Author Topic: Personal Status Update  (Read 9135 times)

Tsetra

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Personal Status Update
« on: 2008-07-21 09:35:15 »
As most of you are aware of, I did most of the initial script dumping and refining for the project. However a month ago, I went on "vacation". My vacation was actually jail time for actions I'm neither proud of nor willing to discuss. In the meantime, I've decided to step-up my martial arts training and attempt to make a career out of it in MMA competition. Therefore, I'm going to have virtually no time left over for any alternate longterm project including FF7Voice.
I've agreed to help Mesden produce a demo of Scene 1 to hopefully refine everything and leave as little possible for everyone else to figure out. I don't know if this will be an open demo or just something to pass around the team, that's not my call to make. I know the sound processor is on hiatus but I can do process the files myself so no need to remind me about that. I'll do what I can to help - I really want this project to see completion - but I've only got so much time in a day.
Good luck to you guys, do FF7 proud.

Theclad

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #1 on: 2008-08-04 18:21:14 »
Thank you very much for this information !
Jail is good in USA ?  :cry:

I expect we have some news soon.  :-)

Tsetra

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #2 on: 2008-08-08 07:55:53 »
Good news, Clad. The demo is nearing completion. Some of the voices take a bit to get used to, but I think most people will be satisfied with the final result. Bear in mind, this demo uses a few wave files that weren't intended for final release, so there's going to be some oddities here and there. In addition, my sound processing skills are rudimentary, so the voices are all the same volume and satisfactory, but by no means perfect. Careful ears will hear clicks and bumps occasionally that I lack the skill to resolve.

EDIT - Well Marcis, I gotta say... Ficedula's concept is shoddy, to put it nicely. Obviously it was just a proof of concept so whatever, but in order to get all the voices in 100%, I'm going to need to manually insert them into the video, because the FF7Voice program just won't play all of them. So it's pretty bad.

Dziugo, while I'm still around is there anything that could help you out? Do you want a copy of the first scene script to see what it's going to look like? Savegames? I think it's safe to say the sooner you get something out, the better. You're another reason I want this demo out. I know what it's like to work hard on something doomed to fail, but I think you'll find your work is worth it once you see this baby polished.
« Last Edit: 2008-08-13 08:11:45 by Tsetra »

Marc

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #3 on: 2008-08-16 15:42:39 »
Yes I agree.

Ficedula had done a good job to whip something up quickly but the implementation of it was not working at a 100%.  And I don't even know why too as it catches all the text properly (except for isolated situations such as Vincen'ts waterfall where a script event stopped the program) so it *should* have been a simple matter to mix and match from there as the setup was not all that complicated!

From the couple conversations I've had with Dziugo, I know quality will play a great role in this software so I'm looking forward to test it out in a game environment.

I've offered to do the sound file setup once we're at that point and it should be fairly straightforward with the dialog ID system as long as the lines are properly identified.

This brings me a question though, I know you've been adding some dummied dialog with Meteor into the field files.  Do you know how they get added back into the game ID-wise (I mean what dialog ID does loveless assign them - does meteor simply stack them at the end of existing lines) ?  This would be important to know as it could throw the ID of existing lines out of whack and finding out how these are handled could allow us to ID the lines in advance the right way.

edit : disregard my last paragraph.  I had forgotten the dummied text is already included in the field files, hence already has an ID number.
« Last Edit: 2008-08-16 20:26:22 by Marcis »

dziugo

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #4 on: 2008-08-16 20:57:04 »
@Tsetra: First scene script would be ok, but I think that we're all waiting for the demo you're preparing. I'd have something to compare to, that's for sure :)

Tsetra

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #5 on: 2008-08-17 03:21:27 »
OK, a lot on my mind, hopefully I don't forget something here:

First, Ficedula's concept. Actually, it's QUITE flawed. In Scene 1 alone, I ran into constant problems with dialog not getting cached. Dialog that's called on by a "choice" isn't shown at all, nor is battle dialog obviously, but more importantly the program seems to get bogus level changes somehow so it occasionally thinks the level changed to some jibberish like "$#SOLDI@?^" - which obviously not only doesn't exist, but creates an impossibility to make a folder for it anyhow to make up for the change (illegal characters). Another thing is that you usually can't talk to someone repeatedly. If you do, the dialog is only vocalized once. However, if you talk to someone else, then talk to them again, they say their line again. FF7Voice can't repeat the same dialog twice in a row.
Forgot to add, FF7Voice also crashes in more areas than the waterfall. I can't possibly run the demo past ROOTMAP because it it will either crash there, or crash immediately after the level changes again.

Marcis, yes as you stated most of the dummied dialog is already included in the field files. However, I HAVE added new dialog IDs. This is why:
http://faceofthemoon.blogspot.com/search/label/Hot%20Blooded%20Detective%20Joe

These lines aren't anywhere to be found, and I've restored ones which I felt added to the gameplay (Sorry, no "Gorilla! Gorilla!" nonsense.) Most of these I felt added some significance to AVALANCHE. I don't think many people actually cared when Biggs, Jesse, and Wedge died. Between these and existing unused lines, I think this will change. So as I said, I've added completely new dialogs in Meteor, which were given new IDs previously nonexistent in Meteor. However that said, as long as the proper LZS files are inserted into flevel.lgp with these changes added, the new dialogs show up just fine in Loveless, so if dziugo's program or your naming of the files is going to depend on that, you'll be fine. I'll make sure you're sent the LZS files so the changes are apparent if you need.

dziugo (whom I have a bad habit of capitalizing/misspelling your name),
As soon as I'm on a faster net connection, she'll be uploaded  :-)
« Last Edit: 2008-08-17 03:25:42 by Tsetra »

Marc

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #6 on: 2008-08-17 15:22:38 »
That's great.

I wasn't even aware there were some extra unused text.

My original question is then still valid : when you add new lines, do they then go straight at the end and create new ID's in the field file or displace other ones and modify the overall ID of the lines ?

Because if they just go at the end, its an easy fix but if they get inserted midway then that means all the numbering gets skewed and we can't assign the files until we get all of the modifications in.

Tsetra

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #7 on: 2008-08-18 08:14:53 »
I've added completely new dialogs in Meteor, which were given new IDs previously nonexistent in Meteor.

In other words, they're tacked onto the end. So you get your easy fix.

Marc

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #8 on: 2008-08-19 22:43:47 »
Easy is good.

Thanks.

brianmay

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #9 on: 2008-09-01 02:04:33 »
so... where are the previews?

Tsetra

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Re: Personal Status Update
« Reply #10 on: 2008-09-01 07:07:17 »
It's a big upload, and I'm not on a decent internet connection until the 5th. For whatever reason, be it drivers, video card, or program related, I can't record a video, so the demo is playable. I'm sending it to Mesden, and I don't know if he'll make it a public release. Maybe someone else can get a video recorded, but mine always comes out looking terrible.