Dreamcast AD 2001 Translation History

by Nebelwurfer

November 23, 2010

Released AD 2001 Patch 0.95, which translates all the scenarios in the game. This will likely be the final patch, as only minor tweaking is all that remains to be done.

November 11, 2010

Completed translating the last of the Campaign Scenarios. Started working on translating the Scenarios that can only be accessed standalone in Scenario Mode.

Current progress is 103 out of 112 scenarios translated.

October 11, 2010

Updated Scenario List to include 9 Scenarios that can only by played in Scenario Mode as standalone battles. Like Campaign scenarios, these scenarios also have briefing text as well as debriefing text for Major victory, Minor victory and Failure outcomes. However, it looks like there is no way to view this text in Scenario mode. I may create a new section on this website to hold the Briefing text for each of these standalone scenarios once I get them translated.

The addition of the standalone scenarios means that current translation progress stands at 95 out of 112 scenarios.

October 1, 2010

I finished translating the last North Africa/Italy scenario and am working on the remaining untranslated West Front scenarios next. 95 out of 103 campaign scenarios have now been translated. I will not release another patch until all campaign scenarios are translated.

I found out a way to replace one of the splash screens used when the game first starts up with a credit to Nebelwurfer HQ for the English translation. Here is what the original LOGOMSG.PVR screen looked like:

Japanese Splash Screen Text

And here is what the modified splash screen looks like:

Japanese Splash Screen Text

This file was in a different format from the other .PVR files that I worked on. Rather than write a different utility for this one file, I downloaded a 30 day trial version of Photoshop and then used a file format plug-in called pvrtex.8bi to edit the LOGOMSG.PVR file.

September 16, 2010

I finished translating the last Eastern Front scenario and am working on the remaining untranslated North Africa/Italy scenarios next. 90 out of 103 campaign scenarios have now been translated. I will not release another patch until all campaign scenarios are translated.

I would like to change the graphics in a .PVR file for one of the splash screens that pop up when the game is first loading. This screen has a bunch of large Japanese characters that say something like "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." I would like to replace it with "English Translation by Nebelwurfer HQ, 2008-2011" Unfortunately the graphic format is different from the other PVR files I worked with.

Any help with modifying this file would be appreciated. I can insert it back into the .CDI file.

August 19, 2010

I am translating the remaining Eastern Front scenarios now. It is difficult and slow work, because the maps are huge and contain hundreds of unpronouncable Russian city names, river names, etc. Also things have heated up at work leaving me less time for translation activities. But the project is still alive.

June 30, 2010

I have started work on an on-line manual to explain some of the key concepts in the game. The manual will include a lot of screenshots taken from the game. If you are not sure whether this is a game you would be interested in, the on-line manual should answer your questions. I'm going to complete the on-line manual before working on the remaining translation areas.

June 14, 2010

DC AD 2001 Patch 0.80 has been released. This patch translates the Menus used in Scenario Mode and the Scenario Editor. Also I discovered that Scenario Mode supports password protected Play-by-Mail games.

May 19, 2010

DC AD 2001 Patch 0.70 has been released. This patch translates all the background graphics text used on game Dialog screens. It also translates all the Alternate history and America Front Campaign Scenarios. This should allow gamers to play the Campaign all the way to a successful conclusion.

I will continue work on the 1943-1945 Campaign scenarios where Germany was in decline. Also I may work on Scenario Mode menus and Scenario Editor Menus and Help Topics if I don't get burned out first.

But for now, I intend to try hammering my way through the Algeria campaign scenario, where I have been stuck for some time. I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as I do.

May 5, 2010

I have completed translating all of the Alternate History scenarios and updated the Scenario List page. I will work on the American Front campaign scenarios next, and release a new patch when they are completed.

Apr 16, 2010

All PVR Files are now translated. The updated Weather Status screen is shown below. I will now return to translating some of the Alt History scenarios from the early war years that I skipped initially.

Translated Weather Status

Apr 9, 2010

Translating PVR Files continues. The latest section I have finished is the Air/Ground/Ship status screens.

It may take a couple of weeks to fully translate the Weather Effects screen.

Translated Air Unit Status

Apr 2, 2010

Translating PVR Files continues. The latest section I have finished is the Unit Level Up and Convert Screens. Only the Level Up screen is shown below. The Convert screen is very similar.

This is the last of the 128 X 128 PVR files. The last two are 256 X 256. I plan to tackle the Air/Gnd/Sea tabs on the Status screen first and am saving the massive Weather Effects screen for last.

Translated Unit LvUp Screen1

Mar 26, 2010

Translating PVR Files continues slowly. The latest section I have finished is the Unit Table column headings as shown below.

Translated Unit Table Screen1

Mar 13, 2010

---BREAKTHROUGH---
I finally located the Blue text used in the first Stats screen. Unlike all other Caption text used in the dialogs (which were contained in PVR files), this was simply a string of Shift-JIS characters located in the main AD 2001 executable file.

In translating these characters, I had to work within several constraints. Each String was allocated a fixed display width, so I had to use a mix of lowercase letters, uppercase letters and period characters to get things to line up right. I did the best I could, but there was a slight overlap where the "Size" field shows "xSize" instead.

The Weapon Stats screen is the most frequently called up screen in the game. I feel even more strongly about getting a patch version out now that players can use while I wrap up translating the remaining Dialog screens and scenarios. I will try my best to wrap up the Campaign Help Topics and release a 0.55 patch this weekend.

Fully Translated Stats1 Screen

Mar 12, 2010

Finished the PVR File changes for the first Stats screen and Attack screen as shown in the graphics below. Still don't know where the Blue text on the first Stats Screen is located.

The PVR Files left to be modified are:
Unit Table Column Headings
Convert/Level Up Screen Title
Numerous Tab screens in the Status Window

Maybe I will go ahead and release a patch when the Campaign help topics are finished.

Partial Translated Stats1 Screen

Mar 6, 2010

The modification of the PVR files is going well. I now have two of the PVR files converted to display English text and inserted back into the .CDI file. There are two graphics below that show the results.

I think I am going to take a break from working on the PVR files to knock out the last Campaign Help topics. I have 66 out of 84 Campaign Help topics translated and inserted into the .CDI file so far.

I don't plan to release another patch until all the Help topics are finished and all the PVR files are translated. It should take me a week to finish the help topics and a month or two to work on all the PVR files. I have 2 of the 9 PVR files done but 2 of the remaining ones are 256 X 256 in size instead of 128 X 128, so there is more text to be converted.

Also, I have not been able to locate the source of the Blue Text used on the first Stats screen. This will have to remain untranslated.

After that the only thing I plan to do is finish translating the rest of the scenarios in the campaign. I won't be in any rush to complete these, and will probably make additional patch releases with just the American campaign translated and then a final one with all the rest of the Campaign Scenarios translated.

I am already thinking of what to work on for my next project. The next iteration in the Daisenryaku series is Standard Daisenryaku: Dengekisen for the Playstation 2. So far I haven't had any luck locating it. The graphics on it are far better than what the Dreamcast can produce.

Complete Translated Config Screen

Feb 23, 2010

I finished writing my PVR Editor. It is pretty tedious sketching out the font characters on graph paper and then entering them in a tile at a time, but the results are worth it.

Here's a screen shot of the first PVR file I started working with running in the latest PVR Editor program.

PVR Editor Final

And here is a look at a Screen that uses that PVR file, after the contents were inserted back into the Dreamcast AD 2001 CDI file.

Translated Config Screen

Feb 18, 2010

A reader alerted me to the PVRTOPNG utility. However the only editor for PNG files I know of is a plug-in for Photoshop and I don't own photoshop. Rather than rely on a trial version of Photoshop that would force me to complete my work in 30 days or less, I opted to go ahead and write my own tool to edit PVR files so that I wouldn't be rushed.

I have gotten started on it, and you can see what I have done so far in the image below. I only plan to support the formats used in the PVR files containing the Japanese characters that need to be translated in the dialog windows. That means that only the VQ format will be supported with Pixel types ARGB1555 and ARGB4444. Only resolutions of 128 X 128 and 256 X 256 will be supported. I plan to release my code as well, in case anyone else wants to add support for the other PVR formats.

PVR Editor Beta

Feb 5, 2010

I have tracked down the graphics used in the Dialog screens to a number of .PVR files. A representative sample of these is shown below. Unfortunately, the PVR file format is a bit difficult to deal with.

For example the images shown below are 128 X 128 pixels. This area is divided up into 2 X 2 pixel tiles. A PVR file can store up to 256 different 2 X 2 pixel tiles. However these have to fill an area of 64 X 64 tiles. Meaning that there are only 256 unique 2 X 2 pixel tiles to populate a 4096 tile area.

Its even worse if you have a larger 256 X 256 pixel image. You still only have 256 unique 2 X 2 pixel tiles to work with, but now they have to fill a 16884 tile area.

A regular bitmap editor would be useless. I will have to develop my own PVR file editor to manipulate these files to get exactly the results I want. Hopefully the results will justify the effort. Re-inserting the .PVR files back into the .cdi image should be child's play compared with getting them translated.

GX2MENUP1.PVR

DW2SPECP3.PVR

DW2SPECP0.PVR

Feb 1, 2010

I added a section to hold Translated Dialog Screens. I haven't figured out where the Dialog Screens are stored in the game, or what graphics format is being used. You can print out a copy of the translated screens for reference while you play the game.

Jan 30, 2010

Released my first patch file for this game. Have translated roughly half of the Scenarios so far. All of the Scenarios from the beginning of the game through Mid 1942 should be translated, except for some of the obscure Alt history ones. View the new Scenario List page to see which scenarios have been translated so far.

My next goal will be to either complete the FAQ section or start work on the American Front scenarios.

Oct 24, 2009

Here are some screenshots to show the translation progress and highlight some of the key features of the game. I probably won't release a patch until after the holidays when I will have some real time to devote to the translation.