ToCS HD Texture Pack v6.12 (7/08/2023)

[Bighead]

Description

This is a texture pack for The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel that targets the UI, battle effects, and eye textures to bring it more in line with a modern PC game.

Notice

• There is now two versions of this texture pack: SenPatcher mod format (P3A) and the standard "overwrite files" version that replaces game files.
• Steam users should use the new P3A version over the standard version to prevent their files from being overwritten periodically by Steam.
• There is two sub-versions of the P3A version, the difference being the compression used: LZ4 or ZSTD. Differences between these are explained below.
• LZ4: Compression is not as good as ZSTD, but should peform better than LZ4. Use with mechanical drives. If unsure, use this version.
• ZSTD: Better compression than LZ4 but performs slightly worse. Use with solid state drives. If unsure, use the LZ4 version.
• The HD "Thor" master quartz texture is broken by default in the "Standard" version. See Prerequisites to fix this.

Prerequisites

• THE "P3A" MOD VERSION MUST BE USED WITH A CLEAN/UNMODIFIED INSTALLATION OF THE GAME! COMPLETELY REINSTALL IF YOU HAVE TO!
• The game must be updated to v1.6 or textures will not scale correctly.
• To fix Thor master quartz with the standard version, install any mods with SenPatcher or use the included patcher I created (either or both works).

Downloads

P3A Mod Version (LZ4)

Download Link[drive.google.com]
Download Mirror[drive.google.com]

P3A MOD Version (ZSTD)

Download Link[drive.google.com]
Download Mirror[drive.google.com]

Standard Version

Download Link[drive.google.com]
Download Mirror[drive.google.com]

How to Install:

P3A Mod Version

• Copy the "mods" folder to the game's root directory.
Steam version is usually at: ..\Steam\steamapps\common\Trails of Cold Steel
• Download latest SenPatcher from:
https://github.com/AdmiralCurtiss/SenPatcher/releases
• Use the "Patch Game" button to select the launcher (Sen1Launcher.exe).
• Choose any patches. Adjust font spacing for HD Cuprum should be checked.
• Press the "Patch!" button. This creates "DINPUT8.dll" in your game folder.
• And that's it. The "DINPUT8.dll" file is for patching and loading textures.
• Play the game!

Standard Version

• Copy "ThorPatch.exe" and "data" folder into your Cold Steel installation folder.
• Overwrite any and all files.
• Run "ThorPatch.exe" to patch "ed8.exe" with the fix.
• Play the game!

Screenshots

Main Gallery[imgur.com]
Update v5.00 Gallery[imgur.com]
Blade Retexture[imgur.com]

Latest Changes:

v6.12
• Fix random noise surrounding some quartz icons.
• Replace orbment cover icon with a higher quality icon.

v6.10
• Add back HD version of Thor master quartz. Requires patcher by AdmiralCurtiss or
  the texture will be broken! This can be downloaded at this link:
  https://github.com/AdmiralCurtiss/SenPatcher/releases

v6.00
• Updated maps used in Trista (academy and town maps).
• New redraw of the side bar used for the battle turn order.
• Replace HD font with one that better matches the original.

Final Notice:

As of v6.00, I am finally considering this texture pack "done". If anyone finds any issues from this point on, I will gladly try to fix them, but it is very doubtful that I will create any more textures. At this point the entire UI and all battle effects are finished.

Working With PKG/Phyre Files

If you want to learn how to mod textures using the phyre format, click below!
PKG/Phyre Tutorial and Tools[forums.dolphin-emu.org]

Miscellaneous

PNG Textures[drive.google.com] - Textures in PNG format. Not usable by the game.
GIMP Project Files[drive.google.com] - All the project files I've actually saved.
Alt Font[www.dropbox.com]- Preview[i.imgur.com]- This is a font by Durante I found by accident. While the HD font in the texture pack is much better, this exists so may as well preserve it.

Donate

If you enjoy my pack, consider supporting my work! This is not a requirement and my packs will always remain free for everyone always.
Paypal Link[www.paypal.me]

Also check out my pack for Trails of Cold Steel II here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/748490/discussions/0/2860219962081641200/

[Hopyoprop]

Amazing work Bighead. And yes Geofront allowed PNG loading just by renaming to ITP hahaha. I ported some of your portraits to Azure even using the 'real' itp converters and they look great. Thank you for all the work.

[Bighead]

Now that I've moved on to Azure, I'm not sure what the best translation is at the moment (I'm using the edited one by "Flame"), but I modified some of the item texts of the one I have which can be found here:
https://imgur.com/a/Gb1ytAB

I also created and uploaded a GUI editor for the text files (t_ittxt._dt and t_ittxt2._dt) in case anyone else wants to put more effort into it than I have. Both the texts and the editor have been tested quite a bit, but it's always possible I made mistakes.

[Hopyoprop]

omg amazing. Oh yeah Bighead thanks for the shoutout for our voice patch. We fixed all the broken voices from flame and guren and even some mistakes that Joyoland did wrong. Like Falcom's evo ♥♥♥ game was this guy talking but in the joyoland PC was another guy talking.

[Bighead]

If you end up using those modified item files, do keep an eye out for any mistakes... I already made a few updates because I found two duplicate entries, and decided to include the original files too to either roll back or compare something if it doesn't look right. Before I whipped up an editor, I was doing some things manually such as editing the text in a hex editor.

I had an initial PS script to update the pointer values, but it was far from perfect and caused some pointers to be bad. It was becoming frustrating so I ended up redesigning how it worked and created a GUI to go with it. I didn't feel like retyping up all the changes I made in the hex editor so I've just been fixing the pointers as I find them. I seen some other stuff online that people made that can modify these files like python scripts.. but I'm not a fan of python (mostly cause I never learned it) so I have no idea how they work. With enough digging I did find information of how the bytes were laid out in the files, so I just went from there and created my own tool.

Unfortunately any errors I previously made when doing things manually will carry over if using that tool. So its either fix the bad header values manually, or start over and copy all the text changes. The former is actually simpler than the latter lol, it only takes a few seconds to update a bad pointer value. It's also possible the editor could have bugs, but if so, I can't seem to reproduce it after I manually fix a pointer.

Edit: Actually after giving it some thought, there probably is a bug in my editor that can cause duplicate entries. When the header is scanned and the pointer positions are updated, there is nothing stopping it from writing over a byte value more than once. There are a few more items I plan on updating so I'll definitely have to fix that. Keep an eye out over the next few days for updates; specifically the imgur album here. When I reach a "final" version (a.k.a. when I don't feel like messing around with it anymore) I'll specify it there. https://imgur.com/a/Gb1ytAB

Edit2: And it's fixed. Shouldn't have to worry about bad pointers/duplicate entries anymore. The latest update to the text files (v5) makes some pretty massive changes. The next update should be the last one and bring nearly everything up to speed. From there someone can take over if they want to edit everything to perfection.

[Hopyoprop]

Whew, looking forward to it! There’s also a 60fps patch out for Azure btw. Doesn’t fix the animation lags on Aerial and some things like fishing not 60fps and what not but it’s pretty neat. https://github.com/takhlaq/SoraVoice/releases

[nnn]

Applying this to the flame edit should give you the best Azure experience.

[Hopyoprop]

He linked that in his imgur post already nnn. Also I'm one of the devs for that patch so yeah. Hope you all enjoy it.

[Bighead]

So the major Trails to Azure item text update (v6) is complete!
https://imgur.com/a/Gb1ytAB

This brings lots of nice changes across the board to all items, weapons, accessories, fish, cooked recipes, etc. I am far from a professional writer, but I still think it makes a nice improvement overall. My hope is that it will at least serve as a base for someone to take over and really give it a good cleanup and bring it to higher level of quality. The font doesn't give a whole lot of room to work with, hopefully eventually someone can make the Cuprum TTF font work with Azure like the Geofront team did with Zero. The editor I created makes it possible for just about anyone to modify and update the item text files, and I just updated that as well.

Also, 60 FPS patch!!!!!!!! That makes me so happy, I wanted that more than anything. While Azure is still far from quality of Zero's Geofront update, it's really nice to see the community come together to improve the experience overall.

Well. Now with fixed voices, updated item texts, 60 FPS... I think I'm finally going to put some serious time into this game.

[Haarhus]

Can anyone help me replace the fonts in trails of the cold steel? I'm sorry if its a little off topic

[Bighead]

Replying to your question from Dolphin forums:

Originally posted by Mark Antony:

Can be Fonts in Dat files in Fonts folder? I think not, but it seems ITF is nothing to do with fonts

The ITF files are the fonts for all menus and dialog. Fonts on the UI for HP and the like, are textures. There are well over a dozen of those, and I can't remember everywhere you can find them off the top of my head. Exactly what fonts are you trying to replace?

[Haarhus]

Oh its no big deal...Folder Fonts conteins thous that i need. I did replace them from Tocs 2 and Tocs 3, they are working....But not lthe way i whana
Basicly i just need font for all in game dialogs, items ect. Thou i think its not in ITF ( The Legend of Heroes - Trails of Cold Steel\data\fonts ). I thnk they in the same folder in utf8sjis.dat or sjisutf8.dat.
It seems Ao no Kiseki had that info wile translating from japainse.
My need is only to take Font from tocs 1 and replace it with mine. or upgrade it with les spacas between the letters.

[Bighead]

But the fonts are the ITF files. When playing in english, the font used is "font_us.itf". If the HD fonts is enabled on the config, the font used is "font_us_hd.itf". If playing in Japanese the font used is "font.itf" (I think). I'm not sure what the dat files are for, but I can guarantee the other two is correct because my pack replaces the HD font with the one from ToCS III and it works. If you figure out how to edit the ITF files, please let me know how as it's something I've been wondering forever.

[Haarhus]

I did find a manual on the subject, but im no programer, maybe you can figure it out, That man was the one who transleited AO and worked with fonts.So, thaks if u coud help with that)))
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=23320.0

[Bighead]

Well there's a lot to unpack here, but I'll give it a try. Keep in mind that I'm not a programmer either. As far as I can tell that link doesn't help much. The font format in Cold Steel is nothing like the fonts used in previous games. Plus, that write-up is for the PSP versions of the games. While "pspfont.dat" is included in the PC releases, it is not the font texture that is used. The font used in the PC versions of the games is "user.ft" which appears to have a structure similar to true type (.ttf) fonts, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Geofront patched Trails From Zero to use "cuprum.ttf" when in English, but falls back to "user.ft" for Japanese. Azure can only use "user.ft".

So now there's the mention of "sfont.itp" in that write-up. ITP files are actually compressed bitmap images, it is not a font file itself. It is completely different than Cold Steel font ITF files. The ITP does contain fonts however in the form of a bitmap image that is used on the menus and such, but it is not the font that is used in dialog text boxes. Again the actual font used in Zero/Azure is user.ft, but unfortunately understanding that will give absolutely no insight into how the Cold Steel fonts are structured. In the end, it would take a very smart programmer to figure it out (like Durante) and as far as I know it even it took him a little while to get it.

[Haarhus]

Thats a real problem(