Help and Support

Frequently asked questions

Information about game dumps, saves, and supported platforms.

Why does Dusklight need a dump of my own copy of the original game?

Dusklight implements the original game’s engine and core gameplay code, but it does not include the game’s assets (e.g. levels, textures, models, music, sound effects). Because we do not own these assets, we cannot distribute them – you must provide them from your own copy of the game at runtime.

Dusklight can load assets from a disc image of the original game. If you own a modded Wii, you can rip the disc yourself by following the Dolphin Wiki’s guide.

Disc images ripped from any of the retail GameCube or Wii releases are supported, with the exception of the Korean Wii release. Note that even when playing with a Wii disc image, Dusklight resembles the GameCube version in its interface and certain gameplay elements.

How do I copy save files from or to Dolphin?

Copying save files between Dusklight and Dolphin is currently only supported for those playing on the GameCube versions. For technical reasons, the save file formats used by Dolphin and Dusklight for the Wii versions are incompatible.

Dolphin stores its save files at the following locations:

  • Windows: %APPDATA%/Dolphin Emulator/GC/USA/Card A
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Dolphin Emulator/GC/USA/Card A
  • Linux: ~/.local/share/Dolphin Emulator/GC/USA/Card A

Dusklight stores its save files at the following locations:

  • Windows: %APPDATA%/TwilitRealm/Dusklight/USA/Card A
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/TwilitRealm/Dusklight/USA/Card A
  • Linux: ~/.local/share/TwilitRealm/Dusklight/USA/Card A

Replace USA with EUR or JAP in both paths if you were playing on a European or Japanese version, respectively. Also, if you have not launched Dusklight before, you will need to create the USA/Card A folder yourself.

Just copy the 01-GZ2*-gczelda2.gci file from Dolphin to Dusklight and it should work!

What platforms does Dusklight run on?

Dusklight currently supports:

  • Windows (x86-64 and ARM64)
  • macOS (Intel-based and Apple silicon)
  • Linux (x86-64 and ARM64)
  • iOS
  • Android

Because Dusklight is an open-source project, it may be possible to build it for other platforms and architectures. However, only the platforms listed above are officially supported.

Will there be a native port of Dusklight for the Switch?

For technical reasons, we do not plan to develop a native port of Dusklight for the Switch. It would require a complete reworking of the graphics system. Additionally, the homebrew graphics library for the Switch is not under active development.

How does Dusklight achieve higher frame rates than the original game?

Dusklight essentially allows the game to render frames at a faster rate than which the game world updates (or “ticks”). Much like the original game, Dusklight still ticks 30 times per second. This ensures that the game is faithful to the original experience and behaves as expected, which is important to certain types of players like speedrunners.

When the frame rate is faster than the tick rate, you end up having to render frames between ticks – even though the game world isn’t actually updating. Dusklight uses information about how objects are moving through the world to create a close approximation of what the world would look like at that moment in time and renders that. This is very similar to how many modern, well-built game engines work.

This approach is referred to by the Dusklight developers and members of the community as “interpolation”. However, this should not to be confused with other forms of interpolation, like the “Frame Generation” technology offered by modern GPUs.

In addition to interpolation, Dusklight utilizes variable delta time in certain scenarios, particularly for visual elements that don’t influence the game world. This allows these elements to scale smoothly to higher frame rates without the risk of adversely affecting gameplay.