V1.0.2

A patch release. bug fix for controller types that aren't XBox, and hopefully a solution for a crash bug that was happening on some more modern machines.

V1.0.1 — Any controller, and the soundscape

A patch release. The headline is that your controller should now work whatever kind it is, and there is a new way to hear the room around you.

Your controller should work now, whatever it is

V1.0 read the pad using Xbox's protocol. If you play on a PlayStation controller, a Switch Pro controller, or a generic USB pad, that meant every controller feature in the mod did nothing at all — unless you happened to have Steam Input or DS4Windows running and translating it for you. Nothing announced the problem; the buttons simply did nothing.

That is fixed. The mod now reads the pad through SDL, which recognises essentially any controller Windows does, and there is no longer any separate handling per device — one path, every pad.

If you tried V1.0 with a PlayStation pad and gave up on it, this is the release to try again.

A few controller changes came with the rework:

• In mod mode, B now reads the summoned Esper's HP and A cancels — the same confirm and cancel buttons the rest of the game uses. On a PlayStation pad that is Circle and Cross. Start is now the only way to open the mod menu from mod mode.
• Back, Back opens the game's map, on purpose. Back is the mod's modifier key, so pressing it twice hands you back the map button it costs you.
• Start no longer pauses the game out from under you when you use it as a mod button.

The soundscape — hearing the room instead of asking about it

New, and off by default. Open the F8 menu, go to Soundscape settings, press Right to open it, and switch Soundscape on.

With it on, every door, shop, chest, crystal, person, enemy and item within about twenty steps gets its own quiet repeating sound, played from the direction it actually is. Nearer things are louder. Something behind you sounds duller and lower than something in front. When several things of the same kind are near you, they are spread in pitch and each repeats at a slightly different rate, so two people standing together do not blur into one sound — and it follows things that move.

It speaks nothing, and it is not a route: the audio beacon is still what leads you somewhere. This is the other thing — the picture of the room a sighted player gets for free by looking around.

You choose which kinds of thing sound. Inside that menu, after the master switch and its volume, there are two rows for each kind — Exit, Door, Shop, Save Crystal, Gate Crystal, Treasure, NPC, Interactables, Enemy and Items. The first switches that kind on or off, the second sets its volume. Everything starts on, so switching the master on gives you the lot; turn off whatever you would rather not hear. If you only want treasure and save crystals, switch the other eight off. Turning the master off silences all of it without forgetting the kinds you picked.

Press Backspace to come back out of a settings menu, or Escape to close the mod menu from wherever you are in it.

Also fixed

Auto detail now does what it says. With it on, the description of whatever you have highlighted — a magick, a technick, an item, a piece of equipment, a config row — is read out as you move, after the item's name rather than instead of it. It is the same text the O key reads; the setting just saves you asking. Previously it only ever affected the equipment comparison and Libra, so on every ordinary menu it did nothing at all.

Closing the mod menu no longer opens the pause screen. Escape closed the menu and reached the game as well. While the mod menu is open, the keys it uses — the arrows, Home, End, Escape and Backspace — are now its own, so moving between settings no longer moves your character or the camera either.

Option lists made of numbers now read. The clearest example is the orb pedestal in the Pharos: it asks how many orbs you want to set, and only "Cancel" ever spoke — the numbers themselves were silent. That affected every numbered choice list in the game, not just that one.

Install

Copy all four DLLs from the zip — dinput8.dll, SDL3.dll, Tolk.dll and nvdaControllerClient64.dll — into the game's x64 folder, next to FFXII_TZA.exe. Usually:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE\x64

All four go in the same place. Overwrite the V1.0 files. There is no config file to install — the mod writes its own.

SDL3.dll is required, not optional: without it the game will not start at all, rather than simply running without sound. If you have copied everything and the game will not launch, check that one first.

The mod ships as dinput8.dll, so it cannot be installed alongside the FF12 External File Loader or the FF12 Module Loader — they want the same filename.

ReadMe.txt in the zip is the full documentation: every key, every screen, and the known issues.

Known issues

Please read the Known Issues section at the top of ReadMe.txt — the camera-relative directions entry in particular explains a thing that looks like a bug and is not.

One specific to this release, said plainly: the controller fix has not yet been tested on an actual PlayStation controller. It is confirmed working on an Xbox pad, but Xbox pads already worked, so that test covers the rework and not the thing this release is for. The reasoning behind the fix is solid and the code path is the same one for every device — but if you are on a DualSense or a DualShock 4, you are the first to try it, and I would genuinely like to know either way.

Reporting a bug

Open an issue here. The useful things to include:

• What you expected to hear and what you heard instead.
• Where you were — area name, and roughly what was on screen.
• The log: FFXII-Screen-Reader-Latest.log, next to the game executable in the x64 folder. Its third line names the build, which tells me exactly what you were running. For this release it reads Build: V1.0.1 (5e6a8d8).

That build line matters more than usual right now. Several builds have gone out under a 1.0.x number as things were fixed on the day, and they differ in real ways — so if you are reporting anything, the log's Build: line is the only thing that says for certain which one you were running. Please include it.

Final Fantasy XII Screen Reader V1.0

The first public release of the Final Fantasy XII Screen Reader.

This mod adds NVDA speech output, pathfinding and turn-by-turn directions, an audio beacon, menu and battle reading, and a combat log to Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age on Steam. It is built for blind and low-vision players.

Download the zip below and extract all five files into the game's x64 folder, alongside FFXII_TZA.exe. ReadMe.txt is in the zip and is the full manual — install, every key, every screen, the settings menu and the known issues.