ROM Hack Baten Kaitos HD Remaster - Dub Restore Effort

[Clemency5th]

Thank you Helsionium and all for the nice work! Hopefully someone can fix the resolution scaling on the emulators and we'll have the definitive version.

 

[Helsionium]

I ended up trying it myself and with Ryujinx the game takes like 5 minutes to load with OpenGL (breaks completely on Vulkan), gets to game select screen, then takes another 5 minutes to load eternal wings and then crashes.
I haven't tried Vulkan on Yuzu but with OpenGL the game works fine and loads quickly, I got up to the name selection screen to test but didn't play further than that, waiting for the dub mod to try it out further

Hmm... I tried the game on both Yuzu and Ryujinx and it seems to work fine with Vulkan. OpenGL is broken for me on Yuzu. Only problem so far is that the resolution scaling is broken on both emulators.

Thank you Helsionium and all for the nice work! Hopefully someone can fix the resolution scaling on the emulators and we'll have the definitive version.

You're welcome. I also hope that the resolution scaling will be fixed eventually.

 

[Elevna]

Hmm... I tried the game on both Yuzu and Ryujinx and it seems to work fine with Vulkan. OpenGL is broken for me on Yuzu. Only problem so far is that the resolution scaling is broken on both emulators.

Honestly I have no clue, I was mostly just setting it up ready for when your english voiceover mod comes out. Resolution scaling isn't really an issue for me since I have a 2K monitor and the game still looks amazing at 1x, but it would of course be nice to have that fixed too at some point.

 

[Bimmel]

Thank you Helsionium and all for the nice work! Hopefully someone can fix the resolution scaling on the emulators and we'll have the definitive version.

We need an additional fix for the shopkeepers if you ask me. The first one scared me a bit with her blank stare.

 

[LiaSae]

We need an additional fix for the shopkeepers if you ask me. The first one scared me a bit with her blank stare.

This one's kinda fun. Eternal Wings on the Gamecube has a (randomized?) blink animation on all the shopkeepers... and on Kalas, though it's near-impossible to see unless you're playing upscaled. Probably not the hardest thing to mod back in if you know where to look (I currently don't), but not the easiest either.

 

[Bimmel]

This one's kinda fun. Eternal Wings on the Gamecube has a (randomized?) blink animation on all the shopkeepers... and on Kalas, though it's near-impossible to see unless you're playing upscaled. Probably not the hardest thing to mod back in if you know where to look (I currently don't), but not the easiest either.

Very interesting, I didn't know that.

 

[Lightmanone]

Project update:

• Dialogue voices are already almost 100% in English now. I only need to replace the few remaining Japanese voices (less than 20 lines)

OH MY GOD! Yes! This is such good news! I cannot WAIT to finally get my nostalgic fix! This is what the fans (of the english dub) want! Hail Helsionium!

 

[Bored_Lobster]

Project update:

• Dialogue voices are already almost 100% in English now. I only need to replace the few remaining Japanese voices (less than 20 lines)
• Battle voices appear to work properly, but can't really test much at the beginning of the games.
• In some scenes (including once in the proof-of-concept video) there are voices outside of dialogue. They are stored in various different files. I have identified them, but still need to extract and replace them.
• The "voice" magnus dialogue in BK:EWatLO is now subtitled, but the subtitles are new translations. They need to be replaced with the spoken lines. Perhaps there are other in-battle voices with subtitles, too?
• In some dialogues in BK:EWatLO, the dub gets out of sync with the text. To fix this, the text, which also contains control codes for the voice track, needs to be restored from the original game. Should be possible to automate.
• At the moment, I can't replace movie and BGM audio tracks because I don't have an encoder for CRIWARE HCA version 3. This problem affects the opening and Mizuti's song in BK:EWatLO, as well as the flashback movies in BKO. Using version 2 (like I did for the voice files) results in very distorted audio.

I have already extracted everything from the original games, that was fairly easy. Battle voices are present both in regular CSF files (70004***) and the battle effect files (6002****), which are compressed. I can decompress them and I know the offsets of the voices within those files, so that shouldn't be a problem either.

The audio track for the opening movies and BKO's flashback movies are stored in the BGM file of the remaster and apparently must be encoded as CRIWARE HCA version 3 in order to work properly. I don't have an encoder for that format yet.

This is awesome!

Thank you for doing this!

I have two quick questions if you don’t mind:

1- Will you implement the English dub as a menu option that can be switched on or off or is it gonna be on all the time?

2- Will it run on a jailbroken switch or only on emulators?

Thanks again!

 

[Helsionium]

1- Will you implement the English dub as a menu option that can be switched on or off or is it gonna be on all the time?

Unless someone else does it for me, that is impossible. It would require pretty advanced Unity engine knowledge which I don't have.

2- Will it run on a jailbroken switch or only on emulators?

I have only tested it on emulators so far, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work on real hardware.

 

[LiaSae]

One question: do you know if this version of BKO was censored again (Cross/Chaotic Dance 2/other)? And what about the quest that you can only start with a BK savegame?

The answers we've got to those so far (via a small fan community):
- Sagi is still, I quote, "tied to a toast" in that one scene, not a cross.
- Chaotic Dance 2 is neither the original "uncensored" Japanese version nor the original "censored" English version but a new different third thing, so that's fun.
- The sidequest doesn't seem to be triggering for anyone, there are a bunch of people wondering. But it's still a bit early for people to be trying to start said quest with a game-clear BK1 save, which would be my (uneducated) guess for the criteria.
So looks like an "uncensor" mod would still be relevant, though what to do about Chaotic Dance becomes a fun question!

 

[Aka_]

If you need save files to test more ill gladly provide them

 

[Helsionium]

Another project update regarding BK:EWatLO:

• I have now completely replaced the voices with the English dub
• I also replaced the intro movie and Mizuti's song with the English versions
• A lot of text changes have been made between the original version and the remaster. Most of them are just for formatting, fixing typos/grammar issues etc, but there are also some other changes like name changes (Taintclouds -> Toxiclouds). Mizuti's grammar has been "fixed" for the remaster. I definitely must revert all changes made to voice acted dialogue so that the old dub matches the text on screen. While I'm at it, I'm also going to undo any censorship I find. However, I need to go over all text lines that have been changed (~2,000 out of ~13,000) in order to do that.

Baten Kaitos Origins will likely be easier, but I'll do that after I'm done with the first game.

 

[IBNobody]

Another project update regarding BK:EWatLO:

• I have now completely replaced the voices with the English dub
• I also replaced the intro movie and Mizuti's song with the English versions
• A lot of text changes have been made between the original version and the remaster. Most of them are just for formatting, fixing typos/grammar issues etc, but there are also some other changes like name changes (Taintclouds -> Toxiclouds). Mizuti's grammar has been "fixed" for the remaster. I definitely must revert all changes made to voice acted dialogue so that the old dub matches the text on screen. While I'm at it, I'm also going to undo any censorship I find. However, I need to go over all text lines that have been changed (~2,000 out of ~13,000) in order to do that.

Baten Kaitos Origins will likely be easier, but I'll do that after I'm done with the first game.

How do you plan on distributing the patch?

Any chance for a beta?

Thanks for your hard work!

 

[Helsionium]

How do you plan on distributing the patch?

I don't know... any tips? I've not kept up with the Switch modding scene. The files are going to be pretty large (~600 MB per game). I can't host them on my own server. Moreover, they will likely have to contain copyrighted material. IPS patches cannot be used due to the file size, so I see no other option than distributing the full sound files.

Any chance for a beta?

First release (Baten Kaitos 1) will be out in a few days at most. The only thing left for me is adapting the English text (to synchronize the text with the dub). Some minor bugs are likely to exist in that release, but I will fix them later. Before in-depth testing and fixing the bugs in Baten Kaitos 1, I will release the first version of a patch for Baten Kaitos Origins.

 

[Elevna]

I don't know... any tips? I've not kept up with the Switch modding scene. The files are going to be pretty large (~600 MB per game). I can't host them on my own server. Moreover, they will likely have to contain copyrighted material. IPS patches cannot be used due to the file size, so I see no other option than distributing the full sound files.


First release (Baten Kaitos 1) will be out in a few days at most. The only thing left for me is adapting the English text (to synchronize the text with the dub). Some minor bugs are likely to exist in that release, but I will fix them later. Before in-depth testing and fixing the bugs in Baten Kaitos 1, I will release the first version of a patch for Baten Kaitos Origins.

I'd suggest just uploading it to MEGA or GoogleDrive and then distributing it on this website? Gamebanana is a good site for mods, you'd probably have to speak to a moderator or something and see what they say since they'd need to add BK-remastered as a game there. I also have no idea if you'll run into copyright problems, which they may or may not be okay with...

 

[Ryab]

I'd suggest just uploading it to MEGA or GoogleDrive and then distributing it on this website? Gamebanana is a good site for mods, you'd probably have to speak to a moderator or something and see what they say since they'd need to add BK-remastered as a game there. I also have no idea if you'll run into copyright problems, which they may or may not be okay with...

I believe the voice files would be considered Warez technically. Seeing they are copywritten content.

 

[Archiron]

I don't know... any tips? I've not kept up with the Switch modding scene. The files are going to be pretty large (~600 MB per game). I can't host them on my own server. Moreover, they will likely have to contain copyrighted material. IPS patches cannot be used due to the file size, so I see no other option than distributing the full sound files.

If it's something you reckon you could do, maybe take the approach that groups like Ship of Harkinian/HarborMasters did? After the Zelda decompilation project finished decompiling OoT, they were able to create an app that can run the game as a native PC game, but requires the user to provide a copy of the debug ROM. So in this case, require the end user to provide the ROM locally for BK/BKO (or maybe just the raw files extracted through Dolphin) so it can take the files it needs and perform the necessary operations without actually transmitting copyrighted content on your end, then it can be loaded onto the users switch SD card and used as normal.

This is all in theory, anyway. I admit to having a weak understanding of actually modding games on a hacked switch, content just having one to begin with.

 

[IBNobody]

If it's something you reckon you could do, maybe take the approach that groups like Ship of Harkinian/HarborMasters did? After the Zelda decompilation project finished decompiling OoT, they were able to create an app that can run the game as a native PC game, but requires the user to provide a copy of the debug ROM. So in this case, require the end user to provide the ROM locally for BK/BKO (or maybe just the raw files extracted through Dolphin) so it can take the files it needs and perform the necessary operations without actually transmitting copyrighted content on your end, then it can be loaded onto the users switch SD card and used as normal.

This is all in theory, anyway. I admit to having a weak understanding of actually modding games on a hacked switch, content just having one to begin with.

This was the approach I was going to suggest, and it is consistent with many patches.

It also keeps everyone out of hot water.

 

[EvilBakura]

Back in the Wii days there was Riivolution, you would put the mods inside the SD card or usb drive but you still had to use the original game disc:

https://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Riivolution

Anybody knows if there is something similar but for Switch?

I use the custom firmware Atmosphere, but never tried mods

a quick search gave me these:

This one for Smash Ultimate:
https://github.com/Raytwo/ARCropolis

This one for all games:
https://github.com/nadrino/SimpleModManager

Maybe the mod could work in a similar way?
Putting files in the SD card and one app does the magic, using the original cartridge?

( Sorry, I'm speaking as a layman )

 

[Lightmanone]

I don't know... any tips?

First release (Baten Kaitos 1) will be out in a few days at most. The only thing left for me is adapting the English text (to synchronize the text with the dub). Some minor bugs are likely to exist in that release, but I will fix them later. Before in-depth testing and fixing the bugs in Baten Kaitos 1, I will release the first version of a patch for Baten Kaitos Origins.

I'd suggest just uploading it to MEGA or GoogleDrive and then distributing it on this website?

MEGA or GoogleDrive will be good options indeed Helsionium! Especially MEGA.
I absolutely cannot WAIT to finally getting the remaster we fans deserve. Also cannot believe how fast you managed to do this. This is magnificant!

Hooray for such a dedicated fan!