[Scummvm-devel] Fan translated versions of games

[Filippos Karapetis]

Regarding SAGA: there were Italian patches for both ITE and IHNM, which are
finalized (they released an additional version, with a slight file size
change, but
that's it). They did fudge the data files a bit, which required a slight
change to
support this properly, but nothing major.

Regards
Filippos

On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 8:02 PM, Eugene Sandulenko <sev at scummvm.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:34:44 +0100
> Max Horn <max at quendi.de> wrote:
> > <quote>
> > By default, we do not add explicit support for fan translations. Game
> > engines should strive to still make it possible to use fan
> > translations by means of good (fallback) detection. Exceptions can be
> > made when the only way to support a fan translation are code
> > modifications going beyond a detection entry, and which are specific
> > to a fixed game version. In that case, the fan translations should be
> > reviewed with care. For example: Is it legally clean? Is it stable
> > (not going to be modified in the foreseeable future) ? Are there
> > alternative translations, if so, which of them to support? Is the
> > translation known to be bug free, or does it cause the game to crash
> > in certain circumstances? Etc. </quote>
> That's right.
>
> To add support for fan translation, you need to do:
>  * Check that it is properly distributed, i.e. that there is an
>    official site which provides _patches_ against some of original
>    data. Otherwise reject such translation and stop here
>  * Implement proper file-based fallback detection. It is not really
>    necessary to detect language if it is not absolutely needed. Just
>    make the game run
>  * In cases when you have some specific code in support of that
>    translation, like you need a special font or engine logic, only in
>    this case you may need md5s, and even then you may still consider
>    coming up with a way to add it to fallback detection
>
> The main problem with fan-translations is that they are not always
> final, and in case there is some bugfix, your md5s may go all wrong.
> With md5s you come with a dilemma either support all different versions
> of that translation, or just one, final. /That/ is the main reason for
> us not adding them easily.
>
>
> Eugene
>
>
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