Glossary

Term	Definition
Clipboard	The clipboard is a buffer that some operating systems provide for short-term storage and transfer within and between application programs. The clipboard is usually temporary and unnamed.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition)	Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the process that converts an image of text into a machine-readable text format.
Tesseract OCR	Tesseract is an open source optical character recognition (OCR) platform.
AutoTrans	A feature that automatically translates in-game text in real-time. It detects game dialogue as you play and instantly translates it.
TextractorCLI	Textractor / TextractorCLI is an program x86/x64 video game text hooker.
Extra Window	A floating overlay window that displays translated text. It can be customized with various themes, transparency settings, and positioning options to show translations from Clipboard Translator, OCR, TextractorCLI, and other input methods.
Hyper Overlay	An advanced overlay feature that provides additional display options and customization for showing translated text over games.
XUAT	A third-party plugin for translating Unity-based games in real-time. Text extracted by XUAT (XUnity.AutoTranslator) is sent to VNTranslator for translation, then returned to XUAT to be displayed directly in the game.
RegExp (Regular Expression)	Regular Expressions are patterns used to match character combinations in strings.
RegExp Replacement	The use of regular expression patterns to find and replace specific text patterns in the source or translated text, useful for cleaning up formatting or handling special cases.
Text Hooker	A program that intercepts and extracts text from running game processes by hooking into the game's memory, allowing the text to be captured and translated in real-time.
Machine Translation	Machine translation (MT) is the automated process of translating text from one language to another using artificial intelligence or rule-based algorithms, without requiring human translators.
Translation Memory	A translation memory (TM) is a database of previously translated text.
Translation Glossary	A translation glossary is a reference list of specific terms and their approved translations, ensuring consistent terminology usage across all translated content.
Translation Timeout	A time limit set for translation requests. If the translation service does not respond within this period, the request fails with a timeout error. This commonly occurs with web scraping-based translation methods.
Virtual Browser Window	An embedded browser component used by VNTranslator to access web-based translation services through web scraping. It simulates a real browser to retrieve translations from online translators.
Custom MT	A feature that allows users to create custom machine translation configurations using JSON schema, enabling integration with third-party translation APIs or services.
Pre-translation	Text manipulation performed before translation or OCR analysis, such as removing unwanted characters, applying filters, or cleaning up the captured text to improve accuracy.
Post-translation	Text manipulation performed after translation, such as formatting adjustments, line break matching, or applying regular expression replacements to refine the final output.
LLM (Large Language Model)	An artificial intelligence model trained on vast amounts of text data, capable of generating human-like text. In VNTranslator, LLMs like GPT, Claude, and Gemini are used for high-quality machine translation.
VLM (Vision Language Model)	An AI model that can understand and process both visual and textual information. Used in advanced OCR engines like Nanonets OCR Small for improved text recognition from images.
API (Application Programming Interface)	A set of protocols and tools that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. VNTranslator uses APIs to connect with various translation services and OCR engines.
Context Memory	A feature that allows the translation model to remember previous lines of dialogue or text, improving translation accuracy and coherence by maintaining context across multiple translations.
Text Streaming	A method that displays translation results progressively as they are generated, rather than waiting for the complete translation to finish, providing a more responsive user experience.
Extract & Translate	A translation method that extracts and translates all game text in advance, rather than in real-time, to reduce lag and improve performance during gameplay.
Hotkey	A keyboard shortcut that triggers specific actions in the application, such as capturing the screen for OCR or toggling the Extra Window visibility.
Font Replacement	A feature in AutoTrans that allows users to replace in-game fonts with custom fonts that better support translated text, particularly useful for languages with different character sets.
Screen Capture	The process of taking a screenshot of a specific area of the screen to extract text using OCR technology.
Steam Connect	A feature that allows VNTranslator to integrate with Steam games, automatically detecting game information and providing better compatibility.
Trained Data	Training data is a dataset used to teach machine learning models by providing examples that help the model learn patterns and make accurate predictions.
Web Scraping	Web scraping is the process of extracting data from websites. It involves retrieving information from web pages by using a program or script, typically referred to as a "scraper" or "crawler".
Max Worker Processes	A setting that controls how many parallel translation processes can run simultaneously, affecting translation speed and system resource usage.
System Prompt	Instructions provided to an LLM that define its role, behavior, and output format. In VNTranslator, it guides the AI to translate text according to specific requirements and style guidelines.
Token	The basic unit of text that AI models process. In the context of translation APIs, more tokens generally mean higher costs and longer processing times.
Electron	Electron is a framework for creating native applications with web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
Visual Novel	A type of interactive narrative game that primarily features static graphics, text-based storytelling, and player choices that affect the story outcome.
RenPy	Ren'Py is a free and open-source visual novel engine that uses a simple scripting language to create interactive stories and games, widely used for both commercial and amateur visual novel projects.
KiriKiri	A scripting engine created by W.Dee, commonly used with the KAG (KiriKiri Adventure Game System) framework to create visual novels.
Tyrano Builder	A game engine specifically designed for creating visual novels, developed as a simpler alternative to other VN engines.
RPG Maker	RPG Maker (known in Japan as RPG Tsukūru) is a series of game development programs for creating role-playing video games with story-driven elements, featuring versions like RPG Maker MV and RPG Maker MZ.
Unity	Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, widely used for creating 2D and 3D games, including many visual novels and interactive story games.
KAG (Kirikiri Adventure Game System)	A scripting framework that works with the Kirikiri engine, providing tools and syntax for creating visual novel games with dialogue, choices, and branching narratives.