We continue to talk about the translation of Sonic Adventure. The first part can be found here.

3.3.1. About the Dreamcast and its space limitations.

As I said above, the Dreamcast files have been thoroughly cleaned of all archives and textures that do not relate to the translation. Removed all textures of Japanese missions and loading screens, some TGS build files, as well as some BIN files with text. But the main problem, as it turned out, was completely different. The fact is that the Dreamcast… is terribly whimsical with text. Let’s take, for example, the same Chao garden. We have a couple of messages. The font is the same, the text has the same number of characters, but bad luck… In one message everything is fine, but in the other some kind of devilry is happening. A quick test showed that each message has its own character limit. And so buried in the game code that our hacker immediately said: “Cut phrases“. There was nothing else left for us. Armed with a saw, I and our Japanese specialist Sophia cut Chao’s garden to the displayed state, but at the same time preserving the meaning and differences of the Japanese original. However, a similar setup awaited us literally everywhere. That’s why testing the game took place in several stages in order to identify all the problem lines, shorten them and check them again. The most disgusting thing is that in the PC version with mods this problem does not arise and it allows you to insert the full version. It was a difficult decision to abandon this for the sake of equality of all versions. The limitation did not think to lag behind and pursued us in versions for PS3/X360, which made it slightly easier to catch schools with display, since an identified school on one platform is automatically corrected on four at once.

3.3.1.2. “Malkavian”.

Here I would like to digress a little and talk about the mysterious NPC. You can find him at the base of the station in Mystic Ruins. For some reason, this “Malkavian” liked to spoil plot events (he was nicknamed under the impression of Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines). Debugging (the process of catching various errors by viewing memory) of the hacker showed that this was a malfunction of the game. The same information was confirmed to us by modders. However, for some reason the bug disappeared if Dreamcast-version insert residents files from PC. Yes, we don’t understand how it works either, but it works!

3.3.2. About the misadventures before the discovery of PVMEditSharp.

We understood the text part: we cut, shred, but preserve the meaning. What about textures?? This is where it’s even more fun, but first I want to conduct a small educational program on the topic of graphics storage formats. Meet the PVM archive. As I noted above, this is a special storage format developed by SEGA for its Dreamcast console. The format is quite unpretentious, so it was used even after the death of the console. The only two platforms where it was not used were Gamecube and Wii, since an analogue was already used there – GVM, but more on that later. PVM archives store PVR textures. It’s even more fun with them. Let’s look at the technical features of PVR:

“Why do we need all this??“- you cry. Just for general development, since it is enough to have PVRViewer, which allows you to easily convert through Puyo Tools (program for working with SEGA formats). I regret that there is no analogue PVRViewer For G.V.R, because it was because of him that I had to learn how PVR, so and G.V.R. And if the problem was only to convert textures with the correct value, you wouldn’t see these lines. The problem is this.

Yes, PVM has a certain file order. With specific IDs (identification value). And you need to collect in the same order, otherwise.

For example, due to incorrect assembly, Sonic got Amy’s icon.

Otherwise, you can forget about an hour and a half of assembly and start again. One mistake – hi-bye. Fortunately, higher powers did give me a tip to a program called..

3.3.3. Joy after, but.

PVMEditSharp. This program made it possible to quickly replace all the necessary textures in the archive without unpacking/packing, while maintaining the required values.

And you have no idea how much this sped things up. Whereas before I would rebuild the archive several times due to errors in an hour and a half, now the whole process took about two minutes. What’s good is that he can work with archives G.V.M. It would seem that now all the problems have been solved, however PVMEditSharp has one flaw – it doesn’t save textures the way the game needs it. More precisely, the game sees and displays textures, but not always successfully (for example, HIT when passing through Gamma).

And if you insert a texture using PVMEditSharp, you will see this:

We-s-s-s… we still didn’t understand why this bug occurs, but it did occur. In the meantime, we figured out that it was because of this file that everything goes to one place… I managed to rebuild the poor image 20 times for Dreamcast. As a result, I had to convert this particular texture by hand using Puyo Tools and paste it HEX-editor (I couldn’t stand replacing the entire archive in this way). However, one less problem. Let’s move on to the next point.

3.4.1. About the Gamecube version.

Gamecube version of the translation “Sonic Adventure“caused maximum problems for both the hacker and us. The hacker encountered difficulties in debugging the case of identifying a unique compression. There was also a hitch with the placement of the text, due to which it was necessary to allocate several blocks for it instead of one. There will be no technical details, since RikuKH3 doesn’t like to talk about them. The only thing we can say after “enthusiastic» exclamations from the modding community – he completely removed the encryption system and now the game can accept files without having to re-encrypt them.

But we have plenty of them. Let’s start with the fact that this is the most capricious version in terms of texture files. They will be of worse quality in those places where the game freezes and cannot “chew” such an archive. For example, I’ll give you the “Task Results” menu. Initially, there was a “heavy” version of the archive, and it even worked, but… Look at what was displayed when you entered the Big menu:

WINDOWS! LOTS OF WINDOWS!

I had to “lighten” the archive, after which everything returned to normal:

The texture quality has gotten worse, https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/hexabet/ but at least it works.

Surprisingly, uncompressed archives are easily downloaded to Xbox 360/PS3. And even on Dreamcast textures are of higher quality, but here is the version for Gamecube doesn’t take out.

An amusing thing I can note is that G.C – transitional link between Dreamcast And PC/X360/PS3 regarding file structure. For example, G.C uses external files to store the text of videos and menus, as in Dreamcast, whereas in subsequent versions everything will be put into an executable file. The archives with textures for the title screen are also different. If on Gamecube Sonic’s sprite is used, divided into four textures, then on PC such textures.

The funny thing is that the prototype Gamecube version uses a third method for storing this sprite:

By the way, from this very prototype to later versions an interesting thing survived: you can rename one texture and fit a full-fledged sprite into it, and turn all the others into dummies. Somehow it works.

3.4.2. About the SA2 fix.

After the first fundraising for the GC version failed, I began to study it in terms of textures. I even successfully inserted one on the title screen by hand.

It was then that it clicked in my head that our colleagues in the workshop once had one unpleasant problem with Sonic Adventure 2 on the same platform – everything froze when I tried to change the design of the settings menu. Interested, I decided to look at the textures”Sonic Adventure 2“, after which he revealed the root of evil in a strange file with an unusual title. It’s strange because its header conflicts with the GVR format documentation.

As a result, after manually processing the file, everything works great.

When I asked the hacker who was breaking the game for another team, it turned out that… they simply didn’t contact him! Nuff said.

If it seems to you that this point was written only to joke with our colleagues, then no. Here is the principle “Don’t make other people’s mistakes“, since we came across one such texture during translation. She crept into the games menu Game Gear and without manual correction it gave this effect:

Why did this happen? It’s simple. Neither the home-written program for the GVR format nor Puyo Tools could convert the texture correctly, which is why a bug occurred. Take a look at the screenshot:

See the strangeness? Naturally not, so keep the screenshot with the original texture:

We can see an entire area being filled in incorrectly during conversion. Judging by the documentation for the GVR format, this is some kind of CLUT data. I don’t know why they are so important, but if you fix them manually, then everything immediately returns to normal.

3.5. About versions for Xbox 360 and PS3.

It is worth noting right away that these versions are based on PC 2004-year. And here it’s probably worth loading you up for humor’s sake by saying that PC 2011-year is a port Xbox 360 2010-year, which is the port PC 2004-year, which is the port Gamecube-version, which is a port of Dreamcast. Now scroll through this thread from Dreamcast to PC and keep in mind that with each version they made something worse. The scale of the tragedy has already been presented? Well, in games for Xbox 360/PS3 were unable to implement a normal 16:9 resolution, as a result of which the game runs with a disgusting frame. Plus in these versions games were cut out Game Gear (even though their files are still in the game distribution), and Metal Sonic and the mission mode went to a separate DLC called… Sonic Adventure DX. This sounds as absurd as possible, because in fact, without this DLC you will have the usual DX-version, but with a changed menu and without Metal with tasks. The funny thing is that all the necessary files for this DLC are in the regular version, and when you purchase it you simply activate the content.

A little off topic: I was amused by how it turns on and off DX-mode on PS3. In the game folder there are two EDAT-file with names SonicAdv And SonicAdvDX. The first one is there initially, and the second one appears after installing the DLC. But nothing prevents you (unless, of course, you are sitting without CFW) to take SonicAdvDX and rename it something. Magic! The game immediately turns into a version without DLC.

But now we’ve reached the cherry. What do these EDAT files contain?? I won’t languish for long – here it is. And yes, I don’t know what it is. I even tried searching for information, but I couldn’t find anything.

But… We came to look at the insides, yes? Let’s get started.

3.5.1. Xbox 360 version.

It makes no sense to talk about the text of this version, since it is still stored in the executable file as on PC 2004, But! In addition to the text, it contains in its xex-file (analogue exe-file on Xbox 360) and starting textures.

To say that I was not surprised is to say nothing. Because why then store these textures in the game distribution??

For this reason, I had to look for all the exact texture addresses (in DDS format).

By the way, about this. Another difference between the ports for PS3/X360 – usage DDS-textures. With their help, “old-new” inscriptions in various menus and on pause. However, after a little study, the following became clear: initially the port developers tried to make these inscriptions using PVR textures in the PVM archive ava_tooltips.

It looks especially funny against the backdrop of the ordeal with the menu.”Management“. Yes, in the final version everything is arranged as it was ten years ago – TUTO archives. But! Back in the beta version for January 2010, this menu used… the same DDS textures!

It’s even more convenient. To some extent… It’s easy to create a texture from elements, and you’ll know for sure that everything is level. But in the final version, the developers rolled back to PVM archives. And it’s strange. Just like what was weird in the PS3 version, but more on that later.

The confusing fact is that they created new archives for those languages ​​that were already present in the original version. Let me just remind you that in fact the game has only two languages ​​for the menu – Japanese and English. French, Italian and German are no longer available. And the port masters tried to correct this situation!

But for some reason these languages ​​are not used, and why the archives are still stored is unclear. There are also inscriptions “Create new file“. THEY ARE ALSO NOT USED! But the most insanity is that the Japanese and English versions still use ABC_TXT.PVR, but the new textures are already DDS format. So maybe English and Japanese can be stuffed into DDS? Developers, what’s wrong with you??

Returning to the January Beta. Apart from the eye-rolling title screen.

… I noticed another feature – a completely different frame.

She looks much nicer and is not so oppressive with her dark colors. How could it be spoiled in the final version?? Yes easily! Just stretch the original frame from the beta version and add a shade.

This is complete insanity! Although here’s a comrade N69 (who periodically helps with hedgehog projects) noticed that with the final frame there is less chance of burning out the TV. I’m not an expert at such subtleties, so let’s move on to PS3-versions.

3.5.2. PS3 version.

Remembering the experience with “Sonic The Hedgehog 2006“, at least minor differences were expected. And at first it seemed that there were almost no differences. Remake a couple of textures, adapt the text to PS3 buttons. In the end it turned out to be both yes and no at the same time. There were moments in a couple of archives when it was necessary to replace a couple of textures, but once I got to the tutorial and, suddenly, the maps, I was speechless.

Let’s start with the cards, since this is not the most painful thing. You see… One of the developers came up with the brilliant idea to make two variations of archives with maps. With an X button and an O button for returning. Considering that the game definitely has support for DDS textures, wouldn’t it be easier to make switchable DDSs so as not to take up space?? As a result, we had to rivet two variations for each card, since it was impossible to simply replace one cell. Definitely two, because they didn’t even “synchronize” the position of the buttons on the map (O is drawn a little to the right than X).

Having digested all this, I went to look “What about training??“. In general, on PS3, for some reason, textures with training are located not in the PVM archive, but in regular folders.

“What a freebie“, I thought and began to convert publicly available PVR textures using Puyo Tools. I think if programs could talk, she would call me crazy. But no, she modestly remained silent and refused to convert. After the third attempt I started viewing these textures through a HEX editor. This is where the phrase comes in very handy: “No words, only emotions”.

They’re serious? They seriously took and collected textures in PNG, and then renamed them to PVR? Sorry, sorry… I laughed and cried at the same time at this moment because I just couldn’t believe it. When I finally recovered from laughing, I began to translate these PNG-files. This method was even more convenient than what I described above in the section about Xbox 360, because you don’t have to worry about other elements. Just write the text correctly.

I didn’t notice any other differences. The only thing is that the texture is missing”Loading“, since this text is output using tools XMB (and in general PS3-the version is still faster than Xbox 360).

3.5.3. Bug in the new menu.

Fun Fact. If anyone has played the new re-releases, then you might have noticed a new menu from which you can read the training for a particular character. So, I don’t know how the developers broke it too much, but after reading the tutorial in this menu, on the file selection screen you will notice that now for the last time you played for the one whose manual you read. Apparently they did it completely out of their minds.

That’s all I have. There is the last, final part left, where we will talk thoroughly about the text. Thanks for continuing to read!