henrikomagnifico

Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 4K Texture Pack 1.2.0 Update

Added 2023-12-01 11:00:02 +0000 UTC

Update 2024-04-04: A small patch, 1.2.0a, has been released. From this version onward, all 3DS texture packs will no longer include emulators. You will need to provide your own emulator from this point onward (it's still easy, don't worry)

Happy Holidays!🎄

Today marks the release of 1.2.0, the next major update to the Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 4K texture pack! This update is quite substantial and includes many new 4K textures covering several areas, with a primary focus on Lorule and the UI. It also includes new character textures, user-interface upgrades and more! And another major update- it now comes bundled with a more recent version of Canary (just like OOT4K and MM4K), which fixes MANY previous issues, such as stuttering and the infamous "texture swapping" glitch. And that's just the top of the iceberg. Here's what's new:

50+ New Textures!

This update includes over 50 new 4K textures, which are completely remade from scratch. This includes environment textures such as the ground, walls, stone tiles and bricks, wooden panels etc. This primarily targets various environments in Lorule, which had yet to be touched at all by the pack. Several UI textures have also been remade and substantially improved, such as the brand new custom render of the title screen logo. Like previous updates, it helps it all comes together really nicely and makes the whole pack feel a lot more polished and complete. The details all add up!

Updated emulator and ReShade (Bigger than it seems!)

The emulator has finally been updated to a later version Canary in this version of the pack, which includes the completely new custom texture system-rewrite implemented a short while ago! This fixes many notorious bugs, such as the stuttering that would occur whenever new textures were loaded in and the infamous and somewhat terrifying "texture swapping" bug which commonly occured for many users. This reallly adds a lot to the experience and makes the game much more enjoyable from start to finish. ReShade has also been updated to version 5.8, which also comes with several stability and feature improvements. More notably this update fixes the flickering of the depth buffer present in previous versions, making effects such as ambient occlusion much more usable. It also improves on performance a fair bit compared to previous versions!

Updated Shader presets (Henriko Ultra 7.0)

The default shader presets that come with the pack have been updated and improved in this version! Henriko Ultra 7.0 has been more or less re-created from scratch and hosts various improvements, both in terms of sharpness and colors but also in terms of performance- with this shader performing nearly twice as fast as the previous version! It also adds a new feature called "AMD FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening", which is a mouthful, but really just means vastly improved sharpening with increased perceived detail at a very low cost in terms of performance. It's crazy good and looks fantastic, and is enabled by default from now on!

Updated file structure and streamlined instructions

The file structure and instructions have been remade to be much more in line with those in OOT3D4K and MM3D4K, and should now be much easier to follow and use for first time users. DS4Windows and BetterJoy are also no longer bundled with the pack, so that people download and use the latest versions of these programs instead of older outdated versions.

And many bugs fixes, optimizations and minor changes...

Minor issues from the previous version has been fixed, including a particularly pesky issue which prevented half hearts from displaying at all. Performance has also been marginally improved due to the previously described optimizations. This should lead to a more polished and overall enjoyable experience for everyone using the texture pack.

That's mostly it for this update. Enjoy!

The update is available to all you Patrons here, with a public release in two weeks from when this post was published!

There is also a 4K version available, if your computer can handle it! The 4K version includes higher quality textures than the 1080p version, and will work on all displays- even those that don't display in 4K resolution. It will still look better than the 1080p version, no matter the display!

Please feel free to try it out!

(Only available for emulators, the texture pack does not work on real 3DS consoles).

Selecting your game region (if you're using the PAL/European or Japanese version of the game);

All you need to do now, if you're using the European version of Majora's Mask 3D, click the "Run this if you're using the PAL (European) version of the game.bat" file inside the texture pack folder. Done! It'll now work great with your version of the game. Easy, right?

How to enable MXAO (ambient occlusion) & DoF (Depth of Field):

This means you can now experience glorious self shadowing around objects, which looks really great with MM 3D's fantasy art style. Try it out by doing the following:

* Set your game view to "Single" in the emulator.

* Enter fullscreen in the emulator.

* Press the "8" key on your keyboard, this will bring up the ReShade UI.

* Check the "MXAO" box in the list of effects, if it's not already checked. The same can be done with the "ADOF" effect, if you want depth of field (might have some issues with masking around UI elements and whatnot, but feel free to give it a try!)

* Go to the "Add-ons" tab in ReShade and check the box next to the depth buffer in the list with the highest value (it should be a very high number while all others are 0, if there's only one in the list, check that one!). This number will change constantly, but don't worry, it's supposed to do that!

* You're done. Have fun!

You can find more information about my HD texture pack here.