The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Hello all,
first I want to say thanks for the great work the devs have done on porting this masterpiece :)
While I started to make a translation pack, I read the FAQ about the missing text in the 3DO version (long ago I played the PC one) and I definately want to include those.
The question is, is it possible without recompiling?

In the file
comm\mycon\mycon.txt
 the text marked with
HELLO_SUN_DEVICE_WORLD_1
would seem to be the place to put the missing info (not sure)

but in the melrorme file I couldn't find an appropriate place
do I have to edit the .ts files?

Thanks in advance

I think I've found the Melnorme string
(HELLO_AND_DOWN_TO_BUSINESS_2)
the missing text starts with the same phrase

Still I wonder if there is'nt something else I need to tweak...

i think someone else already did what you are trying to do.

i'm not sure (putting in the missing text)

Thanks for the hint. A topic mentioned this link
http://www.sa-matra.net/quotes/index.html (http://www.sa-matra.net/quotes/index.html)
this site has the original PC version text
That's where I will  translate from

but first I will change the current text with the original, still in english
If someone is interested in these files, I can make them available when I've finished.

Strange. While "downdating" the arilou text I've found two dialogues that were completely absent. This is the most meaningful one:


in the file arilou.c I found the corresponding labels:
got_tpet
OK_GOT_TPET

Things are getting a bit too complicated. I see in the comm\<race> directory of the SOURCE CODE there are strings.h files listing phrases.
On the other hand, in the compiled package there are <race>.ts files that seem similar, except with strange numbers. I'm sure the devs know if editing the .ts would be enough or not...(i'm not going to recompile and in the game I'm nowhere near to that point in the story to try it myself)

NEVERMIND
After looking at arilou.c again (I'm no programmer) I noticed the relevant section is somehow disabled, so it's impossible to do what I wanted without recompiling

I hope in the future it will be possible to have the full original text
goodbye

The .ts files contain the timestamp data for the subtitles; for each line of text, the amount of milliseconds of speech it corresponds to. If you add lines to the text files, you will have to change the timestamp data correspondingly.

I wonder if there are plans for adding an option to switch to the PC version text (and modified dialogue trees). If not I' going to give it a try. This is what I had in mind:

text files Dialogues that were completely removed and those that were modified would be added to the current text files. The current dialogues won't be modified. Added text won't have speech files associated. string.h files will be updated.

in starcon2.c I'd add a command line parameter to set the text to OPT_PC or OPT_3DO.

comm\<race>\<race>c.c would be updated. Text will be chosen based on the setting chosen. I haven't looked at all of the text difference and all  the .c files but so far I've only noticed parts of code commented out or similar (ifdef NEVER).

How about it?

Finally I was able to try it. I did it as explained in the previous post.
The only problem is that in the text files the communication code NEEDS a speech file associated to the dialogue. It got around it by assigning it a non-existing file "nospeech.ogg" (.ogg extension is needed), otherwise the game locks up. I'ts a dirty solution but I can't change the comm code.

For the test I just made the Ur-Quan drone give different messages based on a command line parameter:
  --subs (3do/pc)
so it's possible to choose between the current dialogues based on the speech and the pc version that I'm going to implement. Choosing the pc version does not affect the speech for the dialogues that are shared in both versions: if speech is enabled it will still play. The dialogues added or modified won't have speech but hopefully they shouldn't be many.

Good to hear that this is finally being dealt with!

Hopefully this will default to *on*. That should help cut down on the amount of confused customers.

and maybe with some time somebody with great voice talents could record that part of the speech or any missing speech for that matter.

i'd do it but i am not a very good impersonator ;D

I have an issue with testing. Basically I haven't even started a new game :)
While I had to check were some dialogues take place in the DOS version I used the infinite RU glitch, but with UQM I can't.
If anybody wants to share their savefile it would be great.
It should be AFTER you get the Utwig bomb
possibly, it should be JUST BEFORE you fight the Druuges that look for it..
I'm on Windows if that matters.

look on my website, i'm pretty sure there are a few things that could help you

http://www.dickweed.0nyx.com



.:: EDIT ::.
To give you a heads up, most of the files on my website are exe'd rar files, just thought i'd give you a heads up because most people dont usually download exe's for the fear of em being viruses.

Thanks KAD

I reached another obstacle. In the Druuge text, I found a phrase where the PC version has some extra lines in the middle of the speech. For that I added another entry to the text file. I thought about using the same speech file and changing the timestamp for the PC version but I realised with the current way it works it's impossible because the timestamp defines the duration of the speech segment in the .ogg file AND the time the corresponding subtitles remain on screen.
If I give it a time of 0000 or 0001 the subtitles disappear immediately; if I give it some seconds the subtitles remain onscreen but the speech obviously skips to the next phrases.

Should I make alternate speech files?(it would be easy to insert some mute time for the new text)
otherwise the code must be changed.

Out of curiousity, is there an exact list of the missing dialog anywhere?  I'm a moderately decent voice impersonator, and after doing some listening to the various race  voices, I think I may be able to immitate a good number of them. I'd have to do some experimentation to see if it's possible, and the dialog would be useful in that regard.

Would such an effort be appreciated and/or wanted or would it be a waste of time?  I won't bother if it's the later.

Lend

It would depend on exactly HOW good a voice impersonator you are, and how well you (or someone else) would be able to do the voice effects.
If you don't realise that it is another voice if you don't know about it, I'm all for it.
As a side remark, the imho most important missing speech, the one about the Mycon homeworld, is done by Paul Reiche III himself, so we could try to get him to do this one.

I don't have an exact list myself, although I've seen some (probably incomplete) list somewhere. I can't find it now though.

Well, naturally, if I were to do it, it would involve a great deal of practicing. Given how many races there are with different styles of speaking, it would be quite abit of work. And doing the voices is only 2/3rds of what would need to be done, as there were distortion effects used for the recordings that would have to be matched too. That last part might be the clincher, as I'm no audio engineer.

If someone can provide a transcript of some of the missing dialog, I'll do a few test runs and see how close I can get. Then, I guess, we'll go from there if the results are satisfactory. 

So, anyone able to provide it? Thanks.

Here:
http://www.geocities.com/medioman_80/uqm (http://www.geocities.com/medioman_80/uqm)

this is a mod I made for version 0.40 which allows to select the original PC subtitles via command line argument.
I used the script from this site:
http://www.sa-matra.net/quotes/index.html (http://www.sa-matra.net/quotes/index.html)

The download includes a detailed list of the changes.
I guess it will be useful for you to experiment :)

Thanks!  Those should prove useful. We'll see what I can do.

-Lend