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March 28, 2024, 08:10:53 am

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Loading Text in TacText Shows Nonsensical wording.

Started by Metrohaha, May 14, 2019, 05:35:38 pm

Metrohaha

So I have embarked down the road to modifying this splendid game, but I've decided to start with a base of sorts, with a file that has already made some alterations.
I figured I'd make my changes first, then shore up the text afterwards, but when I did, I was met with a rather alarming problem.
It seems, some how, the text I would like to edit has been garbled up into some nearly indecipherable mess.

Here you can see an example.

Now, when actually playing the game its fine.
Nothing is wrong with any of the text there, but some how loading in FFTacText causes it to become this mess.

I would like to edit very few things, so its particularly daunting, because it makes me think I would need to fix every single text box in the game first before I could even make my edits, and that's likely not something I can do.

Oddly enough, I loaded another version of the same modification prior to me making adjustments and the text is fine there, so I am wondering if I took the text from THAT version, caught it up to speed with the current version, made my changes, then patched it over my modifcation's file, would that just solve the problems?

Or is there something fundamentally wrong here that if I try to fix it will not be solved?

Its the same in the problem in the program proper and in .ffttext format, as I have seen people suggest before in previous threads.

What would you, as an experienced hacker of FFT and text editor recommend?
Is TacText the issue maybe? Is there an alternative I am not aware of?
  • Modding version: PSX

3lric

What version of tactext? PSX or WOTL? If the former, use Xifs texthelper instead
  • Modding version: PSX

Metrohaha

May 14, 2019, 06:10:24 pm #2 Last Edit: May 14, 2019, 06:46:24 pm by Metrohaha
Its version 0.492, using for PSX, ya sorry I should have mentioned that.

So you think loading it with Xif's program will solve this? Or do we think its an issue that is based on the ISO and that in order to change things I need to rewrite all the text, even with her program?

EDIT: Anyway, I tried that and its the same. Things are in different order so its hard to compare each at a glance, but still tons of missing letters and words that just make no sense at all.
  • Modding version: PSX

Nyzer

No, the text helper won't fix it if it's already broken. It's just far less likely to break it in the first place.

TacText has some known bugs, it's a fairly flawed program. I think your ISO's text is, for whatever reason, no longer extractable. I'm assuming you didn't save the last round of changes as their own file and are just trying to rip them back out of the ISO, yes?
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Metrohaha

May 15, 2019, 09:24:27 pm #4 Last Edit: May 15, 2019, 09:54:08 pm by Metrohaha
Quote from: Nyzer on May 14, 2019, 11:13:31 pm
No, the text helper won't fix it if it's already broken. It's just far less likely to break it in the first place.

TacText has some known bugs, it's a fairly flawed program. I think your ISO's text is, for whatever reason, no longer extractable. I'm assuming you didn't save the last round of changes as their own file and are just trying to rip them back out of the ISO, yes?


Ya, that's correct. Didn't realize it would ever be a problem, so that's my fault.

But, its all good. I've come to terms with redoing what I need to and starting from an old copy.
That will work right? If I just repatch a copy for a while back that I still have on top of the up to date ISO, it will just override everything 1 to 1?
I assume that's how it works, but first time trying to replace basically every line of text in the game at once haha.

EDIT: Actually, after further inspection this version isn't good either. Many of the errors from the first viewed copy are not bugged in this one, but after futher inspection, others are instead.

So looks like in order to change anything, I'll have to edit every single line of text in the game?
Or I suppose the ones that are borked, right?
I'll probably end up missing a ton along the way haha

Ironically, it seems to be consistent at least in what it messed up. For example, every time the letters "A" and "R" appear next to each other it replaced them with
this odd character: "づ"

So, Wizard is now "Wizづd"

Hilarious, if I wasn't so doomed haha.
  • Modding version: PSX

Xifanie

I'm sure it has to do with compression. Tactext turns some of the 1 byte Japanese characters into common combinations of letters, such as "th", because it still fits within the 10 pixel width limit, and thus saves a reasonable amount of space.

But I never heard of Tactext failing to retrieved the character data that it itself saved to the ISO like this (nor do I know where it is located).

Regardless, you should only have so many combinations of letters to replace-all in the .ffttext file that you save after ripping your ISO... then never load your text from your ISO again to be safe. We can't stress this enough; nearly all major issues with Tactext are caused by loading patched text from the ISO.
  • Modding version: PSX
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Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

3lric

This has happened to me in the past when patching over a iso with new tactext changes, when it has 1) already had tactext changes (2) i have excessed a text offset
  • Modding version: PSX