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

As the game is still being released and is very technically demanding, the best options for the game can change at a rapid pace as users discover new options and changes to dolphin are made. See the forum thread for details as it develops.

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 real, physical wii remote with wii motion plus. See issue 3446.

• 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.

File:SkywardSwordDOF.jpg

The DoF Effect properly emulated in Dolphin, click to 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 DX9 with a preset internal resolution (example: 3x Native), or use DX11.

Banding

With Anisotropic Filtering (AF) at its default 1x, banding may be present in shading on characters and surroundings. Increasing AF to higher values (such as 16x) will correct the problem. It should not cause a performance hit, but may on weaker machines.

Banding present at 1x AF

No Banding, 16x AF

Pellets/Arrows Aim

"Skip EFB Access to CPU" can provide a useful speedup for this demanding game. However, having the feature on can prevent you from aiming properly. Disable "Skip EFB Access to CPU" to fix.

Sword Missing

Links sword may disappear. To insure the sword does not disappear, makes sure "Cache Display Lists" is disabled.

Configuration

Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
Video Backend	Direct3D 11 or OpenGL	DX9 has issues with shadows
Skip EFB Access from CPU	Off	Disrupts Aiming

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.

r7718

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5.0-21453 (current)

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Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

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
style="white-space:nowrap;	Win 7 x64	AMD Phenom II 3.3Ghz	AMD Radeon 6850	the game starts correctly but it got stuck when is asked to connect a motion plus.... i dont have a real Wiimote, waiting for motion plus emulation	Aldaris
style="white-space:nowrap;	Win 7 pro x64	Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.7GHz	nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti	Perfect with 3D11, 1920*1080, without AA, Anistropic Filter 16x, Native 3x.. But during some dialogues, the game slows...	Sanitarium026
style="white-space:nowrap;	Windows 7 x64	Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.6GHz	ATI Radeon 4870	Works perfectly, 30 fps all the time (D3D11, 1280x1024, 2x Internal Resolution, 4x AA and 16X AF, with "Skip EFB Access to CPU" unticked all the time	TheWing