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Thanks to a new project called vita2hos (Horizon OS being the Switch's operating system), you may soon be able to natively run PS Vita apps on your Nintendo Switch. Developed by a user named xerpi, this project acts as a translation layer, redirecting Vita routines to their Switch equivalents, since the Switch and the Vita run on similar CPUs. The Vita uses a 32-bit ARM7 CPU and the Switch uses a 64-bit ARM8 CPU, but can run in a 32-bit mode. "When loading a PlayStation Vita executable, vita2hos redirects the module imports of said executable to jump to routines that implement the same behavior, by using native Horizon OS services, like the one exposed by the original PlayStation Vita OS modules," explains the GitHub. Since there is no emulation happening, if commercial games are ever playable this way, they should run at full speed with few issues.

Right now, this is a very early test build, and no commercial games are booting yet, let alone playable. This video by Modern Vintage Gamer, however, shows it running simple homebrew software like a cube renderer and a touchscreen sample.

Source

 

[AlexMCS]

Yep. Saw this a few days ago.
The final name will be VINE, bet on it.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

I saw this news everywhere, but I didn't got if the concept is to flash an OS that run vita apps or if it will run straight from the stock switch os as the "horizon" name implies

 

[KiiWii]

Looking forward to this progressing

 

[diggeloid]

This is a cool idea. Even though the translation layer could potentially add some performance overhead, the gap between a Vita and Switch is so huge that it likely won't matter, especially compared to the alternative that is emulation. This same concept could also work to port Vita games to PC and phones without emulation.

This is the same concept as Wine/Proton, i.e. the thing Valve is using to make Windows games run on Linux, except the Vita OS is orders of magnitude simpler and smaller than Windows, and the entire set of existing software is tiny, so there's a much higher chance of achieving perfect compatibility.

 

[AxlSt00pid]

I saw this news everywhere, but I didn't got if the concept is to flash an OS that run vita apps or if it will run straight from the stock switch os as the "horizon" name implies

To put it in very simple terms, this homebrew acts as a translator between vita instruction calls and switch instruction calls afaik

So it'd be like having a Spanish speaking person and a Korean speaking person talking to eachother via a 3rd person that acts as a translator for both of them

And iirc this homebrew still can't translate propietary Sony calls like certain graphics initializations or something along those lines

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Very clever concept and I wish the developer all the best with it.

 

[seseiSeki]

explains the GitHub.

I think you mean the readme inside the GitHub repository. "the GitHub" is just a place to store repos, it can't explain what this homebrew application does ^^

 

[Justinde75]

if this ends up working out like that yikes I feel bad for the vita

 

[Dr_Faustus]

if this ends up working out like that yikes I feel bad for the vita

I wouldn't, Sony already walked away from the Vita years ago and most of the fans keeping it alive are mainly doing so because its a damn decent handheld to mod and emulate games on, its also cheaper than a Switch is.

 

[Justinde75]

I wouldn't, Sony already walked away from the Vita years ago and most of the fans keeping it alive are mainly doing so because its a damn decent handheld to mod and emulate games on, its also cheaper than a Switch is.

I more feel bad for it because I actually really like the vita and it didnt deserve to fail like that

 

[slaphappygamer]

There is only one vita!

 

[XRellikX]

There is only one vita!

Vita La Revolution!

 

[RAHelllord]

If this fully releases I hope someone makes a switch lite shell that makes it look like the Vita successor that we will never get.

 

[Marc_LFD]

That's really cool.

For me, I'm only interested in about 60 games the Vita has since the majority are JRPGs and I'm not too much into that.

Switch owners may get to play the OG God of War 1 and 2 before PS4/PS5 users do.

 

[such]

if this ends up working out like that yikes I feel bad for the vita

If Sony failed to kill Vita, this won't kill it either.

 

[sley]

Very cool but even better if they manage to run commercial games on this

 

[smf]

Very interesting, will look forward to this in a couple of years...

 

[lordelan]

This is basically what Nintendont is doing on Wii (U) consoles and I always hoped something like this would happen to 3DS on Switch since both are ARM based. The more surprised I am that this now happened to PS Vita first.

 

[Flame]

homebrew does what Nintendo and Sony dont.