Subtitles Complete & String Bank

[Alphasoldier]

I completely agree with you Robert. The funny thing is, is that you've taken my point exactly and applied it to translations in general, and not only subtitles.
I personally think subtitles should be as literal as possible, while with stories you have a bit more liberty, being able to throw some sentences around, juggle with the words to make it sound good and be close to the original. While you cannot juggle with sentences with subtitles or you would read something entirely different than one is saying.

Audio, so far I've only been trying to help you, maybe not at the kindest rate, but I didn't get any kindness back either. In fact, you've only been insulting my translation with every post you have made so far.

Oh and btw, I indeed meant the 'fantasy context English' thank you, which still keeps my point standing and leaves you circling around the facts that matters. I didn't say "I'm not happy enough about your translations I'll do it completely by myself again.", because I indeed wanted to do this with someone, as a partner, that could share my view, which you apparently can not.

And here comes the insult back at you, I think one of the reasons Bit-Blot won't hire professional translators because they are afraid they would end up with people like you. ^^

Oh, and finally, you didn't have to quote my post, because I don't delete them.

Now how about you quit whining and get back to the point.

[Alphasoldier]

Now on a total unrelated note, let's look at this PM mister Omg_audio just send me.

Achja

Ik zal waarschijnlijk wel leren hoe ik alles moet vertalen. En de keren dat iemand
ondertitelingen voor games moet vertalen is echt zo extreem miniem, dat het me
niet zoveel boeit. Ik kan een verzoek om ondertitelingen te vertalen toch afslaan als ik later zelfstandig ben. Wat voor een opleiding doe jij? ICT zeker, zie ik je wel voor aan.
Ik hoop alleen dat je iemand vindt die die spellingsfouten voor je eruit kan halen.

Maar mij boeit het eigenlijk toch niet, ik zou die ondertiteling toch nooit te zien krijgen.
Want ik heb Aquaria toch illegaal gedownload Grin hahahahahaha.

En, wat ga jij dit weekend doen?
Ik ga naar Amsterdam (: met m'n vrienden naar een gig
Want ja, ik heb vrienden doorheen heel Nederland, ik ben gewild en
ik maak dingen mee in m'n leven.

Jij niet heah? Hahahaha kankerdom :']

Nou, ik ben blij dat ik niet zo'n triest leven heb als jij.
Vroeger was ik ook als jou, zielig, elke dag gamen.
Nu gelukkig niet meer. Misschien walg ik daarom van je.
Omdat je me doet denken aan m'n vroegere levenloze ik.

Maar ik ben er beter op geworden, jij niet.
Spijtig dat het niet iedereen zo goed vergaat.

Nou.

DOEI
_____________________

Translated, it's just about this:

Ah well

I'll propably learn how I will translate everything. And the times that someone has to translate subtitles for a game is so minimum, that I don't care that much. I can reject the request of making subtitles when I'm on my own later anyway. What kind of education do you follow anyway? ICT, probably, you look like one who would.
I just hope someone can take out the grammar mistakes.

But it doesn't matter to me, I'll never see those subtitles. Because I illegally downloaded Aquaria anyway. <stupid laugh>

So, what are you going to do this weekend, I'm going to Amsterdam, with my friends to a gig.
Cause yes, I have friends throughout the whole Netherlands, I am wanted and I do stuff in life.

You don't, right? <stupid laugh>  fuckingstupid.

Well, I'm glad I don't have a sad life like you.
I used to be just like you, gaming every day, pathetic.
Not any more happily enough, maybe that's why I'm disgusted by you.
Because you make me think of my lifeless me.

But I've become better off it, you haven't.
I'm sorry that not everyone has it good in life.

Well

Bye!
___________________________

I probably should make some topic in the off-topic area, but please share your opinion about this PM.

Mind you, I barely know this guy, he barely knows anything about me and the only thing I remember of him is that he's gay.

[Nava]

I really don't think that this is the place for personal attacks and insults.
If you two have issues with each other on personal or professional levels, it should be kept between you two. This thread should not be used as an attempt to get public approval of your method/style/personality/righteousness at the expense of the other guy's.

[Align]

PM a mod.

[Xiagan]

The main point stands that it is very hard to agree on the translation someone else made. (That of course is no reason for ranting.)

I will soon post the German subtitles and even though they are made partly by 3-4 users I'm quite sure there will be people who disagree with parts of them.

[Alphasoldier]

I know I went over the line there, but I thought mods should not be the only ones who know what kind of jerk this is.

And I'll resume the translation as soon as I found someone who will help me. I believe Aerendyll ( did I say that right? ) was Dutch too.

[Stalfos]

Ok, I've been seeing some problems in the translations files lately...

What software should be used to translate the subtitles? I used to use WordPad, since it kept most formating intact. But after a few files were translated with NotePad++, I see it all in a single line... While on DreamWeaver, there are TWO carriage return after each phrase!!!

So... any suggestion? What is the needed formating for the substitles files to work properly (1 carriage return? 2?)?

Quick replies appreciated...

[Alphasoldier]

I'm not really sure what the problem is, I'd say, test it.
All I know is that there is 1 sentence on each line and that the time is first and then the text with a space in between, the rest doesn't really seem to matter.

What software? I used normal notepad in the begin, but I'm also using notepad++ now. I'd say anything goes as long as you save it as a .txt file.

The rest you would have to ask Alec, or test out yourself.

[Stalfos]

All I know is that there is 1 sentence on each line and that the time is first and then the text with a space in between, the rest doesn't really seem to matter.

So, what if there is a line of text, 1 free line, then another line of text...

exemple:

Code: [Select]

0:00 Il parla...

0:02 ...et sa voix fut gravée à jamais dans ma mémoire...

0:05 ...parfaitement...

0:07 ...détaillée...Should it be more "condensed"?

If so, during validating process, I'll correct those...

[Alphasoldier]

I just did exactly what I told you to do, testing it yourself.

Either way, it still works.

Code: [Select]

0:00                Hij sprak...                        <----- spaces before and behind text are visible
wasdwasd                                                <----- this is not said at all
0:02 ...en zijn stem was voor eeuwig in mijn geheugen gebrand... 
 
0:05 ...in perfect...
    wa                                                     <------ nor is this
0:07 ...detail...
Conclusion: things are only said when there's a time tagged to it.
You could even add notes to the text file, how wonderful.

[Stalfos]

Grammatical incompatibilities
Some messages are broken apart into separate string bank entries, which can cause grammatical problems in other languages. For example, the message "Learned the _____ Recipe!" is broken into two separate string bank entries, #23: "Learned the" and #24: "Recipe!" This might cause some confusion, especially if the parts are reused separately in other places in the game. In Spanish, for instance, the message would be translated as "¡Aprendiste la receta de _____!" With this translation, the parts would become: #23: "¡Aprendiste la receta de" ("You learned the recipe of") and #24: "!". If #23 was used elsewhere (for learning things other than recipes), you can see how this would be a problem.

Another example is #203: "Seconds". Presumably, this appears in the game as "__ Seconds", but syntax in other languages may dictate that the number come after the word instead of before. Other string bank entries that may have grammar issues along these lines are #27, #204, #205, #206, #211 and #852.

Having recently gone through the pain of internationalizing our application at my job, I can tell you that what seems to work best is to not break the message into parts, and instead using placeholders in the string. For example: "Learned the {0} Recipe!", with subsequent placeholders having increasing numbers: {0}, {1}, {2}, etc. Then in the software you replace the placeholders with their values. I don't know what language Aquaria's written in (C, I'd imagine), but it probably already has functionality to facilitate this.

Any new for that "Grammatical thing"? Because that will be a case in french translation as well (we are near completion of the base translation, revision will come afterwards).

As for internationalization, where are we? (early test demonstrate that acute characters such as é à... simply are deleted ingame)

I know you guys are pretty busy atm (GDC and all)... so reply when you'll have time. 

[RobertWalker]

Last I heard, there are no future versions of Aquaria in the works. Ideas for improvements abound, but Alec is currently occupied with other things.

[Stalfos]

Ok... I won't get discouraged anyway. The translation will still be valid in 150 years (if .txt files are still supported ) so even if it is not integrated NOW, I'll still be able to breath.

[Alec]

The main problem for me is I'm not sure how to integrate the unicode stuff necessary for actually displaying the translations.

[Xiagan]

It is no big deal for the German translation (which is finished, btw), because all our specials ä,ö,ü,ß are replacable through ae, oe, ue, ss. It still be nice, though.

I haven't posted the German subs yet because atm the symbols are used and I haven't bothered to replace them.
If sombody from Germany wants to have them, just tell me and I'll post'em.