Fire Emblem 5 text editor

[js394]

Does anyone know if the FEBinary contains a text editor for FE5? I'm working on a translation and I really don't want to have to make one if there's already one available. This file seems to be a collection of tools for FE4 and FE5, but I can't read it because it's in Japanese (or maybe Chinese, I really have no idea )

Edited March 29, 2014 by joesteve1914

[Aleph]

If they did I hope it would be be in the resources section and make these kinds of threads pointless

[Siuloir]

I doubt it, at this point.

That patch needs serious help, though.

[js394]

Can anyone tell me what this program does?

http://asvel.ys168.com/note/fd.htm?http://ys-C.ys168.com/2.0/247720307/V65Uuwh4L5J2K6H5JIPscx/%B6%E0%C0%AD%BB%F9%D1%C7776%D0%DE%B8%C4%C6%F7%20ver1.5.rar

Edited March 30, 2014 by joesteve1914

[Celice]

Dunno anything about a dedicated text editor, but a hex editor and a table file will work just fine. You can use some liason programs like Atlus to make script editing and inserting a little more automatic and simple, if you're willing to work with handling large chunks of text at once, instead of editing each part of the text manually and individually.

[eCut]

Moved to questions.

[Aleph]

Dunno anything about a dedicated text editor, but a hex editor and a table file will work just fine. You can use some liason programs like Atlus to make script editing and inserting a little more automatic and simple, if you're willing to work with handling large chunks of text at once, instead of editing each part of the text manually and individually.

I would think this means the text is not compressed. This is an important detail that would be nice to have stated clearly, separately from the others, so I'll ask whether text is compressed despite that I am certain of the answer.

What is the nature of "Atlus" such that it prohibits working with elements of the text rather than the whole of it? It appears it accepts some sort of input that it would then use to calculate all of the references and the length of the text at those references for a given collection of text if it is capable of automating the process of editing and applying changes to the whole text.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Izayoi

[js394]

I would think this means the text is not compressed. This is an important detail that would be nice to have stated clearly, separately from the others, so I'll ask whether text is compressed despite that I am certain of the answer.

Um... If you're asking if the text is compressed, most of it isn't. I believe the only text that is compressed is the things in the stats screen (e.g. Attack, Defense, Luck etc)

[Aleph]

Why would they compress text used in the much more limited context but not the much more common text that is ripe with possible reductions? In what way is the "compressed text" compressed?

[Celice]

It probably isn't compressed in a conventional sense, as much as it's stored in a different manner from the rest of the text in the game. Maybe whomever was working on the menu systems had put together a way to print text that was exclusive to whomever was working on getting the general scripts and dialogues to work. Or maybe it was revised at some point in some ramshackled way. Game development is always full of weird inconsistencies that seem pretty obvious from an outside looker who has the final totality to look at. But in the process of designing and redesigning aspects, sometimes these weird oversites or methods were just symptoms of a more organic design pattern, one that didn't afford the same position we have looking at its total. Their goal might have been just to get things working, and things built off in strange ways over time and circumstances.

I would think this means the text is not compressed. This is an important detail that would be nice to have stated clearly, separately from the others, so I'll ask whether text is compressed despite that I am certain of the answer.

What is the nature of "Atlus" such that it prohibits working with elements of the text rather than the whole of it? It appears it accepts some sort of input that it would then use to calculate all of the references and the length of the text at those references for a given collection of text if it is capable of automating the process of editing and applying changes to the whole text.

I'm not sure if it is or isn't compressed, but as far as Shaya's and FireLizard's work with the game, it was pretty barebones. I think Shaya ended up creating some tools to automate text editing and the insertion process, but that the text-itself was straight-forward to edit. SpyroDi had some hacking projects regarding FE5 that made use of different text, so maybe they have some notes hanging around the internet somewhere--this is the same person who made the ASCII patch for Twilkitri's FE4 translation, if it rings any bells.

As for atlus, it's an insertion tool. One configures it to handle all the insertion and reallocation of text, pointers, whatever you need, and then one simply provides the inputs to go in. There's probably many more of these kinds of programs out there--this is the one I last heard of whenever I was checking out some other fan translation projects. But you could just as well configure it to work on a single-by-single instance, the same way one would use a hex editor to translate text manually. This would probably just be needlessly compounded and more complex, though :/

Edited March 31, 2014 by Celice

[Aleph]

Atlus sounds interesting. Yes, I know who SpyroDi/Pukachi is.

It sounds like the text isn't really compressed, even in the case of the odd menu tidbits. It may in a different format, but that's not the same thing as there not being a 1:1 correlation between a desired character to display and the encoding for it at any given point in a string as would be the case with compression.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Izayoi

[Lamia]

as far as I can remember pukachi just made the combat stat text look like letters by just editing the kanji directly, not changing it by regular means

every other text is uncompressed though

as for editing text in FE5, it's the same as FE4, dialogue text follows a font format and menus use shift-jis

celice is right that all you need is a hex editor and reference material really (it's how I do it)

Edited March 31, 2014 by Lamia

[js394]

celice is right that all you need is a hex editor and reference material really (it's how I do it)

What about the pointers? The English is going to be longer than the Japanese so I need more space.

[MP2E]

What about the pointers? The English is going to be longer than the Japanese so I need more space.

Use a ROM extender tool like Lunar Extend to create the empty space you need and put your dialogue in the empty space. All you need to do then is swap out the dialogue pointers for pointers to your now free space.

Also note, I'm working on a utility to dump and reinject text into FE4. If FE5s script format is similar it shouldn't be difficult to modify. It's not going to be like FEditor though, its just going to dump the dialogue in text files.

[Lamia]

Use a ROM extender tool like Lunar Extend to create the empty space you need and put your dialogue in the empty space. All you need to do then is swap out the dialogue pointers for pointers to your now free space.

Also note, I'm working on a utility to dump and reinject text into FE4. If FE5s script format is similar it shouldn't be difficult to modify. It's not going to be like FEditor though, its just going to dump the dialogue in text files.

doesn't quite work that way for some menu text (character/class/item/maybe some others) as they only use two-byte pointers, using a reference point instead which is a real hassle, they can only be pointed to and located within a $0000-FFFF range

as for dialogue, there's also a handy control code that allows you to repoint to additional text in the middle of conversation (even in the middle of a word, it's seamless) to any other place in the ROM, but it requires an additional 'end' ($01) code

Edited April 1, 2014 by Lamia

[js394]

doesn't quite work that way for some menu text (character/class/item/maybe some others) as they only use two-byte pointers, using a reference point instead which is a real hassle, they can only be pointed to and located within a $0000-FFFF range

as for dialogue, there's also a handy control code that allows you to repoint to additional text in the middle of conversation (even in the middle of a word, it's seamless) to any other place in the ROM, but it requires an additional 'end' ($01) code

So you enter the pointer to the offset you want to repoint it to and add $01 after it?

Edited April 2, 2014 by joesteve1914

[js394]

Could you tell me what the control code is? Thanks for telling me about it, it should make things easier.

[Lamia]

So you enter the pointer to the offset you want to repoint it to and add $01 after it?

exactly

Could you tell me what the control code is? Thanks for telling me about it, it should make things easier.

check my FE4 stuff topic for the FE4hackdocs download, twilkitri's stuff with a few extras

in scripting\controlcodes.txt it has most everything you need (although there are a few things I'm not sure I added)

FE5 uses the same engine, so it's more than likely that things will be the same

Edited April 11, 2014 by Lamia