how to hack/translate

[fredrocks]

ok im new and i hope this is the right section but could anyone explain to show me where to go to learn how to translate, because FE12 doesnt seem to be getting an english release and im willing to at least try to translate the game so if anyone could show me the way that would be great, thanks in advance

[VincentASM]

I can see that you've tried to distinguish what you're doing, but just to make sure. Are you aiming to ROM hack or literally translate from Japanese to English (or both)? Because the two things are quite different and both are hefty tasks in themselves.

[Roxas]

1. Learn Japanese.

2. Understand game.

3. ???

4. PROFIT.

...or we can just go with what VASM said.

But in all seriousness, just calm down. The game will come to the U.S. eventually. :E

Edited April 5, 2011 by Roxas

[fredrocks]

I can see that you've tried to distinguish what you're doing, but just to make sure. Are you aiming to ROM hack or literally translate from Japanese to English (or both)? Because the two things are quite different and both are hefty tasks in themselves.

just translate the rom from japanese to english

[Anouleth]

just translate the rom from japanese to english

There's no patch that does that yet. And given that this is the most dialogue heavy FE ever created and there's been no sign of a project starting, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for one to be made.

[Roxas]

There's no patch that does that yet. And given that this is the most dialogue heavy FE ever created and there's been no sign of a project starting, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for one to be made.

@bold: Seriously? o;

[fredrocks]

There's no patch that does that yet. And given that this is the most dialogue heavy FE ever created and there's been no sign of a project starting, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for one to be made.

im not asking for a patch i want to make one, i can read japanese so i think i could translate it i know its time consuming and probably difficult but i gotta play this game

[VincentASM]

@bold: Seriously? o;

No, I'm not sure where people get that idea from. That award probably goes to FE7, 9 or 10. FE12 does have a fairly large campaign and 300 base conversations, but that's still less than, say, FE7's 3 x 115 supports.

im not asking for a patch i want to make one, i can read japanese so i think i could translate it i know its time consuming and probably difficult but i gotta play this game

Actually, I probably should have started by mentioning that it's probably not a good time to start a translation, like what Roxas said. It hasn't been a full year since the Japanese release and there's still a good chance that an official translation will be announced.

Because of the above, I'm really hesistant about giving advice, in case you end up wasting your time. Hopefully you don't take this the wrong way ^^;;;

The only thing I can recommend now is, perhaps, try your hand at translating some scripts and posting them online. If a fan translation is required in the future, that kind of work could be useful.

[Crimson Red]

The only thing I can recommend now is, perhaps, try your hand at translating some scripts and posting them online. If a fan translation is required in the future, that kind of work could be useful.

This

I'm really hesistant about giving advice, in case you end up wasting your time. Hopefully you don't take this the wrong way

I won't give major details, but if you're really serious about this (which it doesn't seem like, no offense, but you don't seem to have done much research on hacking, nor shown a professional take on this), you can start by learning about how DS hacking works--much doc can be found here (see Shadow Dragon editors--much of the hacking information and concepts can be applied to FE12, if you understand it) and you're free to analyze this patch and the text hacking done there. While it'd be more time consuming, it'd be easier to learn all general DS hacking aspects and FE11 text hacking aspects before going to FE12, because FE12 is in Japanese and well, unless you're fluent in Japanese, then... bleh (and if you're fluent, why need a translation patch? might as well just wait for the official like everyone else).

Meh, I said too much...

[Celice]

I would dump the script from the game and start translating then. It can be inserted later when you learn how, or if someone offers, or not at all--but a translation, whether in the game or not, is going to be useful for players afraid of moonspeak.

[Crimson Red]

^That

dumping the script would also mean learning what is text and what isn't text. you'll need some program to convert the hex into readable letters, and then you'll have to throw away all the text codes that aren't real parts of the dialog and whatnot. Menus and such could probably be converted separately from dialog (where as translating dialog while playing the game is both inefficient, time-consuming, and could result in missing text if you don't get X scene where Y text is played).

Even if you don't translate, at least we can just link anyone else with such an idea to this post so we don't end up repeating ourselves =P

[VincentASM]

Script dumping isn't so hard since the text is in ASCII. If you have Japanese unicode support, you can view the script just by opening the message files in a text editor. Just don't forget to LZ77(11)-decompress the files first.

[Crimson Red]

you'll need some program to convert the hex into readable letters

If you have Japanese unicode support

That's what I meant =P since I don't know anyone who has Japanese unicode support, I'm guessing most people don't lol

[VincentASM]

Getting Japanese unicode is fairly easy if you have Windows (yeah, another if).

Besides, you're converting the hex into... what, Japanese characters, right? If so, you'll still need Japanese unicode support to actually read the characters, won't you? Unless you're converting them into romaji or something, but I don't know how you're going to convert all those kanji o__o