DEVLOG

Working log for the The I of the Dragon localization / HD project. Newest entries on top.

2026-09-20 — Double-byte font patch proven

Reverse-engineered the whole text pipeline (see patch-notes.md).
Built tools/add_section.py (PE section injection) and verified the patched exe still runs.
Built tools/apply_cjk.py: assembles two code caves with keystone, adds a .cjk section, hooks the draw loop (0x4EACB0) and the metrics loop (0x4E8026).
Verified on screen: a GB2312-coded string 0xC1FA (龙) in a menu label rendered a 16x16 glyph at the mapped atlas position (green control test). Double-byte decode + render works.
Game files restored afterwards (exe SHA1 9EDB9B99..., Textures.res byte-identical).

Big atlas (2048x2048): ASCII glyphs (copied) + CJK glyphs; re-point Fonts.dat Texture + ASCII rects.
Generator for cjk_glyph / cjk_metric tables from a chosen charset.
Convert Strings.dat, scripts, and *Description.dat display text to GB2312.
Redraw baked-in text textures (menu buttons, credits, tutorial).
Package: patched exe + atlas + data files.

Cracked the .res archive format and built res_unpack.py / res_repack.py (byte-identical round-trip once 16-byte alignment was found).
Extracted Textures.res (1884) and Geometry.res (1397).
Built preprocess.py (TGA/DDS→PNG, classification) and make_plan.py.
Result: 63.6 Mpix, 1882 PNG, 0 failures. Plan: 1195 upscale / 499 tiling / 182 review / 8 skip (6 font atlases + 2 non-textures).

Fonts.dat / UnitDescription.dat / AIDescription.dat decoded: b"==" + XOR(plaintext, "GBDFYTNE"); key at 0x620D18, decoder at 0x4AE1D0.
Fonts.dat parsed: 4 font blocks, per-char atlas rects; parser keeps only the first byte of Code (0x4EC168), so the stock engine is single-byte.

Engine has a data-driven multi-language system: per-language folders for scripts/speech/video/UI textures and language columns in Strings.dat.
Text is externalized: Strings.dat (499 entries, plain) and plain-text scripts.
First font test: replaced the e glyph in Shrift_gb_Germany.TGA and confirmed the atlas override works in game (rendered 龙 where e was).
Investigated the "pirate build": PROPHET 2009 Topware release, languages EN/DE/PL/CZ/HU, no Chinese; its exe is identical to the Steam exe (no engine patch), so the Chinese build the user remembers was a different repack (not recoverable from it).

Do the localization ourselves (route B): patch the engine for double-byte text, build our own font atlas, translate only display text (never Ids / event names / unit types) to avoid trigger bugs.
Keep the repository text-only; regenerate binaries from scripts (see .gitignore).