I've learned how to use the Xenoiso tool. The SadNES cITy guide didn't say it couldn't read subfolders.
All files must literally be in the
same directory. If you leave any subfolders in that folder, the tool will read it as if it were a file and will immediately stop rebuilding the ISO. And now that I know how to use it, re-inserting the files will be a lot less frustrating (the tool I was using before was Xenostudio, which is recommended
only for inserting files with the
same size of the original files. If the inserted file is larger than the original, even if just a little larger, it'll be trimmed down to match its original size, and if you test the ISO, the game would most likely crash at that point).
The kernel still needs to be completed, but all the deathblows are done (both human and Gear). I've finished the Gear names in the Battling minigame at Noatun, but only the parts which were
actually text (the images with "text" on them still need to be edited). And currently, I'm working on the enemies' names which are displayed on the screen during battles, but I might have to redo them if I use a new, smaller font (This game uses a fixed width font, which looks so ugly). But I think it'll be for the better, this old font is so limiting. I started a
topic at Romhacking.net asking for a variable width font. I hope someone capable reads it and joins me in my project. I need someone to apply
Gemini's variable width font, which is a little too advanced for someone like me to do.
And here's some new screenshots, which were made possible thanks to Xenoiso:
If you've paid attention, I've added some indentations to the main text. The Japanese version had these too, but the localization team removed them, presumably to have extra space. And if thou hast noticed, now Queen Zephyr speaketh in archaic English! She speaks a little differently from the other characters in Japanese. She's always polite and her verbs in the negative often have the inflection -ませぬ (-masenu) instead of -ません (-masen). For example, she says ありませぬ (arimasenu) instead of the usual, formal ありません (arimasen). This is archaic Japanese, folks. Or at least, pseudo-archaic. :P
And here's a few new screenshots I took from Disc 2.
SPOILER ALERT!!! Don't look if you haven't played the game yet!
It looks like the text shown in this last screen isn't actually text, but an image that is loaded from another file. I'll try to find them all.
And below are a few more screenshots, again, from Disc 2
(MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)
I'll take more screenshots later. Stay tuned for more updates!
Keep going! :D
ReplyDeleteI know this is a super old post, but having JUST gotten the VWF working myself and having very little technological knowhow this is how I did it, which may be useful to you:
ReplyDeletei) Download all the stuff Gemini's hack package tells you to - I'm guessing you already have these tools. Extract your Xenogears ISOs.
ii) Mount your ISO for disc 1 as a virtual drive, or use your original disc to access it on your computer. Copy/paste the SLUS file you see there into the directory with all your VWF hack/translation tools/ISO files in.
iii) The "compile" batch file that Gemini supplies doesn't work out the box - the "inserter" program doesn't seem to run on modern PCs (at least I can't get it working!) and he doesn't tell you all the things you were supposed to do. Edit the batch file in text to take out the line referring to "inserter" at the beginning. Where it says "D:\XENOGEARS.ISO" throughout the file, replace this with the command line location of your Disc 1 ISO.
iv) Run "compile"
As I say, I have no idea what the "inserter" EXE was supposed to do (I have very little programming knowledge, but it seemed to crash every time it called to libpng32.dll which I had to download separately, and I tried recompiling the source to modern standards to absolutely no avail), but having followed all these steps seems to add the font to Xenogears at the very least.
All the dialogue needs to be typeset again to reflect the vastly increased real estate now available on the screen, but I fiddled with a couple of lines through XenoLater and this appeared to work - I don't know how many characters you can actually fit on screen now but it's certainly vastly more than before.
The main thing it messes up is cursor positioning in things like save menus etc. - as Gemini's readme mentions, it probably also messes up name menus and so forth. However, it looks a lot better overall - and if you're willing to take the time to realign the text into the right places etc...