I've been doing a little scripting to (more or less) automatically convert Cross Channel, and so far I'm making good progress. I'll probably have to manually change a few IF and JMP statements (it's faster than writing dozens of exceptions for specific cases in my python code). I'd say I'm more than halfway there.

I am having a small problem with sprite pngs though. I batch converted them using irfanview, but as you can see in the attached screenshot that didn't work out quite that well. Irfanview doesn't really support the alpha channel in png files and the result is that most sprites have a big black block of garbage in the background or have a transparant body (due to the white uniform and irfanview picking white as the mask). While I can see some practical uses for having a transparant body, it's quite annoying.

Does anyone know a tool that'll allow me to convert png files with alpha channel properly on windows? I'd prefer a command line tool that I can use in batch/bash/python, so that I don't have to do things manually for hundreds of sprites.

Thanks

>>1
There's a batch image converter packed with vnds (tools/ImageConverter-1.0.3.jar).

Alternatively, XnView (GUI batch conversion) or nConvert (command line version).

>>2
nConvert worked like a charm
Thanks!

>>1
can you do something about those backgrounds too? unless it was like that in it originally, i doubt it was this grainy.

assuming you don't already, saving it as a jpg is probably the best idea, not only do you not have to downscale it to 8 bit to lower the file size, making many of the backgrounds look beyond terrible in the process, but it's also smaller than png and difference's barely noticeable.

I've played it all in PC, definitely not original img XD

Nice one!

You are a great hero of VNDS, thanks for working to bestow the greatness of Cross Channel upon us (Wasn't it in the top 20 list of VNs on Canned Dogs recently)

>>4
The backgrounds are currently being saved as jpeg. They're that grainy because the wiki said to save as 5bpp images to avoid color banding. I thought it was a bit odd since the DS supports 15bpp+1bppalpha, then again, I didn't look at the vnds source to see if it's using a palette for the backgrounds. I'll reconvert those images this weekend and see what happens. It's not that big of a deal really for the backgrounds, but the CGs look really awful at the moment.

In the meantime I'm currently testing week 1 and 2 and am fixing small bugs in the generated script (mostly when certain sprites are being shown). I'll try to have something (probably week 1 and 2) up as soon as possible, so a few brave vict volunteers can help me test and iron out any bugs that found their way into the scripts.

I'm having a bit of a problem with voice and sound effects at the moment. I've converted them with ffmpeg from the game's original ogg format to 22KHz 96Kbit aac, but some of the files cut off in the middle. A lot of the sound files work fine, but some don't. I can't really find a pattern in it, so I'll try a few other conversion tools and see what happens. Music converted fine from ogg to mp3.

Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

>>8
Converted FG+BG+SFX+BGM+Voice:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2my0zyujjet/cc-vnds-res.7z

>>9
Thanks, your voice files don't have the problem. What did you use to convert them?

may i ask something?
is this project still continue?

>>11
DEAD FOREVER

I download the game but it doesn't seem to work.

-_-" If you haven't noticed, there isn't a link to a port...because there isn't a port...Someone just converted the resources...

RIGHT, so anoNL has sneakily created another converter and released it today. :/ I wonder where he is, usually he posts this sort of stuff himself, but anyways it's available on his website.

anoNL's website: http://weeaboo.nl/index.php?cat=4096

-note-
I posted this so I can use the thread in the wiki and call it relevant.

>>1 About the image changing. Anybody of you guys heard of ImageMagick?(see http://imagemagick.org) Its a program you can run from windows command line/batch files and similar. It can manipulate images in all kinds of ways, resizing, cropping, recoloring, creating, swapping colors, etc. I used it to resize a bunch of pokémon-icons(462 different ones at the same time, to be exact) once, and it works great. :)

anon's Ever17 port is working great for me, but I seem to be having trouble with this one. The converter goes through its machinations just as the other one did, and seems to be outputting successfully, but there are no actual files in the archives it creates....well, there are two in the scripts directory, but only two. And the foreground and background directories each only have one file apiece, named 'black'.

All I know to do is just point it to the game's directory and let 'er rip, so I'm not really sure what might be going wrong, here. Then again, I haven't actually loaded it up on my DS and tried it, but I can't see how it's going to work, with no files in the archives for VNDS to pull from.

I suppose I'll have to get home from work and at least try to run the thing before I complain, heh.

>>17
Is your game folder is called "cross†channel"? The weird non-ASCII cross character can cause problems with some of the tools I used.

Hmmm....I don't know. I'll check that when I get home (I usually check this board from work).

I see what you're saying though, how that could be a problem. A few errors did come up in the output of the converter while it was running, but I don't know what they were, and at the end I still got the "successful" result. I'll try it again and see if I can get an idea of what the error messages are. Thanks.

Okay, well...that time it worked. The weird character wasn't in the game's directory, so I tried reinstalling the entire game, and then running the converter again. For some reason, it worked perfectly this time.

Oh well, right? :)

ever17 and higurashi converter works 100% but kira and cross channel converter doesn't work here.. both games always freezes in the beginning and i tried to convert with default settings,extracting the rar,reinstalling and lowering the music bitrate and still freezes in the same part =x heres the message window in my cc conversion: http://pastebin.com/YAzjMJAq

>>21
The conversion looks perfectly normal, what version of VNDS are you using?

1.4.9 version with acekard and r4.

Those two both have some weird symbol in them, that's probably the cause.

I have same problem with Gaidai. Empty rar files. The trouble may be that ascii character thing but my game folder is "C:/cc"

>>25
Are all .pd files in C:/cc, or are some of them in subfolders?

No, all .pd files in c:/cc

Anybody else running into this?

I'm up to the latter half of week three while playing the port. Wasn't doing this before, but now it seems my VNDS is crashing a lot when trying to save or load Cross Channel (tried running on both 1.5.3 and 1.4.9). Doesn't appear to be happening with any other novels, just this one. Also, I've started to run into guru mediation errors only at this point in the game. They're only occuring after I try to save a file -- if I back out of VNDS and restart, they don't appear. So...I'm guessing it's not some problem with displaying an image or playing an mp3, if it isn't happening all the time, nor at the same place.

Only thing I can think of is maybe something is wonky with the script, or maybe I should try backing up my saves and re-using the converter to create a new copy. Any thoughts on whether that solution is even worth trying?

Well, I've done all the sleuthing I can, and the conclusion I come to is that the port appears to be the culprit. I tried:

-Re-convering the port from scratch
-Using two different versions of VNDS
-Using a different SD card (in case the card was having problems)
-Testing several other complex novels by skipping through them and loading/saving at random points

The only thing that appears to be left is that something is up with the port. It's still somewhat playable, but I'll reiterate the problem. Basically whenever the game is loaded or saved, there's a random chance that it will crash before completing the operation, to the point that it's advisable to save pretty much constantly so you're not having to re-read a lot. Crashing seems to be occuring more often on load attempts than save attempts, but about three or so saves can be done, give or take, before one results in a crash. The program freezes upon crashing, but the cart doesn't (so a soft reset will still work).

This behavior seems to be starting around chapter three or so, but it seems once it's started, it stays. So if you start the game over from the beginning, the problem continues.

Baffling >.>;

Update: I also tried using the converter to create a copy with no voice support. I was thinking maybe the voices were the culprit in the crashing. No dice.

Problem remains, though it seems to be crashing rather consistently on the third save attempt. If you can save successfully twice, back out of VNDS and back in again to avoid the crash on the third time.

Tried using the converter to create a copy with reduced image, music, and sfx quality. Still no luck. Must be some issue with the script I guess, but I'm not going to try to mess with it on that level.

I know nobody is probably concerned over this or anything, but I thought I should keep posting anything I try, just in case somebody else is having a similar issue.

And now for something completely different :)

I know I'm probably spamming this thread, but the download site for the converter requested any bugs be reported here, and I'd like to help keep everything running smoothly.

I'm not sure yet because I haven't played through the whole thing, but I think there might be an error in the script regarding the choicepoints during week six. After you've decided to go to school during the first time around, the choices come up as:

First Year Classroom
Second Year Classroom
Roof
Cafeteria

It seems that the goal here is for Taichi to "collect" the four main girls one by one, and send them home. The first option is Kiri. The second should be Touko, and I assume the third will be Misato and the fourth will be Miki.

The walkthrough says choose first year classroom. I did, and I ended up sending Kiri home. The next time through, the choices come up:

Second Year Classroom
Roof
Cafeteria

The walkthrough says choose second year classroom. But whenever I choose it, I'm taken back to the scripts for Kiri, as if I had chosen the first year classroom on the first go-round. The novel then loops endlessly into sending Kiri home and coming back to school. If I choose "roof", I'm taken to the second year classroom instead, where I encounter Touko (which I believe is what's supposed to happen). So, I'm thinking the choicepoints might be listed wrong, here?

Hmmmmm...........

I think I've found an answer to the crashing problem. It seems as though it has something to do with the number of save files you have (which fits with why the game seemed to be fine at first, but started crashing worse and worse over time). I had 13 save files. I deleted all but one of them, and....so far no crashes! Loading is still a little bit wonky, but without the constant crashing on saves, the game is now much more playable.

I'll post updates if anything changes, but for now, it seems to keep this port running well, limit yourself to one save file (I tried it with two, and it was just a teeeeeeny bit worse.)

I'll post when I've figured out more about the week 6 choicepoints.

Hookay, back for more spammy tinkering with this port. On the one hand, the crashing problem seems to be solved. On the other hand, there's definitely a problem with the choicepoints in week 6, so badly that it's impossible to advance past a certain point. The walkthrough tells us we should choose:

-First year classroom
-Call out to her
-Go to school
-Second year classroom
-Go to school
-Roof
-Go to school
-Invite her on a date

The girls you need to collect are hanging out here:

First year classroom -- Kiri
Second year classroom -- Touko
Roof -- Misato
Tasaki shop -- Miki

The first three choices work fine in the port. After that however, things go wrong. After that third choice about going to school, you only get three options: second year classroom takes you to Kiri (incorrect), roof takes you to Touko (incorrect), and I have no idea where Cafeteria takes you.

Still, you can select 'roof' and collect Touko. Choice five is where things break down. If you choose "school" as the walkthrough suggests, you are left with only the incorrect second year room leading to Kiri again, or the incorrect roof leading to Touko again. If you choose "tasaki shop" instead of "school", you can collect Miki....but the choice points don't change at all the next time through. So now, there's no way to collect Misato, so you can't finish the game.

Something's definitely wrong with the scripts. I don't know enough about the port to go hacking around at random in the script jungle. But, I believe I might have come up with a way to change the walkthrough around such that you can still collect all the girls and complete the game. I'll post that in the WalkthroughVNDS thread with an appropriate script modification.

Yay!!

I'm just posting one last time as a follow-up, since this is the official thread for the Cross Channel port. I have now finally played this port from start to finish, with no problems, errors, glitches, etc. Woohoo!

Here's what you can do to avoid the issues.

To avoid crashing:

-Restrict yourself to no more than two save files. The more you have, the more often the game crashes when trying to save or load. With one save file, everything is pretty much fine. With two, every now and then loading is a little bit wonky, but saving is fine. I had thirteen at one point, and the game was crashing on me constantly.

To get around the script troubles:

-The standard Cross Channel PC walkthroughs will not work on the VNDS port once you get to weeks five and six. Check the WalkthroughVNDS thread on this forum. I have posted modified walkthroughs for those weeks, which will get you through to the end of the game. Also, if you decide to use WalkthroughVNDS, make sure you nab the two script revisions for those weeks!

All done now. Sleep time!

Anyone having guru mediation error when the new term is going to start? The game always crashes in this part of the script:

music ~
text A perfectly ordinary tomorrow is coming------
bgload title1.jpg
sound seeye001.aac
jump $RETFILE $RETLABEL

I deleted the background folder and it worked so I guess the script and sound files are OK.
Perhaps it is an out of memory error? Because the background files aren't corrupted (title1.jpg loads fine in the main menu).
Any help would be appreciated and sorry for my bad english..

In my experience, a guru error usually means either the image is in the wrong resolution, or the music file is sampled at too high a rate for the DS to handle. Though...you're using the port, right? If you played to that point then one would think the music and images should be fine...

I'm not sure what RETFILE and RETLABEL mean. Did you use the most recent converter and make sure it's in DS mode? Is title1.jpg definitely 256x192?

I converted with 1.0.0 version (256x192) default settings and didn't bother with 1.0.1 because I don't have an android.
I checked the backgrounds and they are all in 256x192 resolution and I don't think the audio files are causing the guru mediation error because I already tried deleting the sound folder and the game still crashes in my ds (The port only works when I delete the background folder)
I already tried formatting the microSD too but the BSOD still persists...

nm got it working!
Reinstalled the game and converted again.. Looks like it was a bad install after all haha

I remember the first time I ever tried it I ran into some strange problems too, that ended up resolving themselves by reinstalling the PC version. Glad it worked out for you :)

err.. i paly to week 6 and i got the script crash.. theres only 2 choice, led to kiri and touko.. miki is already send.. i had save to that point.. can i still finishing the game?? or is anyone have the save game in week 6 ?? thx

In the WalkthroughVNDS thread, I posted the choicepoint order I followed to get through week six. I don't have it in front of me right now, but if you're only getting two choices and have not collected Misato yet...you may have a problem, yeah. Check that thread I mentioned or grab WalkthroughVNDS. I'm on vacation and have no access to my DS, so I'm afriad I can't help with a save file right now. Worst comes to the worst, you could start over and just use the skip function until you're back to week six. It doesn't take that long.

aw.. shoot -_- guess i have to started all over again..

tw, i already grab your VNDS walkthrough.. only the OLD version.. XD

aw.. shoot -_- guess i have to started all over again..

btw, i already grab yourVNDS walkthrough.. only the OLD version.. XD

Oh yeah...it was updated later in the thread ^_^;;