Update: Mon 19th Oct 2026 — Three months after publicly announcing OoT unJPEG, Spanish 3D artist and modder Reonu has published the first in a planned series of development updates for their project to recreate The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's pre-rendered 2D backgrounds in 3D.
The video, uploaded to Reonu's YouTube channel, outlines technical progress, new collaborators, and early gameplay demonstrations running on real Nintendo 64 hardware and as a mod for the PC port Zelda 64 Recompiled.
Reonu confirmed they rebuilt the game's prerenders using Blender and Fast64, and combined the Hyrule Castle Town market into a single 3D scene to remove the original loading screens.
Reonu explained that getting the build to run acceptably on actual N64 hardware required custom CPU culling code and level-of-detail (LOD) models for market buildings; those LODs are specific to the N64 build and will not appear in the PC recompilation.
The developer also said most textures in the current build come from vanilla OoT assets, other game textures, or photographs taken in real life, and that no generative AI was used for any part of the project.
Reonu additionally requested help from 2D texture artists to improve the project's visual fidelity.
The update also announced two new collaborators: texture artists Robert Rose and Lii, who joined the project following Reonu's August call for assistance.
The development clip includes a look at the interior of Link's house, showing that the original two "vanilla" camera angles remain available and that cutscenes largely play as before because collision geometry is unchanged.
New functionality includes a Mario 64–style third-person freecam, toggled with the L-button, which allows players to admire updated textures or view areas previously hidden from the game's fixed cameras, such as the exterior seen through Link's rear window.
Towards the end of the video, Reonu and Lii demonstrated updated NPC work in Castle Town Market: the woman outside the Potion shop has received a full facelift, and several stall villagers have been reworked to remove the uncanny close-up expressions present in the source game.
No release date has been announced for OoT unJPEG, but the project's dual target — playable on real N64 hardware and as a mod for Zelda 64 Recompiled on PC — remains confirmed in the developer's posts from August and October 2026.
The video, uploaded to Reonu's YouTube channel, outlines technical progress, new collaborators, and early gameplay demonstrations running on real Nintendo 64 hardware and as a mod for the PC port Zelda 64 Recompiled.
Reonu confirmed they rebuilt the game's prerenders using Blender and Fast64, and combined the Hyrule Castle Town market into a single 3D scene to remove the original loading screens.
Reonu explained that getting the build to run acceptably on actual N64 hardware required custom CPU culling code and level-of-detail (LOD) models for market buildings; those LODs are specific to the N64 build and will not appear in the PC recompilation.
The developer also said most textures in the current build come from vanilla OoT assets, other game textures, or photographs taken in real life, and that no generative AI was used for any part of the project.
Reonu additionally requested help from 2D texture artists to improve the project's visual fidelity.
The update also announced two new collaborators: texture artists Robert Rose and Lii, who joined the project following Reonu's August call for assistance.
The development clip includes a look at the interior of Link's house, showing that the original two "vanilla" camera angles remain available and that cutscenes largely play as before because collision geometry is unchanged.
New functionality includes a Mario 64–style third-person freecam, toggled with the L-button, which allows players to admire updated textures or view areas previously hidden from the game's fixed cameras, such as the exterior seen through Link's rear window.
Towards the end of the video, Reonu and Lii demonstrated updated NPC work in Castle Town Market: the woman outside the Potion shop has received a full facelift, and several stall villagers have been reworked to remove the uncanny close-up expressions present in the source game.
No release date has been announced for OoT unJPEG, but the project's dual target — playable on real N64 hardware and as a mod for Zelda 64 Recompiled on PC — remains confirmed in the developer's posts from August and October 2026.
