendo releasing something like a 3DS TV, a 3DS cut down to just be a cheap console, if they thought it was profitable. Sorry, but with standardized connections, I highly doubt we'll see the return of things like the Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player.

 

[SuperrSonic]

It's actually 2x point or 2.375x bicubic (!). Deflickering is always on, even in progressive mode.

Well that makes a lot of sense, I automatically speculated bilinear was the only option but bilinear with deflicker looks really bad in comparison so naturally I said it was off but yeah the image doesn't flicker in 480i so it is indeed using it.
And now that you mention that, the 3DS is also doing it with DS/DSiware so I guess it's not that uncommon but I've yet to see it on emulated games.

 

[Apache Thunder]

The 3DS screen doesn't just have a digital 800x240 resolution. It can produce that on the physical screen as well. It has all the pixels to do that. But they aren't square in shape like on normal screens. They are very thin to allow placing them on the screen in the aspect ratio they intended. So they are less then half in width then they are as tall. Normal screens usually have square pixels.

If you look at them very close with a magnifying glass each pixel actually contains 3 thin pixels to form the complete square pixel that creates the blended result. Each one dedicated to one of the primary colors. But imagine the entire pixel unit halved in width compared to a normal screen to fit double the horizontal resolution. Each pixel still has 3 for each primary color, but they are even thinner then before.

The way the 3D system works is that the horizontal resolution is squeezed in by half of what it would be normally. I would guess each line of pixels alternates with one row being for the left eye and the next being for the right eye. Continue this pattern on and you start to see how the 3D works. The special filter system they put on top of the screen separates out each row of pixels so that each eye only sees the correct row. When 3D is turned off, the row of pixels dedicated to the right eye are simply turned off and the barrier on top adjusts to compensate. (thus a 2DS screen would theoretically produce a sharper image, since it lacks the second row of pixels for the right eye and doesn't have a barrier filter on top that could degrade image quality. On that system, the pixels would have a shape more uniform with what normal LCD panels have)

Because of this, you can't ever produce a full 2D image that uses that uses the full 800x240 resolution because the horizontal resolution is interlaced in a way for the 3D system to work correctly. I suppose you can use some interlacing/flicker tricks to make it produce a continues image without interlacing if you are trying to get a game to render at that resolution in 2D mode (but with 3D on to render both screens anyway), but it would would be a very odd aspect ratio since you are trying to squeeze something like a 32:9 aspect ratio image onto a 16:9 physical screen area. It would look very odd. It would be interesting to do if you do some tricks in the software to do that, but there's not much benefit for the normal consumer.

The 3D on the 3DS works in away similar to those cheap parallax barriers they put on top of special paper for 3D labels. Example being the special label on the N64 Majora's Mask Cartridge. but replace the paper underneath with a LCD panel and the barrier on top with something much more precise and tuned for proper 3D.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

What if the extra RAMmage on the new 3DS's allows them to be used as a wiiu gamepad? ala Smash bros?

 

[LightyKD]

The Ouya seems like a great little device to run emulators from and more so considering that Vita TV is limited to playing PS1/PSP games through the PS Store it's a deal breaker (I don't want to re-buy the games for fucks sakes). Vita TV is only really useful to play Vita games and YouTube (as if it wasn't on a bajillion other devices already).

List of emulators that run on Ouya: http://dayoftheouya.com/a-list-of-all-known-emulators-for-ouya/

It's dropped to £83.99 on Amazon but that still feels a bit of a stretch, plus that controller looks fucking cheap (I'd rather use a 360 or PS3 controller).

You can use a PS/360 controller