Fate/Stay Night [Realta Nua] PC version Mirror Moon TL insertion project

[NM64]

Question about this elusive "merge project" - is it going to have a setting for choosing which language to use? (English/Japanese/etc)

Beta, of course. So many changes were made that's something ought to be broken without me noticing.

Will this be a public or "semi-private" beta? Like, will it be made available for the world or will you just share it with a few of us and let us share it with whomever we see fit?

Or perhaps you'll go the trackerless torrent route which would then prevent it from being uploaded to various big-name torrent sites? (I know for example that "The [yar-har-fiddle-dee-de] Bay" does not accept trackerless torrent files).


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Um, hey there. What program should I use to run FSN RN? Internet Explorer keeps closing on me, so what app should I use?

We need much more specific details with regards to what you are actually doing.

Do you have the visual novel already? Is it failing to run when to try to do so? Are you flat-out trying to acquire it? Did you download a .torrent file and don't realize it? (make sure "show file extensions" is enabled).


I do want to quickly mention that, depending on just how public this beta "merge project" will be, it may be easier to just wait for that since I would imagine that it's more likely to "just work" compared to the current method needed to get English Realta Nua PC-download working.

By any chance is NM around

Of course I'm around - I just have topic reply notification set to "weekly" because we go long spans of time without any new posts, and then once we do get new posts, we commonly get like an entire page or two worth of posts across just 2-3 days, so I figured it's easier to just wait a few days and read all the new posts at once.

[blue_lightning]

Migrate to a new computer and then this bug happened. So I got through the prologue, but at the point when the OP was supposed to play, the video blacked out with only the audio playing. Same with playback from Extra > Movie, the video is either black if Fullscreen or stay at the first frame if In Frame, audio plays as normal.
Things I have tried:
- Install Lav filter newest version, x86 and x64.
- Install Lav filter newest version, x86 only.
- Install Lav filter 0.62 (the version in the FAQ link), x86 and x64.
- Install Lav filter 0.62, x86 only.
- Delete faterealtanua_savedata. Unrelated note: the game promptly crashed upon opening until I reinserted the Eng patch back, I guess because of my locale. Without the Vita OP patch, the video is always black and the mouse cursor when hover over it became yuge, probably 3x the size. With the Vita OP patch, the video is black on Fullscreen, but show the first frame upon hovering over its thumbnail in Extra; cursor also returns to normal size.

System: Windows 10 x64 17134.228. Codecs installed: whatever comes with MPC-HC 1.7.13 default, nothing else.

[NM64]

Migrate to a new computer and then this bug happened.

The obvious solution is to wait for the beta version of the elusive merge project and just use that.

On a more serious note, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's something wonky with Windows 10 and hardware acceleration; maybe try something like "Win7DSFilterTweaker" (assuming it even works in Windows 10) and fiddling with which decoder it uses for "h.264"?

[blue_lightning]

"Win7DSFilterTweaker" (assuming it even works in Windows 10)

It does, or at least they claim it does. Sad thing is it didn't do anything helpful in this case. That merge project urban legend better be true...
Will try to reinstall MPC-HC for the last time.

[TheUnknownIdentity]

It does, or at least they claim it does. Sad thing is it didn't do anything helpful in this case. That merge project urban legend better be true...
Will try to reinstall MPC-HC for the last time.

It is no urban legend mate. Quibi over here doing work. Just be patient it's coming.

[Quibi]

I'm sorry to say that the merge project won't support internet explorer.

It will of course have multi language support just like the HA voice patch.

Since the merge project will be distributed with an update to the game engine (namely, KirikiriZ), videos will be rendered using Window's Media Foundation Enhanced Video Renderer (WMF EVR), so no external codecs/plugins will required to play the movie.
Unless you'll be playing on windows XP, then you'll have to use an old version of KirikiriZ that doesn't support WMF, and you'll have to keep using the LAV filters.
I'm honestly not sure how to help debug the filters not working correctly, but if you're using windows XP when the next patch comes out that's on you.

If you'll be running the game on any other potatoes I suppose it should be fine, as:

• I suppose Kirikiroid has its own way for rendering video that probably supports basic formats.
• I think Wine has support for WMF.

I'm working on the installer now. I'm pretty much copying the MM installer as a reference since it looks nice:

Spoiler:

I'll probably have to find some other graphics to avoid confusion, but oh well.
Currently the installer successfully merges the xp3 files, but I still need to work on better tracking its progress percentage, add optional desktop/start menu icons, etc...

[XerBlade]

better tracking its progress percentage

Or you could use a basic throbber instead and assume, "The only reason anyone goes crazy over the accuracy of information is that I showed them the information in the first place. No one knew they cared until it was in front of them."


That's more or less how Microsoft handles its installers these days.

[blue_lightning]

Yeah reinstalling MPC-HC and LAV filter didn't help. Should I ask Microsoft for support? 1 agent did contact me a few days ago about some viruses I seem to have.

[XerBlade]

I really hope you're actually aware that there's no such thing as a Microsoft agent who contacts you about some viruses you seem to have.

[blue_lightning]

Windows 10 has telemetry embeded without a way to disable thoroughly, so theoretically they could detect an anomaly in the system. But you're right, I haven't purchase anything from them (Windows is free for our students btw), why would they contact a non-valuable customer like me?
Anyway, there shouldn't be any movie in the game so I can play through first and watch them later when the project finish, right?

[Yamato]

Or you could use a basic throbber instead and assume, "The only reason anyone goes crazy over the accuracy of information is that I showed them the information in the first place. No one knew they cared until it was in front of them."

so true

[NM64]

BTW Quibi, did you ever get the OP videos squared away in terms of replacing them with the higher-quality rips and/or encodes from that 1080p+FLAC rip of the Type-Moon Fes Blu-ray?

Unless you'll be playing on windows XP, then you'll have to use an old version of KirikiriZ that doesn't support WMF, and you'll have to keep using the LAV filters.
I'm honestly not sure how to help debug the filters not working correctly, but if you're using windows XP when the next patch comes out that's on you.

If you'll be running the game on any other potatoes I suppose it should be fine, as:

• I suppose Kirikiroid has its own way for rendering video that probably supports basic formats.
• I think Wine has support for WMF.

At some point I'm probably going to try and see if this works on ReactOS as well as Linux Mint + Lutris which should hopefully provide an alternative (the 2004 release did in fact run on ReactOS when I last checked several years, though I think there were audio issues or something back then).

Speaking of old OSes, I wouldn't suppose that this will work on Windows 98SE or ME, would it? :P (I only ask because the back of the box on the 2004 release claims to have 98SE/ME compatibility).

I'm working on the installer now. I'm pretty much copying the MM installer as a reference since it looks nice

Is this an actual true installer, or is it really just a fancy-pants extractor much in the same way the "installers" for PortableApps are?

Because it was my impression that this elusive merge project would actually have the VN be a portable application much in the same way the 2004 VN was (that is, you can throw it on a USB flash drive and it'd run without issue and even retain your save data and such).

Anyway, there shouldn't be any movie in the game so I can play through first and watch them later when the project finish, right?

Correct, though just remember that you almost certainly won't be able to transfer over your save data into the "merge project", so you'd have to skip through scenes and such until you caught up to where you were previously.

[Quibi]

about the OP - haven't gotten around to it yet but right now they're all pretty high quality, just don't remember the source for each (except the vita OP which are ripped from the vita).
I don't really plan to support everything, it just so happens it's possible.
The installer is written in python so it's cross platform - and it's kind of a hybrid. It merges the original games archives in a smart way, and also applies to patches (though you could do it manually as well) and optionally creates shortcuts.
The save folder mechanism will be the same as HA so you can choose your save dir via a config file, so you can make it portable if you want but also have your save files backed on the your cloud folder if you'd like.
Also, previous patch save files are fully compatible with the merge project, how rude of you to assume otherwise :P

[NM64]

Quibi, that "HD patch" option in the installer - is that for both HD 2D graphics (backgrounds, character sprites, etc) and HD OP videos?

If "HD patch" is unselected, what will happen to those 2D graphics and OP videos - will the stock PC "designed-for 800x600" graphics be used as well as lower-resolution OP videos or something?


I'm just thinking that it might be wise to have two separate options for HD 2D graphics and HD OP videos since, on so-called "potatoes" with no h.264 hardware decoding (that being PCs 10+ years old), decoding relatively high bitrate 1080p AVC can be pretty brutal at times. By comparison, HD 2D graphics shouldn't really be much of an issue for anything made in this millennium TBH so that option would be one dictated more by preference than by performance.

Speaking of performance, I wonder if it'd be possible for the installer to run ffmpeg's built-in benchmark mode for a short 1080p video clip and, if the frame rate is less than 30fps, to then use the lower-resolution OPs instead? (if you didn't want to use the original super-potato 480p/360p MPEG OP videos, then I personally would recommend using something like Xvid or VP8 encoded at 720p to 540p and perhaps 1152x864 or 1024x768 for the 2004 non-widescreen OPs)

about the OP - haven't gotten around to it yet but right now they're all pretty high quality, just don't remember the source for each (except the vita OP which are ripped from the vita).

Well I just remember the PS2 OPs that were either used in the current version or were going to be used in an upcoming version were like super over-saturated or something to the point of losing detail. I also remember that the currently-used 2004 OPs were needlessly re-encoded for no good reason rather than just remuxed into the necessary container (which IIRC actually resulted in lower file size along with higher quality).


Personally I would be happy to provide better quality OPs and such encoded/rigged up to work with this "merge project" as I have some decently fast CPU hardware nowadays (4.6GHz Pentium G3258 as well as ~3GHz Xeon x3470), but I wouldn't want to do so until I had my hands on the "merge project" in some manner so that I could insert and test things out myself - presumably this is exactly the sort of thing that this "beta" release should be used for?

Similarly, using the beta for testing some music and audio things would again be exactly the sort of thing it should be use for, no?


Assuming that the answer to the above is an "affirmative", then if/when I do end up with various "improvements" to the videos and/or audio, should I just upload them to mega or the like and then pm or email you the link or something?

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Well I just remember the PS2 OPs that were either used in the current version or were going to be used in an upcoming version were like super over-saturated or something to the point of losing detail. I also remember that the currently-used 2004 OPs were needlessly re-encoded for no good reason rather than just remuxed into the necessary container (which IIRC actually resulted in lower file size along with higher quality).


Personally I would be happy to provide better quality OPs and such encoded/rigged up to work with this "merge project" as I have some decently fast CPU hardware nowadays (4.6GHz Pentium G3258 as well as ~3GHz Xeon x3470), but I wouldn't want to do so until I had my hands on the "merge project" in some manner so that I could insert and test things out myself - presumably this is exactly the sort of thing that this "beta" release should be used for?

Similarly, using the beta for testing some music and audio things would again be exactly the sort of thing it should be use for, no?


Assuming that the answer to the above is an "affirmative", then if/when I do end up with various "improvements" to the videos and/or audio, should I just upload them to mega or the like and then pm or email you the link or something?

I don't suppose that, should you go through with encoding the OPs, you might make them available for archival?

[NM64]

I don't suppose that, should you go through with encoding the OPs, you might make them available for archival?

Errr, I wouldn't be ripping them or anything from the Type Moon Fes Blu-ray myself, I was just sourcing them from a very high quality 1080p h264 (I think 10bit?) + FLAC rip that is already available in torrent form on the internets, so no I probably won't be making them readily available as there's not much point TBH. And besides, if you really want the versions optimized for the visual novel, you can always just extract the data files.


For the most part I would just be re-packaging the video stream into a container that would work and possibly re-encoding the audio into a format that works with said container (though, depending on how the quality compares, if the OST of the according song is of higher quality then I'd rather use that for the audio); if the videos from that blu-ray rip are in fact 10bit, then I will probably re-encode them to be 8bit though so that hardware decoding can be used.

One big thing however is that the PS2 OPs need to be re-encoded since they have black bars "burned" into the video themselves (even though the footage itself was already in widescreen...), and the colors are strangely washed out to boot (that was possibly an attempt to mitigate NTSC's poor color reproduction - remember that the standard PS2 video connection was composite video); they could also use a bit of sharpening as well since they seem to have been at least partially upscaled using a rather blurry algorithm.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Ah, okay. I don't care much for the PS2 OPs, but I'll take a look for the Vita ones, thanks!

[Quibi]

Actually, if you could just send me all the videos you want me to use in the release that would be very helpful. I'm not sure why you need the merge project for that? Unless you're not sure it will render well... In which case I'll reassure you the new kirikiriz engine does a pretty good job at rendering video.

The HD patch is for 2D images only, the OP patch is a separate patch.

I've been thinking about the patches layout and this is my conclusion:

• Merge patch - the base patch including the code for merging the 3 routes. Also includes content from the classic release and the PS2 RN release that got cut in the PC RN version (available via the classic/mixed textual content switch).
• "Vita" patch - includes the BGM patch (vita + ps2 bgm) and OP patch (which includes all HD OP). A bit of a misnomer, yeah, but I think merging those 2 patches makes sense content-wise.
• H patch - includes h scenes + assets
• Decensor patch
• HD patch
• English patch

If you have any objections I'm open for suggestions.

[NM64]

Actually, if you could just send me all the videos you want me to use in the release that would be very helpful.

I haven't actually done anything with these OP videos and such - they're exactly as they were when I got them via the torrent in alluded to (I think I linked you to it a while back...).

For one thing, I thought this was already taken care of back when I shared the link originally. As for doing the video stuff now, well I try not to use my desktop PC(s) in the summer in order to minimize heat build-up in the house, and it seems our air conditioner has a problem as of a couple hours ago (convenient timing, no?), so I really don't want to run my desktop PC(s) at any sort of performance level that would be necessary for this sort of thing (at least until cooler weather hits - something that isn't a sure thing until this weekend).

I'm not sure why you need the merge project for that? Unless you're not sure it will render well... In which case I'll reassure you the new kirikiriz engine does a pretty good job at rendering video.

I'm mainly concerned about codec and format compatibility since they might be 10bit AVC + FLAC in an MKV container, and even if they're 8bit AVC then they still might need to be remuxed into something like an MP4 which would then require re-encoding the audio (and only the audio as it would be better to just re-mux the video stream into an MP4 container directly and possibly cutting out the end of the video footage in the process - something that I know "Avidemux" can do).

"Vita" patch - includes the BGM patch (vita + ps2 bgm) and OP patch (which includes all HD OP)

Wait, if we're trying to make the "ultimate" Fate/stay night experience, doesn't this mean that it's not possible to have low-res OP videos while still having the additional PS2 Realta Nua music, thereby essentially making it not possible to re-create the "official PS2/PC-download Realta Nua experience"?


Also, are the vita music files and according loop metadata the stuff directly ripped from the iOS/Android version?

I recall that there was one song (I think it was Vita version of "Into the Night") that I was very vocal about saying how the iOS/Android copy was considerably lower quality in terms of dynamic range than the version I manually put together via the actual OST, therefore insisting that you keep the custom one I made or something (but only for that specific song - I also recall that I think the dynamic range of most of the other songs were actually considerably better in the iOS/Android rip).

[Quibi]

Patches applied are controllable by switches - so when you apply the "vita" patch you have a switch to enable/disable the newer OP.
The bgm was and continues to be configurable via an in-game menu.
So the choice of packing for patches is decoupled from their use in game.

And yes, the loop data for the vita ost is ripped from directly from the android version.
I unfortunately don't know where the ps2 loop data hides. I have some of them from waku's version but I have no idea if those were ripped or rather manually tuned.