Ocarina Recomp gets Zelda onto Windows, with an RTX 5090 and a lot left untested
Miojo’s fan project documents the beginning of a native port, including the parts beyond Kokiri Village that nobody has checked yet.
Link can leave the console behind. The test report, however, has barely left Kokiri Village.
Ocarina Recomp turns the supported game’s ARM64 code into C, compiles it with a replacement runtime and translates the console’s graphics work to Vulkan. The result is a Windows program built on your own PC from your own game file. The repository supplies neither the game nor keys nor a ready-made executable.
That last part helps explain the download’s peculiar shape. You get the workshop, then bring the material. The project supports version 1.1.1 of the game, and its README describes Switch 2 graphics, NVN 2 calls and a shader translation path. An old Zelda title in the headline does not mean your original cartridge image is interchangeable with the required input.
The status table is refreshingly specific about how small the proven territory is. The opening and a new game through the Great Deku Tree work in the maintainer’s testing. So do sound, controls, saves and videos. On that one RTX 5090 machine, the reported result is about 59 frames per second standing still and 51 to 55 while walking.
Hyrule Field and the rest of the game are listed as “Not tested yet.” AMD and Intel graphics cards have never been tested, according to the same table. Even playing the ocarina has a fix applied without an in-game confirmation. The instrument in the title still needs a sound check. Tough room.
The requirements make this an experiment for a fairly capable PC. Windows 10 or 11 must be 64-bit, the processor needs AVX2, and the graphics card needs Vulkan 1.3 plus mesh shaders. Sixteen gigabytes of RAM is recommended, but the first run can reach about 24 GB while preparing shaders. The README explains page-file settings for a 16 GB machine instead of pretending that recommendation makes the memory disappear.
Building takes a stated 30 minutes to two hours. The ZIP route calls for 40 GB of free space; the manual routes need more. First-run plants may take a few minutes to appear while shaders compile. Waiting for the vegetation to arrive is a novel way to appreciate landscaping.
The project also provides an emulator-save importer, preserving a copy of the current save and leaving the emulator alone, according to its documentation. That could make testing less disruptive for somebody with an existing game underway. A separate backup remains sensible before any experimental port gets near hours of progress.
Static recompilation could make fan-maintained versions easier to inspect and alter, because the translated program is built ahead of play. Here, the immediate work is much less glamorous: more GPUs and more of the map need testing. The README ends its invitation to contributors with precisely that kind of help.
Hyrule Field is still waiting.