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A handful of Nintendo patents and trademarks have popped up recently, and the latest patent filed by the Big N has some interesting ties to low and high-res images.

This patent in particular aims to convert lower-res images to higher-res images through machine learning. Now this wouldn’t be able to magically convert images from blurry to pixel-perfect, but it would certainly go a long way in upscaling lesser-quality images to something a bit more presentable.

There are quite a few Switch games that suffer from a bit of blurriness, especially in handheld mode. Having something like this upscaling would be nice, and there’s no doubt developers could benefit from it. That said, just like all patents from Nintendo, you never know if this is something Nintendo is simply looking to protect, or actively working on applying to their games.

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Comments (9)

kuribo

1+ y ago

Isn’t that what Nvidias DLSS and AMDs FidelityFX does?


joeshabadoo

1+ y ago

@kuribo

Yea this feels like something that is inspired by or will work in tandem with DLSS, also starting to feel like a Super Switch is real and soon


the_king_up_north

1+ y ago

NVIDIA is killing it with DLSS, so Nintendo should just do some partnership with them. They're already using NVIDIA chips after all, so it's not like they're rivals. While Tegra is a really old chip, I'm sure it could support DLSS if NVIDIA was willing to make it work.

Edited 1 time

I tired reading the patent but it’s way too long and above my head to see what differentiates it from existing ML upscaling :)
Switch Sports uses FidelityFX so Nintendo are dabbling in that area. I just would have expected them to leverage existing tech.


ninjablaze

1+ y ago

Hopefully it works better than the AI upscaling that the company Rockstar paid to make the HD "remasters" of the GTA Trilogy used.


streex

1+ y ago

So maybe the switch pro will be 4k ready but also bump up resolution for earlier titles. very nice. now we just need to sit back and wait for that switch pro reveal.


kingbroly

1+ y ago

Please avoid for 2D games, Nintendo. I like my pixels crispy and my polygons smooth.


cheesus 2

1+ y ago

Hope Nintendo does what Sony and Microsoft is doing this gen and offer a quality and performance mode if you prefer frames over resolution


tomohiko_mukai

1+ y ago

i am a 1080p person.
So, Nintendo Switch 2 will be capable
of Best Upscaling for DVD (into 1080p) ?
Like upscalings in old PS3/PS4 were capable. umm, interesting. 🤔