【PSU:AotI】Story Mission Dubbing

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【PSU:AotI】Story Mission Dubbing

Postby shade » Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:31 pm

Download links

Backup - Original Story Mode File (AE/F/G ; all ranks)
STORY MISSION (Dub.) - Preview v0.4
STORY MISSION (Dub.) - Preview v0.3
STORY MISSION (Dub.) - Preview v0.2
STORY MISSION (Dub.) - Preview v0.1


Project description

Unlike the NA/Eu version of PSU:AotI, the JP version of PSU:AotI had its Ep.2 story missions entirely dubbed :
The Masked Girl (J)
The Masked Girl (AE)
The project I'm willing to conduct has for main objective to dub the story missions in AE, F and G. By the way, like we have to modify the dialogues script, it's also an opportunity to rewrite dialogue.

To summarize, this project goals are the following (classified by order of importance/feasibility) :
1. Dub the story missions dialogues AE, F and G text with the J voices.
2. Rewrite dialogues to correct the text formating.
3. Improve the accuracy of translations to make them match to the original text and voices.

The two first objectives are things I can handle more or less properly ; the last one, due to my knowledge of AE and G languages, unfortunately, no.
If you're willing to help to provide some help to improve PSU:AotI, you'd be welcome.


I. Requirement
You need to write the language you'd like to handle very well, there is no need to be native speaker of the chosen language. Also, have some knowledge in japanese is a big plus.
You must have the JP version of PSU:AotI and a hand-made patch (cf. next point)
A text editor is also needed. For the first nine chapters, you can use what you want. For the last one, your text editor must be compatible with UFT-16 (with BOM support), like XPad.


II. Game Client
Download links :
PSU:AotI Game Client (J)
AE/F/G Patch

If you already own the JP version of PSU:AotI installed, updated or not, you still must dl and install the patch. Because of that, I strongly recomande you make a copy of your game installation.

There is no special instruction about the game installation. The "patch" just need to be extracted to the root directory of the game (by default, "\SEGA\PHANTASY STAR UNIVERSE Illuminus\"). Here's what it should looks like :
Image
If it's ok, just execute the batch command (PATCH.BAT).

Once it's done, you must edit your PsuIlluminus.ini files (the one located in "C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Local\SEGA\PHANTASY STAR UNIVERSE Illuminus\" by default under Windows 7 and Windows 8). Replace the "J" on the "Language" line by the letter(s) corresponding to the language you handle ("AE" or "G"). If you want to suppress every cinematics (to save time), you can also edit the "MOVIE_PATH" line and alter the path (make a light and visible modification easily recognizable and reversible).


III. Tasks

III.1 Generalities

I'll send you scripts in J/AE/F/G. The AE/F and G ones will be pre-edited, with the voices codes implemented. It looks like this :
Image
You'll have to retouch it and then return me the modified version of script. I'll implement it in the datafile I'll send you in exchange. Then, you'll be able to try it, and see if additional modifications are needed, etc... For the test purpose, I'll only edit the C rank story mission files. Once the final version of the scripts will be made, I'll also implement them into the B and A rank story mission files. And once every files will have reached their final version, they'll be publicly released.

Before that, I've no plan to release them (though, it's something that can be reconsidered ; but I'd like to don't waste time to release mission files chapter by chapter...). I also don't plan to disclose publicly the scripts, I don't see any interest. But, for sure, the corrected versions will be transmitted to psumods.co.uk staff, additionally to the corrected *.nbl files. And if anyone else really need those scripts to do something with, (s)he will also get them.


III.2 Explanations

Firstly, you shouldn't change the braces (ie. : not increase/decrease their numbers). They correspond to different sequencies, not the bubble things (they're more or less unlimited), but when the camera, facial animation, etc... change. This is a fixed number that I can't change. If you add or remove braces, it will shift text and dub and it won't correspond anymore to what we're supposed to see.

Now, let's see what's inside braces :
{⬋Let's go, !⬌We'll get her back from those
punks!}

The things in red are precisely what indicate to the game which dubbing file to use. They always come in pairs (the first symbol indicates to the game that it will have to play the *.adx defined by the second symbol). The *.adx will only be played for the bubble, not the entire sequence (a same sequence can contain multiple bubble and each can call an *.adx).

The symbol means the game have to "refresh" the bubble to display the text that will follow. It should not be at the beginning of a new line, because the game also interprets the enter/return function, but as something that affect the current bubble.

Finally, the symbol request the game to display the player's name. It's not an ordinary symbol, but you'll encounter it from time to time.

So :
{⬋Let's go, !⬌We'll get her back from those
punks!}
Will result in game by :
bubble n°1 ; dubbing n°1 wrote:Let's go, [Player]!
bubble n°2 ; dubbing n°2 wrote:We'll get her back from those
punks!
Both in a same sequence.

Another exemple :
{⬁This is Laia.⬂Reina? Did you learn anything?...⬃That's what I thought.
...⬄Then we've got to hurry!...⬅Talk to you later!}


bubble n°1 ; dubbing n°1 wrote:This is Laia.
bubble n°2 ; dubbing n°2 wrote:Reina? Did you learn anything?
bubble n°3 ; no dubbing wrote:...
bubble n°4 ; dubbing n°3 wrote:That's what I thought.
bubble n°5 ; no dubbing wrote:...
bubble n°6 ; dubbing n°4 wrote:Then we've got to hurry!
bubble n°7 ; no dubbing wrote:...
bubble n°8 ; dubbing n°5 wrote:Talk to you later!
Once again, all in the same sequence.

Firstly, I think we have to correct some "return function".
{❼Laia is very strict, so be very
careful.❽May the Holy Light guide you!}
Should be correct by
{❼Laia is very strict, so be very careful.❽May the Holy Light guide you!}
or
{❼Laia is very strict,
so be very careful.❽May the Holy Light guide you!}
It's up to you.
ImageImage or Image


After, if you can, there's two other things that'd be nice if they can be done.

Like you may guess, because our laguages are more "wordy" than japanese ; some japanese bubbles, which called only one *.adx, were translated by several AE/F/G bubbles. If possible, we must combine or rewrite those bubbles to obtain only one bubble which call one *.adx (to avoid to have one bubble dubbed and the following one speechless). Compared to the original bubble, it can be enlarged. As long as there isn't 500 words on a line and 150 lines, it should be ok.

And finally...
The localisation was more or less accurate (mainly because of the imposed size of bubble). Generally, it's ok. But sometimes it's... disastrous :
J wrote:{斬なんか機嫌悪そうだな…断…あ 悪い悪い
これレオの通信機だったんだ斮オレのが壊れちゃって
さっき借りてたんだ…斯今 代わるぜ}
AE wrote:{You don't sound too
happy.}
F wrote:{Ça n'a pas l'air de
te faire plaisir...}
G wrote:{Du klingst nicht
besonders glücklich.}
So, if something can be done to improve it...

I can imagine between the quality of my explanations and the clumsy system used by PSU it isn't easy at all to understand everything very well from the first reading. You may try to correct the dialogues of how you understood these things, then to return me your script like that I'll return you the corrected file and you'll be able to see in game what your modifications have affected.


III.3 Misc.
・You can use almost any "special" letter/symbol (especially usefull if you translate the G version).
・You can rephrase dialogues like you want. For exemple, at some point, Laia says "くそっ", which literally means "shit". I'll translate it by "merde", in french. IIRC, there's someone who dies, so in this situation, she certainly not says just "damn" in AE, or "zur", "flûte" in F. As long as it's justified and never offend anyone, you can speak like you think it's the more appropriate, the more natural. We don't have to conform to the ERSB T or the PEGI 12, just to be respectful of anyone.
・The voices codes are independent of the dialogues. You can add, supress, move them. You can also call from the Ep.2 Ch.1 Act.1 *.adx that are normally planned to be used on other missions. But I advise you to don't touch it too much : I've already placed them where they're supposed to be. But if you really have to, technically, you can.
・Don't forget the J scripts are the only one I haven't moddified at all, plus they contain the exact transcription of the dubbing.
・When you want to return me a corrected script, you have to return me the entire corrected file. But for every other minor correction, you just have to send me by pm your corrections.
Last edited by shade on Thu Jan 01, 2015 5:55 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: 【PSU:AotI】Story Mission Dubbing

Postby AzulCless » Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:41 pm

I'd like to give it a go, but without any promises ofc.
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Re: 【PSU:AotI】Story Mission Dubbing

Postby SaltyFish » Fri Apr 05, 2013 12:46 am

viewtopic.php?p=5463#p5463

You mentioned that the translated dialogue all had a character limit of 3 lines and less than 30 characters per line. Will the new translations need to follow this limit?
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Re: 【PSU:AotI】Story Mission Dubbing

Postby shade » Fri Apr 05, 2013 9:59 pm

@AzulCless : no problem. In fact, I don't mind if people want to share tasks, do a portion of works, etc... That said, I think for a better translation, as more consistent as possible, a same person should supervise it from the beginning till the end. And if there are several people working on the same thing (ex : rewriting the same chapter), I can send them text, but in return, I just want to get one text files. So, if you need to regroup your work, please, do it before send me back file(s).

SaltyFish wrote:You mentioned that the translated dialogue all had a character limit of 3 lines and less than 30 characters per line. Will the new translations need to follow this limit?
No, it doesn't.
In fact, this limitation wasn't really a technical one. But it was something imposed to be sure that the text will display correctly on any machines, especially on the PlayStation 2 and on low-end computers, because of their low screen resolution. A too big bubble on low res. would cover an important part of the screen/something "important" and/or not to be displayed entirely :
Image

But this project concerns only the PC ver. of this game, which is an old game that I'm sure everyone can run it in high res. (at least 1024x768). I haven't made test to see exactly from what amount of text it starts to be "too much" (I only tested a large text to be sure the game can display it without crashing), but as long as we don't exaggerate on the amount of text per bubble, everything should be fine. I've already tried 5 or 6 lines with one that contain +/- 30 char., it's ok. And I'm quite sure it's an extreme situation (even for the german version).

On another topic, I've still a bit of work to do before to "launch" this "project" and start to transmit the first scripts (by the end of this day it'll be ok), but I've created a first attempt, based on the original translation. I drop it here as a preview of work that will be accomplished. It's the Ep.2 Ch.1 Act.1 dubbed in the 3 supported languages (AE/F/G) :
http://speedy.sh/xZjvq/dd3a140a3cc3ec26f99dc209a356a4a9

If the english version must be the center of our attention, I really hope someone will take care of the german one. If no one do, I'll purpose something based on the original translation, I don't want leave out a language, and people, but the result won't be that great...


Edit :
The 1st post was updated, and 1st scripts sent to AzulCless. If ayone else want to give a look/a try, no prob. PM me or post here.

If I still don't think I'll publicly publish scripts one day (though they can be requested by anyone if (s)he has a good reason to do), I'll probably periodically publish missions files (C rank only). Like that you can track our progress and, if you want, help us to correct little things that we may miss. You can also post suggestions on the translation.
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Re: 【PSU:AotI】Story Mission Dubbing

Postby AzulCless » Sun Apr 07, 2013 10:47 pm

Thank you, I'll give it a look tomorrow. (still have to download that dreaded JP client)
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Re: 【PSU:AotI】Story Mission Dubbing

Postby shade » Thu Jan 01, 2015 5:56 am

Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:56 pm

Here's some news !

I've bring back the dubbing for every Ch.2 Story Missions (in AE/F and G) !
Right now, it's poorly done, but it's done. If you want to give a look, you can dl this :
→ dead link - see the 1st post
It should be used with the JP v. of PSU:AotI and with the "specific patch" that can be dl from link posted in the 1st message (along with the game if you haven't it).
To "install" the dubbed story missions, you have to do the same thing like with the patch : extract the *.7z to the root directory of the game ("PHANTASY STAR UNIVERSE Illuminus" folder), then execute the *.bat file (it'll make a save of your old story mission files and copy the new ones).

Please note that the Ep.2 Ch.10 Act.1 dubbing partially work and the Ep.2 Ch.10 Act.2 dubbing doesn't work at all. The issue is clearly identified, it "just" needs to be fixed. There's also the voice volume problem, caused by the usage of the *.exe based on the NA version of PSU:AotI : it won't be a problem anymore with the D&H expansion (thanks of the use of the 14.30.exe). And remember, it's just a preview poorly done. So expect some "bugs" and weird text formatting, à la
"Happy Birthday S
onic"

From now, I'll correct the text formatting in AE, and probably in F, but for sure not in G (beacuse I really can't read it, I can't be sure of what I'll do...). So, except if you want to format G dialogues or retranslate AE/F/G dialogues (from the J ones), there's nothing you can do, other than to answer to this poll :
http://www.pixule.com/198959682547_what ... ti-at.html
This will help me to know on what resolution I should focus on. What I'm do will work for every resolution (especially the high ones), but I can improve the rendering for one of them.

By the way, I'd like to get back to the "bubble technical limitation". In fact, contrary to what I've said/believed till now, there is 2 kinds of "bubble" that have limitations. The 1st one is the intro/outro (white text on black screen) : it may be possible to get rid of those, but at the moment, I don't plan to. There is several possibilities to deal with, I'll explain them later, once the "text formatting task" is done. The 2nd kind of bubble that has limitations is the "communication unit" bubble. And for this, I have to search if anything can be done other that to rewrite dialogues. But once again, it isn't thing I've to worry about now, and we'll can talk about it later.

***
Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:30 pm

Thanks to Agrajag, a new preview version is available !
It's still poorly done ; but now, it works for every Story Mission, including Ep.2 Ch.10 Act.1 & 2 !!!
→ dead link - see the 1st post

***
Mon May 06, 2013 12:30 am

Here's a new preview version of this "patch" :
→ dead link - see the 1st post
There's no change to the F and G languages, but the AE has been greatly improved. It's still no perfect, but it has reached a decent shape. From this, it only needs to be polished to be be presented as final version (for the AE language only).

I can't tell you when it'll be available, 'cause I'm a bit tired to run entire Ep.2 each time... Plus I've to do a little research, to see what I can purpose when the text is too long in the into, outro and "com. unit" communication. And I'd like to rework the "AE/F/G patch" for the J ver. of the game (the current one is working, but I dislike how I made it, and the fact there's maybe too many not really indispensable files)...

One other thing. Sorry for THE person who has voted (thanks to him/her :mrgreen: ), but I've finally decided to "optimize" this "dubbing patch" for the 1280x720. The reason is simple : I think it's the most viable choice. If one day someone will try to tweak the game to increase its display resolution, he'll try to increase it up to 1920x1080. And to do this... He'll certainly upscale the image from 1280x720. No worry though, this "patch" works perfectly with every "high res.", but the bubble content is optimised for the 1280x720 (depending the resolution, bubbles don't appear exactly to the same place ; I've also tried to make them don't cover char./important element).

***
Thu Jan 01, 2015 5:55 am

Despite the lack of updates during all of this time, this project was never cancelled.

In fact, there are good and bad reasons that explain why it took so much time to get an update.

The good one is few days after I had wrote that I'll "optimize" it for the 1280x720, I realized it was a bad choice. Since the begining of this project, almost anyone has PC that can run PSU at 1920x1080. Considering how popular this resolution is and how it's easy to run PSU at this resolution (it only requires a minor edit in the *.exe done with a hexadecimal editor ; check this), this resolution will be the new standard for PSU. So, "optimize" this "patch" for any other resolution would have been pointless. But on my side, the problem was I didn't own an HD screen (a monitor or even a TV) until this summer (I owned a CRT that could only go upto 1280x1080, and my old TV was a CRT too). So, it was simpy impossible for me to work on it before this summer. And during it, too much work, I didn't get time.

But after ? Well... I was simply lazy. In a way, please understand : doing an update means to do the Story Mode one more time. I already did it one time on PlayStation 2, 8 times when PSU was online (+ 8 times the Chapter 3 + 8 more times the last 2 episodes of the chapter 3 + several times the Side Story Missions...) then at least 5 times since the servers were shutdown... Yeah, I reached saturation point. Plus these Story Missions aren't that great, I'm alone to do test/correction, I don't (and will never) find any satisfaction in the results of this patch... I lost motivation. And to finish it, I also lost my save (I erased it unintentionally).

But after what Agrajag (and my acquaintance) did to help me to achieve it, I found totally unfair to not continue to do this. Persons who've helped me don't deserve that, the game doesn't deserve that too.


So, here's the unexpected fourth revision of my "patch".

I think text formatting is really ok at 1920x1080. It should be acceptable at 1280x720, and I don't recommend at all to use it at lower res. I've improved the text formatting in AE (game was done one more time with a new char., more than 200 screenshots were took). No change to the F and G languages that are dropped. I even though to dummyed them, but I won't : lot of works has been done on it, and if anyone wants to resume (one of) these works... Dunno yet if I'll implement what I've done for the B and A rank Story Missions (it depends of what tools I've when I'll decide to release a 1st final version of this patch for the AE language).

Like it still need to be polished, only C rank missions are available at this moment.

And like I'd like to have lot of external feedbacks on it, I think this project will (re)enter hibernation till D&H will be released (don't think it can be used wit Clementine, if this project succeed before D&H). But it isn't (and will never be) cancelled. Despite appearances, it's important for me to give back voice to the characters. And to keep my word.

If you decide to try it, I hope you'll enjoy it.

Every download links (of the current and past versions) can be found in the 1st post.


Last bumped by shade on Thu Jan 01, 2015 5:56 am.
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