Chaotic;Head - Fixing Chaos;Head

Chaotic;Head is a Chaos;Head patch created to improve its stability and playability.

Chaos;Head is a visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus, but unlike its more popular “cousin” Steins;Gate, Chaos;Head was never localized. Fans took it upon themselves to translate the whole game unofficially, but they couldn’t predict just how terrible the game’s engine was. “N2System” as it is called, is both amazing and terrible at the same time. It is capable of performing some very interesting functions, considering it is a somewhat old VN engine. However, despite the efforts of many dedicated people releasing multiple patches over the years, the fan-made localization of Chaos;Head was never really considered “perfect”.

I discovered this game after reading Steins;Gate and got hooked immediately. But quite early on I faced issues, ranging from videos not playing to entire characters straight up being invisible. Not to mention it was impossible to play on Linux due to its flawed and old DRM.

While investigating, I found a newer build of that engine, used in another game called “Zanma Taisei Demonbane”. Unlike Chaos;Head, Demonbane was localized and officially released in the US, meaning this build of the engine would run out of the box, without the need to switch your computer to a Japanese locale or use a locale emulator. Luckily, N2System compiles its scripts at runtime, meaning I had everything I needed to port Chaos;Head from its official 2008 Japanese version of the engine, to a 2011 English version build. After many hours of swimming through Japanese code, the result was a much more reliable way to play Chaos;Head in English.

Thanks to the help I received from DVN, this project not only included technical fixes, but also grammatical and translation improvements as well.

List of Chaotic;Head improvements:

• No need to use locale emulator;
• Fixed broken video playback;
• Di-Patch improvements included;
• New title cards;
• Multiple font options;
• Working LCS (underwear mode);
• Translation fixes;
• Runs on Linux (using Wine)

Download

• Chaotic_1.30.zip
• Password: chaos

If you plan on using LCS (underwear mode), you need to have installed the official LCS patch before installing the Chaotic patch. For preservation and convenience, I have uploaded the official installer here.

The LCS installer provides the “ex.npa” file, which contains all sprites related to LCS. If your copy of the game doesn’t contain this file, LCS won’t work.

If you don’t plan on using LCS, you can ignore anything related to the “ex.npa” file and the official LCS installer.

Linux info

The game runs out of the box on wine. The only issue is that videos will not play without a workaround.
This issue seems to affect all N2System games running on wine, as far as I know. (Tested on wine 6.13)

Video fix:

Install LAV Filters - https://github.com/Nevcairiel/LAVFilters
The installer might complain about something. Just click on ignore and you should be good to go.

Troubleshooting

• “The game will not open and an error pops up”
  • In some cases, the game might require administrator rights to run properly, or else an error message will pop up.
    If the issue persists, you might be missing DirectX 9.0c, which is needed to run the game, you can download that here.

• “The game froze during the Prologue”
  • If the rain in the prologue is not being animated, close the game.
    Install K-Lite Codec Pack.
    Try running the game and see if the problem is resolved.

• “Full Screen is broken”
  • Press F to exit full screen
    Go to config
    select the third tab
    select “Stretch to fit”
    go fullscreen
    select “Preserve as is”

• “Parts of the image are being cut off”
  • Open Windows’ display settings, change scaling to 100% and see if the problem is resolved.

• “What is “chaotic.dll”? seems kinda shady”
  • It is a .dll mod I created to both change the game’s encryption key and also make it load custom fonts without having to “install” them on the user’s computer.
    The source code is available here.

Credits

Chaotic;Head author: nipkow

Testing: Neid Zero, Celeste (Boggle)

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FontMod: ysc3839

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Di-Patch: Akias, Croowe, MrMonday

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Chaos;Head Translation - /jp/ ShitCG Release Candidate 1
TLWiki Translation Project - al|alone 2009
ghost for RC2 (adds some missing items)
http://www.tsukuru.info/tlwiki/index.php?title=Chaos;Head
DVN for cleaning up what RC1 and RC2 left behind

Changelog

1.30:

• Changed the game’s encryption key from Demonbane’s to Chaos;Head’s, making the engine capable of loading original .npa archives from Chaos;Head. This allows us to avoid having to repack every single .npa for redistribution, and also allows us to not have to rely on specific game versions for diff patching. The result is the creation of a new installer that should work with any version of the game.
• Translation/script fixes:
• Changed “seams” to “camel toe” in 01_003.
• Fixed the day of the week in 08_160.
• Changed “hereditary” to “inborn” in 10_200.
• Fixed a few typos and grammar mistakes.

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1.23:

• Remade the installer to support the retail version and the DMM downloadable version.
• Removed Di-Patch support from the installer.
• Implemented a few fixes from the DMM version.
• Minor typos.

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1.22:

• Completely reworked word-wrapping for the entire script. For documentation’s sake: Each text box can hold the following amount of characters for the default size with MSGothic: Normal textbox: 71, Chat: 63, @channel: 89, MMO: 67, Karte: 83
• Increased the backlog’s character per line count to 71 to match the word-wrapping standard.
• Replaced all other fonts with monospaced alternatives to adhere to the word-wrapping: Fantasque, Iosevka, UbuntuMono. Also updated MSGothic to be the same size as the Windows version of MSGothic.
• Changed a few clickable events to be closer to the original game with added translation.
• Fixed a few instances where looking at the backlog after voiced lines would crash the game.
• Fixed some voices playing twice at the same time.
• Restored an animated event that was only present in the LCS patch.
• Out of two similar and mixed-up CGs, swapped them and added one’s translation to the other.
• Changed the game’s year back to 2008, to match the voice-line and the original/Noah’s script.
• Fixed the final line end that wasn’t fixable by removing the line pause itself.
• Fixed a line that wouldn’t show up in the center of the screen.
• Fixed a line that had the wrong text set for the backlog (was present in the original game).
• Removed a copy-pasted fade-to-black that wasn’t in the original game.
• Translation/script fixes:
• Translated missing lines.
• Translated lines that were copy-pasted from other routes without comparing them.
• Added/removed line-ends that were inconsistent with the original script and didn’t break the character limit.
• Grammar/spelling mistakes. Again, a ton.

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1.21:

• The “Auto/Skip mode stops at decision points” option was reverted to also apply to YES/NO decisions, as it did in the original.
• The closing dialog should now adhere correctly to whether you are in a menu or not.
• Removed text pauses before text ends, as the engine does take them into consideration now.
• Replaced FES’ song seeking method with the one from the LCS patch, fixing the seek and preventing crashes. Also applied a fix for the new engine.
• Re-added the static screen that plays after the Start button is pressed.
• Removed sound from videos that don’t need them, as the new engine plays them alongside in-game audio.
• Restored a missing line from 01_006.
• Zooms on the chatbox should now focus on the correct text.
• Restored a missing section at 09_198.
• Fixed 01_003 requiring two clicks to get through.
• Moved 03_057’s video translation lower, and made it appear instantly, with the original 3-second delay to make it easier to read.
• Reverted the miscellaneous textbox functions to be more encapsulated, hopefully also fixing unnecessary text cursors.
• Changed @chan’s line breaks, allowing the website’s banner to be seen every time.
• Fixed the “Cut voices off” checkbox appearing in the wrong place.
• Increased the backlog’s character per line count. Originally was 30. The EXE was patched to a maximum of 90 from 32 and the game was set to 70. Also lowered the font size, reverted max rows to 17 from 16 and row intervals from 34 to 29, and moved the text back a bit.
• Fixed wrong picture for the 8th picture on the third page of the extra gallery. (It was even in the pre-LCS game)
• Removed Ampersands from functions that print directly to the backlog.
• Re-added LCS checks to scripted portraits/still images with LCS counterparts.
• Restored the television static screen’s fadeout to the original (and Di-Patch) script and applied a fix for the new engine.
• Changed Neidhardt’s video in @Cafe to Liselotte. This was also in the pre-LCS game.
• Fixed the 3-second delay after skipping the opening intermission video.
• Removed needless WaitKey from 04_086, fixing the need for a double click.
• Added 200ms of silence to all voice-lines. Should fix the cutoffs that happen with some of them.
• Re-added tip highlights to tip words appearing early in the script which miss them.
• Added back two unobtainable tips.
• Fixed The end-game cutscene playing audio in the wrong order, now that it’s reliant on the in-game audio.
• Translation fixes. Lots of them.

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Compared to Di-Patch (from Di-Patch 2.5 to Chaotic;Head 1.20):

• Ported to Zanmataisei Demonbane’s engine. Functions changed to fit the new engine as needed.
• The game uses translated images for new chapter intermissions instead of videos.
• Added additional font options with wrapper functions in the script. Added fonts are Rodin Bokutoh, Ubuntu and Tahoma.
• Slightly changed some text positions in save/load menus to fit the different fonts.
• Reverted RC2’s cancel button toggle for LCS to the original config menu option.
• Changed the opening video method to CreateMovie with an in-game skip function. (There’s only two and they’re both in the prologue anyway)
• Revised line formatting to make up for the lack of word-wrapping.
• Changed Japanese video names to English ones. (This, alongside the new engine, should remove the need for Japanese locale)
• Applied the config menu’s “Auto/Skip mode stops at decision points” option to Delusion Triggers.
• Added an auto-mode cursor, as the engine now supports it.
• Added more debug functions.