The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	The Legend of Zelda
Platform(s)	Wii
Release date(s)	EU November 18, 2011 NA November 20, 2011 JP November 23, 2011
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player
Input methods	Wii Remote with Wii Motion Plus + Nunchuk
Compatibility	5 Perfect
GameIDs	SOUE01, SOUK01, SOUP01, DAXP01, SOUJ01, DAXE01
See also...	Search Dolphin Forums Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (ゼルダの伝説 スカイウォードソード, Zeruda no Densetsu: Sukaiwōdo Sōdo) is an action-adventure game for the Wii console and the sixteenth entry in the Legend of Zelda series. Nearly 5 years in development, the Skyward Sword departs from many of the traditional Zelda norms, featuring new controls, a new art style, and formula differences. Skyward Sword requires either the Wii Motion Plus add on or a Wii Remote Plus.

Skyward Sword heavily integrates the use of the Wii Motion Plus; swordplay, for instance, is integrated with the controller to a point where the player has one-to-one motion control over Link's sword and the its attack directions. In contrast to earlier installments, battles do not focus solely on timing attacks, but also on their target, such as the direction in which enemies are hit. This also allows for the sword to be integrated into puzzles to a greater extent than in previous titles.

Problems

Wii Motion Plus

Skyward Sword requires the Wii Motion Plus addon. Dolphin is currently not capable of emulating the wii motion plus; the only way for dolphin to play this game is to use a physical wii remote with wii motion plus.

• Pre 3.0 revisions of Dolphin had rudimentary wii motion plus emulation, but it does not work properly, lacking calibration and constantly disconnecting.

Depth of Field (DoF)

Skyward Sword uses a Depth of Field effect to blur distance objects in a painting like style. Older revisions (pre 3.0) do not render the effect. Newer revisions can sort of render it, but requires EFB to Ram to avoid scanlines. (See issue 4989). Note that using EFB to Ram for this effect causes a significant performance hit even with powerful machines.

As user reports are inconsistent and the game was just released, at this time it's still not clear which setting(s) should be changed or which versions are the best for this specific feature. See the forum thread for details as it develops.

File:SkywardSwordDOF.jpg

The DoF Effect properly emulated in Dolphin, see at full resolution

Shadow Flickering

Shadows in the game can flicker when the internal resolution is set to "Auto" with the DX9 backend. Either use 1x Native internal resolution in DX9, or use DX11.

Configuration

This title does not need non-default settings to run properly.

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

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5.0-21536 (current)

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2.0 (r5384)

Compatibility can be assumed to align with the indicated revisions. However, compatibility may extend to prior revisions or compatibility gaps may exist within ranges indicated as compatible due to limited testing. Please update as appropriate.

Testing

This title has been tested on the environments listed below:

Test Entries
Revision	OS	CPU	GPU	Result	Tester