TriAevum

TriAevum — Echoes of Time & Moonfall Curse

TriAevum is the engine and project behind two native PC recompilations: Echoes of Time, bringing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D to PC, and Moonfall Curse, bringing The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D to the same engine. They share a modern NRI/Vulkan renderer, with lighting, shadows and customizable graphics, and each has its own single-screen interface, package and Forge.

One game was apparently not enough to keep me occupied.

Two games

Game	Current release	Bring your own dump
Echoes of Time — Ocarina of Time 3D on PC	v0.8.0-beta.2, a beta	Your own decrypted Ocarina of Time 3D dump. EUR and USA, original or Rev 1, are supported inputs; Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese releases are not supported yet.
Moonfall Curse — Majora's Mask 3D on PC	v0.5.0-alpha.1, the first alpha	Your own decrypted EUROPEAN Majora's Mask 3D dump, CTR-P-AJRP. Other regions are not supported yet.

Download the package for the game you want from its release page:

Platform	Echoes of Time	Moonfall Curse
Windows x64	TriAevum-v0.8.0-beta.2-Windows-x64.zip	Moonfall_Curse-v0.5.0-alpha.1-Windows-x64.zip
Linux x86-64 AppImage	TriAevum-v0.8.0-beta.2-Linux-x86_64.AppImage	Moonfall_Curse-v0.5.0-alpha.1-Linux-x86_64.AppImage
Linux x86-64 Flatpak	TriAevum-v0.8.0-beta.2-Linux-x86_64.flatpak	Moonfall_Curse-v0.5.0-alpha.1-Linux-x86_64.flatpak

Both are pre-releases. Back up your saves and read the release notes before assuming something is a feature. No ROMs, game data or game assets are distributed; you supply your own dump.

Credit Where It Belongs

Before the shaders, settings and excessive grass: Echoes of Time would not exist in its current form without TopScreen, now SingleScreen, developed by rlgcarrot. Its single-screen experience is reimplemented here for this runtime, but the vision, care and tremendous work behind it deserve a special thank-you. Please consider buying rlgcarrot a coffee to support that fantastic work.

The Echoes of Time HD interface comes from OoT3D Vanilla UI/HUD by chubbycubby, which Forge downloads for your game's language with your consent, and the file selection follows the single-screen design of Ocarina Reframed by OTPR26.

The ambient occlusion that makes the grass look like it belongs to the ground is MXAO from iMMERSE by Pascal Gilcher (Marty's Mods), integrated and adapted with his explicit permission. Thank you for lending TriAevum a piece of work that took years to get this good.

Just as essential are Azahar, Ship of Harkinian, libultraship, NVIDIA NRI, and the SDL controller-mapping community. And, of course, Nintendo and Grezzo, who created the original games. Full credits and licenses.

Echoes of Time's Forge can also apply an optional mod on your machine: Vanilla+ - Link Remodel And HD Item Models by HugAMuffin (testing by Fado, M-1 and seiunsky_1084; tooling by Jameriquiah). TriAevum does not distribute it: Forge downloads the author's original archive when you turn it on (details).

Separately licensed material. These three parts are not covered by TriAevum's GPL and keep their authors' terms:

• iMMERSE / MXAO (Pascal Gilcher): "All rights reserved". The module is built as its own library, shipped beside the runtime, and TriAevum uses it under a permission granted to this project only. That permission does not pass to forks, recipients or other projects; redistribute TriAevum without the module unless the author has given you his own. See LICENSE_SCOPE.md and the module's LICENSE-iMMERSE.txt.
• OoT3D Vanilla UI/HUD (chubbycubby): CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Packages contain none of its files; Forge downloads the author's original archive from GameBanana on your request and keeps it in your private data folder. See LICENSES/OoT3D-Vanilla-UI-HUD.md.
• Vanilla+ - Link Remodel And HD Item Models (HugAMuffin): CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Same arrangement: downloaded from GameBanana only when you turn it on, never redistributed by TriAevum. See LICENSES/Vanilla-Plus-Link-Remodel.md.

Moonfall Curse's additional credits and licences are listed below.

About

Echoes of Time is an AOT recomp in the same general spirit as the Xbox 360 recomp projects. Moonfall Curse is the second game on that engine. I just ended up spending most of my time on the renderer instead of, you know, actually playing the games. The goal is to push the visuals further without completely losing the original look.

Development of this project is entirely AI-assisted, under human direction. That describes the TriAevum-specific work, not the mature donor projects and libraries it builds on: Azahar, Ship of Harkinian, NRI and others. Aside from those foundations, you could fairly call this concentrated AI slop. Apparently, even AI slop can still consume several months of your life.

Install

The user guide covers preparation, updating, backups, uninstalling and Forge's messages. For Moonfall Curse's input requirements and setup, see Playing Moonfall Curse.

Use the package for your game: each Forge prepares only its own title. Both keep the Forge name, TriAevumForge.exe on Windows and TriAevumForge on Linux.

You need Windows x64 or Linux x86-64, a Vulkan-capable GPU with current drivers, and your own supported decrypted dump. Echoes of Time's Forge accepts .3ds and .cci; see its ROM compatibility details. Moonfall Curse requires the European CTR-P-AJRP dump. Forge checks the contents, not just the filename.

Windows

1. Download your game's Windows-x64 ZIP, not GitHub's source-code archive, and extract it into its own writable folder.
2. Run TriAevumForge.exe, select the matching decrypted dump and prepare the game.
   • Echoes of Time: select the dump on Home and press Prepare. The HD font is included. The HD HUD and menus (chubbycubby's OoT3D Vanilla UI/HUD, in the language your ROM boots in) are downloaded unless you turn them off under Enhancements. If the download fails, select the ZIP from the mod page there yourself.
   • Moonfall Curse: its mm3d-dekui interface and Project Restoration are built in. Forge rebuilds the Restoration layout archives from your dump during preparation; they are not separate mods you need to install.
3. Start the game from Forge or directly: Echoes_of_Time.exe or Moonfall_Curse.exe.

For Echoes of Time, Forge replaces the old TriAevum.exe. Point any old shortcut at Echoes_of_Time.exe, or start it from Forge.

Keep the folder path reasonably short: Windows still has a 259-character path limit, and Forge tells you how many characters to give back instead of letting Windows find out for you.

Updating Echoes of Time from beta.1.2

Extract beta.2 into a new folder. From that new folder, run:

forge\triaevum-forge.exe update --update-target "C:\path\to\your\beta.1.2 folder"

Your saves, save states, settings and texture packs are preserved. If the update cannot finish, Forge rolls the installation back. This was tested on the published beta.1.2 Windows package, not on a real user installation with its own settings and texture packs. If it rolls back, install beta.2 in a fresh folder, copy your savedata over and report Forge's message.

Beta.1.2 could not update itself from a ZIP. Beta.2 adds that support, and both current games ship signed packages for subsequent updates through Forge.

Linux and Steam Deck

Choose the AppImage or Flatpak for the game you want. Each contains that game's Forge.

For an AppImage, make the downloaded file executable in your file manager or use the matching command:

chmod +x TriAevum-v0.8.0-beta.2-Linux-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x Moonfall_Curse-v0.5.0-alpha.1-Linux-x86_64.AppImage

Open your chosen AppImage and prepare the matching dump in Forge. For Echoes of Time, --forge reopens preparation and --appimage-extract-and-run works on systems without FUSE.

For a Flatpak, install the downloaded file for your chosen game:

flatpak install --user TriAevum-v0.8.0-beta.2-Linux-x86_64.flatpak
flatpak install --user Moonfall_Curse-v0.5.0-alpha.1-Linux-x86_64.flatpak

Launch the installed application and prepare its matching dump. The Linux game executables are Echoes_of_Time and Moonfall_Curse; the packages handle launching them.

On Steam Deck, prepare in Desktop Mode, then add the chosen AppImage as a non-Steam game. Use Steam Input's Gamepad layout without Proton. This setup instruction is not a claim of physical Steam Deck or Gaming Mode qualification: that testing has not been performed for Echoes of Time, and Moonfall Curse's reported release testing was on Windows 11 and under Proton, on NVIDIA.

Data and backups

On Windows, user files live under the installation's data/ folder, including data/savestates and data/logs. Echoes of Time migrates existing save states on its first start.

For Echoes of Time's AppImage, the data location is $XDG_DATA_HOME/TriAevum (normally ~/.local/share/TriAevum); its Flatpak uses ~/.var/app/io.github.coccofresco.TriAevum/. For Moonfall Curse, use the data folder shown by its Forge; settings, saves, logs and caches live there. See the user-data reference for the folder layout.

Echoes of Time's Forge Data & backups page backs up saves, save states and settings into one ZIP and restores them; it also shows the folders. When an installation is broken, Home identifies the problem and offers Repair.

No compiler or SDK is needed. Forge prepares GPU pipelines through the game during setup. Echoes of Time only needs an Internet connection for its optional HD interface pack and mods.

Echoes of Time graphics and controls

• Cel/toon shading and outlines, as a preset you can leave off.
• Ambient occlusion, shadows, water reflections and anti-aliasing, with the expensive ones at half resolution so 4K no longer requires an upscaler.
• Anisotropic filtering, set to 4x in the Enhanced preset.
• Real widescreen framing, selectable aspect ratios (16:9, 21:9, original 5:3) and configurable field of view.
• 60/90 FPS visual interpolation of the original 30 Hz game state. Game logic and gameplay speed remain unchanged; this is not 60/90 Hz physics. Input is sampled late, so Link jumps when you press the button, not shortly after.
• Azahar-compatible custom textures and texture dumping, plus the optional Vanilla+ Link remodel as a local overlay.
• Reimplemented SingleScreen HUD, pause menus, ocarina and Sheikah Stone Visions on one screen, and Ocarina Reframed's file selection.
• Configurable gameplay free camera and photo mode, keyboard/mouse and controller inputs.
• Named settings profiles, audio and save states.
• Controller rumble on supported pads, and menu button prompts that follow your pad.
• Procedural grass. A lot of grass. Possibly too much grass, now within a VRAM budget so it stays where you left it.

Press Esc (or R3 on a pad) for the in-game menu: the everyday settings, navigated with the D-pad or sticks, A to select, B to go back, LB / RB for the tabs, or with the mouse. The game pauses behind the menu and continues exactly where it stopped when you close it. Press F1 for every setting. F2 temporarily disables the main added graphics effects, then restores them without losing your configuration. Most of the presentation is configurable, so if my artistic decisions offend you personally, you can probably undo them. Effects can be expensive; adjust them to suit your GPU.

Moonfall Curse

Moonfall Curse is the 2015 Majora's Mask 3D game, recompiled and running natively on PC. Its first alpha includes:

• mm3d-dekui's single-screen interface, built into the product.
• Project Restoration, also built in. Forge rebuilds its layout archives containing game material from your own dump; the package carries the recipe.
• The Echoes of Time renderer, with native lighting and shadows, the Enhanced preset and iMMERSE MXAO ambient occlusion.
• An HD font, the Esc / R3 menu and controller glyphs that follow your pad. F1 opens the graphics settings.

What first alpha means

Automated runs installed and booted the game, then visited about a hundred scene entrances, the transformations and the boss lairs. That is not a full playthrough. A complete three-day cycle played by a human with a controller is still the part I am asking for. Visiting a boss lair and beating its occupant remain different qualifications.

The release was tested natively on Windows 11 and under Proton, on NVIDIA. That does not establish AMD or Intel coverage.

Bow and first-person items, the owl-statue save round trip, controller hot-plugging and several individual rooms passed automated checks but were not verified live by hand. The release notes spell out the remaining gaps.

Some mm3d-dekui options are not ported yet: the gear photo, menu backdrop, stick controls, ocarina input layout and equip label. The ported options ship with vanilla defaults.

Moonfall Curse credits and licences

• mm3d-dekui, by tgacquin and contributors: GPL-2.0. Notice: LICENSES/mm3d-dekui.md.
• Project Restoration, by leoetlino and contributors: GPL-2.0-or-later. Notice: LICENSES/Project-Restoration.md.
• iMMERSE MXAO, by Pascal Gilcher: included under its own licence and the project-specific permission described above. Notices: LICENSES/iMMERSE-MXAO.md and LICENSES/iMMERSE-LICENSE.txt.
• The SingleScreen 3.1 HD Latin font, by M-1 / rlgcarrot, used with the author's permission. Forge builds the HD message font from it; its notice is LICENSES/SingleScreen-3.0.md.
• 2Ship2Harkinian, zeldaret/mm and the MM3D decompilation: their documentation guided the work. None of their code or data is shipped; see Moonfall Curse's documentation.

These notices are in LICENSES/. Project Restoration's notice also records the upstream layout members whose origin is unclear: Hud2.mfl, HudItemIconSet.mfl and hud_patrs01_action_text.ctxb. Those members ship as upstream distributes them; the three layout archives containing game material are rebuilt from your dump during installation.

Moonfall Curse ships a precompiled title module. Its corresponding source is in the package's source/ directory; see the source offer.

Echoes of Time screenshots

Captured directly from the renderer's framebuffer during beta.1.2 development on Windows, with the default graphics profile, the HD interface pack and the toon preset off. The night title screen comes from the released package's own qualification run.

Kokiri Forest, grass and ambient occlusion on	Hyrule Field, now with grass that stays put
File selection in the Ocarina Reframed layout	Ocarina with the melody browser on one screen
Temple of Time	The ending credits, which no longer crash
Esc / R3 in-game menu; the game pauses behind it	Title intro at night, from the released package

Moonfall Curse screenshots

Captured from the released alpha.1 Windows package at 1920x1080, with the Enhanced preset.

Title screen	South Clock Town, dawn of the first day
The owl statue, with the single-screen HUD	Clock Town with native lighting and shadows
58 hours remain. You always have three days	Esc / R3 in-game menu; the game pauses behind it

Known limits

Both games currently ship for Windows x64 and Linux x86-64 only (AppImage and Flatpak).

Two open issues are sha