I might have missed it, but has the Saturn been re-capped? Bad/leaky caps aren't always obvious and they can cause all manner of logic errors like this.
- Thread starter TrekkiesUnite118
- Start date
I might have missed it, but has the Saturn been re-capped? Bad/leaky caps aren't always obvious and they can cause all manner of logic errors like this.
nanash1
Established Member
So I finished the new version of my compression tool. Usage has changed a lot so re-read the readme. In a nut shell, the separate table offset is gone since the information there is always the same. Compression now supports all known modes and custom tables. I've tested the battle results screen and was able to compress, edit and recompress the Kanji tiles. As I said above, if there are more tiles that need translation please tell me so I can look into those.
PS: It's probably best to recompress all images that are already done with the new version. The old version had a bug that could mess up the stop conditions of the encoded stream and cause the game write out of bounds.
PS: It's probably best to recompress all images that are already done with the new version. The old version had a bug that could mess up the stop conditions of the encoded stream and cause the game write out of bounds.
TrekkiesUnite118
Established Member
Yes, as far as I know those are the only compressed graphics that need to be translated. Thanks again for creating this utility.
nah i havent re-capped it. I could give it a try though. I don't know all the caps I would need so would something like this be ok
Sega Saturn Cap Kit: Leaded Through Hole Type
If your Saturn has through hole caps then yes. Console5 is awesome. If your Saturn has surface mount capacitors the SMD kit would be a more appropriate replacement. It requires rework equipment and knowledge of how to use it, but you really need that equipment to safely get SMD caps off anyway. Usually when I’m dealing with SMD caps I replace everything but the audio amp caps with ceramics, but that might be a bit more work than you’re looking to bite off.
im probably just gonna get a newer model saturn. i have a decent soldering iron and a hot air gun but i dont have a desoldering/rework station or anything.
Honestly any Saturn you get that hasn't been recapped has the potential to have bad caps, no matter what model it is. The Saturns themselves may have been manufactured years apart but most of the capacitors were purchased in bulk and used by the factory for years. It's a crap shoot either way, but any time I start seeing wonky behavior from a 90's era console, I replace the caps and most of the time that's all it takes. Though I do have two with original caps that seem to work as well as the day I bought them, so YMMV.
nanash1
Established Member
I think this is the final version of my compression tool. At this point I just wanted to wrap this up and fix some bugs and problems I found while messing with character sprites. This new version doesn't really add anything new as far as the translation is concerned, unless you want to try different compression modes and tables. This release also includes the source code. If there's anything else I can help with just say it and I'll give it a try.
Yes it works. I play on the original hardware but always test the iso with SSF before burning it to the disc.
I own three different original versions of the game, two of the first "Green" release and one of the "Memorial" package, no matter what settings I ripped them with my checksums would never match the ones in the readme. I finally broke down and just started downloading every single version of the game I could find posted anywhere and managed to find one upload with matching checksums. My advice is: keep looking, it's out there.
TrekkiesUnite118
Established Member
Not to come off as condescending, but please read the readme more carefully. The checksum is not for the entire disc image itself, but for the Data Track. You need to extract the data track (this is the actual ISO file) from the BIN/CUE first and patch that. Every CD-ROM drive handles audio offsets differently and as a result will create rips that while functionally equivalent and have all the same data, dont match as far as checksums are concerned. Extracting the data track from the audio track resolves this issue.
This process is all described in the Readme as well as the two tutorial videos out there.
No, man. I've been doing things right. I've extracting the iso with isobuster just as you said and like the video that other guy uploaded some time ago. I've extracted session 1 from BINs and other rarer image types found on the net, an eventually I even found an ISO + WAV... but it didn't work with it.
Every single time I patch these, it says "patching complete" but then the emulator shows the videos with trashy sound, the one you'd expect from misreads.
Other emulators like yabause won't even make it into the videos.
I even tried with a different patching tool.
It's quite frustrating because I REALLY want to play this 🙁
TrekkiesUnite118
Established Member
Walk me through the exact process you are doing step by step from ripping your original disc/acquiring whatever rip you have, to trying it out on your emulator/console.
I don't take it as condescending. Your instructions were clear and it was clear you went to great pains to make sure they would work. I followed them precisely. I've used these tools since the late 90's to manipulate CD images in all kinds of crazy ways. I *thought* I was pretty good at it, but no matter what I did the extracted data tracks from my original discs never matched the CRC in your readme. I extracted from all three of my originals and about four other copies I found elsewhere that also had a different CRC for the data track. I finally stumbled across one that extracted with a CRC that matched the one in your readme and that's the one I used. I followed the same process in each case but it only worked on a particular rip floating around on the net. I can't explain it, but it seemed like that other guy might be having the same problem so I was just trying to offer some words of encouragement.
TrekkiesUnite118
Established Member
Out of curiousity what did you use to calculate the checksum? I just open the iso in something like Hex Workshop and select generate checksum. I'd be interested in seeing what the checksums were for your personal rips.
As for images I've found online, this is what I found for the ones on EmuParadise:
Standard Disc 1 and 2 releases:
Good rips, checksums for the extracted data tracks match my personal rips.
Memorial Package Releases:
Bad rips, can't even extract the data track from these as IsoBuster, IMGBurn, etc. run into corrupt sectors on both discs.
I also checked the ISO/WAV/CUE rip on GameTronik and the checksum for it matches my rips as well.
After several tries, I reached out the conclusion that it really wasn't the iso's fault (because it failed again... but so did the original un-patched file).
The error was that I hadn't set the emulator properly:
Grandia (FMV issues): Set "Dot Clock" on 3.7 or above. Set "SlaveSH2 Speed" to 90%, Set "EZ Setting" to Highest.
This solved most of the issues. There are some little, very minor glitches on fight scenes, but nothing to be alarmed of.
Thanks to everyone!
If I might post my own experience/method - I used bash (on Windows Subsystem for Linux, but the experience should be the same on *nix platforms) for the patching process which some people may prefer. You may need to install the bchunk and xdelta3 packages.
I got the original discs from The Eye (dumped by group Darkwater), original output from md5sum:
Used bchunk to extract the data ISO and WAV:
The extracted ISOs seem to match TrekkiesUnite's rip I think:
Used xdelta3 to apply the patch:
Replacement CUE file (of course you can change filenames to your preference...):
The translation seems to be fine (I'm halfway through Disc 2) on Mednafen (Mednafen itself, as well as Retroarch's Beetle Saturn core), though the movie playback is terrible. That's the case on the original Japanese CUE/BIN as well, though.
I did fall foul of a documented bug in Mednafen:
In any case, big thanks to you guys for all the work in getting this going. I've wanted to see what the more-than-1fps-in-the-intro version of Grandia was like for ages...
I got the original discs from The Eye (dumped by group Darkwater), original output from md5sum:
Bash:
# md5sum *
07b2a151d73b1ae6d2e1cdbc00285eb8 Grandia (Disc 1 of 2) (JAP) (DW0080).bin
ac0849955abf6a7477766fc7aecbe223 Grandia (Disc 1 of 2) (JAP) (DW0080).cue
bb41081dbea1bc0f3e25e1609be10ac1 Grandia (Disc 2 of 2) (JAP) (DW0080).bin
3c7c1bcff24ce3c2a345bc687ca58366 Grandia (Disc 2 of 2) (JAP) (DW0080).cueUsed bchunk to extract the data ISO and WAV:
Bash:
# bchunk -w "Grandia (Disc 1 of 2) (JAP) (DW0080).bin" "Grandia (Disc 1 of 2) (JAP) (DW0080).cue" "Disc_1_"
...
Reading the CUE file:
Track 1: MODE1/2352 01 00:00:00
Track 2: AUDIO 01 58:26:16
Writing tracks:
1: Disc_1_01.iso 513/513 MB [********************] 100 %
2: Disc_1_02.wav 1/1 MB [********************] 100 %The extracted ISOs seem to match TrekkiesUnite's rip I think:
Bash:
# md5sum Disc_*
d1c273b9871a34e5d7a7168e30cdb421 Disc_1_01.iso
7d7835d8480670a4d6002e6a1d276d1e Disc_1_02.wav
366b9aec6b3ffe8dc3fd7b1eeeba0fba Disc_2_01.iso
f205e056e6a8ed62e797764cdf5f1465 Disc_2_02.wavUsed xdelta3 to apply the patch:
Bash:
# xdelta3 -dfs Disc_1_01.iso SS_Grandia_Disc1_v0.62.1.xdelta Disc_1_Patched_01.iso
# md5sum *_Patched_*
2bfec74045c63e67c6287e43f3340ce7 Disc_1_Patched_01.iso
691095b08853d975642f6cb4a64eb057 Disc_2_Patched_01.isoReplacement CUE file (of course you can change filenames to your preference...):
Code:
FILE "Disc_1_Patched_01.iso" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2048
INDEX 01 00:00:00
POSTGAP 00:02:00
FILE "Disc_1_02.wav" WAVE
TRACK 02 AUDIO
PREGAP 00:02:00
INDEX 01 00:00:00The translation seems to be fine (I'm halfway through Disc 2) on Mednafen (Mednafen itself, as well as Retroarch's Beetle Saturn core), though the movie playback is terrible. That's the case on the original Japanese CUE/BIN as well, though.
I did fall foul of a documented bug in Mednafen:
Again, this isn't an issue with the translation, but perhaps might be worth mentioning in passing in the README? I don't think Retroarch offers a way to get into the debugger, so I ended up renaming a save state to put it into Mednafen, getting past the hang, then going the other way round to get the state back into Retroarch 😛
In any case, big thanks to you guys for all the work in getting this going. I've wanted to see what the more-than-1fps-in-the-intro version of Grandia was like for ages...
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I used a variety of things. One of them was a plugin for 7-zip that treats image files like archives - I was actually surprised, but it showed the CRC sum as one of the file attributes. Another was the Windows checksumming tool (I forget what it's called). I can get you the actual names of all of those and the checksums produced by my own rips later when I'm not sneaking posts in during work 🙂
