elliotttate/Wind-Waker-Recomp v0.1.0-macos.5

Wind Waker Recomp 0.1.0 for macOS (Apple Silicon) — macos.5

on GitHub

Wind Waker Recomp for Apple Silicon Macs and Windows PCs: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker statically recompiled to run natively, with Metal (Mac) and Direct3D 12 (Windows) rendering, Smooth Motion (60 or 120 frames a second from the game's 30), widescreen, controller, keyboard and mouse support, and Better Wind Waker's settings.

Windows x64: the newest build, WindWakerRecomp-0.1.1-windows-x64.zip, is on the macos.4 release with its source zip, for Windows 10 and 11: unpack it, run BlueWake.exe and choose your disc image.

New in macos.5 (Mac):

• Save states, like an emulator's: F5 saves the whole running game and F9 loads the latest (hold fn on a MacBook keyboard), or use Save state and Load latest state in the options. They are kept in the data folder's states/ and work across launches of the same version.
• Climb any wall (Gameplay options, off by default): Link climbs steep walls the way he climbs ivy, as in Breath of the Wild, on a stamina wheel beside him (12 seconds by default); when it runs out he lets go, and he can climb again once it has refilled on the ground. Ivy, ladders, ledges and walls he sidles along work as before.
• The Windows build's graphics worker speedups: each draw's pipeline state is cached instead of derived again (96 percent of draws), with cheaper pipeline and texture lookups and Smooth Motion hand-offs. On slow cores this took Windows from 23-26 to 29-30 game frames a second; on an M3 Max, where it was already fast, the worker is about 4 percent less busy, so slower Macs should gain more.
• The compiled shader caches now live in the app's data folder, so the first launch after updating compiles them again.

Earlier, macos.4 (Mac and Windows): a controller's right stick now turns the camera directly, with no easing, like the mouse (the game's own C-stick camera eases in and out and ignores the first quarter of the stick). It aims in first person and with every item; clicking it goes into first person and back out; in the telescope and the Picto Box the left stick zooms. The camera, by mouse or stick, also no longer dips into the ground or under the water when tilted low: the game now keeps it clear as it does its own. The game's original right stick is an option under Controls (on Windows: F1, Controls, with the turn and aim speeds; the controller's inversion options invert it too).

Earlier: macos.3 made the app's windows native (no AppleScript), and macos.2 added Dolphin's .rvz, .gcz, .wia and .ciso images, unpacked once into a plain image in the app's data folder.

You supply the game. The downloads contain the recompiled game code and the runtime, but no disc image, game files, textures, audio or saves. At the first launch the app asks for your own disc image of The Wind Waker, USA (GZLE01), revision 0 (.iso, .gcm, .rvz, .gcz, .wia or .ciso), checks it, and prepares what it needs from it. Other regions and revisions are refused.

Requirements

• Mac: an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer) on macOS 15 or later
• Windows: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), a Direct3D 12 GPU, and a CPU with AVX2 (Intel Haswell, AMD Zen or newer)
• Your own legally obtained GZLE01 revision 0 disc image

Install

Mac

1. Download WindWakerRecomp-0.1.0-macos-arm64.zip, unzip it and drag Wind Waker Recomp.app to Applications.
2. Open it. The app is ad hoc signed, not notarized: if macOS blocks it, use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
3. Choose your disc image when asked.

Windows

1. Download WindWakerRecomp-0.1.1-windows-x64.zip (on the macos.4 release) and unpack the whole folder anywhere.
2. Run BlueWake.exe. It is not signed: if Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info → Run anyway.
3. Choose your disc image when asked. An .rvz is unpacked once (a few seconds) to an ISO in %APPDATA%\BlueWake; later launches start the game straight away. To use another image: F1, Sound and files, Choose another disc image.

Controller (Mac and Windows): the right stick turns the camera and aims, its click is first person, the left stick zooms the telescope and the Picto Box, the left bumper jumps and a click of the left stick sprints.

Keyboard: WASD moves, TFGH turns the camera, J/K/U/I are A/B/X/Y, E/R/Q are L/R/Z, Return is Start. Click the game to steer the camera with the mouse; Esc or F1 opens the options (Smooth Motion 60/120, aspect, resolution, texture packs, Better Wind Waker). On the Mac, F5 / F9 save and load a state. On Windows, Space jumps, Shift sprints, F11 or Alt+Enter is fullscreen, F10 toggles Smooth Motion and F9 the frame rate. Saves and settings live in ~/Library/Application Support/Wind Waker Recomp on the Mac and %APPDATA%\BlueWake on Windows.

Full guides: docs/MACOS_RELEASE.md and docs/WINDOWS.md.

Known issues

• Lava around Dragon Roost renders as flat orange instead of its bright pattern (Mac).
• The busiest scenes can dip below 120 at 120 Hz Smooth Motion; 60 is steadier. On Windows, 120 is used only on a display of 100 Hz or more (60 otherwise), and 120 on a 120 Hz display has not been measured on Windows yet.
• The first minutes of a new install (and the first launch of macos.5) hitch while rendering pipelines compile.
• Save states are for the version that made them; another version may refuse them. Keep saving in the game as well.
• Climbing (Mac): only near-vertical walls, as for ivy; slanted rock stays unclimbable.
• 60 Hz gameplay (Windows, experimental): dialogue, cutscenes and transitions keep their original timing.
• Windows was checked on one PC (Core i9-13900KF, RTX 5090): Smooth Motion 60 FPS shown with the game at its full 30 while running on Outset and turning the camera with the right stick, 60 Hz gameplay at 59-60. The right stick was checked with scripted stick input, at the Mac's measured rates (12.01 degrees a frame at full tilt, 3.41 at half, 6.0 when aiming; first person in and out); a physical controller, AMD GPUs and CPUs and slower PCs have not been tried on Windows yet.

BUILD.json (Mac) and BuilderProvenance.json (Windows) record the exact source revisions and checksums; the zips' SHA-256 are in the .sha256 files (the Windows ones on the macos.4 release). The Windows app was built from windows-release at 432225a (main's 887c26d merged); WindWakerRecomp-0.1.0-windows-source.zip is that branch at 5ca26dd (432225a plus docs).

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is Nintendo's.