Mac Native GamesTHE APPLE SILICON FIELD GUIDE

TEARS OF THE KINGDOM / PICTURE & SETTINGS

Tears of the Kingdom on Mac: picture and settings

Four number keys change the picture while you play. Find your current mode, choose what to change, then follow the reset steps if you want the defaults back.

Keys 1–4 at a glance

Mac keyboard shortcuts in the game window
KeyWhat it doesEach pressDefault when the game starts
1Shows or hides all overlays: FPS, shader count, system load and the shortcut reminder, in one box at the window’s top-right corner.On ↔ offShown
2Frame interpolation.off → 30+30 → half the refresh rate → unlimited → offOff
3Picture mode.MetalFX 2K → native 2K → off → MetalFX 2KOff (MetalFX starts only when you choose it)
4Ultrawide 21:9: the camera sees more at the sides and the picture fills a wider window. HUD, menus and map stay 16:9 in the middle.On ↔ offOff · only 1.2.1 and 1.4.3

The reminder box refreshes twice a second, so after pressing 2 or 3 it shows the new mode by name, for example “Picture: native 2K”. Resizing the window never switches MetalFX on by itself.

What “2K” changes, and what it does not

Three sizes are involved. Only the middle one is what “native 2K” sets.

  1. 01 · RENDER

    The 3D scene

    1280×720 / 1600×900

    The game’s handheld / docked render sizes. TOTK_RENDER_RES can override this stage.

  2. 02 · COMPOSE

    Canvas and interface

    Native 2K: 2560×1440

    The game combines the scene with its menus and HUD. Key 3 selects the picture mode.

  3. 03 · DISPLAY

    Your window

    The actual output size

    MetalFX 2K scales the picture for the output, including small windows and 4K displays.

Native 2K changes the canvas and interface (box 2). The 3D scene keeps the game’s own render scaling (box 1), so 2K does not force every internal render target to 1440p.

Choose native 2K when…

  • you want a sharper interface and text on a 1440p or Retina screen;
  • you prefer the game’s own image without upscaling.

Choose MetalFX 2K when…

  • you play in a window that is not 2560×1440 or on a 4K display, and want the image scaled to the real output size;
  • you accept that it is an upscaled picture.

Launch options (set before the game starts)

These are environment variables. Quit the game first, then start the app from Terminal with open --env. They apply to that one start; opening the app from Finder again uses the defaults.

OptionValuesEffect
TOTK_RENDER_RES<width>x<height>, each 64–4096, for example 960x540Sets the 3D scene’s render size (box 1). Unset or 0: the game’s own size. Anything else, such as 960x540x, stops the start with “TOTK_RENDER_RES must be <width>x<height>”.
TOTK_ASPECT21:9 (key 4’s default), 32:9, 3440x1440 or a ratio such as 2.39 (0.5–8)Picks the shape key 4 switches to, and starts with ultrawide already on. On 1.0.0 and 1.1.2 the start stops with “TOTK_ASPECT: only 1.2.1 and 1.4.3 so far”.
TOTK_HUD=corners—Puts the FPS, shader and load readings back into the picture’s corners instead of the small top-right box.
TOTK_FACE_BUTTONS=label—Maps PlayStation and Xbox face buttons by label instead of by position.
TOTK_LANG / TOTK_UI_LANGGame: a language code such as en-US · Launcher text: zh or enOverride the game’s language or the launcher’s own text for this start.
Example: 1.4.3 at a 960×540 scene size, ultrawide 32:9
open --env TOTK_RENDER_RES=960x540 --env TOTK_ASPECT=32:9 "/Applications/Tears of the Kingdom.app"

To give only this game another language every time, set its own preferred language once (this one persists until you delete it):

Per-app language (Brazilian Portuguese on 1.4.3)
defaults write org.macnativegames.totk AppleLanguages -array pt-BR

Back to the default picture and layout

01

Quit the game

Launch options and key choices last only for the current run.

The game window is gone (⌘Q, or close the window and wait while a save finishes).

02

Open the app from Finder, without --env

Double-click Tears of the Kingdom.app. A Finder start uses no launch options.

Press 1: the box shows “Interpolation: off” and “Picture: off”.

03

Remove per-app settings you added

Undo a per-app language
defaults delete org.macnativegames.totk AppleLanguages

A custom button layout is a file, not a setting: delete controls.txt as shown on the controller layout page.

The game follows the Mac’s language again; your controller uses the default layout.

iPhone and iPad

The iPhone and iPad build has no 1–4 shortcuts. It always runs in handheld mode at 1280×720. A TOTK_RENDER_RES value only reaches the phone if it was set on the Mac when the IPA was exported.

Want to know what frame rates others have measured, and under which conditions? See performance records. For first-visit pauses, follow the new-area stutter diagnosis.