The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD on Steam Deck with Cemu Emulator – best settings guide

If you can’t wait for the (unconfirmed) re-release of The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD on Nintendo Switch then I recommend playing it on Steam Deck with Cemu. The WiiU game works fantastic. Great performance (stable 30FPS) with very nice graphic. Stuttering related to shader cache is practically non-existent when Async is enabled. Let’s better start from the beginning.

How to get Cemu on Steam Deck?

You can also download Cemu directly from Discovery, but this is an option for advanced users.

IMPORTANT! During the final step of installing Steam Rom Manager, select EMULATORS so CEMU will appear as a separate application in Steam. You will need this for advanced game settings configuration.

Remember to disable the Steam app before saving app list.

The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD – Steam Deck – game configuration, best settings guide

1 – Don’t turn on Steam yet. There will be a constant problem with the on-screen keyboard when you configure the emulator settings. Instead, go to the Discovery app and then find your folder with EmuDeck installed.

I installed the whole thing on a memory card, so in my case it’s Primary>Emulation>Tools>Launchers>Cemu.sh

Run Cemu.sh

2. Go to Options>Graphic and make sure everything looks like this:

Vulkan and Async shader compile offers best performance

3. Now go to Options and Graphic Pack. Click “Download lastest community graphic packs” and find The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD on the list.

4. In section Enhancements you can:

– Set colors and contrast with Contrasty (I like Colorfull preset, but you can even use Gamecube inspired one!)

– Change Negative Texture LOD (not recomended – game uses simple antialiasing, changes will make image too sharp on small screen)
– no SSAO if you want to disable ambient occlusion for better battery life

5. Graphic
– Resolution – by default, the game runs at 1080p and reaches 30FPS with no issues. However, I recommend lowering the resolution to 1600×900 (supersampling on Deck’s screen) or 1280×720 for better battery life

– Shadow Resolution – recommend High 200%

6. Leave MODs menu without changes

7. In Workarounds turn on FPS Slowdown and Picto-Box Fix

DONE! Now you can go back to Gaming Mode and enjoy the game.

Wind Waker HD Gameplay on Steam Deck. Vulkan, Async, 900p with 200% shadows and colorfull contrasty – almost perfect 30FPS.
Without recording, battery life exceeds 2h with these settings.

The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD on Steam Deck – Cemu Emulator – best settings guide. Emulators on Steam Deck. WiiU Games.

Edward Gardner
Edward Gardner
Articles: 133

4 Comments

  1. What do you recommend for TDP and GPU clock ?
    Fan is going crasy with these settings ^^’

  2. Hmm It’s not that bad for me at automatic settings. You can force 720p resolution (or even lower), change shadows settings and SSAO for better battery life and less power drain.

  3. hello! my copy of wind waker HD isnt working right on cemu, it shows the
    banner and acts as if itll launch but then crashes. How would I fix?

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