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Homebrew and romhacking developers are always working on great things to bring forth new ways to experience great classics for older consoles. One such example is in DS emulation, which has seen it's fair share of attention these past years, like the introduction of a new emulator in the form of melonDS, which seems to be in a fast track to becoming the defacto DS emulator, and today it seems like a big breakthrough in DS emulation has appeared based on the work of melonDS.

Software developer Zhuowei Zhang has developed a proof of concept of an augmented reality feature for DS emulation, in which a holographic 3D image of the current game floats above the controller the player uses for the emulator.

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As detailed in the tweet, the proof of concept works with melonDS and the melonDS core, utilizing a live 3D model extraction called MelonRipper, and the augmented reality development is possible using iOS' RealityKit. The prototype currently has some downsides, which Zhang goes into detail in the GitHub repository for the project:

• the MelonRipper->RealityKit converter doesn't work very well (e.g. doesn't handle transparency)
• there's a terrible memory leak (might be this?) that crashes the app after a few minutes
• only tested with the camera position used by Mario Kart DS.
  • (for example, Pokemon Black and HeartGold use a different camera angle, and I had to remove the shader that crops the model for anything to show up)
• no way to select rom/touchscreen input/etc. The ROM name is hardcoded to "rom.nds" in the app's folder in Files/iTunes.

Despite these downsides, the project as it stands is already outstanding, giving players some glimpses of the augmented reality with some DS titles like Mario Kart DS, Pokemon Heart Gold and Pokemon Black, giving a floating image of the games with great detail (aside from the transparency issues mentioned in the repository).

The project is currently open source and available in Zhang's GitHub repository linked below.

DSReality GitHub Repository

 

[SylverReZ]

This is amazing good shit for once.

 

[PopcornSweetie]

Sorry, but that's ugly and glitchy as hell. I don't like it one bit. DS emulation is already fantastic using DraStic. Whatever emulator they're using for this sucks.

Luckily, you have your custom GameBoys you can enjoy. They look amazing. Maybe a DS next?

 

[Jayro]

Luckily, you have your custom GameBoys you can enjoy. They look amazing. Maybe a DS next?

I modded a DS into a Gameboy Macro, so been there / done that.

 

[HarveyHouston]

That's pretty cool!

 

[AsPika2219]

Awesome!!!

 

[Metoroid0]

Gimmicky AF. No practical use. I still prefer traditional screen, graphics and a controller. The simple the better.

Anyway, really cool concept.

Post automatically merged: Jun 26, 2023

Already done but with Mario Kart wii

Moms in the 90s: Don't sit to close to the screen, its bad for your eyes!
90s kids now: *Plays with literal screens 1 inch away from their eyes*

Post automatically merged: Jun 26, 2023

That OP kinda looks like this.

 

[CameronCataclysm]

As jank as it looks, the AR pokemon is something I really wish takes off - love the way you can look on like a little miniature set

I think you had my exact thought process throughout the video. Processed the beginning footage like "Okay I 100% see where this is going, needs a lot of TLC, then it got to the small snippet of Pokémon and I immediately saw SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

 

[PopcornSweetie]

Gimmicky AF. No practical use. I still prefer traditional screen, graphics and a controller. The simple the better.

Anyway, really cool concept.

Post automatically merged: Jun 26, 2023

Moms in the 90s: Don't sit to close to the screen, its bad for your eyes!
90s kids now: *Plays with literal screens 1 inch away from their eyes*

Post automatically merged: Jun 26, 2023

That OP kinda looks like this.

Oh yeah, now we are talking!

 

[Maximumbeans]

That OP kinda looks like this.

I'm really FEELING IT.

 

[smf]

Moms in the 90s: Don't sit to close to the screen, its bad for your eyes!

I think it was more that the mums couldn't see the TV if their kids were sat in front of it.