Super Mario 3D Land 4K 1.2.0 Update (Patreon)

Good evening!

I'm thrilled to finally release the next major update to the Super Mario 3D Land 4K texture pack, the first update to the pack in... wait it's been over 2 years since the last update?! Well this one's way overdue. I'm sorry it took so long! I hope this update makes up for the long wait, it's a beefy one! This update is pretty much an overhaul of the entire pack and includes many new 4K textures covering the whole game, with a primary focus on cleaning up and improving consistency and quality all around. It of course includes new environment textures, new character textures, user-interface upgrades, higher quality shaders and more! Also, it now supports the new texture pack format (just like my other 3DS packs), which fixes MANY previous issues, such as frequent stuttering and the infamous "texture swapping" glitch present in previous versions. That's just the start of it! Here's a more detailed look at what's new.

130+ New Textures!

This update includes over 130 new 4K textures, covering everything from level environments to user interface elements to cutscene portraits and more. It also uses the new texture format, which opens up the doors for many more neat features later down the line. I also spent a lot of time going over and reviewing old textures from version 1.1.0 and earlier, and I found that many of the textures were not quite up to my standards (it's been over 2 years since the last update, and I believe I've gotten a fair bit better at texture making since then!) Therefore, I've decided to replace hundreds of textures from the previous version with new, remade versions which should look a lot better than before. Consistency is key, as they say. And this pack was definitely not that in it's previous incarnation. It's still not perfect, but it's better, and I will continue to iterate on and improve the visuals in subsequent updates until it's as close to perfect as I can make it. It's a step-by-step process, but it helps it all comes together really nicely in the end and makes the whole pack feel a lot more polished and complete. The details all add up!

New texture format, Vulkan support and Reshade updates

This version includes support for the new custom texture system-rewrite! This fixes many notorious bugs, such as the stuttering that would occur whenever new textures were loaded in and the infamous and somewhat terrifying "texture swapping" bug which commonly occured for many users. It also adds Vulkan support, which means increased compatibility with different systems (AMD GPUs and mobile devices especially) and more graphical features (normal map support, better mip maps etc.) This reallly adds a lot to the experience and makes the game much more enjoyable from start to finish. ReShade has also been updated to version 5.8, which also comes with several stability and feature improvements. More notably this update fixes the flickering of the depth buffer present in previous versions, making effects such as ambient occlusion much more usable. It also improves on performance a fair bit compared to previous versions!

Updated Shader Presets (Henriko Ultra 8.0)

The default Reshade shader presets that come with the pack have been updated and improved in this version! Henriko Ultra 8.0 is way better in pretty much every way than the previous Henriko Ultra 1.0 preset that came included with the 1.1.0 version of the pack (yes, it was that old). Colors are a bit warmer and look more pleasing with 3D Land's saturated color scheme, bloom has been reduced somewhat and depth based effects such as ambient occlusion and depth of field are now entirely optional and look nicer as well. New Reshade also uses the Vulkan backend by default, and should boost both performance and compatibility with various systems.

Updated file structure and streamlined instructions

The file structure and instructions have been remade to be more in line with those used by my other 3DS packs, making things easier for previous users of my other packs. DS4Windows and BetterJoy are also no longer bundled with the pack, so that people download and use the latest versions of these programs instead of older outdated versions.

And many bugs fixes, optimizations and minor changes...

Minor issues from the previous version has been fixed, including a bug which made red and blue switch pads display completely black. Performance has also been improved due to the previously described optimizations. This should lead to a more polished and overall enjoyable experience for everyone using the texture pack.

That's mostly it for this update. Enjoy!

The update is available to all you Patrons here, with a public release later down the line!

There is also a 4K version available, if your computer can handle it! The 4K version includes higher quality textures than the 1080p version, and will work on all displays- even those that don't display in 4K resolution. It will still look better than the 1080p version, no matter the display!

Please feel free to try it out!

(**The texture pack does not work on real 3DS hardware).

How to enable MXAO (ambient occlusion) & DoF (Depth of Field):

This means you can now apply glorious self shadowing around objects or cinematic looking background blur, which can help make the visuals look even nicer. Try it out by doing the following:

* Set your game view to "Single" inside the emulator.

* Enter fullscreen.

* Press the "8" key on your keyboard, this will bring up the ReShade UI.

* Check the "MXAO" box in the list of effects, if it's not already checked. The same can be done with the "ADOF" effect, if you want depth of field (might have some issues with masking around UI elements and whatnot, but feel free to give it a try!)

* Go to the "Add-ons" tab in ReShade and check the box next to the depth buffer in the list with the highest value (it should be a very high number while all others are 0, if there's only one in the list, check that one!). This numbers will change constantly, but don't worry, it's supposed to do that!

* You're done. Have fun!

You can find more information about the texture pack here. 

Download it here!

I am only able to make things like this thanks to your support, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping me do what I love!

❤️