Zeroigar translation, from the intro

[esteban]

Nice work!

I think "Super God Trooper Zeroigar" is still too long. We should shorten it to simply read S.G.T.Z.

Seriously.

 S.G.T.Z.

Ok, not too serious.

[EsperKnight]

I think it looks great with the top bordered in white as I couldn't read it to well with the white lights in the background.

And now I need to figure how to get in a new title sceen... hrm...

[Arm]

I had sent to SamIam last week 2 different kinds of font (that I also modified manually) for the title screen of ZeroIgar. I tried to find fonts corresponding to the style of the original. I thought showing them here too, just in case.

[SamIAm]

I freakin' love you guys.

I've been spending some good hours on this, and it's just about to pay off. Some very good news is on the horizon. Stay tuned.

[SamIAm]

I have a question for you guys.

In subbing these MPEG movies, we've been figuring out more about what to do to get the best results possible from the re-encoding process. One aspect of this is setting a constant data-read rate from the drive. What's interesting about this is that we can theoretically adjust it at a per-kilobyte rate, if only in the encoding program settings.

However, even though 300k/sec is apparently what the PC-FX drive is rated for, I wonder if it puts undue stress on it to read at such a rate? We're wondering if setting the program for 280k/s or 290k/s might be better. It barely makes any difference in the encoding quality if that's the only compromise we make, and if it is easier on people's drives, it's a worthy compromise.

If you are very familiar with CD-ROM drives and have some advice, please let me know. Thanks!

[KiddoCabbusses]

I would assume the quality of the CD-R the ISO will be burned to is significantly more important to factoring in what could theoretically tax a PC-FX to death.
That being said, I'd propose you try to keep it as close to what the original was as possible. If you're really concerned, perhaps you could one version that's a 1:1 lossless encode and another one that's a "lite" version where the video could theoretically be reduced to around Youtube-quality.

[SamIAm]

I would assume the quality of the CD-R the ISO will be burned to is significantly more important to factoring in what could theoretically tax a PC-FX to death.

I'd assume as much also, as well as that the drive naturally limits itself from trying to read too fast, but I could be wrong.

1:1 lossless encode and another one that's a "lite" version where the video could theoretically be reduced to around Youtube-quality.

Unfortunately, a lossless encode is not possible. It's going to be lossy no matter what, and it's up to us to diminish the negative effects of that as much as possible. Remember, the original video off the disc is very lossy already (more than youtube), so putting it through another pass has the potential to make it very poor looking.

Fortunately, what we've got going now looks only one tiny step down from the original material, and that's at a 300k/s rate. At a 280k/s rate, the video basically looks fine as well, but we'd rather take the higher quality if it's all the same to the drive.

[SamIAm]

By all means, let me know any thoughts about the question above. Anyway, here's a little example of what's going on:



This is what the videos were looking like before, but I'm leaning toward doing this:




I simply scooted the image up the screen and stuck the subtitles in the black space below. This has two advantages - for one thing, the subtitles aren't blocking any of the image, and it just seems like a smart use of the space. For another, though, this actually makes the image compress a little bit more nicely, with fewer artifacts and other strange things from the re-encoding of the video.

Things are moving right along. Stay tuned!

[Ji-L87]

I think the lower one clearly is the best, because it doesn't cover the image. The sub is also easier to read, IMO. Looking great.

[KiddoCabbusses]

Yeah, the bottom one sounds good in theory, but I think it'd be a good idea to have someone test it on a normal hardware setup to make sure there's no unintentional cropping.

[SamIAm]

Way ahead of you there. 

[SamIAm]

Things are getting better all the time.

I'm switching to white subtitles because the yellow ones wind up having blue dots appear around them from time to time due to the heavy JPEG compression. With white subtitles, the dots still appear, but they're a much less conspicuous grey.

I think the current font is fine, but if anyone has any suggestions for free, XP compatible fonts, I'd be willing to take a look.

[esteban]

Things are getting better all the time.

I'm switching to white subtitles because the yellow ones wind up having blue dots appear around them from time to time due to the heavy JPEG compression. With white subtitles, the dots still appear, but they're a much less conspicuous grey.

I think the current font is fine, but if anyone has any suggestions for free, XP compatible fonts, I'd be willing to take a look.

The existing font is fine (it looks nice). The decision to move the subtitles is brilliant

[SamIAm]

The existing font is fine (it looks nice). The decision to move the subtitles is brilliant

Thanks, I think so too.

I'm really torn at the moment, actually. The white subtitles compress substantially better, and at a glance they look much cleaner, but I'm starting to lean back toward using yellow again. The white comes across a bit cold and plain, while the yellow strikes me as more warm and cinematic, plus it jives with the game's colors. I think yellow-on-black has been proven easier to read, too. Hmm.

[KiddoCabbusses]

Have you tried other color options? The yellow honestly looked a bit "90's fansub"-esque, if you get what I mean. (Particularly, they look like my old VHS Fansub Nippon Gold Dragon Ball Z tapes.)

Now, on the other hand, perhaps that was the idea...?

I would suppose a dark "military-esque" green or beige would also fit the atmosphere... Either that, or go with colors that match those for in-game text.