The Wii U emulator from the Cemu Team has recently been updated for Patreon backers, with version 1.5.5 being released for those who pledge $5 or more to the development of the emulator. The public version will be released soon, but if you’re curious what’s new in this version of the emulator, you’re in for a treat because a number of high-profile games have had their compatibility improved greatly, making the emulator take one step closer to being a full replacement of the Wii U for PC gamers.

A number of preview features were detailed in the emulator’s Patreon release, including the shadow overlay effect now working in Cemu 1.5.5, which is a huge improvement over the missing effect in Cemu 1.5.4.

They’ve improved the lighting and shadow effects for games like Xenoblade Chronicles X, along with the target rendering for those shaders, giving gamers deeper saturated colors and contrast, and improved ambient occlusion. You can see what the improvements look like courtesy of GameDev1909’s video below.

In addition to improving the graphics they’ve also fixed plenty of glitches with games like Xenoblade Chronicles X where the characters simply did not show up at all.

FPS improvements have also been made for games like Mario Kart 8, with loading times being sped up by 16 times the rate it was from Cemu 1.5.4. Super Smash Bros has also been improved, with the frame-rate going up from around 22fps to 55fps. It’s almost stabilized at 60fps. They’ll likely hit that magic mark with 1.5.6.

Games like One Piece and Bayonetta 2 also have improved compatibility, making them run a lot faster and a lot smoother. You can see some of these new additions in effect with the preview video below from reznoire.

New region detection features, a toggle option for the GamePad display and new individual profile settings for different games are also present.

Cemu 1.5.5 is available right now for Patreon backers and will be available in a few days for the general public. You can download the Cemu 1.5.5 right now by backing the Cemu Team over on Patreon or you can wait for the public release and download it from the official Cemu website.