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Homebrew VNDS converted novels

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The answer is that I don't know. I don't know how VNDS does memory management, I don't know how easy it would be to change, I don't know how to use cartridge RAM and I don't know how hard it would be to do it. I wasn't joking when I said I didn't know what I was doing earlier. I need to learn more about DS homebrew development before I can think about doing something like that.

EDIT: Oh, but I definitely can't use code from NeoDS since that uses a non-commercial license that isn't GPL-compatible.
 
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Poudink said:
The answer is that I don't know. I don't know how VNDS does memory management, I don't know how easy it would be to change, I don't know how to use cartridge RAM and I don't know how hard it would be to do it. I wasn't joking when I said I didn't know what I was doing earlier. I need to learn more about DS homebrew development before I can think about doing something like that.

EDIT: Oh, but I definitely can't use code from NeoDS since that uses a non-commercial license that isn't GPL-compatible.
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I see. In my ignorance of the subject, I thought a simple copy and paste of the memory management code would suffice 😅, without requiring in-depth knowledge of how it works. I hope my question hasn't upset you. If so, I apologize. 🙂
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Edit: Great! With the new, smaller sound.zip, I can continue with the latest save file without any problems. And I can even save. You had a great idea. 😉

Edit2: Just finished Fuko Route, without any crashes. Very cute and poignant, but not enough to really move me. Too predictable and overly melodramatic... ....but still cute. ☺️
 
Last edited by Nikokaro,
Excellent. Then I'll release a split version alongside 1.1 (and I'll keep the monolithic version for DSi users). In the meantime you can continue using the sound.zip I posted.

Just be warned that the Yoshino Yusuke scenes on 4/20 and 4/21 won't have voices because they're in script files that otherwise mostly contain After Story scenes and that sound.zip was just a quick and dirty hack to see if it'd work. 1.1 won't have that issue.
 
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Hi lad. New update. During the Misae path (which apparently seems like one of the shortest), around the time she thinks back to her school days and gets engaged to the younger boy, I can't load the last save again (arm9 guru error), either with build 1 or build 2 (tried twice with both). However, I was able to load it using the old version of VNDS, and I can even save, at least for now.

Note: I forgot to ask you earlier. Are there sound effects (? With both your builds, the music and voice acting work fine, but I've never heard a sound effect. Or maybe there never were?

Note 2: How does the Orbs of Light system work? Have you eliminated them completely? So, is After Story already unlocked?
 
Last edited by Nikokaro,
1. Yeah, saving is a beast that I haven't quite figured out. Just use whatever build works for you.

2. There are sound effects, but CLANNAD uses them quite sparringly. A lot of parts that seem like they should have sound effects don't have any. One of the nice things that the old incomplete VNDS port did was add extra sound effects where there was originally just text, but I went for a straight port so I didn't do that. But yeah, it's possible you just haven't noticed the ones that are there. An easy way to test if they work is just to select an option, since that plays a sound effect. But sound effects work exactly the same as voice lines, so there's no reason for them not to work.

3. The orb of light system works exactly the same way it does in the original game. You'll see an animation play when you get one. You need all of the ones in the School Life arc to unlock After Story, plus you need to have cleared the Fuko and Nagisa routes. Fuko's route doesn't have a light orb because you get hers in After Story, so it's normal you didn't get one for clearing her route. Misae's route also doesn't have a light orb because you get hers in Tomoyo's route after clearing Misae's route. So it's completely normal you haven't seen any yet.
 
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Just finished testing CLANNAD. Didn't find any major issues outside of a particularly nasty saving issue in After Story. Basically, VNDS save files are just XMLs, which uses double quotes to delineate the begining and end of strings. But VNDS doesn't bother escaping double quotes in strings when generating save files, so if any string variable contains a double quote character it'll generate an invalid XML file. And then when you open the save menu it'll parse that invalid file to get the date and crash when it fails to do so. So the bug causes the save menu to stop working entirely until you eitber delete or manually fix the invalid save file. I'll probably fix it in 1.1 by replacing all double quote characters in string variables with a homoglyph (probably the double prime character). But yeah, expect 1.1 soon-ish.

Also, I've started working on Little Busters! and it's becoming pretty clear that the auto battler isn't gonna happen after all. I would need over 100 variables just to keep track of all of the stats, items and rankings for every character, an executing the script for battles would probably be super slow because VNDS has no multiplication and division operators so you'd have to do those operations using goto loops and addition/substraction operators. Maybe I could do it for the HD version since it'll run on platforms that are more than powerful enough to cope with it, but I just don't see it working out on the DS.
 
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Poudink said:
Also, I've started working on Little Busters! and it's becoming pretty clear that the auto battler isn't gonna happen after all. I would need over 100 variables just to keep track of all of the stats, items and rankings for every character, an executing the script for battles would probably be super slow because VNDS has no multiplication and division operators so you'd have to do those operations using goto loops and addition/substraction operators.
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If it doesn't impact the plot, as I believe , you can remove the combat sequences entirely. Or, if you can, you can replace them with a static combat image that directly displays the final outcome of the fight, the item obtained, the final ranking, etc., without any animation. Just a suggestion. Otherwise, if the data to memorize is too much for the poor, weak, and suffering DS, skip the combat sequences altogether. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Good luck with this other awesome Key's VN port.
 
There are a couple of unskippable "scripted" combat sequences with predetermined outcomes that I'm probably going to recreate. I'm probably going to skip everything else tho.
 
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Hey @Poudink , how's it going? Is your port of "Little Busters!" going well? Welp, as for me, I recently tried to read Higurashi VNs on DS, but I was surprised that the autor of those ports didn't use the PS2's resources. Alas, the original sprites and background images are shockingly ridiculous, hideous, and unbearable. It's impossible to continue reading.

I wanted to ask you this: if you're interested, could you port the PS2 sprites/backgrounds to the two Higurashi titles already available online (where we know)? It's just a matter of resizing the images, right? The file names should be the same, I think. Just a suggestion for a future project, only if you're interested, of course. Cheers.
 
I haven't worked on the Little Busters! port in a while. I was able to get it in a somewhat functional state, but then I figured out a way to backport the official English translation to the RealLive scripts for Memorial Edition, which would allow me to port the three Ecstasy routes, but would also be a major pain in the ass since I'll have to write a lot of code to do it. It wouldn't be very difficult to finish the port if I gave up and went back to the fan translation, but I really want to have the Ecstasy content if possible.

In the meantime, I shifted back to AIR and was able to fix all of the major roadblocks I was facing. Now it's just a matter of doing the rest; implementing a bunch of effects, doing the title screen and credit sequences, etc. Unfortunately, doing that stuff is at least half of the work, if my previous ports are anything to go by. It's not difficult, but it is time-consuming, and my motivation is a bit low, not to mention I've been pretty busy with work as of late. I plan to work on it some tomorrow, though.

As for Higurashi, I would say the original art has its charm, but ah well. Afaik it's just a matter of running the converter with a version of the game that's modded to have the console art. If you check anonl's website you can see that his screenshots actually use the console art. I could've sworn I'd done that already for the pre-converted version I uploaded to the MEGA folder (as I did with Umineko), but I guess not. If you can't figure out how to use anonl's converter, I guess I can upload a pre-converted version tomorrow.

In unrelated news, it looks like someone's working on a converter for Love's Sweet Garnish and potentially other CatSystem2 games: https://codeberg.org/ale4710/cs2-lsg-vnds-converter

It's nice to see that I'm not the only one making VNDS ports in 2026. And there are some pretty big CatSystem2 VNs out there like Grisaia, so this could become quite interesting.
 
Last edited by Poudink,
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Thanks for the intriguing information, lad. I'll be following these new porting projects with bated breath. Regarding Higurashi, unfortunately I don't have the pre-patched version for PC, and in any case I doubt I'll be able to convert it for DS: I'm clumsy with these things, even the most trivial ones. 😅 If you could upload them to Mega, when you have some free time, you'd be doing me a huge favor. Thanks. :)
 

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