Hacking Metroid Other M UNDUB Project

jefffisher

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lulwut said:
jefffisher said:
Xag said:
I really hope this project doesnt die... the game would be so much better with the japanese audio.
it's not a project it's just get the japanese version as that has japanese audio and english everything else.
the english game has the japanese audio as well! learn2look
god damnit... >_>
i know i understand that but why go through the trouble of finding another way to do it if another even simpler way is already available.
 

jefffisher

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TyRaNtM said:
lulwut said:
jefffisher said:
Xag said:
I really hope this project doesnt die... the game would be so much better with the japanese audio.
it's not a project it's just get the japanese version as that has japanese audio and english everything else.
the english game has the japanese audio as well! learn2look
god damnit... >_>

Yes, but the problem is how to access to japanese audio in movies, because in-game speak, is easy to do.
Also i'm wondering if we can force japanese with a Ocarina code.
surely someone with basic save knowledge could tell you how the games access their save files then instead of going through the process of patching the american version to use japanese sound, patching the japanese version to use the american save file seems simpler.
or maybe if we can't do that for some reason an american to japanese save converter might be possible, then someone could make a patch to replace the few files that are actually different on the american version with the japanese files so everyone doesn't need to download the whole iso again.

again i still don't see any issue with just using the downloading the japanese version unless someone were on extremely limited bandwidth.
 

mike2010

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I am interested, where is the menu of the game? I would like to change it, but I can not
blink.gif
 

Knyaz Vladimir

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Hm... UNDUB? Doesn't that mean to insert the voices from the country that was the game first released in, meaning, US? So, the game is UNDUBbed from Day 1, because the English voices were first.
 

lulwut

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TyRaNtM said:
lulwut said:
jefffisher said:
Xag said:
I really hope this project doesnt die... the game would be so much better with the japanese audio.
it's not a project it's just get the japanese version as that has japanese audio and english everything else.
the english game has the japanese audio as well! learn2look
god damnit... >_>

Yes, but the problem is how to access to japanese audio in movies, because in-game speak, is easy to do.
Also i'm wondering if we can force japanese with a Ocarina code.
on first look the video audio was in there as well
and if it isn't; im sure there is a thp container extracter/creator (im pretty positive the video is thp altho i never looked)
 

TyRaNtM

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lulwut said:
TyRaNtM said:
lulwut said:
jefffisher said:
Xag said:
I really hope this project doesnt die... the game would be so much better with the japanese audio.
it's not a project it's just get the japanese version as that has japanese audio and english everything else.
the english game has the japanese audio as well! learn2look
god damnit... >_>

Yes, but the problem is how to access to japanese audio in movies, because in-game speak, is easy to do.
Also i'm wondering if we can force japanese with a Ocarina code.
on first look the video audio was in there as well
and if it isn't; im sure there is a thp container extracter/creator (im pretty positive the video is thp altho i never looked)

You are wrong, videos aren't thp, are .sfd, and i we haven't a tool for editing yet.
 

guysensei

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Knyaz Vladimir said:
Hm... UNDUB? Doesn't that mean to insert the voices from the country that was the game first released in, meaning, US? So, the game is UNDUBbed from Day 1, because the English voices were first.
It's a Japanese game, and all the story and dialog were written in Japanese and then translated, so technically it's still undubbing.

By the way, our solution of choice in this case was simply to import the game, as reported here.
smile.gif
 

ScaryHobbit

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I think I've found a breakthrough on undubbing the CG cutscenes in the NTSC-U version of Metroid Other M, as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere and no similar answers are found in Google search.

I've found some software called TMPGEnc that was able to unmux Other M's SFD files,
and I CONFIRM that the SFD's in the USA retail release have BOTH English and Japanese audio tracks!

I posted my original findings in ShadowOne333's thread for his Metroid: Other M Redux project, as I used his methods for editing SFD files as a guide. He also helped me out immensely with getting my edits to work in-game.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/metroid-other-m-maxximum-edition.602301/page-8

There is indeed some kind of switch in the game's coding that detects and selects the English track. But since there is no option in-game to select the Japanese track, it's presence has gone unnoticed. However I'm 100% sure that the SFD files in both the Japanese ISO and the USA ISO is exactly the same.
On a related note, while I figured out after using Shadow's guides how to replace the video files, I could only get the sound to work if the file has both audio tracks together instead of only one. Might be interesting to see if Shadow's edits or the Maxximum Edition are the same way.

So what needs to be done is to extract all the SFD files that use their own audio tracks in-game (Important: Many of the SFD's don't have audio and/or voice tracks - they are actually intercut with in-game cutscenes with the audio actually coming from the AIX files instead.),
then use TMPGEnc to split apart the SFD files into individual files for each track - creating one m1v file for the video, and two ADX files for each audio track, and convert the m1v file back into an mpeg-1 file.
I then use CryTools-win-x64 to mux the files back together like so:
"sfdmux.exe [final video].sfd [video file].mpg [Japanese track].adx [English track].adx" - in exactly this order.
This will essentially flip the order in which the audio tracks are arranged so that the game is tricked into selecting the Japanese track instead of the English track!

I then created a Riivolution Patch based off Nintendo Maniac's XML script in Shadow's thread that replaces the CG cutscenes with my new SFD files.

There could possibly be some kind of switch in the game's code that can be flipped to play the Japanese audio tracks that we could create a hack for instead, and I can't speak for trying this on actual Wii/Wii U hardware.
But for playing the Japanese CG cutscenes in the NTSC-U version on Dolphin, I think this settles it!
You don't even need a Japanese ISO to do this - Everything we need is all on the USA ISO!

Edit 7/5/22:
The official download for the freeware version of TMPGEnc is here:
https://www.tmpgenc.net/en/download.html

After doing some more testing, there are some caveats to rendering and converting with TMPGEnc.
For files that won't easily cooperate, I recommend using ffmpeg to convert the video after you've extracted the audio from the SFD's using TMPGEnc.
 
Last edited by ScaryHobbit,
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Amuro-san

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I think I've found a breakthrough on undubbing the CG cutscenes in the NTSC-U version of Metroid Other M, as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere and no similar answers are found in Google search.

I've found some software called TMPGEnc that was able to unmux Other M's SFD files,
and I CONFIRM that the SFD's in the USA retail release have BOTH English and Japanese audio tracks!

I posted my original findings in ShadowOne333's thread for his Metroid: Other M Redux project, as I used his methods for editing SFD files as a guide. He also helped me out immensely with getting my edits to work in-game.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/metroid-other-m-maxximum-edition.602301/page-8

There is indeed some kind of switch in the game's coding that detects and selects the English track. But since there is no option in-game to select the Japanese track, it's presence has gone unnoticed. However I'm 100% sure that the SFD files in both the Japanese ISO and the USA ISO is exactly the same.
On a related note, while I figured out after using Shadow's guides how to replace the video files, I could only get the sound to work if the file has both audio tracks together instead of only one. Might be interesting to see if Shadow's edits or the Maxximum Edition are the same way.

So what needs to be done is to extract all the SFD files that use their own audio tracks in-game (Important: Many of the SFD's don't have audio and/or voice tracks - they are actually intercut with in-game cutscenes with the audio actually coming from the AIX files instead.),
then use TMPGEnc to split apart the SFD files into individual files for each track - creating one m1v file for the video, and two ADX files for each audio track, and convert the m1v file back into an mpeg-1 file.
I then use CryTools-win-x64 to mux the files back together like so:
"sfdmux.exe [final video].sfd [video file].mpg [Japanese track].adx [English track].adx" - in exactly this order.
This will essentially flip the order in which the audio tracks are arranged so that the game is tricked into selecting the Japanese track instead of the English track!

I then created a Riivolution Patch based off Nintendo Maniac's XML script in Shadow's thread that replaces the CG cutscenes with my new SFD files.

There could possibly be some kind of switch in the game's code that can be flipped to play the Japanese audio tracks that we could create a hack for instead, and I can't speak for trying this on actual Wii/Wii U hardware.
But for playing the Japanese CG cutscenes in the NTSC-U version on Dolphin, I think this settles it!
You don't even need a Japanese ISO to do this - Everything we need is all on the USA ISO!

Edit 7/5/22:
The official download for the freeware version of TMPGEnc is here:
https://www.tmpgenc.net/en/download.html

After doing some more testing, there are some caveats to rendering and converting with TMPGEnc.
For files that won't easily cooperate, I recommend using ffmpeg to convert the video after you've extracted the audio from the SFD's using TMPGEnc.
I saw that there are two audios, I want to know about a program where I can change the audios without changing the video format, my undub version unfortunately crashes at the end so i saw that the european version also has another audio track in the videos
 

ScaryHobbit

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I saw that there are two audios, I want to know about a program where I can change the audios without changing the video format, my undub version unfortunately crashes at the end so i saw that the european version also has another audio track in the videos
Is it TMPGEnc that is crashing for you, or the actual game? I don't have the European version, unfortunately. I only have the US version.
I haven't found a program that doesn't change the video format, but the current one does stick within the mpeg1 family - so that helps.

When TMPGEnc gives a message saying "X number of packets skipped - Playback may include errors", that's when I take the extracted m1v file and convert it to mpeg with ffmpeg instead.
For the trouble files, I've found this .bat setting to have the best balance in both maintaining picture quality and smoothing out the skips:

ffmpeg -i "[video].m1v" -an -c:v mpeg1video -qmin 3 -b:v 7745k -maxrate 7745k -minrate 7745k -bufsize 7745k "[video].mpeg"

- For bitrate, TMPGEnc shows what the original video's rate is when you have it selected in the mpeg tools. Replace the numbers here with the actual bitrate for the video.
- qmin helps to smooth out skips during rendering - at the cost of slightly reducing the image quality. The lower the qmin number, the closer to original quality you get.

I don't consider my methods definitive by any means, so feel free to experiment to find better solutions.

By now, I have edited all of the main cutscenes that have dialogue (several of the files are mute - instead using the seperate aix files for audio and dialogue). Except for a couple Theater Mode videos.
Everything's looking promising. There are only a few playback errors in the few cutscenes immediately following dm08_01 (The swarm bug boss intro), dm61to63A (The start of the MB reveal and battle), and dm63Bto64 (Post-MB battle and epilogue).
Though I think these are only an issue in Theater Mode and are fine in the actual game, because once the game switches to in-engine it flushes things back to normal. Theater Mode has several other pre-rendered videos playing in place of actual gameplay, which causes conflicts with the edited videos.
No crashing on the video end, thankfully.

Right now my more serious issues have to do with the message_all.dat file - the subtitles.
I've been starting from the beginning of the game working towards the end, but the more I change the subtitle file, the more the game starts to crash in the later scenes.
Even if I keep the number of lines the exact same, and only replace the words in each line.

This is what the Dolphin logs state below when it crashes:
Core\PowerPC\MMU.cpp:1154 E[MASTER]: Warning: Invalid read from 0x00000000, PC = 0x8001be44

Hope that helps!
 
Last edited by ScaryHobbit,

ScaryHobbit

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Finished my first go-around of converting the Theater Mode-exclusive videos that have dialogue. Just a brief rundown of what I found after running the altered videos in-game.
There are four that have spoken lines:

  • tm02to03 is Broken- It causes the following cutscene, dm03to04, to have its video be stuck on a black screen while the sound still plays. dm03to04 is one of the game's main cutscenes, so due to its importance that makes tm02to03 a no-go for now.
    • There is only one line in this video - In English the doctor says "Samus, now's your chance.", while in Japanese he says "Thumbs up, Samus."
  • tm16to18 and tm23to24 are Perfect - No issues so far.
  • tm31to32 is Perfect
    • There is a curious minor issue I found that is completely separate from tm31to32, but occurs right before it plays. When Samus calls out Anthony's name when he's attacked by the insect-like boss, the game uses the English VA. However, this file is not in the usual sound>bgm folder like the other cutscene audio files. It's likely hidden somewhere with the other regular sfx that are only found with the random numbered extensionless files in the iso.
In addition to spending a whole lot of time finding the exact file and extracting it, converting it to the Japanese VA would likely take a bit of programming knowledge - which is something I don't have in all honesty.
Ah well, I suppose I will have to settle for hearing Samus say "Anthony" in English instead of Japanese. :rolleyes:
 

Amuro-san

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Is it TMPGEnc that is crashing for you, or the actual game? I don't have the European version, unfortunately. I only have the US version.
I haven't found a program that doesn't change the video format, but the current one does stick within the mpeg1 family - so that helps.

When TMPGEnc gives a message saying "X number of packets skipped - Playback may include errors", that's when I take the extracted m1v file and convert it to mpeg with ffmpeg instead.
For the trouble files, I've found this .bat setting to have the best balance in both maintaining picture quality and smoothing out the skips:

ffmpeg -i "[video].m1v" -an -c:v mpeg1video -qmin 3 -b:v 7745k -maxrate 7745k -minrate 7745k -bufsize 7745k "[video].mpeg"

- For bitrate, TMPGEnc shows what the original video's rate is when you have it selected in the mpeg tools. Replace the numbers here with the actual bitrate for the video.
- qmin helps to smooth out skips during rendering - at the cost of slightly reducing the image quality. The lower the qmin number, the closer to original quality you get.

I don't consider my methods definitive by any means, so feel free to experiment to find better solutions.

By now, I have edited all of the main cutscenes that have dialogue (several of the files are mute - instead using the seperate aix files for audio and dialogue). Except for a couple Theater Mode videos.
Everything's looking promising. There are only a few playback errors in the few cutscenes immediately following dm08_01 (The swarm bug boss intro), dm61to63A (The start of the MB reveal and battle), and dm63Bto64 (Post-MB battle and epilogue).
Though I think these are only an issue in Theater Mode and are fine in the actual game, because once the game switches to in-engine it flushes things back to normal. Theater Mode has several other pre-rendered videos playing in place of actual gameplay, which causes conflicts with the edited videos.
No crashing on the video end, thankfully.

Right now my more serious issues have to do with the message_all.dat file - the subtitles.
I've been starting from the beginning of the game working towards the end, but the more I change the subtitle file, the more the game starts to crash in the later scenes.
Even if I keep the number of lines the exact same, and only replace the words in each line.

This is what the Dolphin logs state below when it crashes:
Core\PowerPC\MMU.cpp:1154 E[MASTER]: Warning: Invalid read from 0x00000000, PC = 0x8001be44

Hope that helps!
actually I only played a good part and it's normal, it was a person who reported (I think she didn't unlock the Wii region, in which I left it free) I'm currently playing another game and then I see if the game is 100%
 

Amuro-san

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actually even the japanese iso has the languages hidden in the iso including spanish, what i did was replace the english text with spanish
 

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