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Hello,

Is it possible to translate a game with text parser via the tra/trs file? I translated many lines in the translation file, including text commands, and everything is fine, except the commands remained in original language.
Do you know any solution to translate text parser commands?

We tried the cutscenes with .ogv videos. I tried the game in a brand-new computer with a fresh win7. No codecs, all drivers okay. Sorry to say, but the ogv videos weren't played. I tried all settings(DirectDraw, DirectX, windowed, fullscreen), but it seems there is not any ogv codec in AGS. At least it does not work as we may expected. After I installed a basic K-Lite codec pack, the cutscenes worked, but only in DirectDraw mode(DirectX had sound only).

The problem is not solved, because the cutscenes are still very dependable on PC configurations. Our players are constantly complaining about black screens, and "sound only cutscenes". Somebody has no problem, but the most players have.

I must add that I recently played Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 3 WITHOUT any codec pack on the same computer and all the video cutscenes were played well. I wonder if it would be ever possible to achieve this video stability in AGS one day. I respect AGS and the developers very much, but when we talk about videos, it should not be a deal that they are played sometimes and sometimes not.

p.s: The game uses 32 bit color depth.

Hello,

I need somebody with decent english knowledge!
I wrote a short letter to my english class and I need somebody to read it and fix some grammer mistakes. It's very short, I think you can read it in 1-2 minutes.
If you can help, please PM me!

Thank you very much!

Thank you your replies, we try out these things!

Hi everyone,

My "team" has a finished game, but can not release it because of video(cutscene) problems.

We do not miss any video drivers. We do not miss any codecs. Videos can be played outside the game. We tried ogv, flv, avi, mpg and several other formats. Also tried Direct3D and DirectDraw rendering modes.
We tested the game with several computers. Some cases, when the cutscene should start, we get a black screen and must force close the game. Some cases we hear the sound of the video, but see a black screen. Some cases(like 1 of 10) the video plays without problem.

I must say that this is not the first time to have problems with ingame videos. Back in 2008, we released a game what was played by hundreads of people in Hungary. The game was made with ags 2.71 and had 2 cutscene videos(both in .avi) and about 50% of our player stucked in black screen when the cutscene started(not able to move forward, only to force close the game). We suggested our players to rename the video files. This way they got an error message ingame, but was able to continune the game.

Now, we use the latest version of AGS. But still we have video problems in several computers, with all possible settings.

Please tell me if it is a recognised known issue in AGS, or not. If our testers have so much trouble to play videos, we can not release the game to players.

We would happy to see a simple and ultimate fix about this video problems. We don't want 10000 questions per day about "game stucked in a black screen after the menu".

Cutscenes are important parts of our games, so if this problem can not be solved(e.g in a future ags release), we must switch to an other engine. What would be really sad, because we use ags since ages and we love it.

Hi,

I searched a lot on forums and did not find a topic about bluring backgrounds with script. I read the "Room functions and properties", and the "Drawing Surface" things in the Help, but can't find a solution.

Please tell me how to do it. I hope it's not too complicated.

You have a walking view and a speech view, but if you want to talk and walk simultaneously, you need a whole new view.
Unfortunately, AGS is not a magical tool what mix your walking and talking views and create you a whole new animation. Also, the engine can not assign a "walk+talk" animation to the characters.

You should forget about solving this feature with 2 clicks and 3 lines of script. Basically, you faced something what AGS does not support. You faced the border of AGS's basic capabilities. Stretching this border(e.g. implement whole new features into AGS) is not for beginners. If you are not a professional scripter, you should search for a module or plugin. If no module exists, then you can ask somebody to create one, BUT you should prepare that not many people will build a whole new module just for your needs.

If you can't find a pre-made solution in the forum, I suggest you to drop this idea. We have seen tons of brilliant games where the characters did not need to talk and walk simultaneously, so its not a critical feature.

Sorry for my attitude, but I've seen tons of great AGS games and many of them only used the default features of AGS and some modules if neccesary.
I don't like when beginners trying to make their first games and their first think is like "hey, lets do something what is not supported in AGS".

No, I ran the version from the 1st comment  :

The newest version is much better!

It seems like 5 times faster at the first look. Still have some lag in 800x600 resolution, but much more playable.
Also, the right clicking by 2 points touch is more responsive now.
I tried some lower resolution Ben Jordan games(320x200) and they are flawless.

Now I grab some great, unplayed AGS games and enjoy them on my weekly travels.  

Thank you!

Nice work!
Would be awesome to play AGS games on mobile devices.
I tested the application on my xperia x10 and worked perfectly except it is way too laggy. FPS counter displays 30-35 fps, but my real fps is about 2-3. My phone runs on 1Ghz without any tweak, btw.

I hope it is possible to improve the performance significantly.

I used to run ScummVM on my 133 Mhz windows mobile without problem, so I think there is something to improve on the performance here.

Awesome work although!
This is a very important project. You add a great value to all AGS games and to the AGS community!

"No one is entitled to being able to play a game."

Since we are talking about free games, everybody is entitled to play those games for free. Just many people don't speak english and can't play the game, even though they are "entitled".
But call me a troll, if you feel better...

I decided to give up arguing though... Waste of time. At least I hope most authors won't be "assholes" and do not loose their resources.

Edit: Nevermind... Whatever I say, won't help foreign nations to play abandoned games... Probably some people should learn some attitude from open source associations. Not to make all games open source, but to don't be paranoid.

If the developer of the game is unable to or unwilling to update and maintain his game, that is his decision. If he doesn't answer e-mails or doesn't use the e-mail anymore and has not updated this information, then he has not given a permission to alter OR improve his creation, thus it should not be done.

If you really want to improve or translate his game, you will keep dilligently bombarding him, or any developer, with e-mail and other communication until you get a response or accept the fact that there will not be one.

I understand that it seems a bit cold and unforgiving, but if you can't be sure the original developer accepts what you are doing, you are basically going against their will by default.

Ultimate bottom line and my last word about the matter: if you do not have explicit permission, then you should NOT do it! If the developer does not give permission, then he loses potential players, but this is a tradeoff I believe many developers are willing to take.

You are a lawyer, or something like this?
You sounds like a politician, always act by following the "paragraphs" 10000% and do not care about what is good for the massive amount of people.

Many great COMMERCIAL adventure games don't really lock their translation files. Officially they don't support amateur translations, of course... But also don't really fight against translations It's good for the business: more people buy telltale games, for example, if there is some kind of translation available in a particular country.
I'm really surprised that we talk about free games here, what you made with a FREE TOOL, and some of you fight till bleed against unnofficial translations :/
You just give +1 reason to many people why play new fancy games(unnoficially translated, ofc) instead of AGS games...

Edit: Kweepa's idea should be acceptable for everyone. I'm sure that in the past, most of game authors wouldn't have chosen the "locked translation" deliberately, if they had had the oppurtunity to choose. But there is still a chance to make the future easier. Much easier for authors, they don't have to maintain their games for 10-15 years or more... Translators could do all the work alone.

About this: "If the developer of the game is unable or unwilling to update and maintain his game, that is his decision. "

No, I think this is not a "decision". Things are not so easy and "black and white" that you might think. Considering that we are talking about free games, there is far more chance that the author is not against translations. Although, if we cannot ask the particular author, we can not be 100% sure that he would agree. But if he don't care about his games anymore, then why would he care about its translations?
And what if he accidentaly lost his resources? Or just didn't think that somebody wants to translate his game in the future, and didn't care to save their resources when reinstalled his os, or changed computer... In these situations, the author didn't make any decision about translatings, just lost his own game.

I don't know Yahtzee's intentions about his games' translations(if he has any). I just mentioned him as an example, because he made a famous game serie here, but impossible to contact with him nowadays. Probably we will never now what is his opinion about translating his games, therefore his games will be never available in foreign languages :/ I wouldn't be surprised if he just "didn't care" about his games anymore while the years passing... Probably lost his sources too? Anyway, impossible to translate those games...

Probably there are, and there will be always similar situation like this. I don't want to blame Yahtzee, just mentioned his games as an example for the negative effect of restricted translations. I don't think if somebody made a good game, he must look forward and reply all his emails about his game in a lifetime. Thats not how things work. Thats why people should get some "freedom" in translating.

I don't know who is that jerk who take his time and make a full translation just to insert some nasty lines. Anyway, if the unofficial translation is just a joke, I mean its not a serious translation, then players will realize soon that thats not really a translation just a joke, and they change language. And they start to blame the site where they got the game or the translation, which is obviously not my site, e.g. not the official site.
Anyway, I can easily write to the game credits that I'm not responsible for the translations.

The cruel is when you say you simply don't want foreigns to play with your game. Or use dictionary, what is nonsense. Yeah, the author's right that he can decide what to do with his game. I don't say its not "legal" to deliberately restrict the game from foreign people. Its just kind of racism, and selfishness. Racism, if you obviously want your game ONLY for english speaking people. And selfishness if your game will be impossible to translate 5-10 years later, because you retired and didn't give the chance to the future to translate your game and spread the world, because you were afraid of the possibility of 0-1 jerks who migh play around with the translation.

I understand your arguments though, I just still think that the pros are much overweight the cons.

I'm in aware that you will never understand my points... I played a lot of great games here, and when I finish a game, I have a feeling that I MUST recommend that great game to my friends. But I can't recommend them, because they immediately ask "is there a translation?", and I say "no " and thats all... I better don't even talk them about those games, because they just become jealous to me that I can play with that great games and they can't.

Its not about "choices". If an author release a game in 2004 and nobody contact him about turkish translation, there won't be any turkish translation, right? In this case, was it the author's special decision to NOT make any turkish translation? NO
Just nobody appeared with such intentions back then. And imagine that the author changed e-mail 3 times since 2004, and impossible to contact with him. Then it was the author's choice that there should NEVER EVER be a turkish translation to his game? I think, no.

You talk about restrictions... That you intented to release your games ONLY in english language, and you DON'T WANT foreign people to play your game, or just force them to use dictionary when playing. Thats a "bit" cruel, don't you think? Thats interesting how people play around with restrictions, when they use a totally freee game engine. So I don't know why this is the attitude here. I must mention that if somebody wants to force my hungarian fellows to play with a dictionary, then I don't care about his game too. There are many authors here with more kindness and less selfishness.

However, there should be a solution somewhere... I think that would be good if games could be freely translated to any language, but impossible to modify the original language.  AND, the "cruel" authors could mark somehow that they do NOT allow people to translate their games, except with special permission.

p.s: if everything worked like you want, then most people couldn't play adventure games in my home country. Because most of famous games translation is unofficial.

Yes, the 5DAS translation was made several years ago... I forgot to mention that though.
However I still hoped that I could contact with the author and continune translating the series now, in 2011.
Its too bad that there's so slim chance to get the resources... Although I don't do this research for myself(because for me, games are fine in english), I consider this situation really sad.

I think you should think about people who can't understand a single word in english. Because studied other language, or not studied any language at all. I know you all have english as a mother tongue, or speaking english quite enough to enjoy games in original language... But think about those who NEED translation, because they simply cannot play the game without it.

Everything works perfectly, till the authors are "alive". The translator contact the author, the author handle the translation file, etc... BUT I think there're a lot of authors who impossible to contact with nowadays, and you say these games simply "shoudn't be translated". You don't know how many people don't speak english but love to play with this games if they could understand the words. Easy to say "no need bad translation" while you sitting in England, or in the U.S, or just perfectly speaking english.

Just take a look at my situation now: 5 Days a Stranger has hungarian translation. Many hungarians, kids, adults, don't speak english, but wants to play the sequence of this game. I'm trying to contact to the games author for days, but he just don't reply me. I think he has no time, or just "rude", I don't know. It seems I will never have the chance to translate these games, because the author is so "famous" that its impossible to get in touch with him. I'm glad to see that some people thought about these issues in the past, and I'm sad to see that you "officially" refuse any chance to translate a game without the author.

I think the benefits would much more overweight the drawbacks... You just take away a lot of fun from non-english people because of that small possibility of a drawback...

I still not get any reply from Yahtzee, the creator...
Anybody any idea?
Nobody translated Yahtzee's games here?

I guess there isn't a way to make a translation without the game's creator... That would pretty much solve this issue, but I heard that its not possible to get the translation file from a compiled AGS game.

I'm not sure if I made this topic to the right place...
I would like to translate 7 days a skeptic to hungarian language. I've also tried to contact with Yahtzee, but I don't know if I have any chance to get a reply from him. So I decided to post here, probably some of you know Yahtzee closer than me, and can tell me something about how these "business" works.
5DAS has already got hungarian translation, but I can't contact with the person who translated it. However, I would like to continune translating the series.

I don't want to review the games 1 by 1. The overall series was pretty good, I think. I think this game brought a nice sequence to the old trilogy, with easy puzzles, lots of cutscenes and plenty of fun.
Sure there are better and worse games then BTTF, but I really don't mind that I played this series. They are absolutely worth a shot, I think.