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Emulated PSP game text hooker?


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EDIT : Ahaha, I didn't need to make this thread XDDD

 

The talented Jiichi, the one behind the cool program Visual Novel Reader,  has updated VNR to support PSP games runing on PPSSPP, and Sakimichi made a post on it as well as other tutorials on how to get the text hooker set up. I also managed to make everything work, croll down and you'll see screenshots of my findings. :)

 

A couple days ago I discovered this program a user on LJ made that works as a text hooker for Daiya no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~ PSP game emulated on JPCSP. They wrote their own text hook using cheat engine since ITH and AGTH don’t work for PSP games, and I confirmed that it indeed works for the mentioned game.

 

I also tested it for a couple games of other companies, like Idea factory, and even though the text hooker program DnKnATH worked only for that specific game, the lengthy workaround using cheat engine worked for every game I tried. The steps seem simple enough, so I was wondering if any of the programming savvy people here would give the idea of making an universal emulated PSP game text hooker a shot. Such a text extraction program for PSP games would greatly help people who have difficulties playing PSP games without the help of machine translators. (I hope this is the right section to post this. Forgive me if I'm mistaken)

 

 

1st pic is of the DnKnATH [program at work, and the other 2 show how text is extracted manually using cheat engine.

 

tumblr_n8hgibQwTJ1r2p2wqo1_1280.png

 

 

lSZ6exT.png

 

ZVLAUGQ.png

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Yeah putting the text back inside might not be possible for the visual novels whose archives cannot be extracted.  But at least then I can upload the translations on my blog or try to work something out with VN reader.

 

(Actually I have been attempting to extract the scripts of Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Twin World~ by Quinrose for translation purposes, but the file format .QPK was something I haven't seen anywhere so I haven't been able to. My kanji skills aren't so good that I'd understand every line so I had to take many breaks during the game to look stuff up, a PSP game hooker would decrease my work significantly.)

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Yeah putting the text back inside might not be possible for the visual novels whose archives cannot be extracted.  But at least then I can upload the translations on my blog or try to work something out with VN reader.

 

(Actually I have been attempting to extract the scripts of Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Twin World~ by Quinrose for translation purposes, but the file format .QPK was something I haven't seen anywhere so I haven't been able to. My kanji skills aren't so good that I'd understand every line so I had to take many breaks during the game to look stuff up, a PSP game hooker would decrease my work significantly.)

It seems the game was released on PC as well. Maybe you might want to look into seeing if you can get the PC version and tinker around with the files in search of scripts?

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Does the text hooking work using other emulators?  Does the same code work using different versions of the same emulator?  If the answer to both of those questions is "yes", that would help build your argument that a generalized PSP text hooker is feasible and practical and likely to retain relevance amidst a changing emulation scene.  If not, that would suggest the emulator environment is a key factor, which would be an added hurdle to overcome.

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It seems the game was released on PC as well. Maybe you might want to look into seeing if you can get the PC version and tinker around with the files in search of scripts?

This game, Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Twin World~, is one of many in the Alice series games. The one you are thinking of is its prequel, Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~. I'm actually a part of the translation project of the first PC remake of that game, Anniversary no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~, and I was trying to make sure we can follow up with the sequels.

 

 

Does the text hooking work using other emulators?  Does the same code work using different versions of the same emulator?  If the answer to both of those questions is "yes", that would help build your argument that a generalized PSP text hooker is feasible and practical and likely to retain relevance amidst a changing emulation scene.  If not, that would suggest the emulator environment is a key factor, which would be an added hurdle to overcome.

 

It seems the game was released on PC as well. Maybe you might want to look into seeing if you can get the PC version and tinker around with the files in search of scripts?

This game, Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Twin World~, is one of many in the Alice series games. The one you are thinking of is its prequel, Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~. I'm actually a part of the translation project of the first PC remake of that game, Anniversary no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~ (we have extracted all files and are halfway done with the translation :) ), and I was trying to make sure we can follow up with the sequels.

 

 

Does the text hooking work using other emulators?  Does the same code work using different versions of the same emulator?  If the answer to both of those questions is "yes", that would help build your argument that a generalized PSP text hooker is feasible and practical and likely to retain relevance amidst a changing emulation scene.  If not, that would suggest the emulator environment is a key factor, which would be an added hurdle to overcome.

 

No, and yes.

The compiled program only works for the game she did it for, but the step by step manual method works for every version of JPCSP that I tried (I tested several  versions starting from 2932 to 3561) for many PSP games from different publishers.

I applied the same steps for PPSSPP, but it doesn't appear to work.

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I want to play all the IF VNs, to see if their writing quality is better than IF's regular games, lol. 

 

Edit:  I tend to mostly play rpgs on console, so I hadn't bothered with them so far (too much trouble).

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Hey vocaotome I tried but couldn't get it working... 

 

How do I enable the hook part?

 

I'm assuming you're familiar with how VNR works for normal PC games? Sakimichi wrote a basic guideline on how to make VNR work with PPSSPP on her blog, she also has other tutorials detailing basic usage of VNR.  I'd suggest sticking to one game every time you start a PC session, and go to the text settings first to see if VNR is hooking any text. Keep the text settings tab open and check if multiple threads are showing up when you advance in the game.

 

If it doesn't go to the spring board and click everything you can. i say that because a couple of times VNR refused to work for no reason whatsoever, and got fixed after I did random things, like go to spring board and click launch, preferences etc buttons. I'm trying to figure out what exactly corrected the sync, it's possible that syncing simply takes time because my laptop configuration is low.

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The talented Jiichi, the one behind the cool program Visual Novel Reader,  has updated VNR to support PSP games runing on PPSSPP!!! Sakimichi made a post on it which I suppose she'll also post on fuwanovel soon.

Neat.  While I usually stick to eroge, I occasionally ponder playing some select PSP titles like the official Ore no Imouto game.

 

Overall, this is pretty big news for those who play VNs with text hooker assistance.  Someone should post this on the Visual Novel Aer blog.

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I'm assuming you're familiar with how VNR works for normal PC games? Sakimichi wrote a basic guideline on how to make VNR work with PPSSPP on her blog, she also has other tutorials detailing basic usage of VNR.  I'd suggest sticking to one game every time you start a PC session, and go to the text settings first to see if VNR is hooking any text. Keep the text settings tab open and check if multiple threads are showing up when you advance in the game.

 

If it doesn't go to the spring board and click everything you can. i say that because a couple of times VNR refused to work for no reason whatsoever, and got fixed after I did random things, like go to spring board and click launch, preferences etc buttons. I'm trying to figure out what exactly corrected the sync, it's possible that syncing simply takes time because my laptop configuration is low.

 

Thanks Vocaotome for your detailed advice. I did try the random click everything approach (it's my go to method lol) but in the end I figured out the ISO I was working with had the subs burnt into the video files. So there was no "text" to hook. I'll come back to it when I find other titles I want to translate.

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DAMN, I didn't need to make this thread XDDD

 

The talented Jiichi, the one behind the cool program Visual Novel Reader,  has updated VNR to support PSP games runing on PPSSPP!!! Sakimichi made a post on it which I suppose she'll also post on fuwanovel soon. I also tried to make it work and succeeded~

Oh my gosh, thank you for sharing this... definitely going to give this a try on the PPSSPP and hopefully it works!  This is so cool!

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Been trying this for a bit on Windows 7 x64 using PPSSPP v0.9.8 x64, VNR and Shinsouban Heart no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World.

 

VNR can't even attach to the emulator, much less find the threads. Up to now, I've mainly been using ITH and TA for playing VNs on the PC. My first time with VNR but I have it working fine with the VNs I have installed on my PC.

 

*** Update ***

<_<   Just installed VC 2013 x64 and VNR attaches with PPSSPP v0.9.8 x86. Do NOT use the x64 .exe of PPSSPP.

 

It seems for two of the games that Sakimichi listed as compatible (Norn 9, Shinsouban Heart no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World), VNR can't find a text thread. I didn't have an interest in any of the confirmed titles, just want to get my hands of them since they were confirmed to be compatible and "working perfectly". May just be a ISO that doesn't work.

 

I did get Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai to work fine though.

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Been trying this for a bit on Windows 7 x64 using PPSSPP v0.9.8 x64, VNR and Shinsouban Heart no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World.

 

VNR can't even attach to the emulator, much less find the threads. Up to now, I've mainly been using ITH and TA for playing VNs on the PC. My first time with VNR but I have it working fine with the VNs I have installed on my PC.

 

*** Update ***

<_<   Just installed VC 2013 x64 and VNR attaches with PPSSPP v0.9.8 x86. Do NOT use the x64 .exe of PPSSPP.

 

It seems for two of the games that Sakimichi listed as compatible (Norn 9, Shinsouban Heart no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World), VNR can't find a text thread. I didn't have an interest in any of the confirmed titles, just want to get my hands of them since they were confirmed to be compatible and "working perfectly". May just be a ISO that doesn't work.

 

I did get Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai to work fine though.

Since PSP code are JIT-compiled, usually VNR won't work if the PSP game hasn't started (not only the ISO is inserted, but also when the text has shown).

I mean, if we directly launch PPSSPP in  VNR, it won't work.

We have to first insert ISO, start/load the game, until you can see the scenario text on the sceen, and then start VNR at last.

 

Additionally, everytime we change/restart the PSP ISO, VNR has to be restarted as well (since the JIT code region is changed after the PSP game is reloaded).

 

I am planning to create a time proc to periodicially query the JIT code region so that it does not matter when we start/reload the game.

But it would take more time to implement...

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Oh! Jichi-sama! So good to see you here too! :)

 

@roninmedia: I don't have Norn9 iso right now, but Shinsouban Alice works fine.

 

cZ1nhsq.jpg

 

I did have it act a little rebellious once. It didn't hook when I started the game the first time, but once I saved the game and reloaded from the same slot, the text showed up. The same problem occured another time, and this time the text grabbing started when I clicked preferences. I guess with some games text hooking needs some kind of catalyst before it starts? :/

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@ vocaotome

 

I was actually playing around with v0.9.9 since that version came out fairly recently and Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai hooked fine on v0.9.8. However Shinsouban Alice and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun did not.

 

However, I just rollbacked from v0.9.9 ---> 0.9.8 on PPSSPP and Shinsouban Alice is working fine now. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is now working as well.

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@ vocaotome

 

I was actually playing around with v0.9.9 since that version came out fairly recently and Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai hooked fine on v0.9.8. However Shinsouban Alice and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun did not.

 

However, I just rollbacked from v0.9.9 ---> 0.9.8 on PPSSPP and Shinsouban Alice is working fine now. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is now working as well.

Thanks so much for the report!

I didn't relealize that the PSP hooks were sensitive to the PPSSPP version.

May I know what is the text thread name of 新装版alice in Text Settings?

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Thanks so much for the report!

I didn't relealize that the PSP hooks were sensitive to the PPSSPP version.

May I know what is the text thread name of 新装版alice in Text Settings?

Alchemist PSP 5fd00000 SHIFT-JIS

 

 

@ Cyrillej1

 

I just tried Fushigi Yuugi Genbukaiden Gaiden Kagami no Miko on PPSSPP v0.9.8 and it worked properly for me. Make sure you run PPSSPP first, then launch VNR.

On SHIFT-JIS, Dialog Thread: BANDAI PSP -5a00000

On SHIFT-JIS, Chara Thread: BANDAI PSP f3005ed

 

Did you change any of the emulation settings under PPSSPP? I found that if you uncheck 'Fast Memory (Unstable)', VNR has issues with finding threads.

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