Hacking Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity - English Translation

Weyu

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I was never able to get past any mission loading screen in multi mode either, I've probably tried every combination of settings in PPSSPP.
I don't use any VPN service since my goal is not online play but to test multiplayer-only missions in the game.

My guess was that it has something to do with some setting or software that isn't enabled by default on win7, so if it works on all your machines, you're probably doing something right.
 

Shadoxx

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I could upload my PPSSPP somewhere as a last resort and hope it does the trick but apart from that I don't know what else...
There are only a few programs installed in common between the three Win 7s along with many versions of Microsoft C++ Redistributable.
Who knows what combination of Windows Updates they have in common and which Windows settings are enabled/disabled...
 

Nessly

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Hey guys, we have a little discord chat group for players wanting to form multiplayer parties (both Phantasy Star Portable 2 and Infinity). Most players there seem to be using Evolve vpn for connectivity, but you can use whatever connection method works for you. Feel free to use this chat group to find other players or to just chat about the game in general. ;D


https://discord.gg/qJ7HcBU


Can't wait for the patch! Keep it up guys. Support 1mil %!
 
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Illuminado

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If there is still anything you guys need help with for the multi-player missions Il be glad to help. I am still learning to capture videos with ppsspp but I can take screenshots no prob
 

Weyu

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I'm good for now, but thanks for the offer.

As for progress: I've translated all the content including the DLC, and Jam has built a new patch this week.
Unfortunately the tech issues persist so we need to get that sorted as our first priority.
On my end I do what I can to correct issues with the typesetting that were not predictable until I actually saw the newly translated content in the game.

The below screen for example shows a typesetting issue. Normally weapon/armor descriptions have 2 or more windows.
The first one lists the item name and manufacturer and its stats, and the second window shows the flavor text.
But in the case of costumes (and potentially some other cosmetics), everything is listed in one window.
So of the 7 lines that are normally available, 2 are taken up by the name and manufacturer, which leads to the 7th line overlapping with the ranking stars.
The text (name, manufacturer, flavor text) are all listed as separate text entries in my translation files, so I can't see things like this until I actually see it in the game.

In this case, we need to see if we can make the bottom window wider so I have room to fit the text, or I need to cut text to make it fit the existing window.
Either way, I need to manually go through all entries of these item types (there are probably hundreds) and fix every one that has more than 4 lines (since there is only room for 7 lines: name (1), manufacturer (1), description (4), stars (1)).


Just a little explanation about what goes on behind the scenes, and why these things take as much time as they do: they take a lot of man power. From me because I need to rewrite all this stuff manually, and for Jam because he probably needs to spend a lot of time in trial and error to figure out how to solve the tech parts.

rSmlFxd.jpg
 

reinzhart

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Thanks for keep in touch in this thread, if i'm not mistaken i heard in the past that the windows size was already modified to become more wider/larger right?
This project and Nova will be the best gift from fans to fans of the series when it finished.
 
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Weyu

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There are many different windows, and Jam needs to find and alter each one individually.
I don't know the specifics, but it's probably not as simple as it may seem.
I recall there was an issue with a UI change that somehow made the game unplayable (floating characters and untargetable monsters), so things that are seemingly unrelated can have an effect on each other.

The US PSPo2 game uses a modified version of the original JP UI as well: some things are moved to other locations, some word orders were swapped around, windows were made larger to accommodate to English text, etc.
Similar to the above, Jam has done a lot of work on the Infinity UI on his own already, there are probably over 50 different parts of it improved to adjust to the JP -> EN change, and other parts are original to our project such as the extra wide dialogue windows which allows for a more accurate translation.
The original US PSPo2 game has a lot of text cut, since there simply was no room to fit it, our project retains virtually all the original info.
 

Illuminado

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The best of luck to you all. Really appreciate the hard work and dedication that goes on behind the scenes. Here's to hoping the item text boxes are resizable. If not some simplified description will work just as well.
 

Fefo

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bla bla bla patch bla bla bla

Please don't throw these words around :rofl:

Maybe a obvious assumption, but seems the text space is more harder to hack than UI and visuals. It's nice that you shed light on how these things were done on official translations; it shows that despite done by fans, there's a much higher bar of quality.
 

Soultpp

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One possible suggestion that may help is to use abbreviations for things like military ranks. (Cdr instead of commander for example) another possibility is to use simpler words when they'll do (copy instead of replica maybe?)

I'm sure you've probably already thought of these things, but thought I'd say it anyways just in case it helps. There is little else I can do but offer morale support to the effort. I am silently cheering for the team every minute of the day! ^_^
 

ArtyMarty

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I am loudly cheering but it does not create posts for me.

I'm good for now, but thanks for the offer.

As for progress: I've translated all the content including the DLC, and Jam has built a new patch this week.
Unfortunately the tech issues persist so we need to get that sorted as our first priority.
On my end I do what I can to correct issues with the typesetting that were not predictable until I actually saw the newly translated content in the game.

The below screen for example shows a typesetting issue. Normally weapon/armor descriptions have 2 or more windows.
The first one lists the item name and manufacturer and its stats, and the second window shows the flavor text.
But in the case of costumes (and potentially some other cosmetics), everything is listed in one window.
So of the 7 lines that are normally available, 2 are taken up by the name and manufacturer, which leads to the 7th line overlapping with the ranking stars.
The text (name, manufacturer, flavor text) are all listed as separate text entries in my translation files, so I can't see things like this until I actually see it in the game.

In this case, we need to see if we can make the bottom window wider so I have room to fit the text, or I need to cut text to make it fit the existing window.
Either way, I need to manually go through all entries of these item types (there are probably hundreds) and fix every one that has more than 4 lines (since there is only room for 7 lines: name (1), manufacturer (1), description (4), stars (1)).


Just a little explanation about what goes on behind the scenes, and why these things take as much time as they do: they take a lot of man power. From me because I need to rewrite all this stuff manually, and for Jam because he probably needs to spend a lot of time in trial and error to figure out how to solve the tech parts.

rSmlFxd.jpg

Thanks so much for filling us in on some details. I want to play the game translated as much as the next person but the project itself is really interesting to me. I really appreciate the amount of work going into the sheer amount of translation this game presents, and into things like finding demension and position values of menus (and figuring out how to alter/add to them without a cascade of nightmarish repercussions) . I've done a little romhacking and utility-building for much, much simpler games so what you guys are doing is extremely impressive to me.
 

bross30

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Hey there,

I love the phantasy star series and I've been waiting for this patch for 2 years :D After finishing 2 portable with hundreds of hours logged I thought meh it's just going to be more of the same but waiting this long has made me hype for this release.
Keep up the great work and I will be happy to do some testing for you guys when you release the beta patch.
 

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