Creating the th14e.exe Patch

[Ulti]

I'm looking to make an english patch for DDC in the same style as all the translations in the past. While thcrap works okay, its a bit unconventional, doesn't have too great a translation and contains some errors here and there.
I have absolutely no idea how to go about doing this, so any help at all is greatly appreciated.

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

The auto patch was made so that we could go to their wiki and fix the errors. A hard translation would mean having a separate data file with replaced graphics as well as event and spellcard script replacements. Th toolkit can handle pretty much every file that ZUN uses in his games. anm, ecl, msg. DDC isn't officially supported but using 10D mode gets most files extracted correctly.

[Ulti]

The auto patch was made so that we could go to their wiki and fix the errors.

I don't really want to just "fix the errors", I'd like to make a patch that works like all the past ones. I know that more work would have to go into it and that the files in thcrap can be changed, but i still think that it will be worth it in the end. If worse comes to worse, i suppose editing the thcrap patch would still be better than the one that exists now. I don't think that settling with what we already have is as good as an idea as staying with what we've done for so long , though.

Spoiler:

Maybe this is a lost cause and its already too late.

[Alcoraiden]

I will second the desire for this. thcrap is not reliable, requires a re-download every other week or so (hyperbole, but seriously, the thing needs an *autoupdater*) has critical error bugs in certain circumstances, doesn't seem to be as good at translating as whoever did the old patches, and on top of that, it has had administrative trouble at times. I'd personally rather have a thXe.exe file for everything unless thcrap gets its pants on, although thcrap is better than nothing.

[Araceli Caralyz]

Oh... but see. You no longer need to do this, as the updating feature has been out for half a month now. Unless you have a really ancient version, all of them now update to the latest build when you open the patched shortcuts  It even creates a backup so if the most miniscule of chances something goes wrong, you still will have a functioning version.
The reason why we waited on creating the automatic updater is because we wanted to make sure it was secure, and it took us awhile to ensure cryptographic security .

You've made me curious now, which critical errors have you encountered? It would help if you give me your thcrap log file so we can take a closer look at the issue.
The translations look okay, I assume you mean the english language, as the majority of translations were taken from Touhou Wiki, from th06 to th13, so what would you be comparing the old translations from? If there are better translations out there, feel free to add them, they'll be added to the patches and therefore make the translations even better!

For administration, I think we've done pretty well, the people on the Touhou Patch Center seem to be alright with us, and I would be the first to know if there were issues since I am the Relations branch. Nevertheless, could you tell us more about which issues need addressing?

Thanks~

Also... those who want to have a "static patch", Touhou Wiki ( or anyone willing to facilitate such patches ) are free to create their own "Official Patches" using our engine. They would be controlling when stuff gets updated and the like. Ghildrean, wobuffet3, and myself have created patches with the use of these repositories. These translations are as static as their repository owners want them to be. It's pretty easy to set up, and everyone would be satisfied, from the people who want Static Patches vs Automatic ones, as well as having the versatility of the engine. Just as a thought.

[Neodymium]

I don't think that settling with what we already have is as good as an idea as staying with what we've done for so long , though.

this used to be gensokyo.org's thing but they've stopped since a few games ago and their forums are apparently dead.... its time to accept the sad reality that theyre out of the game and consider other options.... (im sure we all agree they will be missed, though...)

just my 2 cents but instead of reinventing the wheel why not just improve what's already there? if you have issues with things the way they are now voice your concerns (and dont be vague and dismissive) - the devs are actually here and listening, and fixing something slightly unsatisfactory is way better than starting all that work from scratch =) making a patch from scratch sounds like its a ton of work just look at the lot2 and hm patches here......

[Tengukami]

Seconding not re-inventing the wheel, especially when there are previous Touhou Eng patches that can be reverse-engineered. There's a lot of options available where that's concerned. And they're mostly pretty straightforward affairs for those who have the necessary tools.

e: In fact, from one of the main peeps himself:

Feel free to pick whichever patch you wish to use whether it is the thcrap engine or the traditional static patches.
We also have created a patch distribution system so you can create your own patches using the tools we have provided.

The choices are out there. I think that's the most important thing. If people didn't want choices of different variations of the same sorta thing, there would be no burger joints but McDonald's. And that isn't a world I want to live in.

[Araceli Caralyz]

Indeed~

I don't mind really who uses which, freedom of choice y'all!
My interest will be captured if I hear about the thcrap engine being talked about, as I live for such discussions, especially if there are issues to be worked out whether they are technical or otherwise. ( Still awaiting to see what's up Alcoraiden! )

Transparency is my watchword!

[Alcoraiden]

Oh... but see. You no longer need to do this, as the updating feature has been out for half a month now. Unless you have a really ancient version, all of them now update to the latest build when you open the patched shortcuts  It even creates a backup so if the most miniscule of chances something goes wrong, you still will have a functioning version.
The reason why we waited on creating the automatic updater is because we wanted to make sure it was secure, and it took us awhile to ensure cryptographic security .]

Ohhhh. That's new. Half a month is two weeks. I certainly hadn't updated until ISC came out, after DDC. Fine, I'll see how the autoupdater works. Okay, this was driving me nuts; I'm glad it was fixed.

You've made me curious now, which critical errors have you encountered? It would help if you give me your thcrap log file so we can take a closer look at the issue.

It automagically started working again about a month ago (with no re-download! mysteeeerious), which means I still don't trust it. Basically, it would crash anytime I tried to actually apply a patch. Just...no warning, blip, there it goes. I hope this continues to not reappear.

The translations look okay, I assume you mean the english language, as the majority of translations were taken from Touhou Wiki, from th06 to th13, so what would you be comparing the old translations from? If there are better translations out there, feel free to add them, they'll be added to the patches and therefore make the translations even better!

I dunno, I just keep seeing little things. For example, DDC's "Sterling Pounce" was changed to "Star Ring Pounce," which makes no sense because sterling silver and werewolves actually works in mythos, and what is a Star Ring anyway, and...you get the idea.

For administration, I think we've done pretty well, the people on the Touhou Patch Center seem to be alright with us, and I would be the first to know if there were issues since I am the Relations branch. Nevertheless, could you tell us more about which issues need addressing?

I had heard that the founder of the patch site up and ditched, and it was all going downhill from there. Is this not true? Is thcrap actually running well?

[Araceli Caralyz]

Awesome!

For the crashing portion, which game and which operating system were you using?
We don't make releases if we are aware it's going to crash. If it does crash, then we'll fix it!
I still recommend downloading the latest version just to make sure it was not a really old version.

( You can tell if you have the automatic engine update system if the global.js is inside your files )

When it will make an update, it'll give you a dialog box ( the top one )



As you can also see, if something is suspect, the patcher will let you know!

( All that time to enable digital cryptography paid off~ )

For the translations, you always can ask that to the person who translated it and they can get back to you!
They are pretty approachable, just leave the question on their talk about why they translated it the way they did.

Your last question; NamelessLegacy is the founder of the thpatch, he has been quietly working on the latest engine configurations, as he's our sole developer.
He hasn't gone anywhere, he has been working on them pretty much every day!

Things have been looking pretty up for us, we have a lot of the games translatable, people are helping us to translate, people that use the patch seem to be satisfied, and if they have a question, we usually are reachable to see what's up!

The engine itself has been running alright; so far we are trying to fix font issues when running your system under a japanese locale, ( it starts to seep out of boxes ) for windows, and Linux shows blank boxes when the original text is not translated.

Our known issues are on this page as well as possible solutions, feel free to add to them using the talk, we will get back to you!

So to answer that question, it's not true, it's doing really well!

It's all thanks to the translators, the artists, Nmlgc, and of course, the people who use the engine.

They get us really motivated to work on the project and make it even better.

[Ghildrean]

I dunno, I just keep seeing little things. For example, DDC's "Sterling Pounce" was changed to "Star Ring Pounce," which makes no sense because sterling silver and werewolves actually works in mythos, and what is a Star Ring anyway, and...you get the idea.

Right now, it's the translation used in the wiki. I think it was mentioned in this forum and got changed in the wiki, but don't remember who mentioned it. The problem with this spellcard is that "Star Ring" and "Sterling" both match as the japanese name. Hell, there was a time it was called "Stirling Pounce", due to a legend of a wolf alerting the city. So, what is the correct translation? Unless ZUN itself explains the name, we can only guess.

[King L]

That's... interessing...