Xanadu II Translation Development Blog

[elmer]

Let's just get something really nice and appropriate for the Xanadu 2 title screen that also copies over to that Xanadu 1 cutscene without causing any major problems.

Is 240x64 a lock yet? Pressure's on, elmer. 

Whoops, wasn't I clear before? ... The answer is "Yes". 

Xanadu 1's Opening Visual was compressed with Falcom's old compressor ... my new compressor frees up enough memory to allocate a complete 8KB block for customization code, which is going to be plenty to do whatever I need to make the 240x64 logo work.

[Phase]

Thats interesting you went into the outline, I actually tested a thinner outline and a hybrid of thick and thin last night, so Ill post those a little later. Will also lose the Japanese text and take a closer look at your test as well.

[spenoza]

I actually like the inclusion of the Japanese. It's a kind of nod to some of the branding used in the JPN version. I think it's a bit of circular homage.

[esteban]

I actually like the inclusion of the Japanese. It's a kind of nod to some of the branding used in the JPN version. I think it's a bit of circular homage.

Agreed.

I like it, too.



Sadly, it's missing a figure skater or two.

[Phase]

Hmm well it can easily go back in.

Ok here is a comparison for the outline.
1 is full outline
2 is thin outline
3 is a hybrid were we put one on top of the other and change the "full" to a darker shade. softens it up a bit
here is a DL with the original size and 2x. http://www.ektophase.com/TG16/XanCompare.zip







sorry for taking up a whole page lol

[esteban]

HYBRID (#3)

[SamIAm]

That third one is looking fantastic.

I'll give you CRT photos within 24 hours of elmer getting it in the game. 

-------------------

Give me a bit to sit on whether to include the Japanese.

Two of the eight characters are illegible (though somewhat guessable) and the rest don't exactly look gorgeous. It's one thing to use this on an ending screen, but to a Japanese audience anyway, it wouldn't be acceptable for a title screen. At worst, it could add an element of sloppiness.

[technozombie]

I don't post too much because I really don't have a lot to say, but damn am I getting worked up for these games to be released in English. Something about following along with it just draws me in. Keep up the good work! 

[SamIAm]

Thanks!

By the way, I just ran across this and can't help posting it.



The original Pepsi logo, 1898-1905.

[elmer]

Hmm well it can easily go back in.

Ok here is a comparison for the outline.

3 is a hybrid were we put one on top of the other and change the "full" to a darker shade. softens it up a bit
here is a DL with the original size and 2x. http://www.ektophase.com/TG16/XanCompare.zip

That third one is looking fantastic.

Yep, I totally agree. The anti-aliasing against the green background looks really, really good, and it doesn't make the outlines look too big.

Nice idea! 

But, OTOH, it's giving the logo a green halo when put on the black background.

I'll have to see if that is fixable during the fade-out of the background.

If not, then I still like the 1-pixel outline better than the 2-pixel outline.

I'll give you CRT photos within 24 hours of elmer getting it in the game. 

Hahaha! No pressure there, then! 

Give me a bit to sit on whether to include the Japanese.

Two of the eight characters are illegible (though somewhat guessable) and the rest don't exactly look gorgeous. It's one thing to use this on an ending screen, but to a Japanese audience anyway, it wouldn't be acceptable for a title screen. At worst, it could add an element of sloppiness.

I don't really like seeing the Japanese there.

It was great to have the chance to look at it and make a judgement, but upon reflection, I think that it makes the whole thing look too busy, and I can't imagine it ever being there if the game had gotten a real US release.

By the way, I just ran across this and can't help posting it.

<Image Removed For Mental Health Reasons>

The original Pepsi logo, 1898-1905.

That's one seriously-horrible logo!   

[SamIAm]

Yep, I totally agree. The anti-aliasing against the green background looks really, really good, and it doesn't make the outlines look too big.

Nice idea! 

But, OTOH, it's giving the logo a green halo when put on the black background.

I'll have to see if that is fixable during the fade-out of the background.

If not, then I still like the 1-pixel outline better than the 2-pixel outline.

If I had to choose, I would guess that the 1-pixel outline will look better, too.

I'll give you CRT photos within 24 hours of elmer getting it in the game. 

Hahaha! No pressure there, then! 

I just bought a 25-stack of cheap CD-Rs with the intent to use them all in the near future for this very purpose. 

I don't really like seeing the Japanese there.

It was great to have the chance to look at it and make a judgement, but upon reflection, I think that it makes the whole thing look too busy, and I can't imagine it ever being there if the game had gotten a real US release.

Yeah, it's a nice salute to the origin of the game, but it's really not necessary, and kanji don't have any reason to exist in the game-world.

That's one seriously-horrible logo!   

I really wouldn't be surprised to see it turning up on tests at design schools.

"Explain at least five things this logo does poorly."

[elmer]

I've managed to get Phase's logo working on the Xanadu 2 title screen now, and the code-hacking required wasn't anywhere near as horrible to do as I'd imagined. 

The logo has be converted into a paletted form, and I had to mess around with the colors to keep some of them PCE-legal, but I think that the result is good ...



BTW, that's a 256-color paletted image with the colors in exactly the right places for the PCE, if someone wants to play with it!


While I was messing around, I moved the "u" up by a pixel to line up with the rest of the text.

Here's what it looks like in-game, running in Mednafen ...






I really, really like it! 

There's definitely room for a little bit of clean-up and fine-tuning, but the concept itself is working even better than I'd imagined.

I think that we're on to a winner with the expanding the logo to 64-pixel height! 

It's really good that Phase's new logo isn't overly wide ... Falcom's "sparkle" effect can't handle a logo larger than 192x64 without dropping frames and slowing down.

That's some new information that we didn't have until today.

I've also found out that the "sparkle" effect is limiting the logo to an 8 color palette, and not the full 16-colors that I would have expected.

Given the processing bottleneck that I also found today, I don't think that we're going to be able to "hack" that problem away, and that we're going to have to live with an 8-color logo.

Given the results that I'm seeing on the screen, that doesn't seem to be a problem!

I'll give you CRT photos within 24 hours of elmer getting it in the game. 

Hahaha ... the clock is counting down! 

[Bonknuts]

I looked into that sparkle effect... I'm totally stealing it! ;>_>

[Phase]

Interesting stuff, lucked out on the size.

yeah, I noticed a few goofy spots like the lower left end on the X could be better will try and touch it up some more.

I see you added the lower drop shadow like you mentioned on the options and falcom, looks good and goes with the light rays. 

Edit
This should look better

[esteban]

GORGEOUS LOGO looks great in the game.