Front Mission 5 Translation Project

Pete081085 · 03-04-2009, 04:52 PM

Hey all.
As some of you know there is a translation of the game called Front Mission 5 you can check it on frontmission.info I'm personally responsible for translating graphic files like TIM2. My work can be seen in these screenshots:

All the files that can be see above are stored as TIM2 format, I already know how to edit those files. To do this first I used Munge Explorer to extract my original Japanese ISO made by MagicISO

and that's what I've got:

In :"Modules folder":

Then I extracted the DVDIMAGE.DAT (3,62 GB) to get over 10000 files. Some of those files are already named TIM2 but there is bunch of files with strange extensions (some are just named as .dat) which I don't know how to open. Some TIM2 files are stored inside these odd formats. To see those files i used MagicISO and packed those files in an ISO containing lets say 500 files and then used TimTool to extract tim's that were changed into .bmp. So when I've found something interesting I just narrowed the search down to 250 an so on until there was only one file with TIM2 I wanted to change. Because there was no working extractor/rebuilder of TIM2 I just had to copy and paste whole value using hex editor and replace the original TIM2 with the changed on - of course I had to be sure that the size of the files is the same. But even when thx to TimTool I've found over 4000 tims there were some parts of the graphic that require translation missing, that's what is missing:

I'm looking for the file that contains the Japanese text on this white belt. I thought that it also should be a tim2 format since as you can see on second screen there is a "Officer's quarters" on top left corner and is also on a white belt very similar to the one J'm looking for...
I started a topic on a different forum. I tried to find the missing graphic using PCSX2 (sectors). Game Sectors
The guy who tried to help me wrote something like this:
I'm not sure if this can help at all but it's possible that you could use the console to find where the text is.
From the console I'll assume that each sector is 2064 bytes, and you would find the data at address 1642481*2064 = 3390080784 = 0xCA108710. If you open the ISO in a hex editor you might find the data there. Also I'm sure there's a program out there that could tell you what file is at what sector to help narrow down the search.
The only problem is, that address is probably the graphical data since the japanese would have already been loaded into memory before displaying it.
My guess is you'd have to watch the console before the text appears and maybe if you're lucky it'll all be stored in the same spot for all text and you can easily find it by watching before every text load. (i.e. a sector read at 1400XXX amongst the 1642XXX)
Please note that this is just a guess as I don't know the PCSX2 emulator or what its output means and I don't know how the FM5 file structure is.
If any of this is wrong hopefully someone can correct me but I hope that it'll help you along the right path.

Yet the missing thing is not found in TIM2 format, I couldn't even find Tim were the game's font is stored. But there is a guy called MoxHypKa was able to somehow change the font, you can see it on the youtube (You can see it when you type Front Mission 5 Translation Clip in search engine).
That's obvious that a lot of things is stored in different format for example 3D's textures etc... I tried to extract the files using CRC, scanning with Sonix FileScan v3.0. But in CRC there is no plug-in for Front Mission 5 though the file scanner finds the same stuff as Sonix's tool the extraction option hurts badly since I have to click on every single file to extract (Why there is no option allowing us to mark the files and then extract them all ??!!) Could some one tell me how can I extract those files faster than just clicking on each of them ??
I understand that rest of the graphics can be stored as different formats but how to find what kind of ?? Can I request the plugins for CRC an Genie ?? And I'm asking you guys to help me find the missing stuff.
I decided to load some files from the game if that can help since I'm in a dead point and don't know how to move on...

Front Mission 5 files
Please if you need more files I can upload them here or send them to your PM. Please guys help me to find those graphic formats please...

Pete081085 · 03-05-2009, 06:16 PM

It looks like I'm not getting help at all...

InVerse · 03-06-2009, 12:36 AM

It's unlikely that there are any experienced PSX hackers on this board. There are some over at RHDN, but if you go looking for help over there, be warned, they have a habit of raping new people.

The 9th Sage · 03-06-2009, 01:26 PM

Yeah....if I knew PSX hacking I'd be happy to help you, but I do not.

Shadow · 03-07-2009, 08:17 PM

This looks just like a classical romhacking problem. I encountered similiar problems very often.

It seems like the wanted images are part of a message box dialog. So when you want to find the images you have to find the text first! Do a relative search and/or find the correct compression.

Then you can follow the pointers. There must be a font set. Font sets on psx don't necessarily have to be stored as TIM. And all letters /signs are probably in one single file / image.

Another hint: when you look at the posted screen you may recognize serveral layers. The letters are drawn in the top layer, all other contents are in the back. You may be able to filter them out.

To get closer: make a measurement of the height and length of ONE sign. Could be 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 or 128x128. These are common formats.

When you got the size, you can calculate the value of the wanted sign.
I hope it's only one color per sign. Otherwise it gets slightly complicated (multilayer)
How to calculate the wanted value?
Easy: Every drawn pixel represents a 1, every transparent pixel a 0.
Just count from left to right and top to bottom.

For example the letter " i " in format 8x8:

0000 1000 => 0x08h
0000 0000 => 0x00h
0000 1000 => 0x08h
0000 1000 => 0x08h
0000 1000 => 0x08h
0000 1000 => 0x08h
0000 1000 => 0x08h
0000 1000 => 0x08h

Combined value in hex: 0008 0000 0008 0008 0008 0008 0008 0008
You get it. But beware. The numbers could be also inversed.

Of course I assume you know these tipps already

Pete081085 · 03-10-2009, 11:46 AM

Thank You guys for your response.
Shadow:
Now I know where the wanted data is or exactly at what sector of the CD. Since when I'm running the game at PCSX2 and turn on that window what I was talking about each time, and I mean it, all the time I get these two sectors running:

That's I'm looking for again:
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4080/sectors.jpg
So now when I know the sectors how do I find them in hex is there a method to somehow change the sector value in to Hex value ??
Shadow can you help ??

Pete081085 · 03-10-2009, 11:47 AM

Thank You guys for your response.
Shadow:
Now I know where the wanted data is or exactly at what sector of the CD. Since when I'm running the game at PCSX2 and turn on that window what I was talking about each time, and I mean it, all the time I get these two sectors running:

That's I'm looking for again:
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4080/sectors.jpg
So now when I know the sectors how do I find them in hex is there a method to somehow change the sector value in to Hex value ?? I'm so close.
Shadow can you help ??

Reaper man · 03-10-2009, 02:45 PM

open up windows calculator, change it to scientific, change mode to dec (if necessary), input number, change mode to hex.

Pete081085 · 03-10-2009, 05:57 PM

But I should multiple the sector number by 2064 right ??

Reaper man · 03-10-2009, 08:11 PM

that I wouldn't know ;p