The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Tears of the Kingdom plays on the iPhone and, with update 1.4.3, runs at 60 fps instead of the Switch's 30. When the project developers last published sizes, its Packed app came to about 17 GB.

How it runs

As with Breath of the Wild, nxnative replaces the game's own frame pacing with its frame step. It holds 60 fps while frames are on time and steps down to 30 when they run late, while game time keeps pace with real time, so nothing slows down. Prerendered movies stay at 30 fps. On an M4 Pro Mac, the opening cave held 60 fps.

Grass in the meadows now looks right on the Mac. It used to vanish within half a minute of loading, leaving the ground dark, and the grass along Link's path flattened and went bare as he walked. Both are fixed.

To save battery, set DM_FPS_TARGET=30 in the app's env.txt file. DM_RENDER_SCALE, from 0.5 to 1.0, shrinks the 3D view for more headroom while keeping the HUD sharp. At 1.0 the game's own dynamic resolution stays in charge.

Bring update 1.4.3

The 60 fps result and the other facts here apply to update 1.4.3. Put it in the same folder as the base game before you Pack.

Controls

The Packed app starts in the 3D touch layout, with the camera on an undrawn right stick in the right third of the screen.

Good to know

• The Packed app is large. nxnative's packing script can keep the game files out of the app with --romfs separate; see the install guide.
• Memory spikes temporarily on the Mac when you walk out from the Great Sky Island; the project developers have confirmed this. Memory falls back afterwards; iPhone behaviour has not been checked yet.
• A tester on an M5 iPad Pro reported blocky ground textures that sharpen after a few seconds.
• In the Depths, terrain that stretched into huge walls and ceilings and rock that looked smeared are fixed; a tester confirmed both fixes on an M4 Mac with update 1.4.3. Black patches around vegetation and flowers that sink into the ground after a few seconds are still open.