Fallout 2 mod Fallout Sonora 1.14 and Sonora Dayglow 1.14 Vanilla Translation

@Cambragol

If hosting the English mve is an issue.. i can provide it via my ftp if you want.. the hi-res .avi version of it is already sitting in there, so it's just a matter of me uploading it to my ftp.. actually all Sonora vids are hi-res including the old a.k.a 1.09 and older BoS ship explosion video. the credits.avi is made both in english with AI Ron and in Russian with original narrator.. so adding in the AI Ron credits.mve would just be convinience..

just in case my router is frequently attacked by certain chineese hacker groups, that exploit to join it to their botnet.. unfortuneatly it has side effects causing my ftp to go offline.. the only cure for the hacker damage and restoration of ftp is router reboot for the time being, as no knowledge exist on how do theese hackers manage to break in, however their hacks only remain in router's RAM, so it's easy to flush that..

In any case if my archive is offline please do inform me in my hd upscale thread about this, i'll do a quick reboot and the archiv should be online agin..
 
@gustarballs1983 sounds good to me. Though I still have to link it for you somewhere, unless you can pull it out of the .dat. On github it is possible to host files that are attached to the 'release', so for now I can stick it there. Your avi version is probably a better bet for people who want to view or share it outside of the game itself. I just wanted to include it in the 'source' for completeness.

You should upload the avi to Youtube or something, and link back to the Translation/Nevada Band. Too few people know about Sonora as it is.
 
Cambragol said:
@gustarballs1983 sounds good to me. Though I still have to link it for you somewhere, unless you can pull it out of the .dat. On github it is possible to host files that are attached to the 'release', so for now I can stick it there. Your avi version is probably a better bet for people who want to view or share it outside of the game itself. I just wanted to include it in the 'source' for completeness.

You should upload the avi to Youtube or something, and link back to the Translation/Nevada Band. Too few people know about Sonora as it is.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure you realise what are you talking about, or who're you talking to.. ;p
Anyways in simple words, no need to pass the mve to me..

how do you think i msnaged to upscale your video? without having access to one?!

And as for the .avi perhaps you don't realise this but with moderately recent sfall one can play xvid based .avi in fallout 2 engine, hence all the effort i've put into converting and upscaling those videos... they simply look far better ingame than the, originals, especially if you can't afford vintage 14" CRT, and use a standard flatscreen 21" or more screen with at least fullhd resolution.

I dedicated myself to this, and managed to upscale not only fo1 and fo2, but also last hope, resurrection, Sonora, and fo:Yesterday as an ongoing development spits out more videos, so do I upscale them, and due to beeing in good terms with PJ a.k.a hexer, i get the raw file and convert it to both mve and upscale + convert to avi. As some footage is real world footage it also gets other video processing such as de-interlacing, or camera shake reduction in addition to upscaling. The mve has to be of crap quality due to length of some videos which are roughly over ~20min, so i'm forced to use fo2 compression method in order to have decent file size in mve.. roughly 2GB ugly 640x480 file the paradox is that the fullhd xvid avi of the same length, not only looks far better but if done right is also several times smaller than the mve.. ofcourse for the small mve videos i usually go the full blown quality way, so it ends up bigger than the original mve..


TL : DR
1.i have the mve, no need for passing it to me
2.The avis i make can be viewed in fo2 engine with sfall some codecs and proper settings
 
Cambragol said:
Derrr....

Host away then!

Side note: I love the 640x480 glory. I couldn't watch it any other way! The grain makes it feel right...
Click to expand...
Heh it's not exactly grain, its dithering..
Sonora's videos are created the old fo1 compression method. This method is low compression big filesize, and it automaticslly applies floyd-steinberg dithering, a sort of like flickering grain video technique to improove low res video quality display..
true fo2 vids ain't as lucky.. there are two compression methods here standard and high quality compression. hq compression means small size but damn ugly image, the dithering may be optionally applied on top, to try to remedy the already ugly image quality, however when video is ~9GB in size with the fo1 compression method, the fo2 methods yeald 1,9GB file (both for the same ~21min video). It is far more reasonable to provide a hires hq avi video, and just have whatever for the mve, cuz noone wants a 9GB video file for a ~600MB game..
The avis can be made to have sane size while maintaining quality footage.

Original fo videos are not that bad, though the ones that actually are 320x240 like the cathedral explosion really do benefit from the upscale, as 320x240 looks terrible on big screen, and ai does wonders in basically "reinventing the wheel" at hires.. so far i've only made crude 720p vids, although if i get an upgrade to my dram-ssd ram modules i may try to start running this new ai that topaz made that could rerender to even 16k and then downscale to 4k. This way the image quality is even crispier, though it has a hefty requirement of 32GB of ram where my mobo could fit only 8GB. However if i get upgrades to the dram ssd, i could use a super snappy pagefile up to 64GB up from 16GB, normaly it wouldn't be possible at all, cause there never were 8GB ddr2 800MT ram sticks, however i've foud guys that produce custom ram sticks for sole purpose of maximizing ppl's rigs amount of ram.. so i thought why not try...
 
Is there a standard install procedure for this translation patch?

I've been trying to follow the directions at https://cambragol.github.io/Fallout-Sonora/download/
but I don't want to use Fallout 2 CE because of the lack of sfall support (hope Alex is still working on it).

My process so far has been to download and install the official 1.14 version of Sonora from https://fallout-nevada.ucoz.ru/index/fallout_sonora/0-59
Then extract the DLC into the same folder, then extract the translation patch000.dat into the same folder.

Right now I get a crash if I switch the language to english in fallout2.cfg when using FSonora.exe.
This crash goes away if I set master_patches=patch000.dat and critter_patches=patch000.dat,
but I can't save the game when I do this.
Fallout 2 CE does indeed work, and I can save the game when running it, but not with the original FSonora.exe.
However, when I copy a hi-res version of Fallout 2 from the vanilla steam install (plus f2_res.ini/dll) into the same folder and run them, they seem to work correctly and I can save the game too.

Is this the correct way?

(edit: forgot to mention I also installed sfall 4.4.5)
(also I'm discovering the hi-res options aren't accessible from in-game anymore)
 
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Well, if you are keen for the sfall support, you should probably just use the Foxx version?

As for straight using the FSonora.exe... I don't have a working Windows environment so I can't provide 100% support here. However, technically the FSonora.exe is looking for the patchDLC.dat, not patch000.dat. Both it and the original Fallout2.exe can only load one dat, however, Fallout2.exe can load a numeric named one, and will load the lowest numbered before others.

My 'patched' or 'DLC' version of the translation actually contains the full DLC within it, so my dat can be used *in place of* the patchDLC.dat. So if you want to use the translation with FSonora.exe, get rid of the original patchDLC, and rename mine to that. If you want to use Fallout2.exe, make sure the translation patch is named patch000.dat.

Hopefully that helps you. I wish there was an easier way.

Edit: You still need to download the DLC from Nevada, as my translation .dat is a full replacement for the dlc.dat - the DLC download also contains some other files that I didn't include, so the downloading it too is necessary. The instructions on the Fallout Sonora should be correct, if followed exactly... I hope..
 
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Hey there @QuantumApprentice

so You did install the sfall but have you installed HRP? this is still mandatory in order to have the in game grapthic options..

I mean You may skip patching the executable part, and just use built-in HRP ( a.k.a the one built-into sfall), but you still require f2-res.dll, f2-res.dat and f2-res.ini, in order for either HRP to work. if you lack theese in your install, HRP won't work..

Besides lotsa stuff in ddraw.ini must be set in a certain way, or you'll encounter glitches...

so I recommend the same as Cambragol... Use Foxx's release.. if you're skeptical about Mr.Stalin's sfall5 You can always switch the ddraw.dll to sfall v4.4.5 and adapt the ddraw.ini if you know how.. it's far easier than configuration from scratch..

and yes in foxx's release the patch000.dat goes into mods folder.. plus there's a nessecary reorganization of mods order in mods-order.ini if you want the bookseller mod to function properly, as there are two additional mods, that need to have higher priority than patch000.dat and the second one also higher priority above the first one.. search few last pages and you'll know which ones i'm talking about, someone mentioned them.

Do know that Foxx's release comes with an earlier translation release ( prior to single file release) in Foxx's version ther e are two files patch000.dat and patch001.dat they are not 1:1 in content witht he original translation, as some stuff was shuffled around, although it is safe to use latest patch00.dat istead of both of them, with the note that you need to re-order other two other mod priorities. one is original russian bookseller ( this has to have priority over patch000.dat only) and the other is Foxx-added translation of Bookseller mod.( this has to have higher priority over patch000.dat *and* the russian bookseller mod). I don't remember the files proper names right now, although looking into the dat archives inside mods folder.. might give you a clue on which files are they..
 
Cambragol said:
Well, if you are keen for the sfall support, you should probably just use the Foxx version?

As for straight using the FSonora.exe... I don't have a working Windows environment so I can't provide 100% support here. However, technically the FSonora.exe is looking for the patchDLC.dat, not patch000.dat. Both it and the original Fallout2.exe can only load one dat, however, Fallout2.exe can load a numeric named one, and will load the lowest numbered before others.

My 'patched' or 'DLC' version of the translation actually contains the full DLC within it, so my dat can be used *in place of* the patchDLC.dat. So if you want to use the translation with FSonora.exe, get rid of the original patchDLC, and rename mine to that. If you want to use Fallout2.exe, make sure the translation patch is named patch000.dat.

Hopefully that helps you. I wish there was an easier way.

Edit: You still need to download the DLC from Nevada, as my translation .dat is a full replacement for the dlc.dat - the DLC download also contains some other files that I didn't include, so the downloading it too is necessary. The instructions on the Fallout Sonora should be correct, if followed exactly... I hope..
Click to expand...
If you have steam, you can configure a new game entry like this, and set the compatibility to use whatever version of wine you want.
Running this will open a Windows Explorer window and allow you to browse and run .exe's without messing too much with wine.
(this is how I'm doing all my modding and testing on linux these days)
1732849232954.png

Thanks for letting me know your patch has the DLC in it, I didn't catch that when reading through the instructions :)
 
gustarballs1983 said:
Hey there @QuantumApprentice

so You did install the sfall but have you installed HRP? this is still mandatory in order to have the in game grapthic options..

I mean You may skip patching the executable part, and just use built-in HRP ( a.k.a the one built-into sfall), but you still require f2-res.dll, f2-res.dat and f2-res.ini, in order for either HRP to work. if you lack theese in your install, HRP won't work..

Besides lotsa stuff in ddraw.ini must be set in a certain way, or you'll encounter glitches...

so I recommend the same as Cambragol... Use Foxx's release.. if you're skeptical about Mr.Stalin's sfall5 You can always switch the ddraw.dll to sfall v4.4.5 and adapt the ddraw.ini if you know how.. it's far easier than configuration from scratch..

and yes in foxx's release the patch000.dat goes into mods folder.. plus there's a nessecary reorganization of mods order in mods-order.ini if you want the bookseller mod to function properly, as there are two additional mods, that need to have higher priority than patch000.dat and the second one also higher priority above the first one.. search few last pages and you'll know which ones i'm talking about, someone mentioned them.

Do know that Foxx's release comes with an earlier translation release ( prior to single file release) in Foxx's version ther e are two files patch000.dat and patch001.dat they are not 1:1 in content witht he original translation, as some stuff was shuffled around, although it is safe to use latest patch00.dat istead of both of them, with the note that you need to re-order other two other mod priorities. one is original russian bookseller ( this has to have priority over patch000.dat only) and the other is Foxx-added translation of Bookseller mod.( this has to have higher priority over patch000.dat *and* the russian bookseller mod). I don't remember the files proper names right now, although looking into the dat archives inside mods folder.. might give you a clue on which files are they..
Click to expand...
I did copy all three f2_res.ini/dll/dat files into the folder, they work, just the in-game menu is missing.
And yeah, I'm not keen on using Mr.Stalin's sfall5, especially when the installer says you need to white-list it in your anti-virus....just seems like a bad idea all around.
For that matter, I'm pretty skeptical of FSonora.exe, since its clearly a modified version of the original Fallout 2 executable...and runs poorly anyway.

I'll try and parse out the difference between Foxx's version and vanilla and see if I can't come up with a proper install procedure.
 
@QuantumApprentice thanks for the info on your steam/wine approach. I don't have wine, but that gives me an idea of an approach to take. Maybe I'll try to get it working again, as I can't do any modding (with the mapper) currently.

Also, I am pretty sure Foxx's latest release uses the 1.0 release with patches. At least that is what it says rutracker.org
 
QuantumApprentice said:
For that matter, I'm pretty skeptical of FSonora.exe, since its clearly a modified version of the original Fallout 2 executable...and runs poorly anyway.
Click to expand...
FSonora.exe (or FSonoraDLC.exe) basically has these sfall settings embedded:
Code: 
WorldMapDelay2=66
VersionString=FALLOUT SONORA 1.14 (FSonora.exe)
VersionString=FALLOUT SONORA 1.14+DLC (FSonoraDLC.exe)
PatchFile=patchDLC.dat
StartYear=2167
StartMonth=3
StartDay=11
And it changes the window title from "FALLOUT II" to "FSonora".
Plus there are a couple of hacks on audio decoding that I couldn't figure out:
github.com

fallout2-re/src/sound_decoder.c at main · alexbatalov/fallout2-re

Reverse engineered Fallout 2. Contribute to alexbatalov/fallout2-re development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
It replaces the _ReadBand_tbl[31] entry with a new hack function (ReadBand_Fmt31?) taking code space from unused engine functions.

github.com

fallout2-re/src/sound_decoder.c at main · alexbatalov/fallout2-re

Reverse engineered Fallout 2. Contribute to alexbatalov/fallout2-re development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
It changes this:
C++: 
if (!_ReadBands_(soundDecoder)) {
    break;
}
_untransform_all(soundDecoder);
To this:
C++: 
if (_ReadBands_(soundDecoder)) {
    _untransform_all(soundDecoder);
}
But since Sonora can run perfectly fine on default Fallout 2 CE, maybe these hacks aren't necessary.

QuantumApprentice said:
I'll try and parse out the difference between Foxx's version and vanilla and see if I can't come up with a proper install procedure.
Click to expand...
Here's how I set up Sonora+DLC in English on my PC (Win7/10):
  1. Install the official 1.14 (both main game and DLC).
  2. Extract patch000.dat from sonora_eng_DLC_script.zip to the main folder.
  3. Copy Fallout2.exe, Fallout2HR.exe, and f2_res*.* files from my FO2 game.
  4. Set language=english in fallout2.cfg.
  5. Install sfall 4.4.5.
  6. Set VersionString, StartYear/Month/Day settings in ddraw.ini as mentioned above (don't set PatchFile), and disable CarChargingFix and CarPlacedTileFix.
  7. My graphics settings for a windowed 1280x720 game:
    • ddraw.ini: HiResMode=1, Mode=5
    • f2_res.ini: UAC_AWARE=0, SCR_WIDTH=1280, SCR_HEIGHT=720, USE_HIRES_IMAGES=0 (so you can see Sonora's main menu pic)
  8. Start the game using Fallout2.exe (because I use sfall's built-in HRP).
    If you want to use Mash's HRP, set HiResMode=0 and start the game using Fallout2HR.exe instead.
At least I checked opening movies, subtitles, game UI, character creation, the beginning of the game, and save/load all working OK on my PC. I haven't actually play Sonora yet.

EDIT: Oh, right, don't use the map edge files from f2_res.dat or you'll have a hard time on mouse cursor at the beginning (due to default artemple map edge file).

EDIT 2: OK, here's a basic "sfall support pack" I put together:

Sonora_eng_sfall_support.rar - Icedrive

icedrive.net icedrive.net
It replaces step 3-6 above, so you only need to change sfall/HRP settings to suit your need (most of them are in default values). By default it uses Mash's HRP (run Fallout2HR.exe for the game).
 
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NovaRain said:
  1. Install the official 1.14 version.
Click to expand...
This step you are installing both the vanilla 1.14, and the Dayglow DLC 1.14, right?

Because though my .dat can replace the DLC dat, there are a handful of files left over that are up in the data folder of the DLC unpack.
 
Yes, I forgot to mention that. If one only uses your .dat instead of DLC zip, they will have no new music.
 
Cambragol said:
@QuantumApprentice thanks for the info on your steam/wine approach. I don't have wine, but that gives me an idea of an approach to take. Maybe I'll try to get it working again, as I can't do any modding (with the mapper) currently.

Also, I am pretty sure Foxx's latest release uses the 1.0 release with patches. At least that is what it says rutracker.org
Click to expand...
actually, steam comes with proton built in, which is steam's version of wine they use for their steam-deck console.

NovaRain said:
FSonora.exe (or FSonoraDLC.exe) basically has these sfall settings embedded:
Code: 
WorldMapDelay2=66
VersionString=FALLOUT SONORA 1.14 (FSonora.exe)
VersionString=FALLOUT SONORA 1.14+DLC (FSonoraDLC.exe)
PatchFile=patchDLC.dat
StartYear=2167
StartMonth=3
StartDay=11
And it changes the window title from "FALLOUT II" to "FSonora".
Plus there are a couple of hacks on audio decoding that I couldn't figure out:
github.com

fallout2-re/src/sound_decoder.c at main · alexbatalov/fallout2-re

Reverse engineered Fallout 2. Contribute to alexbatalov/fallout2-re development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
It replaces the _ReadBand_tbl[31] entry with a new hack function (ReadBand_Fmt31?) taking code space from unused engine functions.

github.com

fallout2-re/src/sound_decoder.c at main · alexbatalov/fallout2-re

Reverse engineered Fallout 2. Contribute to alexbatalov/fallout2-re development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
It changes this:
C++: 
if (!_ReadBands_(soundDecoder)) {
    break;
}
_untransform_all(soundDecoder);
To this:
C++: 
if (_ReadBands_(soundDecoder)) {
    _untransform_all(soundDecoder);
}
But since Sonora can run perfectly fine on default Fallout 2 CE, maybe these hacks aren't necessary.


Here's how I set up Sonora+DLC in English on my PC (Win7/10):
  1. Install the official 1.14 (Sonora main game and DLC).
  2. Extract patch000.dat from sonora_eng_DLC_script.zip to the main folder.
  3. Copy Fallout2.exe, Fallout2HR.exe, and f2_res*.* files from my FO2 game.
  4. Set language=english in fallout2.cfg.
  5. Install sfall 4.4.5.
  6. Set VersionString, StartYear/Month/Day settings in ddraw.ini as mentioned above (don't set PatchFile).
  7. My graphics settings for a windowed 1280x720 game:
    • ddraw.ini: HiResMode=1, Mode=5
    • f2_res.ini: UAC_AWARE=0, SCR_WIDTH=1280, SCR_HEIGHT=720, USE_HIRES_IMAGES=0 (so you can see Sonora's main menu pic)
  8. Start the game using Fallout2.exe (because I use sfall's built-in HRP).
    If you want to use Mash's HRP, set HiResMode=0 and start the game using Fallout2HR.exe instead.
At least I checked opening movies, subtitles, game UI, character creation, the beginning of the game, and save/load all working OK on my PC. I haven't actually play Sonora yet.

EDIT: Oh, right, don't use the map edge files from f2_res.dat or you'll have a hard time on mouse cursor at the beginning (due to default artemple map edge file).

EDIT 2: OK, here's a basic "sfall support pack" I put together:

Sonora_eng_sfall_support.rar - Icedrive

icedrive.net icedrive.net
It replaces step 3-6 above, so you only need to change sfall/HRP settings to suit your need (most of them are in default values). By default it uses Mash's HRP (run Fallout2HR.exe for the game).
Click to expand...
dude! that's awesome! thank you for the instructions! (might want to make an official post of some sort) :)
how in the world did you get those changes? just a byte compare of the two binaries?
or is there a private repo? (are they rebuilding the binary from Alex Batalov's RE?)
 
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