v0.7.5

What's new

Fewer white flashes on slower graphics cards (#29): since 0.7.3 the game stopped waiting for the GPU's exposure results after a fixed 20 ms. On a card whose frames take longer than that (a laptop RTX 3050 Ti, for example), it stopped waiting almost every time, and the picture flashed white. The limit now follows your card: it grows when the GPU needs longer. Measured on a real slow-GPU case (our card at 3840x2160 and 100 % render resolution, about 20 ms of GPU time a frame): brightness flicker 31.6 frames a thousand before, 16.0 now, 6.3 with no limit at all. So it is halved, not gone; RX_VK_CAPTURE_WAIT_MAX_MS=0 in relink_env.txt removes the limit (no flicker from this, a little more stutter when areas load). (An earlier version of these notes quoted 2.5, from a test that only imitated a slow card.) The faster Hyrule Castle arrival of 0.7.3 stays (time lost in long frames 1011 / 872 ms with the old limit, 841 / 776 ms with this one).

A way through water for RTX 50 cards (#6, #7): the freeze when Link enters water (or when a lot of water is on screen) is not fixed yet, but there is now a switch that should let you through. Add this line to relink_env.txt in the game folder (create the file if needed):

RX_VK_SKIP_HALF_PASS=1

It leaves out the lighting of one half-resolution pass, the one every freeze report points at. Checked here at Lake Hylia and in the Market: the scene stays whole, Link looks a little flatter when he is under the surface. Please tell us in #6 whether it gets you past the freeze.

Clearer messages when something goes wrong:

• When the graphics card stops (Vulkan "device lost"), a message now says so, instead of a black screen with the game still running behind it (#21, #23).
• When the renderer can't be loaded, a message says what happened and what to do (#23).
• Start-up crashes write a hint in relink_log.txt, and the log now names the game files' version (#26).
• More detail in the freeze report you get with RX_VK_CHECKPOINTS=marker (#6, #7, #27), and new test switches to narrow the water freeze down (see #6).

Faster builds on Intel CPUs with efficiency cores (#6): the compilers now run at normal priority while the game builds. Thanks @knoch23 for spotting it. If you'd rather keep your PC more responsive during the build, set RELINK_LOW_PRIORITY=1.

Native code for two of the game's busiest loading routines: the step of the game's file decompression that rebuilds the data (twice as fast here: 720 MB/s against 340 MB/s) and its name lookups in its data tables. Both were checked against the original code with no difference (over 100,000 decompression calls, 58 million lookup steps). The lookups made no measurable difference to frame times here yet.

This update translates the game's code again: expect the rebuild to take a few more minutes than usual. Your saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

Known issues (v0.7.5)

• Water freeze on RTX 50-series (and one RTX 3070 report in Zora's Domain): not fixed; try RX_VK_SKIP_HALF_PASS=1 above and tell us in #6 or #7.
• Black screen after the intro of a new game on an RTX 4070 (#21): the GPU stops in one load-time pass; RX_VK_SKIP_PROG=53509044401d78d2 in relink_env.txt should get you in (trees at mid distance pop in more abruptly). Please confirm in #21.
• Camera turning in the Market: frames over 25 ms while the camera turns toward the busy side. Measured here: mostly the game's own work in that view.
• Mouse camera while aiming and indoors (0.7.1): checked on open ground only so far (#13, #2).
• FSR tested on NVIDIA only: not yet on AMD or Intel cards. Cards without mesh shaders (AMD RX 5000 and older) are below what ReLink supports.
• Short trails with FSR and DLSS: what moves by itself without a skeleton (particles, water, plants in the wind) can leave short trails.
• 4K native on 8 GB cards: the card is full in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 %; use 67 % or 75 % render resolution.
• Frozen Zora's Domain: green and purple patches on the snow and plants (#9). Not confirmed fixed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed and weak (#8); official Nintendo Pro Controllers work as expected.

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again (a few more minutes this time, see above); saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.7.4

What's new

Faster loading, shorter hitches arriving in Hyrule Castle: the game unpacks its files with zstd, and the step that rebuilds the data (the "sequences") now runs as native PC code instead of the translated Switch code. It does exactly what the game's own code does, byte for byte: we checked it by running both side by side on over 100,000 calls in eight places, with no difference. Measured here on the same loads: 720 MB/s against 340 MB/s. Arriving in Hyrule Castle (75 % render resolution, two runs each), the time lost in frames of 40 ms and more goes from 1324 and 908 ms to 809 and 814 ms, and the longest frame from 593 and 164 ms to 173 and 149 ms. Some loading is still there right after the arrival: another of the game's loading threads (the one that prepares the next areas) now takes the larger share.

Shader cache check at start: the graphics driver can empty its own shader cache (a driver update, a cleanup tool, or the driver itself). The game used to trust its own note that the cache was ready, and then compiled shaders while you played, which made the camera stutter on the first visit of each place. Each start now checks a handful of shaders against the cache, and when the driver lost them, the start warms the cache again (a few minutes once, with the usual loading screen).

This update translates the game's code again: expect the rebuild to take a few more minutes than usual. Your saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

Known issues (v0.7.4)

• Water freeze on RTX 50-series: the GPU stops in the game's half-resolution pass on RTX 5060, 5070 Ti and 5080. The testers in #6 and #7 ruled out three causes; 0.7.2's report should name the exact draw.
• Camera turning in the Market: frames over 25 ms while the camera turns toward the busy side. Measured here: mostly the game's own work in that view (its scene and loading threads).
• Mouse camera while aiming and indoors (0.7.1): checked on open ground only so far (#13, #2).
• Fairy fountain floor (0.7.2, #14): the repair runs on every install and update; not yet confirmed in the grotto by the reporter.
• FSR tested on NVIDIA only: not yet on AMD or Intel cards.
• Short trails with FSR and DLSS: what moves by itself without a skeleton (particles, water, plants in the wind) can leave short trails.
• 4K native on 8 GB cards: the card is full in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 %; use 67 % or 75 % render resolution (FSR or DLSS make that look closer to native).
• Frozen Zora's Domain: green and purple patches on the snow and plants (#9). Not confirmed fixed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed and weak (#8); official Nintendo Pro Controllers work as expected.

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again (a few more minutes this time, see above); saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.7.3

What's new

Shorter hitches arriving in Hyrule Castle: a few seconds after you arrive, the game loads the area, and the GPU is busy with its textures for a moment. The game's own thread used to wait on the GPU for up to a quarter of a second at that point. That wait now gives up after 20 ms. Measured here at 75 % render resolution, two runs each, arriving in Hyrule Castle: the time lost in long frames goes from 1039 and 1177 ms to 835 and 867 ms, and the longest frame from 250 and 319 ms to 138 and 158 ms. The game's exposure stays as steady as before (we check for brightness flicker frame by frame). The loading itself is still there, so the arrival isn't perfectly smooth yet.

Linux build fix (#18): the renderer builds with clang on Linux again (thanks @biosed).

No shader preparation: your prepared shaders are kept.

Known issues (v0.7.3)

• Water freeze on RTX 50-series: the GPU stops in the game's half-resolution pass on RTX 5060, 5070 Ti and 5080. The testers in #6 and #7 ruled out three causes; 0.7.2's report should name the exact draw.
• Camera turning in the Market: frames over 25 ms while the camera turns toward the busy side. Measured here: mostly the game's own work in that view (its scene and loading threads), which this release does not change.
• Mouse camera while aiming and indoors (0.7.1): checked on open ground only so far (#13, #2).
• Fairy fountain floor (0.7.2, #14): the repair runs on every install and update; not yet confirmed in the grotto by the reporter.
• FSR tested on NVIDIA only: not yet on AMD or Intel cards.
• Short trails with FSR and DLSS: what moves by itself without a skeleton (particles, water, plants in the wind) can leave short trails.
• 4K native on 8 GB cards: the card is full in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 %; use 67 % or 75 % render resolution (FSR or DLSS make that look closer to native).
• Frozen Zora's Domain: green and purple patches on the snow and plants (#9). Not confirmed fixed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed and weak (#8); official Nintendo Pro Controllers work as expected.

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again; saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.7.2

What's new

Invisible floors and walls in fairy fountains, slowdowns with adult Link (#14): some dumps of the game hold a few damaged textures (their first kilobytes are zeros). The game never finishes loading a model that needs one: in the fairy fountain grottos the floor and walls were not drawn, and as an adult the same model was loaded again and again, which cost frames everywhere. ReLink had a repair tool for this, but you had to run it by hand and the installer didn't even ship it. Now every install and update checks your dump and, if it has those textures damaged, writes a small mod (mods\00-dump-repair in the game folder) that stands in for them with an intact texture of the same family, made from your own files. Nothing of the game is shipped. If your dump is intact, nothing is written. Checked here on a dump with the damage (the two textures are replaced in about a second); not yet checked inside the grotto itself, so please tell us if it's fixed for you.

For the RTX 50-series water freeze (#6, #7): the GPU marker report (RX_VK_CHECKPOINTS=marker) now also names the work just before the first unfinished marker, which is where the hang is.

No shader preparation: your prepared shaders are kept.

Known issues (v0.7.2)

• Water freeze on RTX 50-series: the GPU stops in the game's half-resolution pass (Link's body in the water) on RTX 5060, 5070 Ti and 5080. We are narrowing it down with the testers in #6 and #7.
• Hyrule Castle arrival: about a second and a half of hitches a few seconds after you arrive, at every resolution. Measured here: it's the game loading the area (decompression and model processing on its own loading threads), not video memory. We're looking at making that loading faster.
• Camera turning in the Market: frames over 25 ms while the camera turns toward the busy side; measured here as mostly the game's own work in that view, plus a wait that keeps the exposure from flickering. Not fixed yet.
• Mouse camera while aiming and indoors (0.7.1): checked on open ground only so far (#13, #2).
• FSR tested on NVIDIA only: AMD FSR was tested on an RTX 3060 Ti; not yet on AMD or Intel cards.
• Short trails with FSR and DLSS: what moves by itself without a skeleton (particles, water, plants in the wind) can leave short trails.
• Hitches at 4K native on 8 GB cards: in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 % render resolution the card is full; use 67 % or 75 % render resolution on 8 GB cards (FSR or DLSS make that look closer to native).
• Frozen Zora's Domain: green and purple patches on the snow and plants, a blocky shadow on the ice (#9). Not confirmed fixed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed and weak (#8); official Nintendo Pro Controllers work as expected.

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again; saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.7.1

What's new

Mouse camera (native mouse look) while aiming and indoors: native mouse look turns the camera by writing its angles directly. Two places don't use those angles: aiming the slingshot (and the other aimed items), where the mouse did nothing at all (#13), and the fixed cameras inside houses, which put their own angles back so the view shook (#2). ReLink now watches what the game does with the angles it writes; when the game doesn't follow them, the mouse drives the right stick instead (what aims, and what those cameras take), and native look comes back as soon as the camera follows again. Checked here on open ground (native look still turns the camera, and gives way during a scene's arrival event, then comes back); not yet checked here while aiming or inside a house, so please tell us how it feels. HOS_MOUSE_FALLBACK=0 in relink_env.txt turns this off.

For the RTX 50-series water freeze (#6, #7): new optional log switches that help us find the cause (all off by default; see the issue for which ones to try).

No shader preparation: your prepared shaders are kept.

Known issues (v0.7.1)

• Water freeze on RTX 50-series: the 0.6.8 change did not fix it: on an RTX 5070 Ti and an RTX 5060 the GPU now stops on another draw of the same half-resolution pass (Link's body in the water). We are narrowing it down with the testers in #6 and #7.
• FSR tested on NVIDIA only: AMD FSR was tested on an RTX 3060 Ti; not yet on AMD or Intel cards. If FSR does not start, the game falls back to its own upscaler and says why in relink_log.txt: please attach it to an issue.
• Short trails with FSR and DLSS: what moves by itself without a skeleton (particles, water, plants in the wind) can leave short trails.
• Launcher's DLSS switch: the full path (switch on, SDK download, rebuild) was checked piece by piece, not yet end to end on a fresh install.
• Hitches at 4K native on 8 GB cards: in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 % render resolution, frames up to 183 ms on an 8 GB card (video memory full). At 4K, use 67 % or 75 % render resolution on 8 GB cards for now; FSR or DLSS make that look closer to native.
• Frozen Zora's Domain: green and purple patches on the snow and plants, a blocky shadow on the ice (#9). Not confirmed fixed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed and weak (#8); official Nintendo Pro Controllers work as expected.

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again; saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.7.0

What's new

AMD FSR 3.1, on any graphics card: a new Upscaler row on the launcher's Display page (and in the in-game menu) chooses what scales the 3D up to your screen:

• The game's own (the default, as before).
• AMD FSR: AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.1 upscales from the render resolution you set. Works on AMD, NVIDIA and Intel cards; AMD's library comes with ReLink (MIT license, in the game folder).
• AMD FSR native AA: FSR at 100 % render resolution, as anti-aliasing only.

NVIDIA DLSS and DLAA, on RTX cards: turn on NVIDIA DLSS on the Display page. The launcher then shows NVIDIA's license, downloads NVIDIA's DLSS SDK from NVIDIA (about 60 MB, each file checked) and builds your game again with it; NVIDIA DLSS and NVIDIA DLAA then appear in the Upscaler row. NVIDIA's license does not let us ship DLSS ourselves, so it is fetched on your PC and stays there: never share a game folder built with it.

To make room for them, the game now moves the camera by a fraction of a pixel each frame (what FSR and DLSS need to rebuild detail); with the game's own upscaler, the picture is the same as before.

Tips: with FSR or DLSS, set Sharpness to about 80 % and Render resolution to 67 % or 75 %.

Measured here on an RTX 3060 Ti, Hyrule Market, 2560x1440 output, 67 % render resolution: the game's own 56.0 fps, AMD FSR 52.6 fps, NVIDIA DLSS 55.0 fps. FSR and DLSS cost a few frames against the game's own network, and give a sharper, steadier picture.

No shader preparation: your prepared shaders are kept.

Known issues (v0.7.0)

• FSR tested on NVIDIA only: AMD FSR was tested on an RTX 3060 Ti; not yet on AMD or Intel cards. If FSR does not start, the game falls back to its own upscaler and says why in relink_log.txt: please attach it to an issue.
• Short trails with FSR and DLSS: the game has no motion vectors of its own. ReLink gives FSR and DLSS the camera's motion, and that of Link, the other characters and the animals; what else moves by itself (particles, water, plants in the wind) only has the camera's, so it can leave short trails.
• Launcher's DLSS switch: the full path (switch on, SDK download, rebuild) was checked piece by piece, not yet end to end on a fresh install.
• Water freeze on RTX 50-series: should be fixed since 0.6.8; not confirmed by a 50-series owner yet (#6, #7).
• Hitches at 4K native on 8 GB cards: in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 % render resolution, frames up to 183 ms on an 8 GB card (video memory full). At 4K, use 67 % or 75 % render resolution on 8 GB cards for now; FSR or DLSS make that look closer to native.
• Frozen Zora's Domain: green and purple patches on the snow and plants, a blocky shadow on the ice (#9). Not confirmed fixed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed and weak (#8); official Nintendo Pro Controllers work as expected.

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again; saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.6.9

What's new

Faster install and updates on Intel CPUs with efficiency cores (12th gen and newer): the steps before "Building the game" (reading your copy and translating the game's code) run as one process, and the launcher started it at below-normal priority. On Intel CPUs with performance and efficiency cores, Windows then ran it on an efficiency core, and it took over an hour while the performance cores sat idle (reported in #6). Those steps now run at normal priority; the compile that follows still runs below normal, so your PC stays usable while it fills every core. We have no such CPU here to time it, so if you have one, please tell us how long your next update takes.

Everything from 0.6.8 is included: the two "volume box" draws that froze the picture in water on RTX 50-series cards, and turned Link white in water elsewhere, are left out (RX_VK_FOG_BOXES=1 in relink_env.txt brings them back).

No shader preparation: your prepared shaders are kept.

Known issues (v0.6.9)

• Water freeze on RTX 50-series: should be fixed since 0.6.8; not confirmed by a 50-series owner yet (#6, #7).
• Hitches at 4K native on 8 GB cards: in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 % render resolution, frames up to 183 ms on an 8 GB card (video memory full). At 4K, use 67 % or 75 % render resolution on 8 GB cards for now.
• Frozen Zora's Domain: green and purple patches on the snow and plants, a blocky shadow on the ice (#9). Not confirmed fixed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed and weak (#8); official Nintendo Pro Controllers work as expected.
• DLSS / FSR: not available in the builds the installer makes yet (#11).

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again; saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.6.8

What's new

The water freeze on RTX 50-series cards should be gone: On an RTX 5070 Ti the picture froze as soon as Link entered deep water (issues #6, #7). A player's crash reports pointed at the same two draws both times: two small "volume box" draws the game makes every frame. On our RTX 3060 Ti those two don't freeze, but they are wrong as well: in the Market fountain, Link's skin, hair and belt came out pure white. They are now left out. In the fountain Link looks normal again, and standing in the Market and Kokiri Forest without them we see no difference in the picture. We can't test on a 50-series card ourselves, so if you have one, please tell us in #6 or #7 whether the water works now.

If you want the old behaviour back (to compare, or if something looks missing), put RX_VK_FOG_BOXES=1 in relink_env.txt.

No shader preparation: nothing the shader cache depends on changed; your prepared shaders are kept.

Known issues (v0.6.8)

• Hitches at 4K native on 8 GB cards: in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 % render resolution, frames up to 183 ms on an 8 GB card (video memory full). At 4K, use 67 % or 75 % render resolution on 8 GB cards for now.
• Frozen Zora's Domain: green and purple patches on the snow and plants, a blocky shadow on the ice (issue #9). Not confirmed fixed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed and weak (issue #8); official Nintendo Pro Controllers work as expected.
• DLSS / FSR: not available in the builds the installer makes yet (issue #11).

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again, which takes about as long as a first install; saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.6.7

What's new

Enemies, bosses and items drawn without their texture: Some compressed textures were never loaded when the game put them in memory the renderer had just used for its own drawing, so they stayed empty: the Kokiri Emerald showing only its sparkles, baby Gohmas and Queen Gohma partly missing (issue #10). Those textures are now always loaded. On our PC the fix caught one to two such textures at each arrival in the Deku Tree and Kokiri Forest, with no change in frame rate. We haven't seen the emerald or Gohma themselves after the fix yet: if they still look wrong, please say so in #10.

Freeze reports that name the culprit: On some RTX 50-series cards the picture freezes as soon as Link enters deep water (issues #6, #7), and until now the log said nothing useful: the GPU stopped without resetting, so no crash report ran. The game now notices when the GPU finishes nothing for 2 seconds and writes a GPU STALLED block to relink_log.txt. With RX_VK_CHECKPOINTS=marker in relink_env.txt it also names the exact draw or upload that hung. If you have a 50-series card and see the water freeze, please turn that on once and attach the log: that is what is needed to fix it. (The markers slow the game down noticeably, so remove the line afterwards.)

relink_env.txt you can trust: The second line of relink_log.txt now lists every switch the game read from relink_env.txt, or says it found none. The file is also picked up when Windows saved it as relink_env.txt.txt, which Notepad does when file extensions are hidden.

Gyro: Checked with an official Nintendo Switch Pro Controller: turning left aims left, left/right is as strong as up/down, and the controller's resting drift is learned after half a second on a table. With HOS_MOTION_DEBUG=1 the log now also shows the raw sensor readings, to sort out controllers whose left/right comes out reversed or weak (issue #8).

Notices: Project ReLink is a modified version of Longshot, itself a fork of Hookshot by NotRexed, both under the GPL-3.0-or-later. Their copyright notices are in the README's License section and in NOTICE.md, which now ships with the program.

No shader preparation this time: nothing the shader cache depends on changed, and the update keeps your prepared shaders.

Known issues (v0.6.7)

• Water freeze on RTX 50-series (5070 Ti reported): not fixed yet, see above. It does not happen on our RTX 3060 Ti, even at the same 4K settings and the same fountain.
• Hitches at 4K native on 8 GB cards: in Hyrule Castle at 3840x2160 and 100 % render resolution we measured 42.5 fps with frames up to 183 ms on an 8 GB card, because video memory is full. At 4K output with 67 % render resolution the same walk is 57 fps with frames under 65 ms. On 8 GB cards, use 67 % or 75 % at 4K for now.
• Frozen Zora's Domain: bright green and purple patches on the snow and plants, and a blocky shadow on the ice (issue #9). The texture fix above may cover part of it; not confirmed.
• Gyro on some Pro-style controllers: left/right can come out reversed (Invert motion X fixes the direction) and feel weak (issue #8).

Updating

The launcher offers the update. The game is built again, which takes about as long as a first install; saves, settings and prepared shaders are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.

v0.6.6

Performance

• Less stutter while the camera turns, and shorter freezes when you arrive somewhere.
  • The first time a shader is drawn in a session, the renderer reads it from the shader cache on disk. That read happened on the thread that draws the frame, and on PCs with less than 20 GB of RAM it happened for every scene shader. It now runs on background threads, several at once, while the frame goes on.
  • More of the driver's cleanup work left the render thread: texture views, images moved by the video-memory reshuffle, freed buffers. 0.6.5 had moved the images themselves.
• Measured on a Ryzen 5 5500 / RTX 3060 Ti (16 GB of RAM), 60 fps cap, 75 % render resolution, no DLSS, no frame generation. The same build with these changes off and on, the Market twice per run, three runs per side taken in turn:

	off	on
frames over 25 ms while the camera turns (20 s)	59.5 on average	47.0 (−21 %)
99th percentile frame while turning	38.1 ms	32.6 ms (lower in all 6 pairs)
time lost in long frames, first arrival in the Market	1,915 ms	1,590 ms (−17 %)
longest frame at that arrival	496-549 ms	425-459 ms

• "Off" here is the same build with RX_VK_REAP=0 and RX_VK_ASYNC_LOAD=0, so it also turns off what 0.6.5 already had. Against 0.6.5 itself, the background shader reads alone measured about −10 % of the time lost at arrivals. The arrival freezes that remain are mostly the game loading the area itself.

Updating

The first start after this update prepares the shaders again, once (about 16 minutes on our PC, with the progress screen). The change to how shaders are read is part of what the shader cache is checked against, so the old cache is not used.

The launcher offers the update. The game is translated and compiled again, which takes about as long as a first install; saves and settings are kept.

If something does not work, please open an issue and attach relink_log.txt from the game folder.