NVIDIA has opened the horizons of portable gaming with the SHIELD, which provides the experience of playing on a console a very large range of games designed to be played on touch screens. But when SHIELD was announced, it had not received the expected reception by gaming fans. This is due to the fact that the console was not compatible to play games from the Android Play store and had only 16 GB memory storage space.

The company has released a massive upgrade that brings Android 4.3, along with some important new features based on the feedback received from players.

In addition to being one of the first non-Nexus devices to equip the latest version of Android available, NVIDIA has released Console Mode, which allows user to use the SHIELD connected to an external monitor (with a resolution up to 1080p) and control the device via a Bluetooth controller. The first to be certified as compatible gamepad for the NVIDIA device is the Nyko PlayPad Pro and can be used as input device main for games, apps and system.

This update was an opportunity for NVIDIA to launch its GameStream, which was previously available as beta. This feature allows you to play most PC games on Nvidia Shield (high definition 720p resolution at 30 frames per second). GameStream requires a PC with a GTX650 or higher graphics card and GeForce Experience software. A significant change that can easily be combined with a TV connected to the HDMI or Miracast Shield.

The update would not be complete in itself if there had been an improvement for the system to customize the controls. The next update is the integration of Gamepad Mapper, a new feature that allows you to set and change the configuration of touch controls to suit the best to your preferences. For example, it is possible to reverse the action of a touch control with the selected key for functionality–and this capability is already compatible with over 100 games on Play Store.

It also introduces the function to map keys with those games that are not optimized for the physical controller, which makes it more pleasant to use the console with games that are not developed to support the physical buttons. In this way, any game can be played with the console, without exception. Through cloud you can download hundreds of maps ready for use.

The Android 4.3 update makes it possible to move the games to the external memory in order to free up internal memory. In addition, the company expanded support for SD cards, allowing users to move .OBB and .APK files to flash memories to release the device’s internal memory. Finally, Android 4.3 to the Shield brings features like profiles restricted expandable notifications and other improvements that make the system faster and simpler.

Nvidia Shield seeks to provide a gaming experience closer to that of next generation TVs and PCs. The company is experimenting with 4K displays and released the 326.41 Beta driver, which enables the ability to support tiled 4K displays and expands the amount of 4K supported displays. The driver also adds the PC streaming functionality, which enables for game streaming from the PC to Nvidia’s SHIELD.