[FF7] Text editor - Loveless (v2.5)

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As the conversation has turned into Loveless troubleshooting. I'm moving this into "Programming feedback" It's better suited to be there.
 
I've fixed this little bug. I will post version 2.2 of Loveless in a few hours :p
 
:-D thanks for the new version of loveless, in this version the file nivl_4 work normally for me :-D
 
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Thank you for this new version! You work hard and pretty fast.

I'd like to point out something:

  • you forgot to mention this "multi-line (whole texts) find&replace tool" in your changelog history.. and that's IMHO the most impressive change in version 2.2  :-) Oh heck, that's SO WONDERFUL! I'll transate the game within a few days with that tool.
  • a little glitch in menu-view... the "text preview size" should be in fact "level preview size"... but that's just estetical
  • the original in-game size of dialogue windows is still quite needed in preview area

GREAT WORK! You may guess what I'm going to do during holidays.  :roll:

And one question about special characters. Am I able to insert these central-european (CE) characters?:
ĺ ľ ŕ š č ť ď ž ý á í ó é ú ä ň ô
...and how?
I've noticed the symbols ´ and ˇ are there separately, but how to implement them into letters?
 
miracle.flame :

you forgot to mention this "multi-line (whole texts) find&replace tool" in your changelog history.. and that's IMHO the most impressive change in version 2.2  smiley Oh heck, that's SO WONDERFUL! I'll transate the game within a few days with that tool.
Click to expand...
- in history, multilline support is mentionned..... in version 2.1 part :p. This version wasn't a public release because when I've released 2.1 version, 2.2 version was already in progress lol.

a little glitch in menu-view... the "text preview size" should be in fact "level preview size"... but that's just estetical
Click to expand...
- oupps thanks for this report ^^'. I will fix this tonight.

Am I able to insert these central-european (CE) characters?:
ĺ ľ ŕ š č ť ď ž ý á í ó é ú ä ň ô
Click to expand...
- YES you can type most of special characters directly. Some of them are very special and Loveless can't write them into FF7 simply because.... FF7 does not support them =/. The only way is to type the right combination with Alt + a Number or copy/paste from Character Table of Windows. Maybe I will add this kind of special char. in the toolbar in the future (it will be faster to insert them :p). If you want, tonight I will provide you the whole list of the characters available in FF7.


the original in-game size of dialogue windows is still quite needed in preview area
Click to expand...
- about the size of window : I'm currently working on a Window Resizer module in Loveless (in order to show exact window size and ability to modify it !!) so.... just wait ^^''' lol


Braveheart :

in this version the file nivl_4 work normally for me
Click to expand...
Yeah I've fixed this 'little' bug :)
 
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- YES you can type most of special characters directly. Some of them are very special and Loveless can't write them into FF7 simply because.... FF7 does not support them =/. The only way is to type the right combination with Alt + a Number or copy/paste from Character Table of Windows.
Click to expand...
 :lol: I don't need to insert them that way because I have them directly on my keyboard. But if I use them they don't show in the preview area.. like if no letter was inserted. Does that mean FF7 doesn't support them and there's no way at all to see them in game?


Maybe I will add this kind of special char. in the toolbar in the future (it wiil be faster to isert them :p). If you want, tonight I will provide you the whole list of the characters available in FF7.
Click to expand...
Maybe it's unnecessary work. You know, if someone uses those characters in his native language there is high probability that he has them on the keyboard and that's the fastest method fo inserting. But it will be nice if you write them down (or point me where to find them) to be absolutely sure if they are available.

Thanks for your support, Squall78.
 
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They don't appear in text preview ? hummmm...
If you type a character and he does not appear, it's not supported in FF7 I think.

Give me some special characters which don't appear in text preview please.
 
Well, these characters don't exist in FF7 so you can't directly use them. But it's strange they're replaced by others on the text preview lol. Maybe they have the same ASCII code in central-european ? I don't know.

In LGP archives there is a texture file which contains all the characters (can be akin to a font file) and they are not inside it. Only occidental-european characters can be used =/.

Or you can modify this file. But the convenience is that when you will distribute your translation of FF7, the file wihich contains this 'font-file' will have to be distributed too...

However if you want to modify this "font-file" I can help you :)
 
naaaah.. it's not that important. Everybody is able to understand even when you don't use the symbols above letters. But the pronounciation sound funny if it's read aloud.  :-D

Edit: btw, your project is linked here...
Loveless    [In progress]
A very usefull text editor for for Final Fantasy VII.  You can even take the french version Here if you like.
         Official topic
Click to expand...
...and since you change the name of .zip file with every new version the link becomes invalid. You may want to use single name and mention the version number inside archive to avoid this.
 
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Hawaglaglaaaa Loveless on another topic ? I have not seen that :lol:

Yeah I can use a single filename.
I'll do this tonight (I'm currently in course ^^'').

 - Edit -
Just to say that I've fixed the "Level preview size" caption (instead of "Text preview size") :)

Mod Edit: Do not double-post.
 
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Hey I've just run into a possible problem on Chocobo stables (frcyo level).
There are texts like:
Then, give
   Chocobo
   [Code:, Ç#&
   a name.

or

[Code:, `$&    [Code:, Ç#&
   Class [Code:, j$!

which when saved is not displayed correctly in game. Instead of the actual name or class of the Chocobo there are exactly those symbols.

Is there a way to get around this or is it fixable?
 
Yes, in fact these characters are the codes which mean {CHOCOBO1 NAME} or {CHOCOBO1 CLASS}.

I have to fix it, but I thought, if you save there is no problem....
Weird...

I will examine this problem in a moment. Currently, I'm implementing window resizer in Loveless :p.

Thanks for this remark :)
 
Now I did some tests and I've found out that I can alter the other texts in "frcyo" and save without disrupting the codes.
BUT only if I didn't just view those texts containing the codes otherwise it will come to stop working after saving.

And I've noticed a difference. Cosmo utility shows e.g. "[Code:, Ç#&" where Loveless shows "{MODE}‚Ç#&".
I don't understand the coding at all and maybe it's okay that they handle them differently...I just added that just because maybe it can help you track the problem.
 
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Yes I know all about that. That's not a problem. I've just forgotten to manage this special codes lol.

In Cosmo special codes begins with "[Code:", in Loveless with "{MODE}". It's just a syntaxal difference ("[Code:" is the same special character than "{MODE}").

I will add Chocobo's special characters support in the next version (which will be available at the end of the next week, I think).

:)
 
Hey Squall78 you've been a very busy person!

Regarding special characters, apart from the original FF7 engine not supporting the characters being entered, you should be careful with special encoding formats.  This could become a bit of a nightmare, is what I'm concerned about.  Right so what I'm talking about is unicode versus the internal encoding in FF.  The original engine is limited to < 256 characters.  If you have the US version of FF and an Official translation, you might be able to find out what Square did for adding more or special characters.  I assume you are using UTF8 (Unicode 8) characters? Then encoding them into FF?  Do you have a guarenteed 'map' for all symbols?  What you may need to consider is twiddling with the internal font map.  In the mean time any symbol entered that does not actually map to a legal symbol that FF7 can display (in the current font map being used with the editor) display as a hex tuple Code: [Select]
Code: 
IE <8F>
.  Instead of using strange symbols that look confusing for special things such as 'chocobo' information, use a similar encoding scheme that fits the width of what is being presented
a character (Cloud for example) has up to 8 symbols right? A chocobo is limited to 6 I think.  So have some symbolic presentation for those like
Code: [Select]
Code: 
<PC_NM1> = Player Character 1 Name<CH1NM> = Chocobo 1 Name<CH1CL> = Chocobo 1 Class
 
The Japanese FF7 had a *MUCH* larger window.bin file that used banked sections and apporx 1,500 characters. I've never seen the VRAM in action in the Japanese version, but the extra kanji took up that huge blank spot under the roman text. I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say the Japanese system worked by banking in a font bank at the bottom, copying the needed characters into the bank above and then banking in another set to copy more.

I've only played with the Japanese version of FF6, but that worked in a method similar. The sentince that needed to be renderd was copied into a scratchpad from a series of font banks, then rendered in the speech box via a kernal command.
 
Interesting.  I was wondering about the encoding in FF8 a while back for the Japanese version.
Hmmmm it sounds to me they used the PS1's VRAM pages. Technically speaking the 64x128 section that contains the english font data is tiny.  (it's really 256x128  section likely 9x10 tiles maybe?) 21x10 or 210 symbols? you can pack quite a few symbols into the system and switching between tile swatchs for the PS1 is QUITE an easy task.

I noticed someone altered your VRAM.jpg in the wiki, do you have the original PNG? The JPG there is now ...  distorted by the use of JPEG dct (wrong type and low quality, in fact it's the wrong size too, I wondered why it looked odd).  FYI for people making a JPEG image that needs to be relatively close to the original 3 things,

  • 90% qaulity
  • floating point DCT
  • 1:1:1 pixel encoding ratio OR 2:1:1
Do not rely on Microsofts or anyone elses default settings on saving JPEG images, that require a high detail (such as a VRAM shot would).

Cyb
 
Hey Squall78,

i just wanna ask if you received my email, the one with the de/compression code and the table for the text in the EXE since you didn't reply :P

On a side note... why Borland C Builder? With VC6 you can compile and distribute only the exe without an overweight DLL (actually 2), and if you integrate the compression i sent you, you don't even need qhimm's DLL... that's 3 files down :P

Can't wait to see the windows resizing working :wink:

Take care
 
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