I finally got my hands on the Nintendo Switch 2, and the first thing I wanted to try was playing Mario Kart: World on my Xreal One Pro glasses.
Rather than the 7.9-inch display of the portable console, I’d be able to race around the new open-world map on a massive 171-inch virtual screen (thanks to the Xreal One Pro’s 57-degree field-of-view). All at a full-HD resolution with crisp Bose-tuned audio.
What more could a gamer want?
But a blank screen ripped this AR-fuelled dream from me, and a quick visit to the Xreal subreddit confirmed my biggest fear: the Nintendo Switch 2 isn’t compatible with AR glasses.
At least, not yet.
I also tested my RayNeo Air 3S and Rokid Max 2 glasses with similarly blank results. Others have tried docking the Switch 2 and using an HDMI-to-USB-C cable, or one of the third-party portable Switch docks AR glasses makers have produced for on-the-go handheld console gaming.
Nothing.
Thankfully, a member of the Xreal team has stepped in to explain the issues and tease the arrival of a fix.
As to why the Switch 2 doesn’t yet work with AR glasses, they explained, “Nintendo has made some underlying changes to the video signal’s ‘timing sequence’ in the new Switch 2.
“This technical adjustment means your Xreal One glasses, even with the Xreal Hub, temporarily can’t correctly recognize and process the video signal from the console.”
This sort of incompatibility issue isn’t new to AR glasses. In their infancy, it wasn’t uncommon to find that plenty of your USB-C devices were smart glasses incompatible because they don’t use DisplayPort technology.
Thankfully, it sounds like a solution may be on the way sooner rather than later, with Xreal’s team adding, “Our dev team already got their hands on Switch 2 and is actively working on a solution.”
Xreal says it hopes to develop a seamless solution, and that an update “won’t be long.”
