Journal, localization, and audio

Journal UI, spoken dialogue, and embedded scene choices use different lookup systems. A fix in one does not repair the others.

Identify the lookup path

The screenplay item ID is not a localization RUID. The caption CName on a choice is useful authoring/debug text but is not the authoritative rendered label.

Journal entry is missing or has the wrong state

Trace one entry from definition to operation:

1. Confirm the journal resource is packed and registered under the journal registration class.
2. Copy the exact full gameJournalPath.realPath from the quest node.
3. Split the path into components and verify each parent/child ID in the journal tree.
4. Verify fileEntryIndex identifies the component represented by the containing gameJournalFileEntry; it is not the objective’s child index.
5. Confirm the quest edge enters the correct journal node socket, such as Active, Succeeded, Failed, or Inactive.
6. Check the starting save for an existing state or visited flag.
7. Confirm the localized key exists only after the state transition itself is known to occur.

Do not rewrite localization while the journal node itself never executes.

Journal/UI text is blank

Compare the journal field and onscreen entry character for character:

journal localized field secondary key
  -> registered en-us onscreen resource
       -> localizationPersistenceOnScreenEntry.secondaryKey
       -> femaleVariant / maleVariant text

Then inspect:

• correct localization.onscreens locale registration;
• exact packed resource path;
• primaryKey/secondaryKey shape used by the focused lab;
• duplicate secondary keys in the installed candidate set;
• current save state, since an inactive journal entry cannot display its text.

Do not convert a textual onscreen key into a scene RUID. They are separate domains.

Subtitle is missing

For one spoken line, make a four-column audit:

Check ArchiveXL logs for the map registration and missing nested path. A subtitle map can register while its entries resource is absent from the archive.

Subtitle works but audio is silent

Keep the proven subtitle join unchanged and audit the VO branch:

1. confirm localization.vomaps registration for the tested locale;
2. confirm the VO entry stringId equals the scene RUID;
3. confirm female and male ResourcePaths intentionally target existing WEMs;
4. list/extract the archive and hash each WEM;
5. confirm the game follows the expected gender path;
6. compare format/provenance with the chapter’s known synthetic or authored source, without substituting extracted vanilla audio.

A present WEM is not proof of a valid VO-map join, and a valid VO-map join is not proof that the WEM encoding is accepted. Change one boundary per candidate.

Choice label is blank, stale, or belongs to another option

Trace the complete scene-local chain:

choice node option screenplayOptionId
  -> screenplayStore.options[].itemId
  -> option locstringId
  -> locStore.vdEntries matching locale, ID, and signature
  -> descriptor vpeIndex
  -> locStore.vpEntries[vpeIndex]

Then verify:

• every option ID resolves to one screenplay option;
• descriptor locale blocks are contiguous in the evidence-matched order;
• locstringId values are sorted numerically as unsigned integers within the arrangement being copied, not lexicographically as decimal strings;
• duplicate descriptors preserve their intended relative mapping;
• every vpeIndex remains zero-based and points to the matching payload;
• descriptor and payload variantId values match without signed truncation.

Legacy evidence showed a scene whose correct captions coexisted with blank and stale rendered labels. Round-trip serialization preserved the malformed order; it did not repair it. Treat ordering as authored data.

Localization isolation matrix

After fixing a lookup, repeat the scene or journal route from a save eligible for that transition. A save that already visited the message or passed the scene node cannot prove first presentation.

Previous: Actors, scenes, and lipsync. Next: Save state and clean retests.