recommended text hooker/translator?

[Alucard]

So I'm a bit behind the times. It looks like automated text hooking and translation is much better these days and some games may actually be readable.

Looks like there are a bunch of tools and guides out there I just don't know which one is best and most compatible.

 

Here is what I've found:

AGTH

ITH

Visual novel reader

 

Are visual novel reader and AGTH two tools to be used together or two that do the same thing?

 

Anyway, sorry for being a bit clueless on all of this just want to know what the best most up to date thing to use would be.

[Clephas]

ITH is the basic go-to choice, save for a few VNs that can only be played with VNR or agth (these are pretty rare).  Also, grab translation aggregator with jparser.  The latest version of ITH will hook most VNs, though you might need to use an h-code (use hongfire's search function on the agth thread).  Jparser basically puts furigana above the kanji (I usually have it set to romaji). 

 

VNR has a number of problems, but the biggest one is that it eats processing power like crazy for a function so relatively simple and also slows down many games (Baldr Force Zero, for instance, gets slowed down during battles to a ridiculous extent at times because of VNR).  However, there are some VNs that can only be hooked using it.

 

Hongfire is the place to look for text hooker information, if you want more.

[Blizzard884]

With ITH you can also use Atlas V14 from Fujitsu.

[Clephas]

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS.

 

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS.

 

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS. 

 

*Clephas looks satisfied that he made his point*

[Alucard]

What makes Atlas so evil?

[Blizzard884]

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS.

 

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS.

 

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS. 

 

*Clephas looks satisfied that he made his point*

Every machine TL is "EVIL"! I do know that, but is better then nothing

[Decay]

I would say that no, machine translation is actually much worse than no translation.

[SpecterZ]

I would say that no, machine translation is actually much worse than no translation.

 

Well...I don't agree with that. At least it can be used for translate Kanji.

 

It is really painful to search dictionary every time I see unfamiliar Kanji.

 

 

Every tools have their own used, you just need to know when and how to use it for the maximum efficiency. 

[Clephas]

jparser, jparser, jparser.  Use jparser for kanji.

[sanahtlig]

For translation tools, I use ATLAS for quick skimming and grammar assistance with complex sentences.  I use JParser when I can't figure out what ATLAS is saying or I want to put in more effort.

 

ITH is the tool most people rely on for text hooking.  I use 2.3 because I prefer the interface over 3.0.  ITH pairs well with Translation Aggregator (which supports JParser and ATLAS).

[Mephisto]

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS.

 

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS.

 

ATLAS IS EVIL, DO NOT USE ATLAS. 

 

*Clephas looks satisfied that he made his point*

 

Pretty much this. If all you care about is immediate speed, then obviously machine translation is the fastest way, but if you care about understanding, you need to actually read the line yourself, and if assistance is needed, use jparser. 

 

The benefit of using jparser is that over time your vocabulary develops, and you won't need to use it that much later, while if you use atlas, this doesn't really happen (or happens at a much much much much slower pace). 

 

There's also the thing with reading grammar properly, which requires actual reading of the sentence... and machine translators just shitting all over grammar most of the time, and forcing you to draw logical links between words combined with context to figure out what the hell is going on. (I'd imagine this would be absolute shit for metaphorical stuff / abstract lines) 

 

Goes without saying that jparser requires actually knowing some japanese... which well... it would be wise to actually try learning the language of something you want to read, or at least showing the desire to learn it. 

[kyuuichii]

Indeed, translation machine will be help you sometimes. Everything Mephisto-san said was right. I would suggest to using a vocabulary to translate a kanji or a words. I'm using Tagaini Jisho (http://www.tagaini.net/) for my desktop. This tools very good, you can studying kanji in there. too.

I will aslo suggest you to learn the grammar a bit and then you can translating Japanese sentences by looking each words meaning