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[Kenzodielocke]

The emulated version of Breath of the Wild is playable with Cemu, which emulates the Wii U, and it's far from perfect. Initial bugs made parts of the game unplayable, and they're still being worked out (which is pretty much par for the course when it comes to emulation). Still, it's an impressive turnaround.

"I think a lot of [the speed] can be attributed to Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is a similar open-world game that already presented us the same technical challenges early on," Exzap wrote me in a Reddit message.

With the technical glitches worked out from emulating that previous title, Breath of the Wild could quickly be ported into Cemu. But because of Breath of the Wild's complexity, and Cemu's own janky nature—the team describes it as "highly experimental software"—bugs are still being ironed out.

"The goal is to get every game running 100% eventually," Exzap wrote. "How we get there and how long it will take is difficult to answer. But in regards to [Breath of the Wild] I think we will see small incremental improvements in almost every future Cemu release. It's been this way for most other games so far."

"Emulators allow for extra customization that the original console did not offer," Exzap wrote. "For example, using Cemu it will be possible to play [Breath of the Wild] in 4K resolution rather than the 720p enforced by the Wii U."

As for the framerate drops, Exzap said that eventually Breath of the Wild will run smoothly at 30 frames per second, because of "the way [ Breath of the Wild]'s engine works."

Some more at here

Edit: There is a thread on that video already, but it is again.

 

[Tagyhag]

Ah so it does seem that this engine also doesn't allow 60fps. Shame, but a locked 30 is better than nothing.

 

[EvilKatarn]

Shame to hear 60FPS isn't happening.

 

[takriel]

Does that mean it could achieve 30 fps on Switch as well with future updates?

 

[Yukinari]

I mean a locked 30 at 1080p would already make it the superior version, not to mention stuff like aliasing etc.

Ive been playing the game non stop but the few second freezes that can occur are horrible.

 

[simatron3000]

Shame to hear 60FPS isn't happening.

How many emulators in history have allowed for higher than native frame rates? I don't get why people were expecting 60fps.

 

[mrklaw]

Am I missing something, or should the title be 'how BotW was almost instantly not really properly emulated for PC'?

 

[Kenzodielocke]

How many emulators in history have allowed for higher than native frame rates? I don't get why people were expecting 60fps.

Yeah, me neither. Nobody is going to work on the source code. I am fine with 4k30fps.

 

[Aiii]

Does that mean it could achieve 30 fps on Switch as well with future updates?

Probably not, since the Switch hardware isn't on the same level as mid- to high-end PC's needed for 30fps emulation.

That, and the fact the hardware architecture of the Switch wasn't what BotW's engine was initially designed for, probably.

 

[Alienous]

For the sake of game preservation I love this.

For the sake of piracy I hope it takes awhile.

 

[SpiceMelange]

How many emulators in history have allowed for higher than native frame rates? I don't get why people were expecting 60fps.

Dolphin does if the game logic isn't tied to the FPS and it's just a simple fps lock.

 

[Diprosalic]

I have a strong pc but i haven't been able to play any game on cemu in a satisfactory state.

 

[Napalm_Frank]

For the sake of game preservation I love this.

For the sake of piracy I hope it takes awhile.

I don't think Zelda has been traditionally evergreen franchise lately unlike Mario Kart for example (correct me if I'm wrong) so any sales loss happening whenever it works well emulated will be minimal.

It's not like GTAV has stopped selling either.

 

[simatron3000]

Dolphin does if the game logic isn't tied to the FPS and it's just a simple fps lock.

They did that for like 2 games if I recall and then removed the feature cause it was really buggy. I've also seen OoT n64 running 60fps but you will concede these are few and far between and not standard features of emulators. Being able to brute force a solid 30fps and nice resolution is enough for me.

 

[Yarbskoo]

It is really impressive how quickly they've progressed on it.

 

[Big_Al]

For the sake of game preservation I love this.

For the sake of piracy I hope it takes awhile.

It'll take a while to get emulated properly, I don't see it running full speed with no glitches or errors for a good few months even if it's being worked on right now.

 

[Daedardus]

The article makes mention of possible legal challenges, but there's actually nothing wrong with the emulator itself. Dolphin has existed all this time without being threathened. They just can't ship OS files with it, but other than that I can't see how it will ever be shutdown by Nintendo.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

I've never cared for console emulation, but to play Breath of the Wild locked at 30 fps, maybe.

 

[Smooth Operator]

For the sake of game preservation I love this.

For the sake of piracy I hope it takes awhile.

Piracy already happened few days before the official launch on WiiU.

 

[simatron3000]

I've never cared for console emulation, but to play Breath of the Wild locked at 30 fps, maybe.

Why not? For 2d games I can understand purists not liking what emu's do to the graphics but for 3d games I see no draw back. Playing Mario Galaxy in 4k using a wii remote and nunchuk (or controller if you prefer) is just bliss.

 

[SpiceMelange]

They did that for like 2 games if I recall and then removed the feature cause it was really buggy. I've also seen OoT n64 running 60fps but you will concede these are few and far between and not standard features of emulators. Being able to brute force a solid 30fps and nice resolution is enough for me.

Huh no? It's still there and it works for more than 2 games.

 

[SwiftDeath]

With CEMU do you have to play off Isos?

I never like using emulators that aren't natively running the game from the disc but I do understand there are often limits with compatibility and the ability to stream data fast enough.

Just always rubs me the wrong way for some reason

 

[KojiKnight]

I keep forgetting my pc is hooked up to my 4k tv... I really need to dump my games and see how badly it runs on my super aged 6300fx.

Was there a new firmware update on wii u that blocked the old exploits? I haven't turned on my system in 6 months...

 

[texhnolyze]

For the sake of game preservation I love this.

For the sake of piracy I hope it takes awhile.

I have a bad news for you.. WiiU piracy.

 

[Lister]

Waiting on CEMU to be able to run at 4K 30 to buy my copy of BOTW. I'm guessing by xmas this year that will have happenned.

::fingers crossed::

 

[simatron3000]

For the sake of game preservation I love this.

For the sake of piracy I hope it takes awhile.

Purely anecdotal but I don't think they will be many people out there that haven't bought a wii u and the relevant software as a result of the existence of a wii u emulator.

Most people who do just straight pirate probably had no intention of buying the software/hardware in the first place.

 

[Alo81]

How many emulators in history have allowed for higher than native frame rates? I don't get why people were expecting 60fps.

Yeah, me neither. Nobody is going to work on the source code. I am fine with 4k30fps.

Dolphin and PCSX2 both have hacks in place to enable 60fps on 30fps locked games. It's typically integrated the same way things like Gameshark codes are. It is possible, in a technical sense, in any game. Just depends how trivial it would be. It will never be a universal feature since each game needs to be looked at on a case by case basis.

Seeing as BotW already has a pretty up and down framerate, I wouldn't be surprised if physics is calculated at a different refresh rate than everything else already anyway, so it might be able to use a hack to disable the in built 30fps cap, then by the bare brunt of CPU/GPU power actually run at 60fps. It could even stay double buffered V-sync, as long as the 30fps cap was removed.

 

[Mihos]

BotW is one of those games that the emulator creators will go out of their way to optimize, so I wouldn't put anything past them.

 

[simatron3000]

Huh no? It's still there and it works for more than 2 games.

My bad I thought they removed it? Will have to look at what games it actually works well with.

Just been looking at the post I remember reading;

"As of 4.0-5432 the vbeam speedhack was removed due to concerns that more 60 FPS patches would rely on broken behavior. In order to promote well made patches (that could in theory work on console even, given enough power) the hack was removed. What does this mean for the featured Super Mario Sunshine and Pikmin 2 hacks? Not all that much. For Super Mario Sunshine, simply setting the framelimiter to 120, and things will continue to work as per normal.

This was a concern that was no expressed until multiple 60 FPS hacks showed up relying on the vbeam speedhack. Developers realized that the (incomplete and broken) vbeam speedhack was not in Dolphin's long term plans, and thus axed it before there was a heavy reliance on it by potential framerate hacks."

 

[Vashzaron]

They did that for like 2 games if I recall and then removed the feature cause it was really buggy. I've also seen OoT n64 running 60fps but you will concede these are few and far between and not standard features of emulators. Being able to brute force a solid 30fps and nice resolution is enough for me.

It's really on a game by game case basis. Usually these things on other Emulators are done with "Cheat Codes" made for each seperate game and of course not really supported by the emulator it self.

For example I played Valkyria Chronicles 2 & 3 fine at 60FPS on PPSSPP after some extra work, other games don't work so nice and instead speed up or other glitches happen, etc.

 

[sugarhigh4242]

With CEMU do you have to play off Isos?

I never like using emulators that aren't natively running the game from the disc but I do understand there are often limits with compatibility and the ability to stream data fast enough.

Just always rubs me the wrong way for some reason

What emulator have you ever used this way? Many console discs cant even be read by a standard PC drive. Let alone cartridges...

 

[Piers]

How long before speed runners wait for TAS to do most of the leg work?

 

[qko]

Shame to hear 60FPS isn't happening.

Pre-ordered Torrent Download Cancelled.

 

[Charles Brandon]

What emulator have you ever used this way? Many console discs cant even be read by a standard PC drive. Let alone cartridges...

I thought Dolphin ran off discs? I'm probably wrong.

 

[SpiceMelange]

My bad I thought they removed it? Will have to look at what games it actually works well with.

Just been looking at the post I remember reading;

"As of 4.0-5432 the vbeam speedhack was removed due to concerns that more 60 FPS patches would rely on broken behavior. In order to promote well made patches (that could in theory work on console even, given enough power) the hack was removed. What does this mean for the featured Super Mario Sunshine and Pikmin 2 hacks? Not all that much. For Super Mario Sunshine, simply setting the framelimiter to 120, and things will continue to work as per normal.

This was a concern that was no expressed until multiple 60 FPS hacks showed up relying on the vbeam speedhack. Developers realized that the (incomplete and broken) vbeam speedhack was not in Dolphin's long term plans, and thus axed it before there was a heavy reliance on it by potential framerate hacks."

Maybe you're right I'm not that versed into Dolphin. I was saying it's still there because as of the lastest build there's still a virtual cpu clock override option in Config -> Advanced

 

[SwiftDeath]

What emulator have you ever used this way? Many console discs cant even be read by a standard PC drive. Let alone cartridges...

Hmm thought one of the PS2 emulators could read from disc and I thought there were plenty of emulators that could run directly off cartridges but clearly I'm not particularly versed in emulators so what do I know.

 

[SpiceMelange]

Hmm thought one of the PS2 emulators could read from disc and I thought there were plenty of emulators that could run directly off cartridges but clearly I'm not particularly versed in emulators so what do I know.

I definitely remember playing DQ8 with my disc in the computer. However the drive was spinning like crazy all the time so eventually I ripped the ISO

 

[LordRaptor]

What emulator have you ever used this way? Many console discs cant even be read by a standard PC drive. Let alone cartridges...

Playstation 1 and 2 disks are regular ass disks fully readable by any regular ass disk drive (Cd and DVD respectively).

I assume PS3 and PS4 are the same, but I don't have a bluray drive to check.

 

[Dunkley]

Hmm thought one of the PS2 emulators could read from disc and I thought there were plenty of emulators that could run directly off cartridges but clearly I'm not particularly versed in emulators so what do I know.

PCSX2 can run from the original disk fine, haven't run into a drive that couldn't read the PS2 disks for PCSX2.

Dolphin can too although the number of disk drives that can read Wii/Gamecube disks is relatively small compared to the ones that can read PS2 disks.

 

[scitek]

I have a bad news for you.. WiiU piracy.

It's totally killing the sales of the Wii U as a result.

 

[jediyoshi]

And here I thought this was PCGamer's article

How the Cemu emulator's devs got Zelda: Breath of the Wild running in just a few hours

 

[simatron3000]

It's totally killing the sales of the Wii U as a result.

It certainly devastated Wii sales!

 

[Plum]

For the sake of game preservation I love this.

For the sake of piracy I hope it takes awhile.

Talking about preservation, are there PS4 and Xbox One emulators being worked on as much as CEMU/Dolphin/etc right now?

 

[RazorbackDB]

Title is kinda misleading, the game can boot ingame now, but it's not playable, I know they say it in the article, but going from, "instantly emulated" to "it's booting and it will take a few months to run well" is a large stretch. Also the video they posted seems fake.

 

[LordOfChaos]

So far ahead of what I had expected at this point. Since they just got to the title screen a few days back, I thought it would be a mess for a while, but the fact that it's even running at 15fps the week of launch bodes well for 2-4 months down the road.

8K a month between two dudes ain't bad either!

 

[Lister]

Am I missing something, or should the title be 'how BotW was almost instantly not really properly emulated for PC'?

Title is kinda misleading, the game can boot ingame now, but it's not playable, I know they say it in the article, but going from, "instantly emulated" to "it's booting and it will take a few months to run well" is a large stretch. Also the video they posted seems fake.

Some people, let's call them adults, can do things like read the article linked in the OP and find all the information on the topic at hand.

They don't need every detail crammed into a forum title like toddlers.

Also, the video isn't fake btw.

The point is, they are way ahead of what anyone thought they would be mere days after release. The intro is playable, although at a poor frame rate. There's still a lot of work to be done, but it looks like this will be achievable in months, not years.

 

[simatron3000]

So far ahead of what I had expected at this point. Since they just got to the title screen a few days back, I thought it would be a mess for a while, but the fact that it's even running at 15fps the week of launch bodes well for 2-4 months down the road.

8K a month between two dudes ain't bad either!

The cynic in me feels that they have incentive to drag out development as long as possible, provided they still get the patrons, given this.

Presumably one reason Dolphin is as good as it is is because it is open source. I believe people should be paid for their work but only two guys surely it will take forever to get the Wii U library up to scratch.

 

[Tain]

It's totally killing the sales of the Wii U as a result.

pretty sure this post is joking but I can't wait for this to be a sincere argument in the future

 

[Branduil]

For the sake of game preservation I love this.

For the sake of piracy I hope it takes awhile.

Most people aren't going to have a good enough PC to run this decently even after the bugs are worked out.

 

[Seik]

Those wishing for 60fps we're dreaming awake.

If the engine was basically 60fps and suffered from lag, it could've run better, yes, but if the engine is 30fps-based, you'll have 30fps max.