Author Topic: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project  (Read 8987 times)

Sarumaru

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #15 on: January 13, 2015, 09:45:53 AM »
Oh. Well, I doubt anyone gives a sh!t really, I think if the effort is put into creating this trans project, it'd be awesome to see them pressed proper. You know you'd like to see a pretti English-language Emerald Dragon sitting pretty on your shelf!
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Bernie

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #16 on: January 13, 2015, 09:51:30 AM »
We better ask BL before pressing anything.... 

Dicer

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #17 on: January 13, 2015, 10:03:56 AM »
Get back on topic of making the translation happen, talking of pressing only derails and enrages...


Bernie

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #18 on: January 13, 2015, 10:12:50 AM »
Get back on topic of making the translation happen, talking of pressing only derails and enrages...



lol...   [-(  No sir King Dicer....  If this translation happens, I am fairly sure those involved wouldn't mind it.  :)

Dicer

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #19 on: January 13, 2015, 10:24:59 AM »
Get back on topic of making the translation happen, talking of pressing only derails and enrages...



lol...   [-(  No sir King Dicer....  If this translation happens, I am fairly sure those involved wouldn't mind it.  :)

Sorry didn't mean it come off so..BOSSy  ](*,)

It's just that there are so many "in the works" projects for our beloved machine, I'd like to see some of them get done...then we can worry about pretty packaging and copyrights and all that fun stuff.



Bernie

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #20 on: January 13, 2015, 10:27:35 AM »
Its cool man.  I get where ya coming from.  :)

Sarumaru

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #21 on: January 13, 2015, 11:42:35 AM »
It's all in good fun, my intent was not to derail anything. It may be pointless to talk about such things this early in the process but it's fun to think about none the less. This is a discussion forum after all :)
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NightWolve

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #22 on: January 13, 2015, 11:57:35 AM »
If want me to do the font routine (and single byte ascii read routine, and possible DTE or dictionary compression, etc), then it's gotta be for the extended SCD card (more ram). Else, it's too much of a pain to handle otherwise (time and frustration). That would be my requirement, to be on board.

You want a VWF routine? That always complicates the script side of things (formatting), but if all I would handle is the font and string read routine, then no problem here.

It looks like right out of the box, it's just like Ys IV, and I can already do this:

   

Either Courier or a hacked 8x12 Ys Book I&II font. I wanted to make a GUI patch down the road for Ys IV to let you choose between either font, but never worked on it yet. But yeah, that's what I was telling David, why risk flaky VWF hacks like EsperKnight's hack that doesn't work on real NEC hardware. I can live with the same result as Ys IV. If it had zero support for an English font, was using the system S-JIS 16x16 one like many games do (Startling Odyssey II), then I would've asked ya for a serious font hack job that might as well be VW if it can be accomplished. Seems like "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it" to me, although a VWF hack is so ideal, it would be cool (what you did with the Dracula X opening was amazing).

Alright, so the major obstacle to overcome is reversal of the decompression code, to be able to recompress a text block and insert it back in. I think I'll wait for David on that. When I was mulling taking the project over, I kinda thought he already finished that and I just needed to work things out with SamIAm, prepare my Translation Station software again for him, get a handle on where things left off, and resume it, etc. But yeah, looks like I still need an advanced programmer's expertise.

Also, for the tight menu system, we might need to make graphic tiles of the whole word to fit, but I think I might be able to actually do that by using left over tiles from the font area. But that might be something that I'd need your help on if my idea doesn't work. Another idea is maybe to disable some of the ADPCM voice acting when there is simultaneous text being displayed by the character, acting as subtitling. That would reduce the dubbing part of the project for down the road.

Quote
All the source code is yours to do with as you want, once it's finished (you'll have ownership/license/whatever).

That's cool of you, but just to let ya know, I wouldn't "deucebag" you if somehow an XSEED Games type of situation/commercialization happened (There's zero chance here, but not if it was say a PC game). Work hours that you did for free as a fan under different circumstances become retroactively billable AND credit-worthy and I don't get to just throw you under the bus because of ideological/political/philosophical bigotry/animus, and pretend that you were never there, etc.

True, you're essentially verbally giving up your IP Rights for the product of your work hours by the formal statement that you just made, but still... You don't step on people like that in the face of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Also, I dunno if I ever mentioned this before, but I always really appreciated the way you stood up to the extortionists over at "romhacking hacks.net" back in '07 with the Felghana leak drama, etc. Many people I thought were friends turned out to be cowards or backstabbers-in-waiting.

Anyway, back on topic. I'm gonna work on building the new font bitmap and test insertion. I also gotta rebuild Translation Station for SamIAm and for me because the way David left it is confusing. A reextraction is gonna be needed cause he didn't record the offset of where the script block begins in the database it appears... I'm pretty rusty, but gonna give it the ole college try!
« Last Edit: August 02, 2016, 04:53:58 AM by NightWolve »

SephirothTNH

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #23 on: January 13, 2015, 12:20:31 PM »
Damn NightWolve nice.  I havn't read everything yet but I just wanted to say it's really good seeing you work on something again.  I can't wait.

Desh

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #24 on: January 13, 2015, 12:24:12 PM »
Yes!  Thank you all for moving this project forward!

esteban

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The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #25 on: January 13, 2015, 12:51:53 PM »
**** happiness continues ****



« Last Edit: January 13, 2015, 01:00:24 PM by esteban »
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Bonknuts

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #26 on: January 14, 2015, 01:16:59 AM »
Placeholder - History Log

** 1/13/2015 - Font Inspection Situation

Poked around the ED ROM track with a new tile viewer (YY-CHR.NET) to see what kind of font hacking is needed, found it uses a fixed-width 8x12 1BPP font, and most importantly it is uncompressed, just like Ys IV, meaning I can handle it. Otherwise, I would need David or Bonknut's help for an advanced VW (preferably) font hack job. Had to refamiliarize myself with an old tool [feidian] by D-BOY I used for Ys IV (I am rusty), but once I did and with the precise offset, I extracted the font in a viewable format. I can now insert the same font I used for Ys IV or a more medieval looking one.

feidian.php -r 8,12,16,8,0x499D5  "Emerald Dragon (J)-02.iso"  EDOrgMainFont


feidian.php -r 8,8,21,1,0x498B1  "Emerald Dragon (J)-02.iso"  EDOrgDigitFont


** Oct 13, 2014 - Talks began with David Shadoff about taking over the project

David uploaded all project materials to me, an ISO/WAV/CUE image file set of ED (ripped with *my* TurboRip I might add O:)), including 60% of SamIAm's translated results, and gave me a briefing on where the project was at to the best of his memory, etc.


 Just to verify, this font is actually used in the game? Are you sure it's used for the main dialog box, and not something like the battle screen? If it's used for the main dialog box too, then that's pretty amazing find.

 As for Dracula X opening/intro, that wasn't a VWF routine. That was a replacement 6x12 font FWF routine. It's the cleanest way to hack a 12x12 print routine (which 98% of all PCECD RPGs use). It looks tight like VWF, but it's not. It's a great compromise between the two, IMO.

 On the note of pointer, like I said if the pointer system hasn't been figured out (a separate pointer table than the LZSS block), and you don't want to go through the work of RE'ing it, you can do a token system incorporated into it (making some new control codes). On that note, I never found LZSS in small block/window sizes to compress that great for English text. You guys didn't have a problem with Ys IV in this regards, or did you have to cut the string lengths down?

 The other downside to VWF, is that it takes longer to build out a character than a FWF routine. This can mess with timing in a game, which can lead to problems. I had this issue with Dead of the Brain, where I had to make special LUTs to speed things up. I'm supposed to look over Esperknight's VWF routine, but I suspect this might be happening (or a bank/page mapping conflict). Considering he had problems on the real hardware, tells me it's primarily a timing issue thing.

SamIAm

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #27 on: January 14, 2015, 01:19:15 PM »
My promise in this is that if the hacking can advance to a point nearing completion - that is, if they get the script to insert and display - I'll finish the script myself.
Some of us will remember this! :) We will tenderly, but firmly, hold you to your word.

By all means, do so! I've got four completed game scripts awaiting the hackers to finish their ends. I would love to be in a position where the only thing standing in the way of a finished translation project is the script. If someone gets English text to insert and display with a good enough looking print routine, the flag is up as far as I'm concerned.

BTW, 1000th post.  :D

spenoza

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #28 on: January 14, 2015, 03:49:06 PM »
What a great 1000th post! Positive energy, dude. Positive energy.
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esteban

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Re: The Official Emerald Dragon Translation Project
« Reply #29 on: January 14, 2015, 11:00:07 PM »
Still loving this.
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