[Scummvm-devel] Displaying subtitles in voice-only games

[BeleG]

I hope you don't mind if I answer myself to the request made by sev at the
forum <http://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?p=63993#63993>.

I'm conscious of what a hard work it would be to implement such a feature,
and I already give good value to the sole fact of you considering it as a
possibility (even for ScummVM's future plans). I realize this wouldn't be
just a cutscene captioning system (as already performed in Broken Sword 1),
but a much deeper and more complicated job. I must also say that, the way I
see it, it would be a major feature in the already brilliant ScummVM list of
enhancements. Introducing a way of displaying text in those games that
didn't have any text displayed in their original form would mean a huge step
forward in terms of accessibility and availability for international
translations of all those games, thus increasing considerably their interest
and reach among the public.

So, here is a list of voice-only games taken out of the engine compatibility
list. I've based it on my experience and a little research, though I don't
personally own many of the ScummVM supported games, so there could be more.


Currently supported engines:

· Groovie
- The 7th Guest
- The 11th Hour

· MADE
- Return to Zork (descriptions are text only, while spoken dialogs lack
any text)

· SCI 1
- King's Quest V (CD Version). In this case, just enabling voice and text
simultanously would allow a 3rd party to create a set of MSG files
containing the voice transcription/translation, as it happened with Gabriel
Knight II.


Future engines:

· SCI 21
- Gabriel Knight II: The Beast Within (Already a fan patch available in
order to enable the text display feature)
- Phantasmagoria
- Rama
- Shivers
- Phantasmagoria II: A Puzzle Of Flesh

· SCI 3
- Lighthouse: The Dark Being

· M4/MADS
- Orion Burger

· Mohawk
- Myst
- Riven: The Sequel to Myst


I'm considering as already noted those SCI games which originally included
voice and text, though these were considered as alternative, non-cumulative
choices (Space Quest IV CD, Laura Bow 2 CD, Freddy Pharkas CD and Police
Quest IV), as I understand there's already an effort towards enabling both
text and speech at the same time on those games. In fact, I believe both
SQIV and PQIV had this feature present though disabled in the original
scripts.

I hope this list will serve its purpose, which would be to open a debate on
the potential relevance and feasibility of this feature.

My regards
BeleG

[Ori Avtalion]

Simon 1 & 2 can also be put on that list. It has speech and subtitles,
but enabling both is disabled. The English subtitles are missing for a
few audio sentences, and in general the subtitles seem to cause a few
problems with audio stopping at the middle of sentences. (As has been
discussed in bug reports, and perhaps on this list).

I did a comparison of the game's script with that of the Hebrew
version, which does have subtitles enabled w/ speech. IIRC, There is
very little difference between the two, and I doubt the problems with
speech cutting off don't happen there as well.

Maybe it's worth re-consideration in the current effort you're suggesting.

[Travis Howell]

Simon 1& 2 can also be put on that list. It has speech and subtitles,
but enabling both is disabled. The English subtitles are missing for a
few audio sentences, and in general the subtitles seem to cause a few
problems with audio stopping at the middle of sentences. (As has been
discussed in bug reports, and perhaps on this list).
I did a comparison of the game's script with that of the Hebrew
version, which does have subtitles enabled w/ speech. IIRC, There is
very little difference between the two, and I doubt the problems with
speech cutting off don't happen there as well.

The English and German versions of Simon the Sorcerer 1 (CD) actually
removed the string ids from scripts, and the strings from the data
files. So adding back the missing subtitles would not be possible,
without major changes (updating the majority of scripts) to the data
files. and there are timing differences in the scripts too.

Simon the Sorcerer 2 (CD) already offers subtitles, with or without
speech enabled. The speech cut offs are a limitation of the game engine,
and can be reduced by extending the delay for subtitles.

[Eugene Sandulenko]

Post by Travis Howell
The English and German versions of Simon the Sorcerer 1 (CD) actually
removed the string ids from scripts, and the strings from the data
files. So adding back the missing subtitles would not be possible,
without major changes (updating the majority of scripts) to the data
files. and there are timing differences in the scripts too.

The idea here is not to modify the scripts, but detect the string by
file name and position in that file.

Then of course, somebody has to produce those subtitles, debug them, etc.

The feature itself is not very complicated from programming point of
view, the more difficult and tiresome would be to write down every
spoken string in the game, so we will need dedicated volunteers for
that.


Eugene

[Max Horn]

Post by Eugene Sandulenko

Post by Travis Howell
The English and German versions of Simon the Sorcerer 1 (CD) actually
removed the string ids from scripts, and the strings from the data
files. So adding back the missing subtitles would not be possible,
without major changes (updating the majority of scripts) to the data
files. and there are timing differences in the scripts too.

The idea here is not to modify the scripts, but detect the string by
file name and position in that file.
Then of course, somebody has to produce those subtitles, debug them, etc.
The feature itself is not very complicated from programming point of
view, the more difficult and tiresome would be to write down every
spoken string in the game, so we will need dedicated volunteers for
that.

Plus, every engine needs to be modified separately. But that doesn't complicate life that much more, as one could start with just one engine and then add more later on.

BeleG, the main issue, as usual, is: Who would implement this? This is what will decide whether this request is implemented or not. In the meantime, I would recommend that your post your request on our feature request tracker. That won't make it more likely that it'll become reality, but at least it will make it less likely that it is forgotten.


Cheers,
Max

[BeleG]

Well, from what I read I think this could be separated into two different
issues:

- First, implementing the system itself (engine by engine). In this field
nobody could tell how difficult it'd be to implement such a system from the
technical point of view apart from you, the developers. I understand y**ou're
a reduced team of skilled people, already busy with loads of engine
implementations, so it's up to you to decide where to focus your efforts in
development.

- Second, transcribing the lines. Here is where I think there should be less
trouble, speaking in terms of human resources. Anybody with a decent level
of English could participate in the job of transcribing the lines. There's
no need to waste the time of a developer in this kind of subjects when we
could ask for volunteers to do so. ScummVM has a huge community of followers
who'd be eager to lend a hand to the project but just can't do nothing
productive, due to the high level of skill needed to perform the tasks
you're engaged into. So, in my opinion, this should be a matter of
organizing a team of transcribers to ensure a proper order and completion.

So, if you found this feature technically feasible and desirable as a future
goal of the ScummVM project, I think it would be a good chance for
"subcontracting". It's also possible that I'm overstimating the willingness
of the community, I sometimes tend to do so, but I think it'd be worth a
try, maybe consulting via forum.

I'll go file it as a feature request, as you suggested.

BeleG