What each setting does

Whether the program runs in a window or fills the screen. It changes nothing about how the game is drawn.

How many pixels the game is drawn at. Original is the console's own 320 by 240, which is what the art was drawn for. Every step above it renders the same scene at more detail. This is the setting that costs the most performance, so the right answer depends on your graphics card.

Renders the picture larger than it is shown and shrinks it down, which removes jagged edges more thoroughly than antialiasing does. 4x means drawing sixteen times the pixels, so it is expensive. It works at every resolution, Match the window included, and never draws more than half of your graphics card's memory can hold: a setting that would not fit steps down by itself, and each option says the size it will actually draw.

The shape of the picture. Original 4:3 is the console's. The wider settings genuinely widen the view rather than stretching it, so you see more of the world at the sides. The right one is your screen's own shape.

Smooths the jagged steps along the edges of shapes. The console had nothing of the kind. Higher settings cost more.

How far into the distance the game keeps drawing things. The console dropped anything past a short distance to keep up, which is why scenery appears as you approach it. Raising this keeps it drawn, at a cost.

How many times a second the picture is presented. The game's own logic always runs at 20 steps a second, exactly as it did on the console; anything above Original fills the gaps between those steps with interpolated frames, so movement is smooth without the game running faster.

Shows the number of frames being presented each second, on a small plate in the corner.

Whether the program asks the release page once, each time it opens, whether a newer version exists. It is the only network connection the program ever makes, and nothing about you or your copy of the game is sent.

Saves a moment by itself on a timer, into its own slots, never over one you made. The five most recent are kept.

Saves a moment when you close the program, so you can pick up where you stopped.

Loads the most recent saved moment when the program opens.

Lets the right stick turn the camera freely, wherever the game's own camera is able to turn. Off leaves the camera exactly as the game moves it.

Which way the free camera moves when you push the stick. Only has an effect when the free camera is on.

Which way aiming moves when you push the right stick, when using a bow, a slingshot or first person view.

The same for the left stick, which is the one the game itself uses for aiming.

How far the camera sits from Link, for every camera the game uses, not only the free one. Original is the console's own distance; each step above it pulls the camera back a little further.

Whether the camera drifts further away as Link runs and back in as he stops.

On is the console's behavior. The game's own camera eases outward as he runs and back in as he stops.

Whether this program's own menus sit over the picture or beside it in a panel, with the game still visible.

How loud the game is, as a percentage of its own volume.

Replaces the game's own textures with a texture pack, a set of higher resolution images made by other people. The program comes with none and downloads none, but a pack can be downloaded: the one below is made for this renderer, and its rt64 version comes in parts, the first of which opens with 7-Zip. Put the .rtz file inside it in the Texture packs folder (Your files opens it), and it appears on this row by name. Off is the game's own textures.

Download OoT Reloaded, by GhostlyDark, from its author's releases page (the rt64 version)

How much of a texture pack's own detail is used: Quarter, Half or Full of its width and height. Which one depends on your graphics card, since the lower steps take less video memory. It starts on Quarter, so a pack loads light on any machine; raise it once the game runs well. Shown only while a pack is chosen.

How fast a message's text types into its box. Fast and Faster are two and four times the original pace; Instant shows each box whole at once. A box still waits at its end for you to go on.

As the game, B shows the rest of a message where the game allows it. Always lets A show the rest of the box you are reading and B skip on through the message in every message, and either button ends a box's timed wait.

Whether the alarm sounds while your health is low. The heart still beats and turns red either way.

Lets the Screenshot control (F12, or any key or controller button you bind on the controls screen) save a picture of exactly what is on screen, at the window's size, to the folder your recordings go to.

Lets the Record video control (F7, or any key or controller button you bind on the controls screen) record what you play to an MP4 video with its sound, ready to upload, into your Videos folder. The Pause video control (F8) pauses and resumes the same video, so a run of chosen moments ends up in one file. The program's own menus are never in the video.

The video's height, at the shape of your window: the window's own size, or 720p, 1080p, 1440p or 4K. It can be larger than your screen; for a sharp large video, set Resolution at least as high, since the video is drawn from what the game renders.

How much detail the video keeps, which sets the file's size: Small file, Standard (about what video sites recommend), High, or Best for a video you will edit again.

Whether the game's sound is recorded with the video. Off leaves the game's sound out and spends no time on it; your voice is still recorded if the Microphone row is on.

How the video is written. Reliable saves it as it records, so a crash or a forced close keeps the video up to its last moments, and makes it an ordinary MP4 when you stop, which takes a few seconds longer and needs room for a second copy while it finishes. Compatible writes an ordinary MP4 from the first second and stops instantly, but a crash or a forced close before you stop loses the whole video.

Lets the Photo mode control (F10, or any key or controller button you bind on the controls screen) freeze the game where it stands and pause its sound, so you can change any setting and see it on the same frame, move the camera around the frozen scene, hide the game's HUD for a clean picture, and take the same picture at every setting. Press the control again to carry on.

What a video records: the game alone, without any of this program's menus, or the whole window, the game with every menu, toast and plate over it, so using photo mode or the settings can be shown. Video size sets the video's size either way.

What a screenshot shows: the game alone, at the window's size and without any of this program's menus, toasts or plate, even with the settings panel open (so photo mode can take the same picture at every setting with the menu still up), or the whole window exactly as you see it.

Whether your voice from a microphone is mixed into a video with the game's sound. The microphone is listened to only while a video records, and goes only into that video; nothing is sent anywhere.

Which microphone to record: the system's default, or any microphone your computer has, listed by name. One plugged in later shows up the next time the settings open.

How loud your voice is in the video, against the game's sound.

Whether the game's HUD fades: never, once it has not been needed for a while, always, or at the press of the HUD button (Tab or the right stick's click by default).

Whether the HUD fades to dim, still there but quieter, or away entirely.

How much of the HUD shows while it is dimmed.

How much of its color the HUD keeps while it is dimmed, down to gray. Item icons keep their own colors.

How long the HUD waits, unused, before it fades.

How quickly the HUD fades out and back in.

Whether targeting with Z brings the HUD back while it fades when idle. Each thing that can bring it back is its own box to tick.

Whether using a C button brings the HUD back.

Whether talking, or any message on screen, brings the HUD back.

Whether your health or magic changing brings the HUD back.

Whether the hearts stay shown while your health is low. Only the hearts: the rest of the HUD fades as it would.

Whether your rupees, keys, an item on a button or its ammunition changing brings the HUD back.

Whether opening the pause menu brings the HUD back.

Whether the press of any button brings the HUD back.

Whether the hearts fade with the HUD or stay shown.

Whether the magic meter fades with the HUD or stays shown.

Whether the rupee and key counters fade with the HUD or stay shown.

Whether the A, B, C and Start buttons fade with the HUD or stay shown.

Whether the map fades with the HUD or stays shown.

Whether one size applies to the whole HUD, or each part (hearts, magic, rupees and keys, the buttons, the map) has its own.

The whole HUD's size, from half to twice the original, each part growing from the corner it sits in so nothing leaves the screen.

The hearts' size, growing from the top left corner.

The magic meter's size, growing from its left end.

The rupee and key counters' size, growing from the bottom left corner.

The A, B, C and Start buttons' size, growing from the top right corner.

The map's size, growing from the bottom right corner.

Where the hearts, the map and the buttons sit when the picture is wider than 4:3. Original 4:3 keeps them in the console's own square; Within 16:9 spreads them toward the edges but no wider than a 16:9 screen; Window edges puts them at the picture's very edges; Custom keeps distances you choose from each edge, as a share of the picture, so they follow the window as it changes size and never leave it.

With HUD sits on Custom: how far the hearts, the magic meter and the rupee counter sit from the picture's left edge, as a share of its width.

With HUD sits on Custom: how far the buttons and the map sit from the picture's right edge, as a share of its width.

With HUD sits on Custom: how far the hearts and the buttons sit from the picture's top edge, as a share of its height.

With HUD sits on Custom: how far the rupee counter and the map sit from the picture's bottom edge, as a share of its height.