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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

 

[relauby]

Can staff post news on the FP when the project gets wings. ATM it doesn't do anything a general user would use it for.

We usually do, like with the recent PCSX2 updates we wait until they're merged to report on them, but we made an exception here because it's such an interesting project, and we tried to emphasize in the headline that this is more of an experiment (a promising one, but still an experiment) rather than something end users can use right now.

 

[FLRIZDARKK]

If this getting perfect, i may sell my vita and vita tv and get a switch.

You would pay some money for the Switch nowadays, either hunting a V1 modded console, or spending money on a modchip (very expensive) and someone to solder it

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Can staff post news on the FP when the project gets wings. ATM it doesn't do anything a general user would use it for.

I suggest you to follow any tech guy Twitter account for fast updates on this. Guys like Modern Vintage Gamer (he covered this very early).

Gbatemp released this piece of news on FP like 3 days after it was already in everywhere (even crappy sites like Nintendolife published first). I believe the intention of the staff is not to bring last minute news, but to call for a broader discussion.

 

[ZeroFX]

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

Search for the very definition of compatibility layer .

 

[tabzer]

I suggest you to follow any tech guy Twitter account for fast updates on this. Guys like Modern Vintage Gamer (he covered this very early).

Gbatemp released this piece of news on FP like 3 days after it was already in everywhere (even crappy sites like Nintendolife published first). I believe the intention of the staff is not to bring last minute news, but to call for a broader discussion.

I saw this a few days ago via feed to "exputer". I thought about making an article here, but it's still in its infancy and I didn't want to jinx the project with over-promotion.

 

[raxadian]

So those people still making games for the Vita will eventually be able to port their games for the Switch?

 

[JayBae]

If they can get this running flawlessly, this could be a fun lil thing ta play with, could this run PSVita homebrew on the switch?. :>

 

[Ampersound]

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

Actually, that would be great news for the vita community too.
There would be much more incentive to be working on vita homebrew, ports, etc. because everyone on switch and vita could use them.
And to throw some shade, we got an actual dpad on vita so a lot of titles are still best played there

 

[Ampersound]

So those people still making games for the Vita will eventually be able to port their games for the Switch?

If everything goes smoothly, they wouldn't even have to port the games because all the system function calls and stuff are handled by that switch - vita translation layer. I think.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Actually, that would be great news for the vita community too.
There would be much more incentive to be working on vita homebrew, ports, etc. because everyone on switch and vita could use them.
And to throw some shade, we got an actual dpad on vita so a lot of titles are still best played there

That's how I feel about this too. I love the Vita, I have a release date model, awesome screen. I do know that it is not a simple road from here to "play video games" level, but if it ever get there, I'll be spend lots of money on a huge micro SD card.

 

[FLRIZDARKK]

Actually, that would be great news for the vita community too.
There would be much more incentive to be working on vita homebrew, ports, etc. because everyone on switch and vita could use them.
And to throw some shade, we got an actual dpad on vita so a lot of titles are still best played there

Exactly, Vita means life after all, on the Switch is still living just under a new roof

 

[SonyUSA]

The real test would be to see if it can run Season of Henkaku

 

[raxadian]

If everything goes smoothly, they wouldn't even have to port the games because all the system function calls and stuff are handled by that switch - vita translation layer. I think.

Some stuff wouldn't translate because the Switch doesn't have the hardware.

 

[Justinde75]

Actually, that would be great news for the vita community too.
There would be much more incentive to be working on vita homebrew, ports, etc. because everyone on switch and vita could use them.
And to throw some shade, we got an actual dpad on vita so a lot of titles are still best played there

I very doubt that this would be a reason. Just make it on the more active and stronger hardware. Plus switch has proper dpads as well, just not on the normal joycons.

 

[YoureALoser]

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.

No, this concept can not work to port vita games to PC, because as you said, it is the same concept as WINE. Vita is ARM, PC is x86/x64. Vita can only be emulated on PC & that is where Vita3K comes in.

 

[fvig2001]

Wonder if it will run as a Vita TV since it lacks the back touch and spoofing Vita TV would be the best workaround.

 

[YoureALoser]

So those people still making games for the Vita will eventually be able to port their games for the Switch?

No, that is not what this is for. This has nothing to do with porting anything & nothing to do with game developers. This would simply allow end-users to run backups/pirated copies of Vita games on the Switch. If any legitimate developers are making games for Vita, they already have legitimate ways of porting said games to Switch. Many Vita games have already been ported to Switch.

 

[diggeloid]

No, this concept can not work to port vita games to PC, because as you said, it is the same concept as WINE. Vita is ARM, PC is x86/x64. Vita can only be emulated on PC & that is where Vita3K comes in.

Lol yeah you're right I'm dumb, although ARM PCs are starting to become a thing lately. The latest Macs are ARM-based, and IIRC Lenovo is releasing a Thinkpad with a chip from Qualcomm soon. So it's not that much of a stretch