I was browing a forum and found that v1.97 of RPGMaker Trans has a pretty major bug. It isn't a crashing bug (as some poeple have complained about here; until I get logs I'm assuming this is file name related), but rather it isn't translating item descriptions. I have no idea what is causing this as it only seems to affect the Windows build; it wasn't an issue when testing it on Linux.
Pending further investigation I've reinstated the older 1.95 version. If you're having trouble with item descriptions, please redownload it. Also if you have problems with an old download of 1.95 complaining about it being expired, you may also have to download this "newer" version of 1.95 which overrides the version check that causes the expired message.
Apologies for all this.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Incommunicado
Just a short update: normally I'm pretty responsive about answering questions etc. However, my smartphone has just died - and hence I'm not getting notifications of questions here at all quickly.
So if I'm late answering a question, it's not because I'm neglecting my userbase or abandoning the project, it's more likely that I just don't know there's a problem. I'll try and get responses within a reasonable time, but don't be surprised if it takes a few days.
So if I'm late answering a question, it's not because I'm neglecting my userbase or abandoning the project, it's more likely that I just don't know there's a problem. I'll try and get responses within a reasonable time, but don't be surprised if it takes a few days.
Monday, 16 April 2012
RPGMaker Trans v1.97 Released
OK, so this release represents most of my work in the "speedy" line. It isn't all of my work, because I've only dropped the speedy patching engine into the old framework; there's other improvements I'm making in the framework which should make things faster, but they're not ready and I don't want to delay getting this new release out any more.
I also have an apology to the Korean team who wanted to use RPGMaker Trans: testing revealed another problem when changing the locale of the game, specifically that files named in Japanese can no longer be used - with this breaking most of my test games. Automatic file renaming cannot be handled by the current framework, so multi-locale support will have to wait until the next version. Sorry.
Changes
Next Version due by end of month (hopefully - though it seems I'm not good at timescales). Features will be:
Double also: I've set up a donations button, as it was suggested a while back in the comments. As the disclaimer says, donations won't necessarily make me work any faster (i.e. they're old school donations, given charitably, with no expectation of return). This being said, sufficient donations may let me get some private hosting (if just for files and not a full website), which would be nice.
I also have an apology to the Korean team who wanted to use RPGMaker Trans: testing revealed another problem when changing the locale of the game, specifically that files named in Japanese can no longer be used - with this breaking most of my test games. Automatic file renaming cannot be handled by the current framework, so multi-locale support will have to wait until the next version. Sorry.
Changes
- Patching engine is much faster
- Now able to translate "Set Hero Class" commands
- Pseudo-bug: Events associated with Monster Parties have migrated to the Common Events file. This is due to problems with the current patch format and the new patching engine.
Next Version due by end of month (hopefully - though it seems I'm not good at timescales). Features will be:
- More speed!
- Support for trans-locale (i.e. Japanese to Korean) patching
- Trying to detect if a game has been unpacked under the wrong locale
Double also: I've set up a donations button, as it was suggested a while back in the comments. As the disclaimer says, donations won't necessarily make me work any faster (i.e. they're old school donations, given charitably, with no expectation of return). This being said, sufficient donations may let me get some private hosting (if just for files and not a full website), which would be nice.
Sunday, 1 April 2012
Dangit...
So I couldn't quite keep meet my target...
Basically, lack of time and a few problematic bugs stopped me. I'm finally at the stage where the parser/assembler works without issue, but it isn't yet integrated into the translator or GUI - and nor are the changes to these two parts finished yet either.
I'm very disappointed that I couldn't make it in time for an ironic April fools release though...
Well, new version within the week, I suspect.
Basically, lack of time and a few problematic bugs stopped me. I'm finally at the stage where the parser/assembler works without issue, but it isn't yet integrated into the translator or GUI - and nor are the changes to these two parts finished yet either.
I'm very disappointed that I couldn't make it in time for an ironic April fools release though...
Well, new version within the week, I suspect.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
So, about that dedicated website...
Well, I've been investigating stuff, and turns out things aren't perhaps as rosy as I thought.
Turns out things are more complex than my initial survey of hosting providers suggested. Long story short, to actually run a website I'd need about $10 a month all told. So, whilst I've very grateful that just over half the respondents to the little survey said they would be prepared to fork out some money to move RPGMaker Trans onto a dedicated site, the finances don't work out.
Damn, that's a shame. Oh well, maybe if I can get some other projects going I'll be able to work something out... but for now, a dedicated site will remain a pipe dream.
Target is for the new version of RPGMaker Trans, with speedy 2k support, to be out by the end of the month. Then I'll move onto either automatic machine translation or XP/VX support.
Turns out things are more complex than my initial survey of hosting providers suggested. Long story short, to actually run a website I'd need about $10 a month all told. So, whilst I've very grateful that just over half the respondents to the little survey said they would be prepared to fork out some money to move RPGMaker Trans onto a dedicated site, the finances don't work out.
Damn, that's a shame. Oh well, maybe if I can get some other projects going I'll be able to work something out... but for now, a dedicated site will remain a pipe dream.
Target is for the new version of RPGMaker Trans, with speedy 2k support, to be out by the end of the month. Then I'll move onto either automatic machine translation or XP/VX support.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
New Features and Announcing a New Toy
Well, after publishing my roadmap, and making some progress with it, I decided to essentially ignore it and do something else. So, here I'll document exactly what I did with the only time I had to work on RPGMaker Trans recently.
I made a Python binding onto Fujitsu's ATLAS software.
Now, anyone with two brain cells should be able to work out that this means I intend to bring automatic machine translation directly into RPGMaker Trans.
To be clear, I'm not sure when this feature will land. It still isn't on my Roadmap, although logically it shouldn't be that difficult to implement - at least in a primitive form. I'm looking to "do things right" though and enable the creation of some small scripting component which allows scripting around the types of things that ATLAS doesn't translate well. For example, for some games which "announce" character names, ATLAS will decide to merge the character name into the characters dialogue with bad consequences.
But this type of scriptable translation could also be useful for other games, for pretty much the same reason. Hence I'll also be working on a "Scriptable QuickATLAS" style program - name to be decided. There's probably quite a few uses for such a tool, like working around "triangle-ised" text from an AGTH hook (you'll know it if you've seen it), other hook based nonsense, or just generally improving ATLAS translations.
Again, no ETA on this.
Oh, and before I forget, the Python/ATLAS bindings will be released separately under a Public Domain license, once I do a little stress testing on them to make sure they don't fall apart under non-trivial workloads.
And finally, before anyone points it out: I am aware of Vkozyrev and his machine translator for RPGMaker Trans patches. I think, however, that using ATLAS has substantial benefits over his solution of online translators, partly because of speed but also because a lot of people use ATLAS, and hence a lot of people are accustomed to ATLAS-speak. Also, I tend to find that ATLAS with a good custom dictionary simply works better than the online translators. Finally, by integrating machine translation into RPGMaker Trans, Machine Translation becomes much more available (i.e. I'm pretty confident that not many people actually download Vkozyrevs machine translator, otherwise I think we'd be seeing a few more actual patches/pirated games based on it online rather than just the ones he maintains).
I made a Python binding onto Fujitsu's ATLAS software.
Now, anyone with two brain cells should be able to work out that this means I intend to bring automatic machine translation directly into RPGMaker Trans.
To be clear, I'm not sure when this feature will land. It still isn't on my Roadmap, although logically it shouldn't be that difficult to implement - at least in a primitive form. I'm looking to "do things right" though and enable the creation of some small scripting component which allows scripting around the types of things that ATLAS doesn't translate well. For example, for some games which "announce" character names, ATLAS will decide to merge the character name into the characters dialogue with bad consequences.
But this type of scriptable translation could also be useful for other games, for pretty much the same reason. Hence I'll also be working on a "Scriptable QuickATLAS" style program - name to be decided. There's probably quite a few uses for such a tool, like working around "triangle-ised" text from an AGTH hook (you'll know it if you've seen it), other hook based nonsense, or just generally improving ATLAS translations.
Again, no ETA on this.
Oh, and before I forget, the Python/ATLAS bindings will be released separately under a Public Domain license, once I do a little stress testing on them to make sure they don't fall apart under non-trivial workloads.
And finally, before anyone points it out: I am aware of Vkozyrev and his machine translator for RPGMaker Trans patches. I think, however, that using ATLAS has substantial benefits over his solution of online translators, partly because of speed but also because a lot of people use ATLAS, and hence a lot of people are accustomed to ATLAS-speak. Also, I tend to find that ATLAS with a good custom dictionary simply works better than the online translators. Finally, by integrating machine translation into RPGMaker Trans, Machine Translation becomes much more available (i.e. I'm pretty confident that not many people actually download Vkozyrevs machine translator, otherwise I think we'd be seeing a few more actual patches/pirated games based on it online rather than just the ones he maintains).
Monday, 23 January 2012
Aftermath
Well, Megaupload died. Everyone should know about it by now.
Problem though is that the cyberlockers are now running in fear. Filesonic is no longer offering any services - problem as they're one of my mirrors. Also uploaded.to is blocking the US - and whilst I don't use them, considering that blocking the US is probably a correct way to remove yourself from the jurisdiction of the FBI, I can see other cyberlockers following suit.
Now small rant upcoming (don't want to read, skip to the next paragraph): I think the US exceeded its jurisdiction (getting a German national arrested in New Zealand seems a little over reaching). However, it seems Kim Dotcom (probably - pending trial to establish facts) deserved it. By all accounts it does seem that Megaupload was not responding to requests by copyright holders to remove files, so he was (probably) one of the "bad guys" in the copyright debate. I'm definitely against piracy, as I am a content creator under other names, and if the reports are true on Megaupload then it probably deserved to be shutdown. But arresting a non-national in a foreign jurisdiction seems excessive. It isn't as if New Zealand doesn't have anti-piracy rules, and there shouldn't have been any problem in arresting and trialling him in either New Zealand or Germany.
Needless, regardless of any rants or whatever, everyone has to deal with the aftermath. It seems pretty likely that at some point in the future most cyberlockers will become unreliable (perhaps Mediafire/Rapidshare will stay above board, but the rest, I doubt it). Hence I'm looking to perhaps take RPGMaker Trans onto private hosting. The catch is that this costs money, and I'm pretty unwilling to actually spend money on distributing RPGMaker Trans. That said, private hosting would enable a few neat things to go ahead that up till now haven't been possible.
So I'm putting out a poll on if people would donate to the RPGMaker Trans project. If there's enough people backing me, I'll look to setting up a proper website for RPGMaker Trans and whatever other projects I make. I'm not looking for a huge amount of money - on low end VPS's the price would probably be about $50 a year to cover my costs. So basically, if I get say about 20-30 backers, there'll be a dedicated website. If not.... ah well. What could have been, I suppose.
Problem though is that the cyberlockers are now running in fear. Filesonic is no longer offering any services - problem as they're one of my mirrors. Also uploaded.to is blocking the US - and whilst I don't use them, considering that blocking the US is probably a correct way to remove yourself from the jurisdiction of the FBI, I can see other cyberlockers following suit.
Now small rant upcoming (don't want to read, skip to the next paragraph): I think the US exceeded its jurisdiction (getting a German national arrested in New Zealand seems a little over reaching). However, it seems Kim Dotcom (probably - pending trial to establish facts) deserved it. By all accounts it does seem that Megaupload was not responding to requests by copyright holders to remove files, so he was (probably) one of the "bad guys" in the copyright debate. I'm definitely against piracy, as I am a content creator under other names, and if the reports are true on Megaupload then it probably deserved to be shutdown. But arresting a non-national in a foreign jurisdiction seems excessive. It isn't as if New Zealand doesn't have anti-piracy rules, and there shouldn't have been any problem in arresting and trialling him in either New Zealand or Germany.
Needless, regardless of any rants or whatever, everyone has to deal with the aftermath. It seems pretty likely that at some point in the future most cyberlockers will become unreliable (perhaps Mediafire/Rapidshare will stay above board, but the rest, I doubt it). Hence I'm looking to perhaps take RPGMaker Trans onto private hosting. The catch is that this costs money, and I'm pretty unwilling to actually spend money on distributing RPGMaker Trans. That said, private hosting would enable a few neat things to go ahead that up till now haven't been possible.
So I'm putting out a poll on if people would donate to the RPGMaker Trans project. If there's enough people backing me, I'll look to setting up a proper website for RPGMaker Trans and whatever other projects I make. I'm not looking for a huge amount of money - on low end VPS's the price would probably be about $50 a year to cover my costs. So basically, if I get say about 20-30 backers, there'll be a dedicated website. If not.... ah well. What could have been, I suppose.
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