pixl27/ProjectReLink

What it is

Project ReLink statically recompiles the Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time into a native Windows game. It translates the game's ARM64 code into C, compiles that code together with a host layer that stands in for the console, and replays the game's graphics calls through a Vulkan renderer. No emulator is involved, and the repository contains no game files: the game is built on your PC from your own copy.

It is aimed at players who own the specific game version and want a native PC build, and at developers interested in the recompilation pipeline.

Quick start

1. Download ReLink-Setup.exe from the latest release.
2. Run it. It downloads ReLink and its tools (about 310 MB), verifies them, and opens the launcher.
3. Select your game copy. The launcher scans Downloads, Desktop and Documents for .nup files; you can also pick one, drop it onto the window, or supply the romfs and exefs folders.
4. Press Install. The build takes 10 to 45 minutes depending on the CPU.
5. Press Play.

The first start prepares shaders and graphics pipelines and can take about 16 minutes on the author's PC. The same preparation repeats after a graphics driver update or a renderer change. RecompLauncher can also install the release from ProjectReLink-<version>-Windows-x64.zip; its settings page writes relink_options.ini, and the frame rate goes in relink_env.txt beside it (build and launcher details).

Requirements and limits

• Only the Switch 2 remake with its update installed works: program 0400486024DEC000, update v131072, build e0f3ccfa. The launcher checks the copy before installing.
• 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, an AVX2 CPU, a GPU with Vulkan 1.3 and mesh shaders (RTX 20 series or newer, RX 6000 series or newer, Intel Arc), 8 GB VRAM recommended, 16 GB RAM, and about 60 GB free during installation.
• Only NVIDIA hardware was tested. Controller support beyond Xbox/XInput (SDL-based) is untested by the author.
• RomFS mods go in mods/<name>/romfs/...; code patches (exefs) are not supported because the game is compiled ahead of time.
• Measured frame rates fall short of a steady 60 everywhere: at native resolution most tested places run 54–60 fps, with the Market at 54.0 on the author's Ryzen 5 5500 / RTX 3060 Ti system. Boss fights, long sessions and AMD/Intel cards remain unmeasured.
• Project ReLink is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Nintendo, and is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

Dump repair

Some game dumps contain damaged textures, which can cause repeated model loading and sustained CPU use with adult Link. Since 0.7.2, installs and updates apply a repair mod automatically. The repository also ships tools/dump_check.py and tools/dump_repair.py, which need the zstandard package bundled with ReLink's Python.

HotRepo's take

There is no GitHub daily ranking record for Project ReLink. The one HotRepo snapshot is from the C++ new-project list on 2026-11-15, covering roughly 1.5 hours, during which the repository went from 101 to 114 stars (13 gained) and 6 forks, with the star curve rising steadily. That is a short observation window on a repository created two days earlier, so it shows early interest rather than an established trend. The README is unusually concrete for this kind of project: it names the required game build, states hardware constraints, reports per-location frame rates on one machine, and documents the recompilation steps and license lineage. The main delivery is still a Windows installer, and the README's measurements cover only the author's NVIDIA system.