https://github.com/ZeldaWWHDRecomp/ZeldaWWHDRecomp/releases/tag/v0.2.13

The Wind Waker HD, native PC port, v0.2.13

Support for: Mac/Windows/Linux/Android

This release contains no game files, no game code and no keys. You need your own disc dump
(.wux/.wud with its disc key, plus the Wii U common key from your console), a Cemu .wua archive
(no keys needed), or an already extracted game folder. The installer builds the game from it on your machine.

Install: download the zip for your system, unzip it anywhere and start Wind Waker HD. The
first start prepares the game once from your dump (about two minutes); later starts launch it directly.
Everything stays in that folder.

macOS (Apple Silicon, macOS 14+): Wind Waker HD.app. The release is not signed by Apple: macOS 15+: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway; macOS 14: right-click > Open. Keep the app inside the unzipped folder (move the whole folder, not just the app)
Windows: Wind Waker HD.exe (SmartScreen: "More info" > "Run anyway"); windows-x86_64 for x86-64, windows-arm64 for Windows on ARM (Snapdragon X)
Linux (glibc 2.35+, Vulkan): wind-waker-hd; linux-x86_64 for x86-64, linux-aarch64 for arm64 (Raspberry Pi 5, Asahi Linux, ARM laptops). Or one file: chmod +x the .AppImage and start it from anywhere (Steam Deck included); its game, code, saves and settings go to ~/.local/share/wwhd and ~/.config/wwhd instead of beside it (Ubuntu 24.04+: libfuse2t64, or --appimage-extract-and-run)
Android (arm64, Android 13+, Vulkan 1.3): install the android-arm64.apk (android-x86_64 is for emulators and Chromebooks), choose your game in the app, and it builds the game on the phone (once, a few minutes). Signing certificate SHA-256: 7F:F6:D3:5E:4E:45:11:5E:E4:93:65:EF:5B:40:C0:EB:83:EA:F7:6C:C1:1C:E9:67:F2:64:5C:50:4F:58:B2:13

See "Install (releases)" in the README for details.

What's new

Linux AppImage: a portable mode (issue #55, idea by u/missionfloyd). Create a folder named like the AppImage plus .data next to it (e.g. WindWakerHD-…-linux-x86_64.AppImage.data), and the AppImage keeps the game, its code, saves, settings and caches there instead of in ~/.local/share, ~/.config and ~/.cache. Without that folder nothing changes.
Profiling on Windows on ARM64: a sampling profiler for the frame threads (PR #147, thanks u/rhemfur). Off unless WWHD_SAMPLE_THREADS=<file prefix> is set; tools/bench/thread_profile.py turns the samples into a report by module and function, including time inside the Vulkan driver, without administrator rights. See docs/performance.md.
Android: a friendlier setup screen, and the app icon starts the game (PRs #128 and #129, thanks u/rhemfur). Setup now guides you step by step in English, Portuguese or Spanish ("Choose your game", "Preparing the game for your phone… 20 of 80 · about 3 min left", "Your game is ready"). Once a game is set up, the app icon starts it directly ("Game setup" stays available by long-pressing the icon), and the phone offers a home-screen game icon with the game's own picture, made from your game files.
Fixed: crash with Quick doors when leaving a room with spores (issue #145), for example at the first door in the Forbidden Woods. Quick doors ran the spores' fade-out faster than the game draws, so their effect was removed while still queued for drawing. Doors now wait for the weather effect to finish fading (rain, stars, spores, fog and waves) and stay fast otherwise.
Windows, Intel UHD graphics: a workaround for a crash in Intel's Vulkan driver a few seconds after start (issue #144). On Intel GPUs every render-target view now states its purpose explicitly; WWHD_VK_ATTACHMENT_VIEW_USAGE=0 turns it off, and WWHD_VK_TRACE_PASSES=1 logs each render pass once for crash reports.
Fixed: shadows switching between sharp and blurry at high internal resolutions (issue #135). Above 1x, the sun-shadow pass rebuilt surface normals from rays one console pixel apart but depths one screen pixel apart, so depending on the camera angle shadows smeared and Link could get a dark outline. The pass now uses matching spacing, so shadows at 2x, 3x or 4K look like at 1x, only sharper.
Fixed: Android GPU crashes ("device lost") on some Adreno phones (issue #104). The precise GPU barriers that v0.2.12 turned on for Android caused occasional crashes with Mesa Turnip on an Adreno 650 and gave no measurable speed-up, so they are off by default again on every platform (WWHD_VK_NARROW_BARRIERS=1 still turns them on). Thanks to u/rhemfur for the measurements.
Fixed: setup stopped with "the recompiler wrote no code" (issue #136) when the install folder's path contains square brackets, for example ...\LoZ - The Wind Waker [WiiU]\data. Setup and the recompiler treated the brackets as a search pattern and then found none of their own files.
Android setup: "Continue anyway" when it waits for the phone to cool down (issue #142). The pause now shows the battery temperature and Android's thermal status, waits only at 45 °C battery temperature (42 °C if Android also reports the phone as warm) or when Android reports it as hot, and a Continue anyway button (also on the low-battery pause) lets you go on for this run. Only Android's critical heat level still stops setup.
Mods: experimental mods and save backups. Mods marked Experimental (untested, may break the game or a save made while they are active; Call of the Sky is one) are hidden unless you turn on Show experimental mods in the Mods tab. Turning one on asks first and backs up your saves before it is enabled. Mods → Save backups lists the backups (the newest 10 automatic ones are kept; Back up now backups are never removed), can restore one at the next start, before the game loads any save (your current saves are backed up first, so a restore can be undone), or delete one.
Setup: "Preparing shaders" is much faster and shows real progress. The release now includes the native decoder for the game's compressed archives (before, setup unpacked them in slow Python) and scans them on several cores: about 10 seconds instead of about 4 minutes on an Apple Silicon Mac, with an identical result. The bar now fills as it works ("400 of 818 game archives", then the shaders and pipelines compiled), and Vulkan compiles pipelines on several threads. On Android the app now ships the same native decoder, so preparation on the phone is much faster as well. shaders and pipelines compiled), and Vulkan compiles pipelines on several threads. On a Mac, setup now prepares both Metal and Vulkan, so either renderer starts without first-time shader stutter.
Controls: in-game button prompts follow your controller (PR #110, thanks u/mhbxyz). With Face buttons set to by label (or Automatic on an Xbox-style pad), dialog icons and HUD buttons use green A, red B, blue X and yellow Y, the HUD button cluster uses the Xbox positions, and shoulder prompts read R1/R2 and L1/L2 in the game's own lettering. By position keeps the original look.
Controls: a "Stick range" setting per stick (issue #40). For a worn stick that can't reach full deflection: raise its range (100–150 %, default 100 %) in Settings → Controls or the macOS Controls window until the input reaches full tilt, for example the Wind Waker baton's directions. It's applied after the dead zone and keeps the stick's direction.
Mods: a "Restart required" popup. Changes that only take effect after a restart (turning packages, graphics packs or code mods on or off, their settings, profiles, a finished one-click setup, a code-mod rebuild) now show a popup with Restart now and Later, and the Mods tab keeps a "Restart to apply" line until you restart.
Fixed: one-click mod setup stopped with "Package changed; refresh it and confirm its code again" after a preparation step, e.g. for the GameCube sea minimap. The mod's Python tool left cache files in the package, which made the package look changed. Setup tools now run without writing them. If you already hit this, refresh the mod in the catalogue (or delete its tools/__pycache__ folder) and press Try again.
Vulkan: choose your graphics card in Settings → Graphics (issue #135), e.g. on laptops with an Intel and an NVIDIA GPU. The choice is remembered and applies after a restart; if the chosen card is no longer available, the game picks a usable one and says so. WWHD_VK_DEVICE (an index or part of the name) overrides it for one start.
Fixed: the 60, 120 and 240 fps settings dropped to about 30–50 fps on PCs that can't quite draw 60 frames a second (issue #125). A frame that misses its display refresh is now shown as soon as it's ready instead of waiting a whole extra refresh, so you get close to what Uncapped shows (e.g. 56 instead of 30 fps). Frames that are on time are paced exactly as before.
Fixed: the Picto Box picture stayed blurry (issue #134). The left stick zooms the Picto Box, and the game blurs the picture while zooming, so even a slightly drifting stick kept it blurry. Controller sticks now have a 15 % dead zone by default (Settings → Controls; a saved 0 from older versions becomes 15 %, an explicitly chosen 0 stays). On Metal, the photo's subject outline could also miss pixels the first time; that's fixed too.
Less stutter on first play: setup now prepares the shaders. After building the game, setup runs Preparing shaders: from your own game files and a small, code-free list of the game's GPU states that comes with the release, it compiles the shaders and pipelines before you play (about 15–20 s on a recent Mac). In our tests the cold first-play hitches over 50 ms went from 5–10 to 0. You can skip it in setup, and Settings → Graphics → Rebuild shader cache prepares a fresh one. Areas that aren't covered can still stutter once. On Vulkan, shaders and pipelines are also compiled in the background while you play, and the pipelines you used are rebuilt at the title screen on the next start. Your existing caches are kept when you update.
macOS setup: works with mismatched Command Line Tools (e.g. after a macOS beta update installed a newer SDK than the tools' linker understands: "unknown architecture arm64e.x1", "tapi error: malformed file"). Setup now links with an older installed SDK automatically, or explains how to update the Command Line Tools.
Audio: a master volume slider (PR #137, thanks u/mhbxyz, issue #124). Settings → Audio has a Master volume slider with Mute and Default buttons. It applies immediately and is remembered for the next start.
Fixed: Link flickered during some conversations at 60, 120 and 240 fps (issue #126). When the camera looks over Link's shoulder, the game hides him for that shot, but the in-between frames drew him again. He now stays hidden on every frame, also in true 60. 30 fps is unchanged.
Faster game code: about a quarter less CPU time in the game's own code (PR #83, thanks u/depende3000). The recompiler now keeps the game's registers in local variables, stores only the condition bits that are read later, and uses cheaper float compares. Measured per game step: −28 % on an Apple Silicon Mac, −14.5 % on a Galaxy S25 Ultra. Setup takes about 20 seconds longer to generate the game code. With code mods switched on, the game code stays as before for now.
Fixed: Cemu graphics packs that write their title IDs without leading zeros were refused (issue #123), e.g. the "Playstation UI" pack (titleIds = 5000010143600). The IDs are now compared as numbers, the way Cemu reads them.
Run/swim speed: a reworked boost (PR #133, thanks u/mhbxyz). Separate multipliers for running (1.5x by default) and swimming (1.25x), hold or toggle, and a stamina bar: a boost lasts 5 s by default and refills over a 3 s cooldown (set stamina to 0 for the old unlimited boost). A ring under the climb wheel shows it. The boost ramps in, and Link's legs keep up with the ground instead of skating (true 60 included). Options in Mods > Run/swim speed: use the dash clip instead of walking, or a sprint pose with a forward lean and wider arm swing. Boosted runs kick up dust, and a boosted surface swim becomes a crawl with splashes and foam, all with the game's own effects. Saved settings carry over.
Fixed: setup's last screen briefly asked about the shortcut again after Play (PR #130, thanks u/rhemfur). Once Play or Quit is pressed, the screen shows "Starting the game..." instead of the options; what you had chosen is still done.
Windows on ARM: a native windows-arm64 release (PR #131, thanks u/rhemfur), for Snapdragon X laptops and other ARM PCs. 60 fps keeps the game at full speed there by default ("Keep game speed", as on Android). The x86-64 release still runs on these PCs too, emulated

u/fleeraimusic

Zelda Wind Waker HD (Wii U) Recomp - Update v0.2.13

What's new

MRI Diagnosis: Osteomylitis

Red streak in the eye

How does normal dried morning secrete from the sinuses smell like?