Author Topic: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?  (Read 8335 times)

jack.o.lantern

  • *
  • Posts: 22
    • View Profile
Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« on: 2008-05-29 02:56:24 »
How easy/difficult would this be? The Japanese and English versions would be necessary for organizing and editing the script for the voice-over project. Would anyone be willing to do this? Or do they already exist?

ficedula

  • *
  • Posts: 2178
    • View Profile
    • http://www.ficedula.co.uk
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #1 on: 2008-05-29 07:28:20 »
Depends on what you want.

Cosmo already has the ability to dump all the text it finds for every field file out into text files. I wouldn't be surprised if some other editing tools could do this as well. Of course I suspect somebody has already done this so you can probably find the game script posted somewhere on the 'net already.

What an automatically generated dump isn't necessarily going to give you, is some indication of what order the various dialogue plays in. It's effectively a tree of dialogue, after all (although FF7 doesn't have very many branches...) so it's not just a case of reading down the list of lines in order and aha, that's exactly what you'd see/hear.

Tsetra

  • *
  • Posts: 329
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #2 on: 2008-05-29 09:24:15 »
I'm actually compiling all the dialog together right now. It's actually a nightmare, because it's all out of order, you have to sift through dummied dialog and repeats, and in general it's taking forever.  :|

Note that being primarily for the voice-over project, certain things are going to be omitted from this document. Mainly random NPC dialog, and general messages that have no business being spoken. So I apologize if anyone is hoping for a 100% complete dump. Mine almost looks like a screenplay, with notes on the atmospheres to give the voice actor an idea of how he or she needs to sound.
« Last Edit: 2008-05-29 09:30:42 by Tsetra »

VanishedOne

  • *
  • Posts: 27
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #3 on: 2008-05-29 15:21:42 »
Quote
How easy/difficult would this be? The Japanese and English versions would be necessary

I had most of a full answer typed out before I noticed who posted this query.

You already know how to get hold of text dumps--but as other people said, it's not nicely ordered at all; some dialogue is dupicated all over the place. Plus there are a lot of maps, and unless someone feels like adding Japanese support to FF7TV-3, working out where the dialogue section begins and ends in each FFVIIj file dump will stay manual; so while one could technically make a complete text dump of FFVIIj (thanks, indeed, to all the work you did on ff7datj.tbl), there would be some manual labour involved, and from Tsetra's response it sounds as though referencing the Japanese version isn't considered necessary anyway.

jack.o.lantern

  • *
  • Posts: 22
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #4 on: 2008-05-29 17:57:03 »
Sorry, I meant a more organized version specifically. I've found a couple of manually-written English scripts on the internet, but nothing for the Japanese (aside from the unused text, of course).

Ideally, something like this would be awesome: http://www.zeldalegends.net/files/emulation/dumps/zelda64/japan/Z64Japanese-EnglishComparisonTable.zip

Tsetra and I were talking about editing the scripts and in some cases it might be nice to have the Japanese version to refer to, especially if there's some ambiguity in the English version (which seems to happen a bit in FF7; Tseng's death, anyone?).

Wow, good to hear you've got it started, Tsetra.. that sounds like a lot of work.

Vehek

  • *
  • Posts: 215
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #5 on: 2008-05-30 00:14:23 »
« Last Edit: 2008-05-30 00:20:49 by Vehek »

jack.o.lantern

  • *
  • Posts: 22
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #6 on: 2008-05-30 00:51:57 »
Some Japanese pages I know about with text from FF7.
http://www.nyamo.or.tv/lines/lines.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20070610022309/www.parabox.or.jp/~takashin/ff7story01.htm (Use Shift-JIS).

Awesome, Vehek, thanks. The first one ends at the Mithril Mines, but I wonder if the latter is the entire script? It goes up to the final cutscene, anyway.

Tsetra

  • *
  • Posts: 329
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #7 on: 2008-05-30 01:39:11 »
Quote
and from Tsetra's response it sounds as though referencing the Japanese version isn't considered necessary anyway.

Not necessarily. There are still some things of interest. Mostly ideas that didn't translate over well into English (Tseng's "death" having been cited already), along with missing content that isn't present in the English versions. As I'm adding in notes where there is dummied content, this would be invaluable. We'll be using all of these things to consider the final script.

VanishedOne

  • *
  • Posts: 27
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #8 on: 2008-05-30 09:10:59 »
Sorry, I meant a more organized version specifically.

and from Tsetra's response it sounds as though referencing the Japanese version isn't considered necessary anyway.

Not necessarily. There are still some things of interest. Mostly ideas that didn't translate over well into English (Tseng's "death" having been cited already), along with missing content that isn't present in the English versions. As I'm adding in notes where there is dummied content, this would be invaluable. We'll be using all of these things to consider the final script.

If Tsetra wants something that includes unused text markers (painful, even if I dig out all my notes on those), then you'll need a complete new dump (a full set of raw decompressed DATs from International), and someone is going to have to organise it... and that person would be well advised to look for methods of automating the process.

Missing content is dummied or blank in all versions; it's just that not all of it was translated, so the English version has more blanks (as well as, in the PC version, what look like relics of the original PSX translation, just to confuse everyone further). Using it to make contextual judgments, given that it was written and then discarded, might be considered 'hermeneutically interesting', but I'm not anxious to get sucked into that kind of debate.

Tsetra

  • *
  • Posts: 329
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #9 on: 2008-05-30 09:27:03 »
Actually, that's exactly what I've been doing. Processing the script. Anyone who would be considered as a vocal character is having their lines added into the processed script which is exactly in order as events happen, with dummied dialog filed in exactly where it would have been had Square kept it (with clear indicators showing that it's not part of the final product, of course).
Automating the process is nearly impossible because not only are the LZS archives inside of char.lgp out of order, but the text in the LZS archives themselves are often out of order as well. Plus care has to be taken to add in notes on the mood at all times so the voice actors aren't speaking completely out of atmosphere. Painfully, it must be done by hand. But I'm perfectly fine with that as long as interest remains with the project from everyone else.
My work on redoing the intro sequence has left me with rudimentary ability to restore a lot of dummied sections of the game, and I'm not saying we will, just that we're considering it. Adding in all the dummied dialogs and cutscenes makes it a lot easier to make that decision.

Note that I'm pretty familiar with the game, so I'm not dumb enough to add in something that was left out for obvious reasons. For example, certain events are referenced too early in the game in the unused dialogs. These won't be added to preserve the impact of when you learn of them for sure.
« Last Edit: 2008-05-30 09:31:05 by Tsetra »

VanishedOne

  • *
  • Posts: 27
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #10 on: 2008-05-30 20:15:05 »
With respect to automation I had in mind identifying the start and end points of the dialogue section of the DAT, separating out blocks by line break and 0xFF terminator, etc.--i.e. having in mind the state of a raw text dump, which is currently the only way of getting the text for the Japanese version. With the English version, yes, you have nicer tools already.

Tsetra

  • *
  • Posts: 329
    • View Profile
Re: Is it possible to get FFVII Text Dumps?
« Reply #11 on: 2008-05-31 10:51:31 »
I'm going to go insane.

PS Squall87 - Your new version is Loveless is f***ing great, man. Awesome job.
« Last Edit: 2008-05-31 10:54:44 by Tsetra »