ROM Hack DS Game Redub Add Extra Voices.

Casstastrophe

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Okay, I have to keep this game redub a secret (since this is going to be a surprise for my friend)! BUT I'm wanting to add extra voicing dialogue with the already made text! I've already replaced some of the voice acting with new voice acting so I know how to do that, it's just adding the extra dialogue! Like for example
A character's voice and text says "Hi, how are you today?" but the other character only has text saying, "I'm fine" I want to add a voice saying "I'm fine." Hopefully this makes sense!
Also if this is the wrong place to post this, I do apologize!!!
 

FAST6191

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Replacement is usually 10 times easier than addition (or readding if it was there in Japan but lost it* on the move outside it).

*so much so I might even consider retranslating or backporting the script to the original.

Anyway you will need to find a way to get the game to call your new sounds, whatever format they end up being.

Some games used scripting languages or were scripting engines unto themselves and thus might be able to say play effect/track**, other times you will be getting the game to do something quite new. Even if I knew what game you were hacking I probably still couldn't say without looking what it will be -- I have seen wonderful scripting engines for absolute trash and top tier flagship titles from publishers everybody has heard of made when the DS was fully mature have hardcoded calls for things.
In the popular SDAT format used by the overwhelming majority of DS games then dialogue will vary between it having to be in the STRM streaming format for longer monologues and shorter bursts of a few seconds could be stuffed into sound effect formats -- the SWAV and SWAR archives for instance. Various people have done things to allow games to do streaming audio if the game code does not have the option (the compiler will tend to strip out STRM playing options if the game in question does not use it, though the hardware itself natively supports PCM and ADPCM audio). https://github.com/Dirbaio/NSMBCR/blob/master/source/wavplayer.cpp#L58 is one such example.

The cowboy method is extend the sound effect track from the first part and hope it plays over the second part if the user presses next text page or the game auto advances and does not shut off the audio in progress. We have probably all played enough dubiously localised games to know what goes with that one though.
 
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Casstastrophe

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I can tell you all now, since I told them the surprise XD (I can't keep a secret) The game I'm trying to do this on is Rune Factory 2. How would I open the script? Would I use a hex editor or something different? Sorry if my questions sound so ignorant...I'm kind of new to this...
 

FAST6191

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Backporting a script depends upon the game.

Sometimes it is essentially doing the translation again (all the pointers, all the fiddling with fonts/encodings, all the everything else) but likely not having to go find a translator as the script should be all there in the same order. Other times it can amount to copy and paste the script files (maybe also the font) like so many undubs, but for text in this instance. Japanese games tend not to have all the niceties for Roman alphabet using languages and such things tend to be added in by the localisation teams but in recent years they have been getting better about it.

Be careful when you say script to ROM hacking types. It can mean one of three things
1) For most purposes it will probably mean the game's text. As in film script, radio script, play script...
2) Events within a game being dictated by a scripting language used by the game, either a high level one used in PC coding (several DS games are coded in Lua for instance) or something a bit more specific to the game - I once decoded one for a game called Riz Zowad/Wizard of Oz - Beyond the Yellow Brick Road that had basically the entire game in scripting form for its own custom script. Not all games will have this and some will just have any events that happen be plain old code called when it needs to do it from within the binary itself, for others it will be a part of the level data and others can have other approaches with it buried. In general game parlance a scripted event is an event that happens within the game that was compelled to happen by the programmers (probably every time), however in reality if you are looking as a ROM hacker there are many rather minor scripted events.
3) Just to be fun scripting/scripters in pokemon deals with the events the game throws at you and things that happen. As pokemon tends to be a highly hacked game this is more of a high level skill like level design for the purposes of pokemon hacking.
 

Casstastrophe

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I'm now going to ask if there's a way to re add the voices that were lost in the English version? :huh: I noticed that the Japanese version has more...voices than the English version...but adding the SDAT didn't work (The missing voices were not in the game) and I'm not sure how to open (or extract) the nds file to see the script...would I use a hex editor? Or something different?
Apologies for my silly questions!
 

FAST6191

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A hex editor is nothing special -- it just views the file in raw form and thus it is all open to be edited if you know what represents what, and what needs to be done. As with many occasions in computing though if (along with just) actually represents an unknown (but presumed to be considerable) period of effort.
To that end while you can do anything you like in a hex editor it is not the encouraged way for anything beyond quick tweaks to things you already know, or maybe for staring at a format to see if something pops out at you.

I am not surprised adding the Japanese sound did not bring it back to the EU/NA version of the game -- the devs presumably had source code or something akin to it for the game so they can literally just comment out a line detailing the audio playback so the compiler skips it. If playing hacker you would have to find out how such things are normally called and get it to call it again. For older consoles this can be easier (not that said older consoles tended to have region changed sound effects -- other than streets of rage I am going to struggle to name many) as the devs would often just skip the call but leave the code intact but the DS was well into the compiled code point in life.

Alas I am not sure what the game does here -- sometimes it can be kicked right down to some kind of bestiary/npc info type thing and thus be no more complicated than changing stats, and other times it can be buried deep within the code, other times then the scripting engine stuff we spoke of earlier. You also have the option as a hacker to hardcode something into the game yourself and skip having to play by the game's own rules. If it turns out it is one of the easier ones then it is trivial to add back, however confirming it is one of those easier ones is itself not easy to do directly if you are asking these sorts of questions... you might find out if you go poking around the other assets but you are not assured. If it does turn out to be buried deep in low level code that is also a serious thing to be starting out on if you are going to see about adding things back in.
 

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https://gbatemp.net/threads/rune-factory-2-full-undub.170118/

If you want an undub patch. It has some bugs though apparently, as noted in the OP. Nothing too major though?

Ah, the patch is no longer online but you can probably find it in the downloads section, or somewhere else rehosted if you search for it. You can also find already patched roms but it's against the forum rules to ask or provide links for those.
 

Casstastrophe

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Okay, so I found out something else too, there is a MYCF (.mc) file that if I replace the JPN version with the ENG version, the voice dialogue goes missing again, but the text is correct...is there a way to edit the MC file that anyone knows of?

Also, how does one work cartographer? I downloaded it, edited the TXT file and downloaded a table from: http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/886/ It seems to have worked successfully, however there is not a script file?

Sorry for the questions ;A;
 

Casstastrophe

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Okay, so I seem to be on the right track! I still have a lot of work to do...but here's the video of the very beginning (in the original English version, there is no voice, even though it's in the sound data!) This is also the original English voice actor...

Basically I extracted a few files with a program called Tinke and edited a file with a program called rune translator (or something like that)...
 
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