(HELP) Translate the game "Phantasm"

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Then, I am literally your tutorial through VirtualDub and giving the parameters as in your tutorial.

This could very well be where your problem is. The parameters in the screenshots in that tutorial are examples only. They are not a be all rule you should always use. Those were the parameters I needed to use for that particular video file in Sakura Wars. You need to look at your videos and understand the parameters of what your input video is, and what the output needs to be and make the appropriate changes.

I can take a look at those samples later, but can you also provide your converted MPEG version.

 

[LG30]

Here MPEG : 1060.mpg

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I think you messed something up in your video prep steps. Your resolution, aspect ratio, and frame rate were all screwed up. You had a VMD go from 288x144@10fps go to 352x288@25fps that you were then trying to Cinepak encode to 288x144@30fps.

These were the video prep steps I took.
1) I took the VMD, turned it into an AVI with 8-bit unsigned PCM audio with FFMPEG. That gave me an AVI at the original resolution and frame rate.
2) I then took this into Virtual Dub and converted it to 30fps and saved it as uncompressed.
3) I then put that into TMPGEnc to turn it into an MPEG so quicktime could understand it.
4) I then put that back into Virtualdub to save as an uncompressed AVI.

I then put that into Quicktime and converted it to Cinepak, and then ran it through MovieToSaturn. It resulted in the attached CPK file.

This is what I was talking about when I said you need to understand what you're putting in and what you're trying to get out. These steps will change depending on what the properties of your input video are which is why it's glossed over in the tutorial. You need to take the time to learn what these properties are and how to correctly get them into the proper format before you encode them.

 

[LG30]

Ok, I'm going to watch this.
Thank you for taking time for the explanations, this allows me to better understand all the subtleties of this software.
Could you give me the command line under ffmpeg.
Thank you.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Ok, I'm going to watch this.
Thank you for taking time for the explanations, this allows me to better understand all the subtleties of this software.
Could you give me the command line under ffmpeg.
Thank you.

ffmpeg -i <INPUT_FILE> -c:a pcm_u8 <OUTPUT_FILE>

For the output file change the extension to AVI.

 

[LG30]

Ok thank you. I just tried but I can't open the .avi video in VirtualDub. In your opinion, I could change the avi codec in the command line ffmpeg, by which codec could I replace it?
Thank you.

 

[LG30]

That's it, I finally succeeded in trying this method.
I go through ffmepg by putting this command line: ffmpeg -i myvideo.vmd -vcodec huffyuv -c: a pcm_u8 myvideo.avi.
Then, I go through VirtualDub by not changing any parameters, only by recording the video as an avi.
After, I go to MoviePlayer with these parameters: 10 frame per second, I uncheck the box below I put 170 in limit of data max.
For audio, I stay on no compression, 11025 Khz, 8bit and mono.
Then MovieToSaturn and by replacing the new CPK video in my Saturn iso, it works.
Now I'm going to try to increase the data limit to get better quality.
I keep you informed of the progress and again thank you for your support on this project.

 

[Ardiloso]

You are on a crusade to translate this game. Congratz. In your honor, I should do a playthrough once you finish this. Never played Phantasmagoria and don't know if it holds up today so I will see.

 

[LG30]

Thank you for your support.
I just found on my forum, a beta tester with a Saturn ODE to test the advances on a real console.
Now I have one more step with the other videos encoded in RBT. I have to manage to extract the sound to paste it to the original Saturn videos.

 

[LG30]

Besides I put here a RBT video. If someone can tell me how to extract audio or convert it to extract audio afterwards.

 

[LG30]

Hi, I managed to find a tool that turns RBT videos into avi. that is cool.
Just one last thing, I find myself every time I make a CPK video with, in terms of audio, a strident second at the start of each video. What do you think it can come from?
For information, when I switch from AVI to MOV, I encode the audio in uncompressed, 8kb, 11127Hz and mono.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Your audio sample rate is wrong:

That wont even play on a Real Saturn. The highest it can do is 44100 Hz. What was the sample rate of the original CPK file you're trying to replace?

 

[LG30]

Sorry, I have the wrong file. The others have 11127 Hz like CPK on Saturn. I will see a little later to correct this slight noise. Could you help me on another part. I have two more things to do. The first is to find the file where the skull voices are recorded which give you clues. On the PC version, I found a file "RESSOURCE.AUD" which lists all the voices. It is an audio track longer than 3 minutes. By cons, for the Saturn version, I can not find anything and therefore it continues to give clues in Japanese. The second thing is how to translate the menu and the submenu. For the English version, it's great, everything is already translated. However, for the French version, I would like to translate the texts. I have the impression that it is an image and not text. I did some translations on genesis sega and I found the right tools. For now, I'm blocking. Could you download the first CD to see how the structure is made? Thank you.

 

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Sorry, I have the wrong file. The others have 11127 Hz like CPK on Saturn. I will see a little later to correct this slight noise. Could you help me on another part. I have two more things to do. The first is to find the file where the skull voices are recorded which give you clues. On the PC version, I found a file "RESSOURCE.AUD" which lists all the voices. It is an audio track longer than 3 minutes. By cons, for the Saturn version, I can not find anything and therefore it continues to give clues in Japanese. The second thing is how to translate the menu and the submenu. For the English version, it's great, everything is already translated. However, for the French version, I would like to translate the texts. I have the impression that it is an image and not text. I did some translations on genesis sega and I found the right tools. For now, I'm blocking. Could you download the first CD to see how the structure is made? Thank you.

For a 3 minute long audio track I'd imagine they were probably using CD-Audio. Are there any CD Audio tracks on the disc? If not then it's probably some form of audio compression you're going to have to figure out.

For the text see how it's being drawn by using a something like Yabasanshiro's debugger. From there you can trace back to see where those files are coming from. If the graphics are stored on disc uncompressed, you may be able to get away with using existing tools like CrystalTile2 and GIMP.

 

[OfManNotMachine]

Hey LG30,

I don't have any skills to assist you in getting these videos working, but I signed up to say I wish you success, I have always wanted to play Phantasmagoria and I'll play thru it on the Saturn if you are able to get it working!

Best of luck to you my friend!

 

[LG30]

Thank you for the members who support me.
@TrekkiesUnite118 , I really block on this skull which speaks in Japanese in the options. This one provides clues to unlock the player and I can't find where the audio file is. Could you take a look at the structure of the game. Thank you in advance.

 

[vbt]

@LG30 don't imagine it's so easy to answer your questions, it needs free time to investigate phantasmagoria.

 

[LG30]

So here are the progress of the project :
- I created a script via ffmpeg to inject the sound of the PC videos (VMD) and the inclusions in the SATURN videos (CPK) without re-encoding the video, only re-encoding the audio with the good codec and the good bitrate.
- I managed to find software that can read and decode PC videos (RBT) in AVI. It is a very special format used by SIERRA and even ffmpeg could not decode it.
Then I created a script to paste the audio from these AVI videos to include them in the SATURN (CPK) videos.
By the way, I add change the introductory video. The SATURN version is censored, it is around 1 minute shorter and the girl's stripped passages have been removed. So I put the PC version which is full 😎

Now two things are born to me :
- Get to find the file where the skeleton audio is. It is a skeleton, in the option menu, which allows you to give oral clues if you are stuck in the game. For now, it speaks in Japanese. Unable to know where this file is located 😡
- And to be able to release two patches, one in English and the other in French, I would need someone to translate the menu and the submenu into French for me. For now, this is beyond my skills 😵

As soon as the Japanese skeleton has been translated, I will put a beta version in English of the first CD so that you can test 😉

Those who want to help me are welcome

 

[nanash1]

And for those who would like to give me a hand, here is the official CD1 of the SATURN version: [...]

Better remove that link from your post. Linking to ISOs is illegal. People here will know where to find correct ISOs themselves if needed.

 

[LG30]

Thanks for the advice. I'm sorry, I didn't know. I just fixed it.