Hey there folks! Finally getting around to posting this guide that I wrote up near the end of last year. It will show you how to run The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker with the best graphical fidelity in Dolphin. I made the guide originally for a visually impaired gamer here on Reddit who was having problems reading the text in the game. It will show you what settings to change in Dolphin, with fully annotated screenshots for each section.
This retexture is 100% faithful to the original artwork and Hypatia put a tremendous amount of time and effort into re-creating the original game's low resolution textures, which is why I consider it the best HD texture mod for this game.
The goal of this guide is to:
- Replace all textures in the game with high quality HD textures.
- Upscale the game to 4k resolution (which will then downscale to your native resolution if it is below 4k).
- Add quality-of-life enhancements to the game, without being gamebreaking or detracting from the original game in any way.
- Configure Dolphin correctly.
NOTE: Because of constant changes in Dolphin's development, certain features may not work as they previously did, when a new update is released. Other users have reported that the widescreen codes in particular are not working in newer versions of Dolphin. The settings in this guide have been tested with Dolphin-Ishiiruka build 777, which you can download here (64-bit only): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/us15j6yefj3e57g/AADORjf5Wmk3Ny3FojOwEybKa/Ishiiruka.777%28dbd7e13%29.x64.7z?dl=0
Wind Waker HD texture pack for Dolphin:
Download link:
http://onthegreatsea.tumblr.com/DOWNLOADS
Under the wind waker section. Gamecube version is the only one supported, btw. Works best with the US/NTSC version. If you use a Xbox 360 or PS4/PS3 controller, also download the high res HUD pack. Install the HD texture pack before the HUD pack, allowing the HUD pack to overwrite any files it asks to. Refer to the readme file in the HD texture pack for information on where to install it.
Another thing you'll want to download is the Ishiiruka build of dolphin, which performs better, especially on lower powered PC's and with texture packs: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version
When you first open Dolphin, you'll have to point to where the image files are for the games you'd like to play in it. First click 'Options' at the top of the main Dolphin window, then click 'Configure...', and then add the directory your games are located in the 'Paths' tab.
After Dolphin-Ishiiruka and the HD texture pack/HUD are installed, continue with the next steps in this guide.
Screenshots of steps in this guide: http://imgur.com/gallery/F7Byx
The (1), (2), etc.. numbers in this guide correspond with the screenshot numbers in the gallery.
Enhancements:
- Setting up AR/Gecko Codes:
(1). Open up Dolphin and right-click The Wind Waker in the list of games, and select 'Properties'.
(2). Click The 'AR Codes' tab and then click the 'Add' button in the bottom-right corner, and add the following codes, one at a time:
-
16:9 Widescreen Support (for 16:9 resolutions like 1920x1080, 1280x720, etc)
043FA998 3FE38E39
If you use an ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio, use one of these instead:
-
21:9 Widescreen support (2560x1080)
043FA998 4017B426
-
21:9 Widescreen support (3440x1440)
043FA998 4018E38E
NOTE: Do not use more than one of the widescreen codes at a time.
-
Remove Distance Blur
043FCB9C 00000000
Make sure the codes are checked on the list after adding them.
-
OPTIONAL:
Roll Further
(This is already included, about 3/4 of a page down from the top of the list, and is a minor enhancement to the roll that link does, which will make travel a bit faster and the roll a bit more useful. It is not gameplay breaking/cheesy in any way, as it is a very minor difference, but it is handy.)
(3). Next, click the 'Gecko Codes' tab and then click the 'download codes' button near the bottom-right corner. After the gecko codes have downloaded, make sure to check the "second set of equipped items" option.
Highly Recommended. This will make it so if you hit d-pad down, it will toggle between a primary and secondary set of equipment. This does not work until you get your boat. It's very useful, as this minimizes how much you have to go into the menus to switch your item loadout.
Graphics Settings:
(4), (5), (6), (7). Replicate my settings in the imgur link: http://imgur.com/gallery/F7Byx
Graphics / Performance Troubleshooting:
If you encounter stuttering:
In the 'Enhancements' tab, change the 'Internal Resolution' dropdown to 5x, 4x, or 3x and see if that helps.
Also, the XBRZ 'texture scaling mode' at 4x 'scaling factor' could be a bit demanding on some systems. You may want to try lower settings for that, or disable it completely.
If everything is running well, you can increase the 'Anti-Aliasing' higher than 2x and that will increase visual fidelity. For reference, I use 8xMSAA on a 980TI.
Nvidia users with GTX 900 series or newer cards can enable MFAA in the Nvidia Control Panel to get better quality/performance from the MSAA anti-aliasing options in Dolphin, although it does not work with SSAA.
In the 'General' tab, you can change the 'Backend' setting to either 'OpenGL' (Generally gives best performance on Nvidia cards) or 'DirectX 12' (Excellent performance on both Nvidia & AMD, but requires Windows 10). I have it set to 'DirectX 11' in this guide for compatibility, as that works well on both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards.
If you are getting noticeable input lag when playing, you should turn 'v-sync' off. I have had it on for 75% of a playthrough so far without issue, and I really just love everything being smooth and crisp/tear-free. G-sync/adaptive sync users get the best of both worlds.
In the 'Hacks' tab, you can try un-checking the 'Compute Texture Encoding' and 'Computer Texture Decoding' options to see if this helps with any stuttering you may encounter. I've only experimented with these settings on a Nvidia card, so AMD graphics card owners may want to untick these options, but it couldn't hurt to experiment with them both ways to see if it helps.
In the 'Advanced' tab, you can try unchecking the 'Prefetch Custom Textures' option if you have any issues, as this loads all textures to system ram to speed up performance and minimize stuttering, but this requires a good amount of system ram to work as intended. (I use this option with 16GB of system ram. With 8GB or less you may encounter issues.)
If you have one of those whiz-bang new GPU's with 8GB or more ram, you may want to try the "cache custom textures on GPU" option. This gave me really bad stutters with 6GB on my 980ti though. It's an option to try if you have 4GB or more of ram I suppose. It couldn't hurt, and may work with someone else's configuration where it did not in mine for some reason. I don't think it would work with a HD texture pack like this, if your GPU has less than 4GB of ram, as it loads all of the game's textures to your GPU at startup, instead of streaming them in as you visit each area.
Control Settings:
(8). See last screenshot in the imgur link for advice on correctly setting up controls: http://imgur.com/gallery/F7Byx
This is very important to making the game play correctly in Dolphin.
Custom HD HUD Icons:
This will give you Playstation/Xbox icons for buttons instead if default Gamecube graphics.
First, install Hypatia's HD HUD graphics mod from here: http://onthegreatsea.tumblr.com/DOWNLOADS
Extract to the same place you installed the HD Texture Mod, and overwrite any files when prompted.
To see the correct buttons for the controller you are using in the HUD/on-screen/menus, instead of the default Gamecube controller graphics, navigate to the location of the HD Texture Pack/HUD you installed in the following directory:
c:\Users\%YourUserName%\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Load\Textures\GZLE01\HUD
You will see a bunch of directories with numbers in front of them, like '01 High Res GC HUD' and '02 XBOX HUD'. Delete all of the numbered directories like this EXCEPT the one for the controller you are using. So for the xbox360/one controller, you would delete every numbered folder except '02 XBOX HUD'. There are also 'Minimal' versions of these HUD's for each controller, although I do not know what the difference is between them. You can try them out by just making sure they are the only numbered folder in that directory, and if you don't like them, just re-add the regular folder and delete the minimal one.
Hypatia has some other Wind Waker mods that change character textures and shadowing in the game, if you feel like experimenting further: http://onthegreatsea.tumblr.com/
My system specs this has been tested with (See 'Graphics / Performance Troubleshooting' section for what settings to lower or experiment with on slower systems):
4790k @4.7ghz
980ti OC
Windows 7 64-bit
16gb DDR3 2133 ram
1TB SSD
1920x1080 120hz monitor
I kept the anti-aliasing setting low for this guide at 2x, but I use 8x MSAA for my setup, along with MFAA enabled in the nvidia control panel.
Feel free to PM me or reply here with any questions and/or comments. The Wind Waker is a beautiful experience with this all working correctly.
Cheers!
Submitted by MordecaiWalfish | #Specialdealer Special Offer Online Shopping Store 2016
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