Pokémon Reborn accessibility for blind players

[DemICE]

19 minutes ago, Seb2314 said:

The screen reader can actually read text in the game using OCR. Speaking of this, is there a way to actually change the font of the game to make it easier for OCR to read things? I'm having a few issues in the battle menu or while trying to view the stats for a pokemon.

Once again, thank you so much for being interested to make the game more playable for us.

 

Well i wonder if removing the fonts might actually do the trick, since for some people who don't install the fonts, it appears as Arial.
go to the fonts folder of the game, make a new one and shove the 4 fonts files in that folder to make them stop working.  then tell me if the program has an easier time reading text ingame

[Gamulation]

 

I go to sleep and this topic explodes.

I was BlindMaster, but changed my name to mach my youtube channel and my twitch. I'm still BlindMaster on discord.

[Gamulation]

here's my twitch channel: treaming whenever I fix my audio issues, so about an hour.

 

 

[Gamulation]

Sorry for tripple posting, but it seems that CTRL+V doesn't work here, so can't paste the link, sorry.

[DemICE]

i will paste your channel for you:  

 

[Gamulation]

thanks!

[Seb2314]

Thank you for the suggestion. It works for the most part, the only issue is OCR is really not accurate when it comes to reading my pokemon's different stats. Is there a way to export these as text? Or perhaps add them to the clipboard?

[DemICE]

is the issue in the actual stats screen or in the   IVs/EVs  screen?     also what do you hear when for example  the OCR tries to read a pokemon's  attack, defense stat  etc?

[Seb2314]

The issue is in the stats screen. Sometimes I'll get the numbers right, sometimes only the HP. I believe it's really a font issue unfortunately.

[DemICE]

maybe it depends on the pokemon, and how the stats are portrayed for each of them.  is it possible to screenshot  an example of a readable stat screen and an example of a non-readable one and paste em here?

[Seb2314]

OCR picked up the numbers this time, but not the letters. It's still okay since there are only 5 stats, however under different circumstances it will not read the numbers. I'll send you another one once I come across a situation where the numbers aren't showing.

[Gamulation]

The stream start's now, or in 5 minut's, something along those lines.

[Amethyst]

I wasn't able to catch the stream originally, but I watched back a bit on the vod and several things have really hit home.

i confess a lot of them lend themselves to a sense of despair.

this mod is obviously a huge step forward, but i can see pretty clearly there's going to need to be a lot more support if this is going to be fully playable, especially when it comes to some of the more complex puzzles. 

 

for instance, though it's optional, watching the struggle of trying to navigate around the gated area by julia's gym has also made me feel like i've done a pretty significant injustice with regards to danielle's quizzes. 

context: a little bit past julia, the player can meet an NPC who says she's blind, but asserts that she's still more observant than the average person. she challenges the player to count how many objects there are in several places as a competition, one of which is a series of satellite graphic objects. they are also used around julia's gym, and watching them be a hindrance among everything else for an actual blind person has made me have some severe regrets when there's no way for you to actually find those answers in game as a real blind player. that's kind of a petty regret of mine relatively speaking, and maybe i've overreacting.

 

more importantly, this has definitely been a wake up call as to how much work there is to do on the sound side of things, even for sighted players. i've always known it was a weakness of my personal development habits (since i tend to develop and test on mute most of the time). but yikes. 

@ demice, if you do end up finding where the issue with the damage sounds' pan is, let me know. i will definitely slot that into e19's base game.

i think it will also be very easy to add a quiet sound to grass rustling so you know better when you're walking through encounter grass. 

even aside from those couple things, there is probably a full update's worth of work to be done on the sound alone. i will consider that as a possible future polish update after e19 is complete-- i don't promise that such an update will happen, but it definitely won't be practical for me to do before then or else i will probably just perish. after e19, it will also be easier to integrate community support & mods, and perhaps make a blind mode with more dramatic changes like skipping puzzles that would otherwise be infeasible. 

 

i feel like i have a lot to think about now. 

[Malta10]

@Gamulation@Seb2314

This pathfinder idea had me a little bit too motivated, to make it short, I programmed it. The algorithm works and the user gets some options, but I could use some early feedback. Right now these options are "Last selected category, Last selected destination, Pokemon Center, PokeMart, Entry Door, Exit Door, Is Talkable".
Entry and Exit Doors are a little bit tricky, as I can only identify them right now by the sound it makes. I will probably remake them as the category "teleport tiles", which includes all map changes and therefore all entry and exit doors and doors within buildings. Obviously it will also detect "real" map changes, such as the transition between a road and a city, etc.
The is talkable option is not quite functioning. I want to make possible to show the "talkable" or better "clickable" events in the surroundings.
If multiple targets are found, another dialog options pops up, which the user can select the nearest event, or specify which event they want, based on the coordinates.

The ouput will be a set of instructions like: "4 steps up, 4 steps right, 1 step up".

Is there anything you would like to change, like the format of the output or additional or fewer selections?

 

For the release of the test version, I think I need another week or two.

 

@Amethyst If this mod is indeed helpful, feel free to add it to a possible future blind mode

 

If someone else has a good idea on how to identify the events, not only by the event commands and trigger, please contact me.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Malta10

[Gamulation]

This is really amazing! I never thought this topic would blow up the way it did, it has over 1K views, amazing really. The path finder mod sounds fantastic, and something I defenetly will show of on a stream or something, Sounds amazing. Again, I just want to say thanks for making these kinds of things, it really makes a differense when it comes to accessibility.

[Seb2314]

@Malta10 this is honestly exactly what we need. If you can manage to pull this off... wow. This would be amazing

[Malta10]

@Gamulation@Seb2314@Tensoon the Kandra

I have completed an early version of the mod-pack. It will contain my pathfinding mod and the distance mod from DemICE.

For the pathfinding mod, you have to press the F6 key to access a list of possible destinations.

 

Some notes to keep in mind:

The pathfinding for the teleport tiles can be a little bit slow. With my (fast) PC, it will freeze for 3 sec.
Also with the teleport tiles option, destinations, which are not reachable because of other events blocking the destination, will not be displayed.
For all other options, it is the opposite. It will display options, which could not be reachable at the given time.

Regarding the searchable categories: Healing spot and merchant will be searched in the current and adjacent map, teleport tiles will be saerched in the current map. Clickable events will be searched in a 5 step radius around the player.

 

Installation:

Extract the files into the /data/mod folder
As I'm not sure if it works with DemICE file and my file in the same place, the best way would be to empty the mod folder and extract my attached zip folder. I can also not garantee the compatibility with other mods.

 

Feel free to provide me with feedback. Also feedback regarding the input key and the output format would be nice.

Malta10 - Accessibility mod pack.zip

Edited May 3, 2021 by Malta10
Added better instalation manual and notes

[Tensoon the Kandra]

Wow, this is amazing!

It works very well.  Unfortunately I can't play much during the week, but just by quickly testing I can already tell that this will make the game a lot more accessible.  I definitely do not know the layout of this game's map and I managed to get to the starters with absolutely no problem.

One possible addition I can recommend for a future update, assuming it is possible, is to add an option to the F6 menu to re-select the last selected location.  Sometimes the directions would have a lot of steps, it would be nice to instantly recall them without going through the menus again.  It is a luxury I can survive without though, this really looks fantastic.

Thanks a lot for your effort.  I will test some more during the week if I get the chance, otherwise I will test a lot during the weekend.

 

[Seb2314]

@Malta10 what you just accomplished is beyond amazing. Thank you so much, this works perfectly

[Gamulation]

Why does this always happen when I'm not looking? LOL

This sounds amazing, will download and test now.

Will give you feedback tomorrow.

[Gamulation]

I was only able to find the Pokémon center, I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but that's all I could find.

[pates]

Hi, another blind man is here! Really thanks for improvement of this game for blind people!

 

[Malta10]

20 hours ago, Gamulation said:

I was only able to find the Pokémon center, I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but that's all I could find.

Does the destination "teleport tiles" work? This one has to find at least one target. Is the Pokemon Center at least working?
Does anyone else have problems with the mod?

[Seb2314]

Not at all, works fine here.

[Gamulation]

I can find the poke center, that works, but I am stuck now, can't progress. I am in the place after you get your starter. I think I need to find the factory.