General section
— Why are you releasing the game episodically?
This is answered in the episode 1 release message. In brief, polishing the next episodes takes some time and it is easier to test things in smaller parts.
— Will there be any updates?
Yes, we do plan to release new episodes as updates. If there are critical bugs, we will also push updates on the site. Most of the heavy files for 4 episodes are already included in the current archives, an episode update is unlikely to weight more than a few hundreds of megabytes.
— What is the difference between your port and the PS3 game?
There are several minor differences, bugfixes in particular. You may also be able to find some easter eggs if you look for them. We also added some features from PSP (e. g., per character voice switches, menu design) and from the original game (e. g., episode unlock, magical jump). But in general, the gameplay should match the PS3 game.
— Why do you require to purchase the two games?
This is answered in our legal section. In brief, we do want to help Ryuu and Alchemist to get the money they deserve.
— Why did you decide to encrypt the game files with a password?
We have always planned to protect the game from completely illegal usage and this method appears to be the easiest. We of course realise that the password may be leaked sooner or later, but even so the leaker will have to purchase the games to do so. We strongly discourage any attempts to publish the game files unencrypted or the password to decrypt them.
— Why don’t you ask for money or try to commercialise your work?
Well, the obvious reasons are stated in our legal section. This is a hobbyist project, and we work on it in our free time. You can support us by purchasing Ryuu’s novels in various editions. If you want to support us directly, please, check the question below.
— Could you make this port compatible with the (upcoming as of December 2015) Steam release?
No — we can’t see any useful way of linking them together. In more detail:
There could be two main ways: either we put our scripts on their engine, or run their scripts on our engine.
For the first case, we have spent quite a lot of time coding the engine to make it capable of playing all the effects and animations PS3 Umineko has. We know of no analogues other than private engines certain JP companies use, which means the Steam release will lack most of the features we need from the engine. So doing that way around would be impossible.
For the second case, it could be imagined, but there wouldn’t be much of an advantage. Even if we edited their scripts to replace the sprites by HD versions and so on, our scripts have so much more than just that (split-screens, motion blur effects, video) that it would lose a lot compared to sticking with our own scripts derived from PS3.
Moving just the translation from one version to another could also be imagined, but there are some things that stand in the way of even this. See English translation notes.
— I would like to help!
You have all the opportunities for that. For example, what about joining our alpha-tester team? We generally open the registration right before starting to test every new EP. You may help other people on the support forums too. We are also currently looking for a person, who can help us writing news, FAQs, making videos and creating other pieces of documentation. If you still have the will to participate, please, stop! Ask yourself, if you are ready to spend your free time on the project? Will you have such time? Will you have enough motivation? If you are unsure, please, just be happy for us and save our time.
Technical section
— I have graphical issues!
Your system’s graphics drivers may be out of date. Our engine is coded using OpenGL instead of DirectX, so if you have out-of-date drivers, they may cause problems with our game even if other games on your system run fine. Look here for some detailed help.
— I found some other bug, what can I do?
First of all, check if the bug is already known. If it is and we are not asking to provide the details, you may leave it as is and wait for a fix. In the other case, follow the bug reporting guideline and create a topic in the forum.
— What are the game controls?
The game ui is rather intuitive. In most cases you only need to use left-clicking for confirmation and right-clicking for abandoning. To enter fullscreen you can press ‘f’ key on the keyboard or use the menu (macOS only). To skip you can use ‘Ctrl’ or ‘s’. To disable all sounds at once, there is ‘m’ key.
— How can I configure my gamepad?
If your gamepad does not work out of the box (we only support DualShock 3/4, Steam Controller and FuSa gamepad without extra configuration), you might want to configure button mapping on your own. Put pad-map=CONFIG_STR property to ons.cfg with comma-separated button numbers corresponding to PS3 buttons in the following order: TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, CROSS, SQUARE, L1, R1, DOWN, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, SELECT, START, HOME, L2, R2, L3, R3, EXTRA, DOWN, LEFT, UP, RIGHT. Use -1 for no mapping.
For example: gamepad_map=1,2,3,4,-1,-1,15,16,17,18,-1,-1,-1,-1,8,9,10,11
If you have trouble finding the button codes add use-console and debug to ons.cfg and start using your gamepad. The button codes will appear in the console window, so that you can note them.
— How can I increase font size?
To alter game font size you need to have v3.3a version or newer (Episode 3). Add font-multiplier=CONFIG_STR property to ons.cfg with the corresponding parameters. To increase game text by 20% (1.2 times) use the following line:
font-multiplier=b1:1.2,b2:1.2,b3:1.2,b4:1.2,b5:1.2,b6:1.2,b7:1.2,p0:6:1.2,p1:1:1.2,p1:2:1.2,p1:3:1.2,p1:4:1.2,p1:5:1.2,p1:7:1.2,p2:1:1.2,p2:2:1.2,p2:3:1.2,p2:4:1.2,p2:5:1.2,p2:7:1.2,p41:1:1.2,p41:2:1.2,p41:3:1.2,p41:4:1.2,p41:5:1.2,p41:7:1.2,p42:1:1.2,p42:2:1.2,p42:3:1.2,p42:4:1.2,p42:5:1.2,p42:7:1.2
Replace all 1.2 entries by your preferred scale factor for other sizes.
— Where are the saves stored? How to use iCloud sync?
On Windows the saves can be stored in three places:
%SYSTEMDRIVE%:\ProgramData\ONScripter-RU\UminekoPS3Fication**\ (Windows Vista+)
%SYSTEMDRIVE%:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ONScripter-RU\UminekoPS3Fication**\ (Windows XP)
iCloud Drive\ONScripter-RU\UminekoPS3Fication**\ (if iCloud Drive app is installed)
On macOS the saves can be stored in two places:
~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/ONScripter-RU/UminekoPS3Fication**/ (10.7+, iCloud)
~/Library/Application Support/ONScripter-RU/UminekoPS3Fication**/ (10.6)
And on Linux they are in:
~/.onscripter/UminekoPS3Fication**/
iCloud storage can be disabled by adding a “disable-icloud” line (without quotes) to ons.cfg.
— Are the saves and settings shared by English and Russian versions?
No, they are not. But you can set some global settings in ons.cfg or pass them as command-line arguments:
env[complete_episode] 1-8
env[force_game] chiru/rondo
env[first_launch] passed/force
env[cg_unlock] 1-8
env[bgm_unlock] 1-8
env[automode_hide_cursor] true/false
env[bgm_title_language] English/Russian/Romaji/Japanese
env[skip_title] all/force
env[video_resolution] 720/1080
env[control_interface] kb/pad
env[object_caching] true/false
env[bgm_volume] 0—100
env[effect_volume] 0—100
env[voice_volume] 0—100
env[rumble_strength] 0-100
env[text_speed] 0-10
env[textbox_type] N/B/L/T
env[lipsync] true/false
env[display_titles] true/false
env[subtitles] Translation/Romaji/Both/None
env[skip_unread_dialogues] true/false ;requires v3.3a or newer
env[wheel_down_hides_textbox] true/false ;requires v3.3a or newer
env[legacy_op] true/false ;requires v4.1b or newer
env[steam_conventions] true/false ;requires v4.1b or newer
env[verify] quick/full/once/none ;requires v5.1b or newer
There are several others, and you can find them by executing the game with --help key.
For example:
./onscripter-ru --env[force_game] chiru --env[effect_volume] 33
— Will my saves work after an update?
Starting with Episode 5 and onwards, your game saves should be usable after an update. When upgrading from earlier episodes only your trophies and game progress will stay, and the saves will be not loadable. This means, you should be able to use line-jumping feature from the Message Browser.
— My screen resolution is not displayed in Config menu, what can I do?
You can set the window width manually by altering window-width line in ons.cfg. Note, that the game works in 16:9, make sure that the calculated (window-width*9/16) game height is less or equal to the your screen resolution height. Also note, that you should provide physical resolution on HDPI screens, e. g. if your screen is 200% zoomed, your real resolution is twice less.
— How can I change the Rondo opening to one created by yu-yo works?
Upgrade to version 4.2β or later. Add env[legacy_op]=true argument to ons.cfg and restart the game.
Very technical section
— What else can I do to the engine?
Various useful ons.cfg options can be figured by running the game with a –help command-line argument.
— I dislike the textboxes, how can I change them?
You will find what you are looking for in graphics/system/wnd/ folder. You are free to edit them as you like. Note, that you will have to add:
env[verify]=none
to your ons.cfg file. By adding this line you take the responsibility of making changes to game files in regards to stability and compatibility.
— I dislike the fonts, how can I change them?
There currently aren’t easy-to-use ways to change the game fonts. We do have some interface that lets you customise any game font in the game, but it requires some technical knowledge and patience. Feel free to contact us on the forum to get the details.
— My Linux distribution is unsupported, what can I do?
The game is known to work absolutely fine on wine 1.7.21 worked last time we tried. Better to use the latest one from 1.6 branch or newer.