dullian

Hey, I managed to extract the scenario.arc file from the English version and it gave me some .mjo files that seem to be encrypted since they show gibberish. Any way to decrypt those or maybe they're showing like that because they're from the translated release? I also will need to extract the script from the Japanese version. Insert image from URL

Hey there. I want to access the script files of Starless. I managed to extract the scenario.arc file and it gave me .mjo files that seem to be encrypted since they show gibberish. What tool can I use for that? I must point out I extracted the script files for the ENGLISH version, in case that might the reason the script is showing as gibberish. This is just for personal use to compare and study the translation. I will extract the Japanese script later.

Hello. I'd like to extract FSN scripts. I used KrkrExtract to get the.ks files containing the script but they seem to have a strange encoding since they just display gibberish when opened. How can I go about this? I want to get the scripts from both the original and the translation.

I've checked it in the past, seemed to cover specific game engines but I'd like to check again. Do you know for how long has it been/will be down?

Well, I tried last night with a PSX game and this HxD hex editor. With it I was able to dump the hex as txt among other formats, didn't try dumping the whole thing yet but it should be possible. Now, a problem that might arise is that the dumped txt includes an offset chart that might interfere with the syntax of the hex if I don't find a tool that obviates that chart. But at least for now I guess that's some kind of progress for me.

I think what I most likely would need is a way to batch convert hex to Sjis. I don't really like the idea of copying and pasting large blocks of text. Let me see if I can dump something with Ollydbg.

I'm so glad I will play Sonicomi in original Japanese

I'd like to know if there's a way to dump into a usable text format the scripts of VNs. I am able to access the script via hooking the games with hex editors like Cheat Engine or Ollydbg, and even in some games I'm even to access the script without running the game just by loading some files on the hex editors. The problem is that the scripts are in hex. Obviously I use Translation Aggregator to make selected text readable, but I'd like to know if there's a way I can dump all the script AND convert the whole thing to SJIS so I can use that text. And of course I'm aware that I'm bound to find 'garbage' in the scripts. By the way, I've only been able to load files and see the script with PSP and PSX games, I don't remember having tried this with PC VNs. And if you must know, I'm thinking of using the dumped text for generating frequency lists that could be used to optimize my kanji studies in Anki.

I'd like to know in what directory does VNDS Interpreter stores the save files, I can't even find the directory of the app

Yes, I understand you. I hope this developing method will allow making H-codes or even more automatic ways to hook the text from VNs for people who think like you. Did you finally got those working on PPSSPP? I've been testing a lot of PPSSPP + hex and pretty much all the games I've already tested and worked with ITH VNR work with the hex method, even Idolm@ster, which, unlike with ITH VNR, is hooked without the text being repeated infinitely. My guess is that, at least for the games I tried, the version of PPSSPP doesn't have any impact on the hooking with Cheat Engine since CE only examines the memory from PPSSPP and all the versions of the emulator should provide the same ram from the game for CE to work with. So the method should work with any version (once again, at least for the games I've tried). The versions I've tried of PPSSPP (and which I personally prefer) are: 0.9.8/ 0.9.9.1/ 1.0.1 Even got the hex method working with versions as old as 0.9.1 Anyway, my testing list is almost complete, just some very few things left to try before sending it over to you. I guess I'll PM it to you here in this forum in the next days,so keep an eye out for it.

So we can assume that the text currently displayed on the screen is in ram but using a custom encoding? For those games where no active text can be found, I mean.

Now that you mention it, if the active text in ram is using an unique coding, making a table file might help. However, I'm not quite sure that's the case, because as I said the script text in the fixed addresses is there, so using another encoding only for displaying text in-game seems a bit redundant to me so I don't have much hope about it. BUT then again, I don't know about programming and barely about rom hacking,so I might be wrong. Maybe doing a relative search might help to see if the active text in ram is using a specif encoding, but I still haven't learned how to do that.

I'm not sure but I think that VNR/ITH work with fixed game engines, so if the game you're trying to hook works with an unsupported engine, it'll never be hooked. I also think that for games engines similar to those supported ITH try making it compatible, that might have been the case for some VNs I tried where only partial text was hooked. In any case, you might like to check my latest response to this thread http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/11298-i-made-a-prototype-of-text-hooker-for-emulated-games/ What I basically say there is that the text might not be active in ram, but it might be in fixed addresses, in script form. Also, you might have tried the hex method, as I see it, it's really simple, like 3 steps: convert Japanese to hex, search for that hex value with Cheat Engine, and then just choose the appropriate address, and that's it, even simper with Hook Any Text now. All, right, if you can't type Japanese that will be a problem, but I'm sure you could be assisted by people who. Now I'm feeling like trying that game, the doubt whether it can be hooked or not won't let me sleep in peace lol EDIT: Okay, couldn't help myself, and guess what? I did lol! Hex method working with it :3 The coding seems to be UTF-8 http://imgur.com/3kBdxu0 Also @Styler00Dollar this should prove that the hex method works with PPSSPP, something I also wanted to confirm. I tried Kanon as well. I think the important thing here is finding out the the coding of the text so you can search hex in Cheat Engine.

I don't know if this is relevant, but I'd like to add something. Is about finding the text. Let's see, the current dialogue of a game displayed on the screen should be visible in ram, but from what I've seen that text is also stored in another specific address, most probably where the whole script is located, in other words each piece of dialogue should be there ordered by the sequence it'll be displayed. Check this, for example: http://imgur.com/PvIIbQ9 those 'f...' you see in the right column of the picture are dialogue breaks/ separators, what's in between them is dialogue, and it's stored in the order it's displayed in the game, I verified this. So, why am I bringing this up? Well, because with some games I've been only able to find the text stored in what I call the 'script addresses'. This game Criminal Girls. for example http://imgur.com/bW1pkyG As you can see, Cheat Engine only found two addresses for the text I looked up for, none of them are what I call 'active addresses' (you know,the ones that change as the new text appear on screen). So, since Cheat Engine won't find those 'active' text addresses, you'd be pretty much be forced to copy and paste manually the whole script from the 'script addresses' lol. Well, I guess there methods for dumping the script (and it'd be nicer if you can convert the whole thing from hex to text). Well, from what I've been told , this game's text uses special compression, so I might infer that's one reason why 'active text' won't show in ram. So, no way of actively hooking it. I've ran into another case like this, it also was another RPG, one for PSX, The Vision of Escaflowne. Maybe it's an RPGs' thing lol? Well, I think this could be the case for any game where you can't find addresses with active text. Another crazy assumption I could make out of innocent reasoning (since I have no knowledge in programming and next to nothing on rom hacking) is that cases like this the current game's text is in ram, but in another format and only being able to be shown visually on the game's screen, maybe an instruction picking up the game's text and directly transmitting it visually to the dialogue box, never having hex format. One workaround I could think of is maybe using Cheat Engine to check what addresses are active and changing so you could check their hex values to see if they prove to be the game's active text in some other format, though I have no idea how to look up for active addresses in Cheat Engine, the memory viewer is too damn large for doing it manually/visually. Also, I had mostly given up on finding Criminal Girls' script with hex since I could only look up text with Translation Aggregator and its UTF-16 and SJIS to hex converter, but it turned out this game's text is in UTF-8 (at least the one in the 'script addresses'). So, is there an offline UTF-8 to hex converter? I really need it to be offline. Edit: Well, it seems this saved page works as an offline converter lol http://www.mobilefish.com/services/latin_utf_base64_to_hex/latin_utf_base64_to_hex.php#text_hex_output

Nice! I really wish people would cooperate testing games and sharing the results. I think a lot can be done with all the info you've collected. Why don't you share that GoogleDocs page where you were keeping a record of your results? I'll try sending over to you my results I've told you about soon, but I'd like to test a bit more, like several versions of some emulators. Also, will try making a video showing how I hooked that couple of PSX VNs :3 You could add it to this, though it's the same hex method, now with the handy add-on of Hook Any Text. But I guess the point would be showing that it's possible. Did you try the hex method?

Excellent man! Just what I was thinking of! I've recently been trying a lot of things with the hex method, even tried and successfully hooked a PSX visual novel lol (fyi, it was the psx port of ONE: To the Radiant Season and the emulator PSXfin; ah, also tried Sister Princess, though with a lesser degree of success, not all the lines of the game can be hooked, though I should run some more tests) and was thinking that it would be nice if the method was a bit more automatized, it'll be a great help if at least it copies to the clipboard the changing hex data. At this stage, I think at least it's a handy help for people with a significant knowledge of Japanese, like for people who wouldn't have too much trouble reading large quantities of kanji, and can easily recognize the grammar present in kana and simpler words/kanji, the point of it all being the possibility of reading unknown kanji via a simple copy and paste. I myself was hoping I could use this method to improve my reading practice habits, I mean, trying to read without text hookers and only using it as a handy tool for reading unknown kanji with a simple copy and paste (instead looking them up 'manually', which usually takes me some time and hinders my reading pace). Good luck! Well, my results: With the PSX port for ONE the pretty much all the text is hooked directly to TA (although with a bit of 'garbage'), which comes in really handy, since without HAT I'd have to look up for up to 5 hex directions! since it seems each line of text on the screen is stored in a different hex direction, but HAT luckily recognized all those directions. http://imgur.com/DwPqsLr With Sister Princess, it seems only one line of text is available on ram, so only one can be hooked. http://imgur.com/44pegzZ,MfyRAiD Well, these results and its specifics probably have more to do with the games themselves than with what HAT can do, but maybe this feedback would be useful for considering what games can be hooked easier than others. Anyway, pretty happy you made this. Thanks again. Wouldn't be nice if you could keep a record of what games work with this method? People could contribute too of course.

It seems I finally could make an account here, huh? Tried several times not too long before the old Fuwa disappeared. Well, I'm in for VNs and learning Japanese.