We would exchange theories and every-so-often one of us would have a 'eureka!' moment that would shed some light on what we were actually looking at. So the three of us (Colin, Yoshiya, and myself) basically just poured over the raw bytes looking for patterns.
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Thank goodness for Aaron.Ĭlayton: When I joined up they had already made some key discoveries as to how the data files worked (such as the location of the game dialog) but the underlying file structure and content was still a huge mystery (we knew where the game text was, but not how to read it).
The patching method was complicated! I went through a lot of work on it and in the end most of the stuff I did got scrapped for one reason or another. Clayton made the tools for automating most of the work, and Aaron did the patching method to which in the end I contributed very little. Yoshiya, Clayton and I were doing all the ripping of the original game assets. Games aren't like word documents, they're pretty complicated to find stuff in! In the end, I handled most of the translation (along with the community help), editing, testing, community direction and PR, and the rebuilding of the game files. At that point we were just trying to extract the data from the game. Rob Roberts, fellow member of the team) offered to help. broken down?Ĭolin: Well, originally it was just me. NWR: How were the tasks of translating, patching, testing, etc. However, making the initial translation open attracted many competent and dedicated members who helped me finish up and polish the last 20% of the game script once we had to restrict the site. Eventually, due to quality control issues with people using google translator, we were forced to make the translation site private access. As people saw me decoding more and more things from the game, they also began to contribute as they could. The internet is the best collaborative tool ever created - I simply posted the game script to a website and allowed anyone to translate as they pleased. NWR: What was the process of finding capable translators?Ĭolin: There was less of a process and more of general uprising. Fatal Frame 4 in particular has 8 610 images, though I suspect approximately 3/5ths of those are duplicates or near duplicates for widescreen. Compared to the total art assets a game requires, this was just a drop in the bucket.
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Outside of the game, I created several dozen images for use in 300 dpi print media or on our website, which are available for download in Photoshop format from our website. Besides that, we had another 30 or so images contributed by the community, including the custom costumes. NWR: Did you have to create a lot of new art for your Fatal Frame 4 patch?Ĭolin: I personally created 204 images for the game. So, it wasn't a completely new experience.Īaron: While I've been a part of a number of game modification projects in the past, like Clayton, I hadn't worked on a translation project before. However, I have done other projects that had similar technical aspects - such as mapping unknown data files. This is also the first game I've ever worked on in terms of hacking.Ĭlayton: I've never worked on a translation project before (my non-English language skills are rudimentary at best). NWR: Have you worked on similar translation projects in the past?Ĭolin: No, this is the first such translation project I've ever worked on.