Hookshot Files

Hookshot v2.0.12

The biggest update yet: about 110 pull requests from 40+ contributors, tested together.

Smoother play

• Fewer hitches when new areas load. A frame's texture uploads have a time budget: when an area load sends a burst of new textures, the rest come in over the next frames instead of one long freeze (RX_VK_UPLOAD_BUDGET_MS).
• Render targets are reused from a pool instead of being made and destroyed every time the game's temporary targets change size (#1416, [#1436]), and they sit in memory blocks of their own.
• 8 GB cards (RTX 3060 Ti, 3070, 4060 and others) keep more VRAM free: the texture budget is 45% of what the driver allows instead of 70%, so the game no longer spills into system RAM and drops to 14-25 fps after a few minutes.
• The pipeline notes are opened before play, not at the first new pipeline in play (#1417); stage libraries the driver has not compiled yet are built by a worker instead of in the draw (#1429).
• Multi-waits only wake for the objects they watch (#1353); the synchronous replay runs on the reserved core (#1158).

Looks

• Sharper shadows: shadow edges are filtered (percentage-closer) instead of showing stair steps.
• Floating trees fixed (#1334), BC render targets drawn through raw views and OoT's noise volume pass no longer left out (#1338), the Deku Tree's web lighting on NVIDIA (#1442), 40 vertex programs drawn again (#1437), FXAA on cards without the upscaler network (#1115).

New options (Insert menu)

• Button prompts (Controls page): Auto, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 or Steam Deck icons everywhere the game draws a button, following your own bindings (#1321). A ButtonPrompts mod's own files still win.
• AMD FSR 3.1 upscaling and frame generation (#1386), beside NVIDIA DLSS / DLAA / Reflex (#841, builds with the NVIDIA DLSS tick). Measured on an RTX 4060 Ti at 2560x1440: the game's own upscaler 52-53 fps, DLSS 48-49 fps, DLAA 41-43 fps, with no more stutters than without them.
• HDR10 output (Off, On, Native) with paper white and peak brightness.
• Frame rate cap (60, 90, 120, 144, 165, 240; past 60 the game keeps real time). Frame generation Auto (#1121).
• 5120x1440 (32:9) output (#1290); Monitor's shape for 4:3, 16:10 and 5:4 screens (#1224).
• Motion controls with gyro aiming, sensitivity, inverts and deadzone (#1114, [#1237], [#1302]); HD rumble on Switch Pro Controllers and Joy-Cons (#1213); a Stick dead zone row (#1298); Audio output Auto / Stereo / 5.1.
• Discord status: "Playing Hookshot" and the time played (Gameplay > Discord status, on by default).
• Restart and Quit rows (#1266, [#1255]); a Debug tab for the OoT debug tools (#785).
• Native mouse camera now only turns the active camera: slingshot aiming and shops work (#1462, [#1356]).

Builder

• Shaders are prepared at the end of the build (a tick, on by default) instead of behind a black window at the first start (#1026).
• Updates are quicker: the compiled objects of the last build stay, so an update compiles only what changed.
• Needs 45 GB of free space, not 60. Many robustness fixes for damaged dumps, interrupted unpacks, read-only folders and full disks (#1308, [#1393], [#1395], [#1391], [#1412], [#1397], [#1363]).

Linux

• UTF-8 text and the right font in the Insert menu (#1389, [#1371], [#1405]); the OoT debug tools (#1292); Wayland mouse capture (#1251); several update-safety fixes (#1327, [#1343]).

Security

• Two rounds of hardening of what files, downloads and guest memory hand to host code (#1398, [#1422]), https-only downloads in the updaters (#1470).

Tested before release

On an RTX 4060 Ti at 2560x1440 (docked), walking Kokiri Forest, Hyrule Field and Kakariko:

• 52 fps median, 2.6% of frames over twice the median (v2.0.11's build of the same walk: 48 fps, 4.0%).
• A simulated 8 GB card stays inside its VRAM (6.7 of 7.3 GB, textures held to 3.3 GB) at 44 fps, 1.7% stutters.
• Upscalers: the game's own 52-53 fps, DLSS 48-49, DLAA 41-43, AMD FSR 3.1 51 (fewer stutters: 1.8%).
• Shadow filtering and the frame rate cap cost nothing measurable.
• No one-frame flashes and no crashes in 5,000-6,000 recorded frames for every setting checked.

Thanks to everyone who contributed, tested and reported bugs.