Want more Hyrule but can’t wait for Breath Of The Wild 2? You’re in luck. Now you can explore Link’s infamous stomping grounds without a Switch.
Last week, a computer science student who uses the YouTube handle Nassim’s Software released a three-dimensional viewer of various Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild locations, like Google Maps Street View. For the most part, the website works as you’d expect. Click a spot on the map and be treated to a first-person, 360-degree look of that area in Hyrule. If you’ve ever used Street View, using Nassim’s site will be a breeze. More importantly, you can take in some of the absolutely gorgeous sights that Nintendo’s designers achieved with the game.
Not every area of Hyrule is available on the site, though. Still, if you’ve ever wanted to take a closer look at Hyrule Field, the Great Plateau, or the Zodobon Highlands, you’ll be able to zoom around to your heart’s content. Nassim also made the site open for submissions, so you can also go through the tedious creation of a Google Maps Street View version of the Castle Town Ruins.
The steps to create the map are not particularly easy, as you might imagine. First, the student downloaded a Wii U Emulator called Cemu, allowing them to play the game without a U.I., i.e., no Link. Then they took a series of screenshots and dumped them into a photo stitcher, which created a seemingly rotational image.
In the accompanying YouTube video, Nassim says that they decided to do this project when they “thought it would be really nice to be able to contemplate video game maps as some of them are really breathtaking.” It sounds like Nassim wanted to take in the work of game designers without certain game elements getting in the way. If that’s the case, they picked a great game for their trial run.
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Take a stroll around Hyrule here.
[via VICE]