Need help setting up RPG Maker XP for editing

[candyfloss]

Hellooo.

I need some help setting up RPG Maker XP to edit and translate a game.
While I am able to make a translation patch at the current state, it would help to relieve a lot of frustration when editing the game if any of these issues are solved.

I'm using the english version of RPG Maker XP, with the japanese RPG Maker XP rtp installed, system locale set to japanese and have the japanese language pack installed.



1. My first problem is that the text dialogue are in glibberish even though the rest are in japanese. (See below)





Although I can still read the glibberish text since it became japanese once I open it up, it would help a lot if the problem doesn't exist in the first place, because it allows me to read further ahead and get the context right.


2. My second problem is I can't start dialogues with the actor's image on the left with an "A"



Above is how it looks without starting with an "A".
If I started a sentence with an "A", for instance: "Alright." It would appear as "lright." instead. The A would be completely missing.


3. My third problem is my configuration file changing according to my RPG Maker XP version when I close my editor since the game can't run properly without the proper japanese configuration file.
Is there anyway I could stop the configuration file from changing?
It would be tedious to overwrite the configuration file hundreds of times when editing over the course of the translation.

These problems seems to be mostly exclusive for XP games. I have edited VX and VX Ace games and these problems are either not there or less problematic.


Thanks in advance if anybody could help me with any of these issues!!

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

To solve the first problem you need to launch the RPG Maker XP editor through locale emulator (

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).
Once you do that, the text inside the editor will be in Japanese.

I don't see though why this was even the problem. It's a bit easier to identify events you're looking for but you could see text whenever you edited a line.

I can't help you with your second problem since that's probably one of the script's faults and not with the RPG Maker XP itself. You would need to find the script in question, see why this is happening and then fix it or find a workaround.

For your third "problem" there is nothing you can do. Whenever you save the game inside the editor, the library line inside the game.ini changes from something like library =RGSS104J.dll to library =RGSS104E.dll. So you need to just put back J instead of E and save the file. What I do to not have to edit the game.ini all the time I just open the file and see it to whatever I want and keep it open. Whenever I save the editor and want to start the game I just tab to the game.ini file and save it.

The two "problems" I told you how to bypass I don't see as real problems. I personally don't translate the games from inside the editor, I rather use Habisain's Rpg Maker Trans program to export all the text inside the .txt files, translate the files, and the edit them using Notepad++ and put them back in the game using RPG Maker Trans program again.

 

[candyfloss]

Ohhh! I tried the locale emulator! It works!



I guess it aren't a problem for you if you can read them with notepad++...
Ok, I'll try out Habisain's Rpg Maker Trans. There are a lot of things that I do hope I could edit them all at once with notepad++.

And I didn't think about leaving the library file open! Thanks for the great workaround.
Now I feel dumb because I did a game where I manually edited the library every time I finish editing.

Thanks kR1pt0n1t3!!

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

There are many advantages to translating using RPG Maker Trans.

The ones I find invaluable.

1. The program groups the same lines of text inside a single field to translate so you don't have to translate each separately. You just translate it in one place and the program will translate that line in every event, map it finds that line. You can still translate the same Japanese line to different English line by just typing different translation under the line you want. It's hard to explain. It's best you check his guide on using the program. It's all explained there.

2. You don't have to look much to find a line you want to translate. Since everything is nicely sorted inside text files, you can just use search/find function and find the line instantly, instead of looking through events, maps, etc.

3. The translation you do can be easily exported to a newer version of the game. If there are any changes to the text, the program will leave those lines translated instead of just overwriting it and it will add any new line to the text files.

These three I find very useful. The way I translate a game is by playing the game parallelly as I'm translating it. That way I can see what's going on as I'm translating. It helps me to understand what's going on better and that helps me to translate the game better.

 

[candyfloss]

I tried it out, it's great!

It's golden stuff for a translator who's used to edit through RPG Maker editors. I can see the same lines used across maps and other files that I could translate at once. This would save lots of time!

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

Yes, I told you above that it groups exact lines together.
Any game that has systems like crafting, building, gathering, etc. is sure to have a lot of repeating stuff.
With RPG Maker Trans you can translate all of it at once without having to look for events and edit them separately.

If Habisan didn't make RPG Maker Trans when he did, the chances are that I wouldn't have probably translated a single game in my whole life.

The one downside I would like him to fix is to somehow separate scripts and offer more ways to change stuff inside them. I often have to edit manually scripts to change the size of some window because English translation doesn't fit neatly inside it. If you don't plan to share translating through his files then this isn't even an issue since you can just edit the scripts manually through the editor before you share data folder and assets.

What's is the game you're translating? It looks familiar but I can't wrap my head around it.

 

[candyfloss]

I'm thinking of translating

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. Thus I'm setting up RPG Maker XP to see if I could see it through.

I plan to use a mix of RPG Maker Trans and RPG Maker editor actually.
Maybe because I'm so used to RPG Maker Editor, it just feels weird to translate on notepad++.
I think I'm going to use RPG Maker Trans to translate the repetitive terms and lines, and then convert back and use the data files for RPG Maker editor and translate the rest.

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

You can do however you like and think is the best just don't make the mistake of editing the copy of the game that is inside the folder that ends with _translated.
Every time you use RPG Maker Trans, it will go through the files, remove any Japanese line you've translated and updated the patch files.
If it somewhat recommended that if you change a lot of stuff to use the "Rebuild Patch" function inside the RPG Maker Trans program.
It won't remove any lines you've translated inside the patch files, rather it will optimize and reorganize them.

I've never used the program as you're going to so I can't say for sure what else might happen.
Theoretically, it should work but I would make backups every so often just in case.

Or even better it might be good to translate the repetitive stuff first, patch the game and then continue translating using the editor.

And I'm not only translating through notepad++. I'm playing the game as I'm translating. I'm even hooking the text from the game so I can just use the search function to easily find the line that is displayed on the screen. I find it way more interesting to translate that way and it's often easier to translate some lines when you see what's exactly going on. I don't know how good your Japanese is, but might is not that good and sadly I'm depending more on translating tools than my brain, but I think the translation I do is more than decent. Also, whenever I get stuck with a line I for the life of me can't figure out, I always ask someone who actually speaks Japanese to help out. That also helps keep the quality of translation on a certain level.

 

[candyfloss]

I mean the default RPG Maker XP editor.

Eh, the folder that ends with _translated can't be touched? I assumed that folder is the result of RPG Maker Trans converting the text files back to RPGXP Data ones and that I could go back and run the editor to continue from there.

...How do I retrieve the updated data files?

Edited: I do the same thing too. I play along most of the time as I translate. Context is important!

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

It can be touched, but it is updated based on the base folder and translation files. You need to make updates to the base folder and the next time you patch the game, the program will update the game inside the _translated folder as well.

 

[candyfloss]

Ok, I tried editing the game with a mix of RPG Maker Trans and the default Editor, I think I get what you mean. So I should copy over the data files back into base folder instead of creating a new patch base on the _translated folder! Basically I shouldn't be getting something like a _translated_translated folder.

I think I got it! I should be able to make use of both RPG Maker Trans and the default editor to edit as I'm pleased to.

I'll make regular backup files just in case.

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

No.

You have 3 folders:

Base game folder
Patch folder
Translated Folder

And the program works like this:
It copies the data from the base game folder to the translated and replaces text files with the ones from the patch folder.


If you:
- Open the _translated game inside the RPG maker editor, change something and save it. This will save any changes to the game inside the _translated folder but the game inside the base folder with be unchanged.
- Start RPG Maker Trans folder and patch the game.
After the patch is finished this will result with the game inside _translated being revert back to how it was before you did any changes. It will be as if you didn't do shit. Only changes that will stay will be the ones made inside the patch files.


I don't know how to put it into the text so it's easier to understand.

Basically the _translated version = base version + patch files

Because the game copies files from the base version to the translated version any changes done to the translated version via the editor will be nullified every time you use RPG Maker Trans and run the patch process.

To edit the game with the editor so you changes stay permanently, you need to edit the base game inside the editor and save.

 

[candyfloss]

Yup, I understand.

Maybe I didn't word it properly, but I understand what you said.

This is what I'm doing to use both Trans and the editor:

1. Patch the base game for the first time to generate "patch" and "_translated" folder
2. Edit the files in "patch" with notepad++ to translate the common lines and terms.
3. Patch the base game again with RPG Maker Trans, thus updating the _translated folder
4. Copy and overwrite the datafiles in the base folder with the files from the newly updated _translated folder
5. Open the base game with the RPG Maker editor and continue from there.
6. Repeat 1-5 again if I want to edit with RPG Maker Trans text files again before going back to rpg maker editor

It's a little more tedious to use both...

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

Yes, that can work because the patch files are always updated based on the base game folder.

Keep in mind that translating it like this will make your patch files useless in case there's an update for the game. I would only translate it like this if I'm 100% sure there isn't going to be another update to the game.

 

[candyfloss]

I see. Not the best practice for translating new games then.

I'll keep it in mind.

 

[Strange]

2. My second problem is I can't start dialogues with the actor's image on the left with an "A"

3. My third problem is my configuration file changing according to my RPG Maker XP version when I close my editor since the game can't run properly without the proper japanese configuration file.
Is there anyway I could stop the configuration file from changing?

2- I think I know this one, and it's a pain...
You probably have something like a .slice recognition for "\041" (the unicode for 'A' if I'm not mistaken) somewhere in the definition for the Class Window_Message < Window_Selectable). That's where strings are thrown in, to be mashed into printable, formated text for regular message windows.
You'll need to find a smart way around that; like using another sub earlier so the 'A' character isn't misinterpreted for a commuter.

3- What I do: make game.ini read-only.
RPGM will pester you every time you open the project - and you'll need to re-make the file read-only again - but at least it won't overwrite game.ini upon each testplay.

 

[candyfloss]

2- I think I know this one, and it's a pain...
You probably have something like a .slice recognition for "\041" (the unicode for 'A' if I'm not mistaken) somewhere in the definition for the Class Window_Message < Window_Selectable). That's where strings are thrown in, to be mashed into printable, formated text for regular message windows.
You'll need to find a smart way around that; like using another sub earlier so the 'A' character isn't misinterpreted for a commuter.

3- What I do: make game.ini read-only.
RPGM will pester you every time you open the project - and you'll need to re-make the file read-only again - but at least it won't overwrite game.ini upon each testplay.

I did find the only .slice recognition in the class Window_Message script!
I don't see an unicode for A in any form that I know of though, and I'm really unsure how I should fix it.
I'll try to do something about the codes and test it out... but if anyone has any good suggestion, please do give it!

I already tried setting the configuration file to read-only before. But since the editor request that I change it every time I open it, I find it as tedious as manually editing it myself so I gave up.
I'll use kR1pt0n1t3's suggestion to keep it open and ctrl-S when it's done.

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

Can you send me that whole script so I go through it. Maybe I can help with the A thing.

 

[Strange]

Can you send me that whole script so I go throught it. Maybe I can help with the A thing.

If my hunch is right, the 'A' character would be recognized by one of these "if c== "\xxx" lines.
If that's the case, please share or PM me your solution; I had a serious headache with this at the time :'(

 

[kR1pt0n1t3]

Just from looking at the picture I think the problem lies with the line 121. You can clearly see it replaces both 'A' and 'a' with \101[#{$1}]

Removing [Aa] from the line should fix it, but without the whole script, I don't know if that's the only line or what the possible bugs will be.
I don't think it's there for no reason.