Subtitles Localization

Joined
Aug 24, 2018
This tool can be used for subtitles extraction of Shenmue HD games (both sh1 and sh2) from *.sub files, same as *.sub file update. These files stored in one of the "common" TAD/TAC archive, which can be extracted with ShenmueHDTools or similar utility.

Each language stored in separate .sub file. All dialog, notepad notes, game and system labels stored there, so this file is only one you should change to apply full texts localization. However, some labels stored as textures (like main menu icons - New Game, Continue etc.).

How to use:
  1. Extract content of the "common" package and find the *.sub file with the language you want to change
  2. Copy this file in separate folder
  3. Launch ShenmueHDSubsRebuild.exe
  4. Press SUB2CSV button and select your *.sub file, *.csv file will appear in same folder. If file already exists - you will see notification about that. Be sure that you will not lost your custom changes!
  5. *.csv file format is UTF-8, comma delimited, text in double quotes. You can use text editor (like Notepad++) or table processor (like Excel or Calc). Avoid using double quotation marks (") symbol.
  6. When you finished with changes, press CSV2SUB button, *.sub file with same name will be updated (or created).
In the binary code of *.sub file unknown bytes presented, which different for each game, and probably version. If you have problem with your translation after game update, copy latest *.sub file version to the same folder with same name as *.csv file (only with different extension), so program will read proper header and use it in new package.
  1. Copy updated *.sub file in the mods folder with proper hierarchy, or repack TAC/TAD files, or whatever mod installing method you are using.
  2. If text appear with mistakes or does not appear at all - some problem in *.csv structure exists. If some symbols appear as ? means game can read the symbol, but can't find it in the font set. You can try to check "Replace Missing Characters" option before conversion - it will replace missing characters with English letters in *.sub, while they stay untouched in the original *.csv file. That is temporary measure until fonts edit method is not found.

I have no plans for future improvements, but if you have any requirements - feel free to share. Same as bug reports.
Font edit tool is not exists at the moment so that is my priority, you can check replies in this topic for additional information if you are interested.

Download ShenmueHDSubsRebuild v1.01:
Various utils (DC to PC subs translation export, voice dubs cutting script):
Make back-ups of your edits as often as possible. And thank you for making this game better!

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If someone wish to extract translation from DC games quickly (piracy copy) I can provide instructions and modded tools, just PM me.
 

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This is great!!! Thanks a lot, it will be very useful.
Only one question, could you do a similar utility for translating Yakuza 0 texts? Nobody has done one yet and it'd be very appreciated because translating with hex editor method is a very slow and painfull process.
 
Only one question, could you do a similar utility for translating Yakuza 0 texts?

sure, I can try some day.

Small thought about topic. It was a discussion on other forum about quality of English translation, or will be better to say "precision". Quite often Japanese speech has different meaning than English subtitles. Is there "fixed" translation exists for the original games so it can be used for the HD version? Or maybe someone with good knowledge of both languages have time and desire to do it. I can guess a lot of people will be happy to get it, especially translators that rely on English texts rather than original Japanese. Just an idea, as it will be a lot of work anyway.
 
I was just coming here to the forums to search for tools so I could translate Shenmue I to Brazilian Portuguese. I was responsible for the 'What's Shenmue?' PT-BR translation (with a lot of help from awesome members) and hopefully I will be able to make some time and do the first game on its entirety.

I'll follow your guidelines. May I contact you if I have some difficulties?

Thank you very much!
 
sure, I can try some day.

Small thought about topic. It was a discussion on other forum about quality of English translation, or will be better to say "precision". Quite often Japanese speech has different meaning than English subtitles. Is there "fixed" translation exists for the original games so it can be used for the HD version? Or maybe someone with good knowledge of both languages have time and desire to do it. I can guess a lot of people will be happy to get it, especially translators that rely on English texts rather than original Japanese. Just an idea, as it will be a lot of work anyway.

@Switch

?
 
That's a great utility for people who wants to translate the game to others languages, or change some things for the existing ones. Thank you!!

Unfortunately UTF-8 doesn't contain some spanish characters as á, í, ó, ú, ñ, ¿ or ¡ (only é because thats on french). I supose we must found the dds archive with the fonts and change some symbols with those characters.
 

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Yeah, sure. You can send private message if you need, I'll reply shortly.
Thank you so much. I'll organize my schedule this weekend (sounds like I'm a super important person), to make sure I do at least half an hour of translation each day.

I completed What's Shenmue in two days with the help of IlDucci, I'm thinking I can complete Shenmue I in 1-2 months depending on how much my job will conflict with the project.

Thanks again. Talk to you soon.
 
I am afraid it's not UTF but fonts issue. Existing font sets doesn't have these characters, and it's pretty hard job to edit them - tried myself to add Cyrillic. However, I know that another person is making progress in finding the way how it can be edited, so maybe it will be solved some day.
btw, vector fonts used now, not raster, I think. Anyway, different format compare to original game.
 
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About the characters, PT-BR uses ã, ê, í, à, á, ó, ç, é, so I think I'll start leaving everything without these characters, make notes, and come back to them if a mod is available someday.
 
Actually, maybe I should apply replacement on the converter level? So when fonts will appear I just remove replacement and only thing you will need to rebuild it from your source. Does it make sense?
 
You mean as our source the csv archive translated reconverted to unknown? If you an do something about it, i'll try it right away. Thanks.
 
I was just coming here to the forums to search for tools so I could translate Shenmue I to Brazilian Portuguese. I was responsible for the 'What's Shenmue?' PT-BR translation (with a lot of help from awesome members) and hopefully I will be able to make some time and do the first game on its entirety.

I'll follow your guidelines. May I contact you if I have some difficulties?

Thank you very much!
Can you send me the CSV original english converted files? I can help with the brazilian portuguese translation, but I'm having trouble converting them. For some reason ShenmueHDTools won't load .tac files for me.
Edit: Nvm, I figured it out.
 
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thank you very much for the great contribution thealx a question could be translated into spanish subtitles? or someone who knows how to upload texts to the Spanish serial great since the game comes in all languages except Spanish and I do not know anything. If someone upload a translation to Spanish would be great and would be many users fully grateful greetings to all (y)
 
thank you very much for the great contribution thealx a question could be translated into spanish subtitles? or someone who knows how to upload texts to the Spanish serial great since the game comes in all languages except Spanish and I do not know anything. If someone upload a translation to Spanish would be great and would be many users fully grateful greetings to all (y)
It's possible to translate it to spanish, but only UTF-8. That means without "á í ó ú ¿, ¡, ä, ë, ï, ö, ü".

PreacherOfHell is trying to do the same thing in portuguese, with the same problem. Italian is another language forgotten by the developers of the port and SEGA.
 
Great work on the utility, @thealx. I was able to extract the English subtitles (I'm using the v1.01 beta, so for me the filename I needed to extract was 832.unknown inside common_5b7d8ad1.tad).

Small thought about topic. It was a discussion on other forum about quality of English translation, or will be better to say "precision". Quite often Japanese speech has different meaning than English subtitles. Is there "fixed" translation exists for the original games so it can be used for the HD version? Or maybe someone with good knowledge of both languages have time and desire to do it. I can guess a lot of people will be happy to get it, especially translators that rely on English texts rather than original Japanese. Just an idea, as it will be a lot of work anyway.

Although not exactly what you may be looking for, I did some work on a set of English subtitles for the first game to add selected small improvements. They were originally for the fan-made Undub project by kogami, and their base is the English subtitles from the Dreamcast "US Shenmue" version. During the process of overlaying these onto the original Japanese lines, it was found that around 3% of the subtitle lines (mainly minor lines spoken by NPCs) did not match up properly using automated tools. So last year I went through these and translated the remaining 3% of the lines by hand. Along the way I corrected a few grammatical errors. (However, I didn't go through every line of Japanese and try to check/correct them).

If you'd be interested in considering them, feel free to drop me a PM.
 
Hey everyone!

Started testing everything and I'm so eager to start it!!! Gotta figure out first the character limit for each line of text, including normal gameplay, cutscenes, notepads, etc. If someone has that information I would appreciate it!!!!

Here are some screens:
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Looks awesome!
 
That's a great utility for people who wants to translate the game to others languages, or change some things for the existing ones. Thank you!!

Unfortunately UTF-8 doesn't contain some spanish characters as á, í, ó, ú, ñ, ¿ or ¡ (only é because thats on french). I supose we must found the dds archive with the fonts and change some symbols with those characters.


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fantastic news of the translation I have seen user is hazardous with some texts translated into Spanish would be great! Ojala is encouraged to take it out in Spanish the translation of this game into Spanish now that an update has come out that will be another to improve bugs
 
fantastic news of the translation I have seen user is hazardous with some texts translated into Spanish would be great! Ojala is encouraged to take it out in Spanish the translation of this game into Spanish now that an update has come out that will be another to improve bugs

I'm working on it thanks to TheAlx and derplayer tools :D

But as I said before, at this moment, no "á í ó ú ¿, ¡, ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ñ".
 

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Awesome work ifhazardous!!! It's looking great!

The menu 'buttons', you had to alter the textures via photoshop?

I'm doing the pt-br translation. It's so great seeing this community giving the attention this masterpiece deserves.
 
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