Animal Crossing HD

Texture Project
A guide to installation and contribution
 
 
 
 

Introduction
Links to helpful stuff
How to install the texture pack
Contributing to the project
Texture design basics
How to get editable textures
Redraw, NOT upscale!
Programs and tools
Step-by-step example

   
Introduction

 
 
The Animal Crossing HD texture pack project was started by TechieAndroid on the 
Dolphin forums in 2016. It aims to redraw (not upscale) each texture by hand in order to 
play the game in full HD and beyond. 
 
This game has a huge number of texture files (many thousands for all the hundreds of 
villagers, furniture and environment pieces), and redrawing calls for some artistic skill 
and flair, so the project relies on a community of texture artists, researchers, testers 
and other volunteers. This is a work-in-progress pack due to the amount of files, so if 
you’re feeling creative contributions are always welcomed! 
 
The pack can be used with all Gamecube versions and languages of Animal Crossing on 
Dolphin (including + and e+) with proper setup. Primarily we use the NTSC version of 
Animal Crossing (sometimes called Population: Growing) for development - there 
are differences in some textures and filenames between versions, but we aim to 
provide support for these variations where possible. 
 
Contributors across all iterations of the project: 
TechieAndroid / WannabeTechNerd / Vorpal_ / kinkinkijkin / MelonSpeedruns / shrotus / 
John Ghostly / Brackenhawk / SoApBoX91 / Cumberlock / Interlace / PBPB / seraph / 
Mystic Pasta / drewby / owlmangames / Freaxzoz / koba / Nate Gullion / Popuri / 
dsummers / Isaac / zephyr / Soundras 
 
 
 
   
 

Links to helpful stuff

Here’s a list of things you might need to get started, try out and contribute to the 
project: 
 
Dolphin Emulator 
Use the latest development version of Dolphin for the best compatibility with 
textures - by default the pack uses DDS textures, which will not work with the latest 
stable release (5.0). 
 
Project forum post 
Where you’ll find download links to the newest DDS version of the texture pack and any 
important information regarding the project. 
 
Progress report 
A categorised mega-list of aspects of the pack to be worked on, including what’s already 
retextured, which are the most important assets and who’s doing what. The ideal 
starting point if you’re considering which textures to work on. 
 
Development pack 
PNG version of the pack being actively worked on. New textures are organised here so 
you can cherry-pick new stuff or arrange to have your own redraws included. It’s always 
the latest version of the pack but isn’t yet optimised for Dolphin. When enough new 
textures are added the DDS/forum pack will be updated. 
 
Discord server invitation 
Join the AC Modding community! Whether you’re interested in contributing, testing, 
need support or just want to chat about Animal Crossing projects, new members are 
always welcome. You’ll also be able to see progress on textures or actively contribute to 
the project before new versions of the pack are released. 
 
Bighead’s Custom Texture Tool PS 
A useful tool for batch-converting textures between different file types. You might need 
this if you’re planning on working in a format other than DDS or PNG, or want to convert 
your edited PNGs to DDS for testing purposes. 
 
I will not provide a link to any game dumps. 
 
   
How to install the texture pack
IMPORTANT: Please ensure you have the latest development build of Dolphin. 
 
Step 1: Download the newest version of the texture pack from the forum post linked 
above. 
 
Step 2a [Windows]: Extract the folder into Dolphin Emulator > Load > Textures (by 
default this is located in your Documents folder).  
 
Step 2b [MacOS]: Extract the folder into ~/Library/Application 
Support/Dolphin/Load/Textures and use Vulkan to render if OpenGL doesn’t work. 
 
Step 3: Rename this folder GAF for Animal Crossing or GAE for Dōbutsu no Mori e+ (to 
install for both games, just duplicate the folder and name appropriately). 
 
Step 4: Load Dolphin, select your game and open the Graphics settings. Under the 
Advanced tab, select ‘Load Custom Textures’. The pack should activate instantly and 
you’ll see a bunch of the textures get replaced by shiny new ones. ‘Prefetch Custom 
Textures’ loads textures on boot to avoid stuttering during play. You may want to play 
with some other settings in Dolphin (like AA) to get things looking extra sharp.  

 
Contributing to the project
This project relies on the work of volunteers. Even if you don’t feel confident designing 
textures, we always need people to test out new additions and make suggestions on 
what to improve or work on next. There’s no pressure or commitment involved, so 
whether you feel like making two textures or twenty we’ll happily welcome you! 
 
The easiest way to lend a hand is to join the AC Modding Discord server linked above. 
 

Guidelines (redrawing rules)

To keep consistency between textures provided by different artists, and ensure that 
files are organised and efficient, please follow these specifications when redrawing 
textures for the project: 
 
Scale: 8x (please keep your vectors/lines safe in case this changes later) 
File format: PNG (with alpha channel if containing transparent elements) - we will 
batch-convert releases of the pack to DDS for performance 
Exported filename: same as original texture 
Art style: 1:1 as accurately as possible (some leeway given for complex textures), avoid 
gradients in most cases 
Submitting: contact Brackenhawk or MelonSpeedruns via Discord, PM or forum thread 
Notes: consider working on textures in ‘sets’ (such as a whole set of eye/mouth textures 
for one character, or all the parts of one piece of furniture) - half-finished assets might 
not be included in main releases to avoid inconsistencies 

Texture design basics

Let’s make some textures! The difficulty depends on the texture you choose. Let’s look 
at some examples: 
 

 
The first texture is Joey the duck’s default eyes. All it needs are a couple of rectangles 
and circles and it’s done. The Monday bubble is also pretty simple, as the design is 
isolated (not linked to any others on any side) and you can use a simple circle and text 
tool to recreate it. 
 

 
The cherry is part of a simple shirt texture which can be replicated after some practice 
with line and shape tools (or drawn freehand, if you’re confident). The red snapper is 
more complex - you’ll need to be able to vector or redraw the fish at a good quality, so 
some artistic skill is required. 
 

 
These are examples of wallpaper and floor textures. They are linked to another texture 
on at least one side. You’d need to complete the upper and lower section of the 
bamboo wallpaper, making sure the two halves fit together. The carpet texture has 
multiple connected images on multiple sides in addition to being very intricate, making 
it an advanced endeavour. 
 
In many cases the textures are very small and have difficult-to-distinguish lines, so some 
leeway is provided with your redraws. As long as your texture looks good in-game, 
connects properly to anything linked and doesn’t interfere with any models it’ll generally 
be accepted, but try to keep textures as close to a 1:1 copy as you can. Also avoid 
gradient shading unless it complements the design. 
 
From these examples you can begin to get an idea of the kind of images we work on - 
there are an enormous number across all difficulty levels, so if you want to have a go at 
something there will always be a texture suited to your skillset. 
 

How to get editable textures

Currently the release versions of the pack only include finished textures, so you’ll want 
to check the development folder and start with assets which have not been started. It’s 
good practice to voice your intent on the Discord server or check the progress list to 
make sure the texture isn’t already being worked on for the next release. Message a 
texture mod and we can add your name to the progress list to ‘claim’ the texture if 
you’re interested in working on a set. 
 
Next to ‘Load Custom Textures’ in the Graphics settings of your game, you’ll see the 
‘Dump Textures’ option: 
 
  
 
This creates a new file in your Dolphin Emulator > Dump > Textures directory when you 
load the game. Whenever your game encounters a texture it will be placed into that 
folder as a PNG file. It will immediately begin dumping any texture which updates on 
your screen - during normal play you’ll begin to see the most common assets like the 
font, trees, grass, train station etc. but other assets will be harder to get hold of. If, for 
example, you wanted to redraw all the textures for Tabby, you’ll need to see her 
in-game and engage in dialogue until all the different facial expressions are loaded at 
least once. 

Oh dear. 
 
It’s good practice to leave this option on when you play regularly, but thankfully a large 
portion of the files have already been dumped by various users. If you can’t get hold of 
a particular texture (through normal play, hacking, cheat codes, save-editing or loading 
another user’s saves) ask around in the forum or Discord and someone can probably 
help you out. 

Hooray! 
 

Advanced dumping techniques

Maybe you’ve been playing for a while and decide to have a go at retexturing - your 
dump folder is probably crammed with thousands of tiny files, so how do you pick out 
the correct pieces for one asset? 
 
You can toggle texture dumping on and off during play, which we can use to help target 
specific textures and make it easier to locate them amongst others in the dump folder.  
 
Here’s a technique you can use for obtaining textures for a particular asset: 
 
Step 1: Turn dumping off and move all the textures generated so far into a subfolder. 
This will allow you to keep your dumps but provide a clean slate to sift through later. 
Subfolders can also be helpful for organising textures you’ve previously focused on. 
 

 
 
   
Step 2: Set your game up to enable you to ‘encounter’ the textures for the asset you’re 
targeting. Essentially the asset needs to be on your screen for Dolphin to recognise and 
dump it, so you can set up the asset on-screen or prepare a ‘route’ to follow once 
texture dumping begins. In this instance I can either set up the furniture I want in the 
room, or have them in my inventory ready to place down. 
 

 
 
   
Step 3: Enable texture dumping - the game will now begin dumping textures, but only 
those which update on the screen. At this point you’ll begin to see things like blink 
animations appear in the folder, so you need to force the game to update the asset you 
want to dump. You can do this by toggling the ‘Load Custom Textures’ option to refresh 
the screen or manipulating the asset in-game (place furniture, wear a shirt, talk to an 
NPC to collect their expressions, enter/exit a building etc.) though this will depend on 
the kind of asset you’re aiming for. As a side note, Dolphin will not dump textures that 
have already been redrawn unless you turn ‘Load Custom Textures’ off. 
 

 
 
Step 4: Locate the textures in your dump folder. This can vary in difficulty depending on 
how many assets you encountered during your route - good routes avoid loading 
excessive assets, so you might need to experiment or ask for help if you can’t find a 
reliable setup for the textures you need. In this case I could’ve removed the other pieces 
of furniture in the room to target this table, but it was relatively easy to find what I was 
looking for. 
 

 
 
Redraw, NOT upscale!
Other packs sometimes use a process called upscaling to improve the edges of textures 
when enlarged. There are legal and aesthetic caveats when using this method, so to 
avoid these and create a truly HD and future-proof experience we redraw textures from 
scratch with vectors. This allows us to scale textures to any resolution without quality 
loss, future-proofing them for 4k and beyond. 
 

Original

 
Enlarged to 8x and vectored, scalable to any resolution with no artifacts left by traditional upscaling tools such as Waifu2x 
 
 

Programs and tools

There are no restrictions to what you can use for redrawing textures, as long as you 
have access to vectoring or pen/line/shape (also known as pathing) tools. By using 
layers and shapes you can build the texture piece by piece, and export at different 
resolutions later if necessary without quality loss. 
 
Quick ‘can I use this program?’ checklist: 
● Does it have pathing tools which are preserved with the file and/or does it draw 
in vectors? 
● Does it have layer management? 
● Can it export PNG (with and without alpha channel)? 
 
Those are the only real requirements - the rest is down to preference. Let’s take a look 
at some options: 
 
Inkscape 
Price: free, open-source 
Drawing type: vectors 
Provides all the fundamentals of vector drawing and editing. A solid option for 
beginners and experienced texture artists alike and most recommended for texture 
work. 
 
 
Adobe Illustrator 
Price: monthly fee 
Drawing type: vectors 
A high price point but provides professional-level vector editing with all the tools you’d 
ever need. I don’t recommend this option unless you already have this or an older 
version of Illustrator, since other (free) programs can get the job done. 
 
GIMP 
Price: free 
Drawing type: rasters 
Many people already have experience with GIMP for image editing as an alternative to 
Adobe Photoshop, however it draws in rasters instead of vectors. I’ve included it here 
since it is possible to retexture with it (though not recommended), as long as everything 
is drawn at a large scale with paths (pen/line/shape tools) and those lines are kept safe 
along with the image you create. If we decide to increase the scaling for the texture pack 
there’s more work involved before we can use your redraw, since all the lines and 
shapes will have to be resized and coloured manually at the new scale before exporting 
(as opposed to vectors, which are simply exported at a new resolution without any 
changes). 
 

Step-by-step example
Let’s go through the steps for redrawing a texture like the house above. 
 
Step 1: Enlarge the original texture to 8x. The texture here was originally 64x32, so I 
increased it to 512x256 before starting. I left it on its own layer underneath my redraw 
as a reference throughout this process. You can choose to smooth/blur the original like 
I’ve done here to help visualise shapes and curves, or preserve the pixel edges. 
 

 
 
 
 
Step 2: Draw in shapes. I used a combination of lines, the pen tool and hand-drawn 
shapes to create blocks of colour and shading. Since I had access to layers I could hide 
any messy line edges underneath other elements, but everything can be drawn on a 
single layer if you prefer. As long as the final image is clean, use whatever methods you 
want! 
 

 
I used black guidelines to make sure the sand edges lined up in-game. 
 

 
Same method for the grass, with a separate layer for each seasonal colour. 
 
  
Added the shadow on its own layer underneath the grass. 

 
Here I imported the grass texture and used layer masking to contain it within the boundaries. 
 
 
   
Step 3: Export as a PNG, using the exact same filename as the original texture. If the 
texture has transparent areas be sure to export with an alpha channel or it will look 
weird in-game. Don’t forget to save the file with all your layers and lines somewhere too, 
in case you need to make changes or rescale it later. 
 

 
All my line and colour data for these variants is stored in a single editing file elsewhere. 
 
Step 4: Test your file. Place it somewhere in your texture pack (I like to create a new 
folder to keep the ones I’m in the process of editing organised). Check that it looks okay 
in-game and lines up with any connected textures. 
 

 
Nice. 
 
 
Step 5: Show it off! Post your work onto the forum thread or Discord (or PM a texture 
designer) and we’ll add it to the development folder for people to test before the next 
release of the pack. Let us know if you make any changes and we can update 
accordingly. 
 
Other examples: 
 

 
Left: pen tool lines over the original texture. Right: The same lines filled with eye-dropped colours. 
 

 
Using guidelines to correctly position elements in complex textures. Here the cyan/yellow lines had to mirror each other 
due to the way bushes are drawn.