CitraVR is a Quest native Nintendo 3DS emulator from the creator of Air Link
UPDATE- Links to Youtube Videos added
CitraVR is a VR port of the Nintendo 3DS emulator that runs natively on Meta Quest and supports stereoscopic rendering.
The cat is out of the bag: the mysterious new project from Air Link creator Amanda Watson is called CitraVR and is a software that emulates Nintendo 3DS natively on Meta Quest, as reported by UploadVR.
Watson's VR application is based on the Citra emulator for Windows, Linux and MacOS. 3DS games can already be streamed from a PC to Meta Quest using Citra. What is new about CitraVR is that it runs natively on Meta Quest. It also supports stereoscopic rendering, so you get a sense of depth when playing, similar to the handheld.
I’m thrilled to announce the beta release of CitraVR — my port of the leading 3DS emulator, Citra — designed for playing 3DS homebrew and personal game backups in 3D on the go with your Quest.
It’ll support a partial list of features to start, but development is ongoing. https://t.co/EBHVjQz9nv
— Amanda Watson (@fewerwrong) January 15, 2024
Most 3DS games can be played with the Touch Controllers, but you can also use wired or wireless controllers via Bluetooth. Please note that the older Nintendo DS games are not supported.
Performance on Meta Quest depends on the emulated game. There is a classification on Citra's website that can be used to assess the compatibility of individual titles.
CitraVR will be released on Sidequest on January 20.
Update: The first videos showing CitraVR in action have been published on Youtube. Gamertag VR plays Mario Kart 7 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Getting Things Dun even recorded a 3D video so you can see the 3D effect.
Hopefully more emulators will follow now
Currently, there are surprisingly few Quest native emulators, including Gamebov (for Game Boy games) and PPSSPP VR (for PSP games), both of which are available on Sidequest. Those wishing to emulate other systems on Meta Quest have to install Android versions of emulators, which may not work on Quest, or may not work as intended.
At the same time as CitraVR is released, Watson will release the CitraVR source code on Github to encourage other developers to start similar projects. So we may see more native Quest emulators in the future.
According to Wikipedia, the Nintendo 3DS has sold over 75 million units. Over 1,500 games have been released for the handheld family.
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