Fan project to get Zelda: Breath of the Wild running on PC shows remarkable progress

Earlier this month, we reported on a group of programmers trying to get The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild running on PC.

Even using CEMU, the pre-existing fan-made Wii U to PC emulator, those involved estimated Zelda would take months of work, such was the size of the game and the complexities of its systems.

Fast forward two weeks later, and there has been remarkable progress.

Where previously the group could only show off the game's opening cave, a new gameplay video shows the game running almost as well as it does on Nintendo's own hardware.

The framerate still isn't quite up to scratch (a complaint you could also level at the main game), but the number of things now working after so short a time is genuinely stunning.

Combat works fine, exploration and the world's physics systems appear to function correctly, you can enter and solve Shrine puzzle dungeons, you can use the game's rune powers correctly... the list goes on. Here's how it looks now:

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This PC build is being worked upon by the team behind CEMU, which is funded through Patreon. It's interesting to note the huge uptick in support this team has garnered over the two weeks since we last checked in.

A fortnight ago CEMU was supported by 1857 people, who collectively donated $7782 per month (around £6300). It's now supported by 5135 people, who donate nearly $22k a month (more than £17k).

Nintendo has yet to comment publicly on the effort - although we've dropped the company a line should it wish to add anything here.

In general, Nintendo takes a dim view of unofficial emulators. In a FAQ on the official Nintendo website, the company calls emulators "the greatest threat to date to the intellectual property rights of video game developers", adding "emulators developed to play illegally copied Nintendo software promote piracy". Our own Chris Bratt investigated Nintendo's thorny relationship with emulators in the video, below.

Where the CEMU team previously estimated Zelda would take months to finish, it now appears like the game is ahead of schedule. We'll continue to keep an eye on how the project progresses.

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