Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 4K Texture Pack 2.0 Update Changelog

Good evening! 🌙

I'm excited to finally release the next major update to the A Link Between Worlds 4K Texture Pack project in a looooong while, version 2.0! (Sorry! It's been nearly 2 years since the last update. It's way overdue for a new one!)

I hope this update makes up for the long wait- it's pretty huge. This update is pretty much a remake of the entire pack that's been underway for several months and includes many new 4K textures covering the whole game, with a primary focus on cleaning up and improving consistency and quality all around. It of course includes new environment textures, new character textures, user-interface upgrades, higher quality shaders and more!

Also, it now supports the new texture pack format (finally completing the full transition to the new format for all my texture projects), which fixes several previous issues, such as frequent stuttering and the infamous "texture swapping" glitch present in previous versions, plus it now also fully supports the Vulkan graphics API. And that's just some of it! Here's a more detailed look at what's new:

160+ New Textures!

This update includes over 160 new 4K textures, covering everything from environments to interiors to user interface elements to characters and more. It also uses the 'new' texture format, which opens up the doors for many more neat features later down the line. I also spent a lot of time going over and reviewing old textures from version 1.2.0 and earlier, and I found that many of the textures were not quite up to my standards (Like with some of my prior projects, I believe I've gotten a fair bit better at texture making over time) Therefore, I've decided to replace many old textures from the previous version with new, remade versions which should look a lot better than before. Consistency is key, as they say. And this pack was definitely not that in it's previous incarnation(s). It's still not perfect, but it's better, and I will continue to iterate on and improve the visuals in subsequent updates until it's as close to perfect as I can make it. It's a step-by-step process, but it helps it all comes together really nicely in the end and makes the whole pack feel a lot more polished and complete. The details all add up!

New texture format, Vulkan support and Reshade updates

This version includes support for the new custom texture system-rewrite! This fixes many notorious bugs, such as the stuttering that would occur whenever new textures were loaded in and the infamous and somewhat terrifying "texture swapping" bug which commonly occurred for many users. It also adds Vulkan support, which means increased compatibility with different systems (AMD GPUs and mobile devices especially) and more graphical features (normal map support, better mip maps etc.) This really adds a lot to the experience and makes the game much more enjoyable from start to finish. ReShade has also been updated to version 5.9.2, which also comes with several stability and feature improvements. More notably this update fixes the flickering of the depth buffer present in previous versions, making effects such as ambient occlusion much more usable. It also improves on performance a fair bit compared to previous versions!

Updated Shader Presets (Henriko Ultra v8)

The default Reshade shader presets that come with the pack have been updated and improved in this version! Henriko Ultra v8 is way better in pretty much every way than the previous Henriko Ultra v7 preset that came included with the 1.2.0 version of the pack. Colors are a bit warmer and look more pleasing with A Link Between World's color scheme, bloom has been reduced somewhat and depth based effects such as ambient occlusion and depth of field are now entirely optional and look nicer as well. New Reshade also uses the Vulkan backend by default, and should boost both performance and compatibility with various systems.

Updated file structure and streamlined instructions

The file structure and instructions have been remade to be more in line with those used by my other 3DS packs, making things easier for previous users of my other packs. This finally completes the full transition to the new texture pack file structure, so all my 3DS packs can now be installed with nearly identical instructions to each other.

And many bugs fixes, optimizations and minor changes...

Minor issues from the previous version has been fixed, including a bug which caused quarter hearts to not display correctly. Performance has also been improved due to the previously described optimizations.

That's mostly it for this update. Enjoy!

The update is available early to all Green Rupee+ Tier supporters, with a public release 2 months after that!

There is also a 4K version available, if your computer can handle it! The 4K version includes higher quality textures than the 1080p version, and will work on all displays- even those that don't display in 4K resolution. It will still look better than the 1080p version, no matter the display!

Please feel free to try it out!

(**The texture pack does not work on real 3DS hardware).

You can find more information about the texture pack here.

I am only able to make things like this thanks to your support, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping me do what I love!

❤️