Wii U Emulator Cemu Update Brings Faster Game Loading

A few weeks ago the world’s first Nintendo Wii U emulator Cemu hit the scene and now the program’s developer has released version 1.01 which brings with it enhanced loading times and graphical improvements.

If you are expecting to play the latest Nintendo releases on your PC with Cemu you might be a little disappointed. However, the emulator does support encrypted disc images which means that testers have got games like Mario Kart 8 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD to load up until their “press start” screens.

As of right now there is no controller customization and all of the gamepad functionality is locked on to the keyboard.  There is also no audio support in this early build of the emulator. Also potential users who are using AMD processors are out of luck, currently loading Cemu will result in a black screen.

Here’s the full list of changes from V 1.01:

Changelog:
1.0.1:

• Improved accuracy of shader emulation
• Implemented many system functions leading to higher compatibility
• Added support for statically loading and linking multiple RPX/RPL files (WUD only for now)

With the release of the latest the community has already took to YouTube to show off some of the changes. Here’s a brief video clip showcasing the improved shader emulation in action:

[youtube id=”Qzzo3qGuCfQ”]

Will Nintendo strike down the Cemu due to the fact that the Wii U is still struggling in the marketplace? Generally emulators have been safe from legal action in the past, with the exception being those that require the BIOS files (internal firmware) dumped from a console’s memory.

The UCLA Journal of Law and Technology summed up the PlayStation emulator situation thusly:

For emulators of the Playstation, however, it is the emulator itself that has drawn the ire of Sony, maker of the Playstation console. Sony’s attack against Playstation emulators is based on the fact that the emulators requires a copy of the Playstation basic input/output system (BIOS) in order the function properly. Because the BIOS is copyrighted by Sony, emulators that utilize an image file of the Playstation BIOS or was developed using information reverse engineered from a Playstation bios are illegal.

Nintendo has been known to actively target sites and individuals that provide the images of their games (ROMS / ISO) available to the public. There also was the famous ULTRAHLE legal issues from the ‘90s where Nintendo took on the developers of one of the first N64 emulators. According to  Standford University this may have actually lead to a legal precedent regarding the availability of emulators:

This was not a lawsuit per se: Nintendo never sued Epsilon and RealityMan, the authors of the UltraHLE Nintendo 64 emulator (it is common for figures in the emulation community to go by pseudonyms), but were considering doing so for about a month earlier this year. The company decided not to pursue legal action in early March, but the threat of a Nintendo lawsuit may have been one factor in the developers’ decision to remove UltraHLE from the Internet only hours after it was initially posted online. Had Nintendo decided to sue, the case would undoubtedly have been a precedent setting one for the legality of software emulation.

We will keep an eye on the Cemu situation and perhaps one day it will become advanced enough to become as ubiquitous as the Dolphin Emulator which has provided us with some absolutely stunning up-rez’d versions of Nintendo Wii / GameCube games.