Nvidia Releases Shield Console Operating System As Open Source

Nvidia’s Shield has finally been released to the market and in an attempt to encourage developers and modders to embrace the new gaming platform Nvidia have released all the operating system code as open source. While the operating system is based on Android, there are custom Nvidia-made UIs and overlays which alter the overall nature of the Android OS used.

“But if you’re not content with what SHIELD can do out of the box, we invite you to build out SHIELD’s capabilities in any way you wish. To be sure, this is double-diamond stuff. If you’re not a coder or already set up with an Android development environment you should skip downloading these tools and perhaps just check out what the amazing XDA community can do instead.” Said Nvidia on their blog.

While enthusiasts are encouraged to play around and tinker with their Shield it is still worth noting that such rooting and boot loader modifications do void the warranty on the Nvidia Shield.

“And yes, our warranty policy does allow us to reject returns if a device has been rooted or a boot loader has been unlocked. Our goal here isn’t to discourage people from rooting their devices – it’s yours, after all  – but to give us a course of action if folks start to abuse the hardware through software modifications.”

You can check out the open source operating system files here.

Image courtesy of Nvidia