CDPR about languages in the game

[darcler]

Well, if you think it's cool, fine. Personally, I'd rather they used their resources for something other than this kind of complexity.

To be honest, I'd rather they used their resources for things like this rather than something other. It's just it'd be a quite unique piece of engineering - and I'm all for that. Game developers tend to serve us the same reheated dish time and time again, not really striving to push for innovation, changing only setting, story and resources. I'd rather have something new than just another iteration of the same.

Well, I admit that, being a developer myself, there's probably also a wee bit of professional curiosity involved

Maybe you could actually define your PC's nationality when you're creating a character? This way you could play as said Japanese and have all untranslated Japanese dialogs in the game, and for everything else have subtitles of various levels of accuracy. Wouldn't change anything mechanics-wise, thus eliminating large part of the discussed complexity, and there wouldn't be any real need for actual different language versions. Well, the UI could be set to whatever language player chooses for his PC, but that would be cohesive with the overall design. Obviously that would also mean that there wouldn't be any dubbed voice acting, but I still cannot imagine that anyone would want to have most people in an American city (however fictional) speaking their own language. Either we care about immersion, or we don't.

 

[Sydanyo]

We already have the technology to have a real time translator, perhaps in our ear. However does this translation look good to you?

Mamy już technologię mieć prawdziwy tłumacz, być może w naszym uchu. Jednakże, czy to tłumaczenie wygląda dobrze dla Ciebie?

Ya tenemos la tecnología para tener un traductor en tiempo real, tal vez en nuestro oído. Sin embargo, ¿esta traducción lucir bien para ti?

Abbiamo già la tecnologia per avere un traduttore in tempo reale, forse nel nostro orecchio. Tuttavia, è questa traduzione guardare bene a voi?

У нас уже есть технология, чтобы иметь реальный переводчик время, возможно, в нашем ухе. Тем не менее, эта перевода выглядеть хорошо для вас?

我々はすでに、おそらく私たちの耳に、リアルタイム翻訳者を持っている技術を持っている。しかし、この翻訳があなたに似合うのですか？

Vi har redan tekniken för att få en realtid översättare, kanske i vårt öra. Men ser denna översättning bra för dig?

Nous avons déjà la technologie d'avoir un traducteur en temps réel, peut-être dans notre oreille. Cependant, cette traduction ne semblent bonnes pour vous?

Now, of course you can say that the translation code will get better, but then again, languages evolve. In a game, it's not a problem. A Google Translator (as above) implant though? Well, you can see it's flaws.

 

[braindancer12]

i read that news now on many different pages and forums and everyone who posted his opinion, was amazed. Nearly everyone like it and think its an awesome idea

 

[braindancer12]

“Decisions are not yet made, but we are thinking about some kind of system which could tell more about the game world,” Stepien says. “The idea is to record everything in its original language. If there are, for example, Mexicans in the game, they will speak with slang. All performed by Mexican actors.”

“Then a player could try a translating implant, and according to its level, he will get better or worse translation.”

i really hope it will be in the final game!

 

[wisdom000]

i really hope it will be in the final game!

me too, languages with subtitles beneath them if you have the proper skill/chip... it would add so much to the game...

 

[Garrison72]

It's a brilliant idea, but they're going to need more than 4 writers to pull it off, about what they had for TW2. I hope it gets in the game.

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

As of yet no decisions have been made, but we're thinking about a system that could tell the world's story. The idea is to record everything in original languages, i.e. if we'll meet Mexicans in the game, they'll be taking -- Mexican slang even, portrayed by Mexican actors. The player would be able to buy a translator implant, and depending on how advanced it is, he'll get better or worse translation.

You can't reliably recreate street slang of Los Angeles or some other American city, you can't simply dub it and reproduce those emotions, rythm of speech, mannerisms. Everything has to be cohesive. Otherwise we'd simply hear that Polish actors are trying to imitate Americans. That won't work.

I wish I could remember where I heard this before, but in english...

Anyway, I really want this in the game. Admittedly, multi-lingual players will be at an advantage, but hey, why not? Surely it would be taken as their character being multi-lingual. I would love to hear Spanish, Japanese, German and Russian in the game. Maybe Esperanto.

The language chips could give varied levels of translation at varied speeds. A level 1 chip could translate common words and phrases slowly, while a high end chip could translate into both audio and visual fluently and quickly. Maybe use a synthetic voice like you can find on speech programs online?)

 

[dragonbird]

I wish I could remember where I heard this before, but in english...

I think that most of the "alternative sources", like kotaku, got it from here. The interview itself was in Polish.

 

[braindancer12]

The language chips could give varied levels of translation at varied speeds. A level 1 chip could translate common words and phrases slowly, while a high end chip could translate into both audio and visual fluently and quickly. Maybe use a synthetic voice like you can find on speech programs online?)

yeah thats the way i would like it

 

[wisdom000]

A multi-lingual game with subtitles (if you have the right skills/chips) is pretty bloody innovative. I can;t really recal ever seeing anything done like that on a large scale before... But it saves both money and time... and possibly resources, and comes across as fresh.... how can you not get behind that?

 

[Garrison72]

I think it takes more resources given the variable degrees of translation quality depending on your tech implant. It's a lot more writing.

 

[wisdom000]

I think it takes more resources given the variable degrees of translation quality depending on your tech implant. It's a lot more writing.

I really cannot imagine text subtitles would consume all that much in terms of resources.

As for degrees of translation... hell just mix in a bit of nonsense like a bloody adlib... you may get the basic gist of what they are saying, but it still alomost sounds like gibberish.

As much as I hate MMO's, Everquest actually used to have a really cool mechanic for language skills, where when you first heard the language it sounded like babble to you, but as you were more exposed the text made more sense...

 

[whipblade]

Yup. This is awesome.

 

[braindancer12]

I think it takes more resources given the variable degrees of translation quality depending on your tech implant. It's a lot more writing.

i dont think so.....

 

[wisdom000]

I think Slim is the only one who can come to the conclusion that Text would eat more resources than audio...

 

[Suhiira]

As much as I hate MMO's, Everquest actually used to have a really cool mechanic for language skills, where when you first heard the language it sounded like babble to you, but as you were more exposed the text made more sense...

I hate to remember how many hours I spent having folks spam me with a chat macro learning languages in EQ.
But, I agree the system worked fairly well.