Create Translations section in the download page

[Axel]

@sev and others ScummVM project admins

I know that fan translations are not officially supported by ScummVM, since there are too many variants of each for every game. However, there are some 'High Quality' translations which I believe could be supported by ScummVM.

Particularly, the translations I am talking about are self-executable files which require to own the original version and run over its files patching them. Some of these translations are worth gold, and can not be found on the web anymore, since the original translators have gone out of business.

I had the voice about some Spanish translations originally placed in www.inter981.tk and managed to get a couple of them, and I got amazed by their quality. Hence I spent some time surfing the net trying to contact the people who was responsible of their creation. After some days and with a lot of luck I finally got in touch with them, and they confirmed me that they are not available anymore to download, but they kindly provided me the latest version of them all.

I was planning on mounting a website to share these files with the rest of the users, since as said before, they are top-class and I believe they are legal since they do not contain any copyrighted file from the games; but I thought it would be a better idea to ask first if you are interested on giving them an eye and create a section in the download page for translations.

These translations could also become officialy supported by ScummVM ports, since now when I add a patched/translated game to ScummVM it gives me something between 2-6 different choices, sometimes none of them is accurate to the game I am adding. I believe this is related to the md5 identifier, but I believe you are now using some more complex method to detect the right version of a game.

IMHO, having supported translations which are high quality and fully tested might save a lot of trouble to both developers and users which usually get half-assed translations which crash a lot and clutter the help thread with posts asking for help. Still, I am still a little worried about the legal part of these files. To my eyes, they are free of any copyrighted material and are public domain, however, I'd really appreciate if you could confirm this.

If you are interested I can provide you with these translations for your reviewing.

Best regards,

[ERKAN]

I know that fan translations are not officially supported by ScummVM, since there are too many variants of each for every game. However, there are some 'High Quality' translations which I believe could be supported by ScummVM.
Best regards,

They aren't oficially supported, but most of the Russian fan translations I use work with ScummVM!
I don't know whether they are legal or not, depends on the game, but I think it's better to leave a link at the forums, then you should let the ScummVM authors decide whether they should post it or not.

[Axel]

They aren't oficially supported, but most of the Russian fan translations I use work with ScummVM!
I don't know whether they are legal or not, depends on the game, but I think it's better to leave a link at the forums, then you should let the ScummVM authors decide whether they should post it or not.

Yes, they also work flawlessly in ScummVM, but I think they can get official support from the application to be detected correctly.

Nevertheless, I believe these are legal, on opposite to other translations which include the modified game files, these patches include absolutely no copyrighted code or game files. And I agree that it would be good to have these translation patches available for the ScummVM admins to test and decide. It is just that before I do that, I want to hear word from them to see if they are interested or not.

Have a great day,

[ERKAN]

On opposite to other translations which include the modified game files, these patches include absolutely no copyrighted code or game files.

LucasArts game translations don't feature any game files too but some consider game modifications to be illegal, in other words, to use them legally you must own a licensed copy of the game you wanna patch!

[Seldon]

to use them legally you must own a licensed copy of the game you wanna patch!

I didn't thought anyone could question that...

[Axel]

LucasArts game translations don't feature any game files too but some consider game modifications to be illegal, in other words, to use them legally you must own a licensed copy of the game you wanna patch!

Of course, translations patches are meant to be applied over legally owned versions, as with everything else that modifies game files (such as audio and video compression tools). That is why they don't include any game file among themselves.

[fingolfin]

Hi Axel,

just to clarify: we always try to support legal fan-translations, but are hesitant to include specific support for specific versions in ScummVM. E.g. in the SCUMM engine, we don't include MD5 checksum in the detection code for fan translations (for various reasons, one being that there are far too many of them), yet the detector tries hard to detect game variants even when they don't match any "known" MD5 checksum.

And I personally think that well-done fan translations are a great thing, as long as they are distributed as you described (i.e., requiring the original version).

Despite this, I believe that distributing these is out of scope for ScummVM and our website. It is true that we also distribute a couple adventure games which were released as freeware by the respective authors, but these are a special exception for various reasons.

However, if you or somebody else wants to setup a "central" website collecting legal fan translations resp. linking to them all, we could definitely link to it from our links sections, and also announce it in a news posting.

[ERKAN]

Of course, translations patches are meant to be applied over legally owned versions, as with everything else that modifies game files (such as audio and video compression tools). That is why they don't include any game file among themselves.

You don't get it, most of the russian translations aren't supplied as patches so I guess they are illegal, LucasArts wanted to sue one team for sharing the full games with the translations so now only LucasArts Russian game translations are available as patches

[Axel]

However, if you or somebody else wants to setup a "central" website collecting legal fan translations resp. linking to them all, we could definitely link to it from our links sections, and also announce it in a news posting.

fingolfin,

First of all, many thanks for your kind answer. I agree with you and I understand that distributing fan translations is out of scope of the ScummMV site.

However, I felt it was worth to try, since I have a full time job and children, so the time I can dedicate to set up a dedicated website might be very limited. Still, it would definitely be a good idea, and I might eventually find some time to do it. If so, I will contact the ScummVM Team so you can link to it.

If there is anybody else interested in setting up a site like this, please contact me, so we might be able to join efforts making it easier for everyone.

I also hope that if this goal is ever archieved, and we manage to gather enough legal high quality fan translations, those translations in the site might get official support from the ScummVM engine. I doesn't cost to dream, eh?

Just also wanted to clarify that I am not the author of any of those translations. I just spent a long time looking for them, and fortunately I got in contact with the authors. I believe there are many other ScummVM users which were in my same situation and would love to have easy access to these files.

Thanks to all ScummVM Team, keep up the great work and congrats on your success.

[sev]

One of the reason of not doing that is that when we put something on our website, we are ready to support it, that is process bug reports, make improvements etc. Unfortunately we have no means for doing that and no desire to stretch our standards and invite such people to the team.

However my own stance is that to gladly provide link to such central repository from our site if any. Just a note of caution, that this has to be a dedicated resource with no traces to illegal content.


Eugene

[maximus]

However my own stance is that to gladly provide link to such central repository from our site if any. Just a note of caution, that this has to be a dedicated resource with no traces to illegal content.


Eugene

Wouldn't that be more of a reason to manage the hosting? (to ensure that all content is on the up-and-up)

I'm wondering if it would be feasible to add an "unsupported" section to the downloads, or an entirely new page for "unsupported" content. This could include fan translations, or even some fan-based games (for example, AGI games). If it states on the page that the content is "Use at your own risk/discretion", that should (hopefully) keep support requests to a minimum.

Since the ScummVM site is central to all ScummVM users, it sort of makes sense ...

[fingolfin]

The SF.net terms of service would not allow us to host that content there, thus we would have to host it on our own webspace, and pay for the traffic. Sure, we do have a certain quota for free, however: Lots of medium sized files downloaded by lots of people equals loads of traffic... not sure I'd want to find out how much traffic we really can generate

[maximus]

The SF.net terms of service would not allow us to host that content there, thus we would have to host it on our own webspace, and pay for the traffic. Sure, we do have a certain quota for free, however: Lots of medium sized files downloaded by lots of people equals loads of traffic... not sure I'd want to find out how much traffic we really can generate

ScummVM does generate some revenue, so would hosting on Amazon S3 make sense for this? I'm not trying to be presumptuous here (regarding availability of finances) ... just trying to contribute to the discussion

For the US, the pricing seems to go something like this:

United States
Storage

* $0.150 per GB – first 50 TB / month of storage used
* $0.140 per GB – next 50 TB / month of storage used
* $0.130 per GB – next 400 TB /month of storage used
* $0.120 per GB – storage used / month over 500 TB

Data Transfer

* $0.100 per GB – all data transfer in

* $0.170 per GB – first 10 TB / month data transfer out
* $0.130 per GB – next 40 TB / month data transfer out
* $0.110 per GB – next 100 TB / month data transfer out
* $0.100 per GB – data transfer out / month over 150 TB

Requests

* $0.01 per 1,000 PUT, COPY, POST, or LIST requests
* $0.01 per 10,000 GET and all other requests*

* No charge for delete requests

[Axel]

Following on this topic, I don't think we need a lot of storage space, nor I think it would generate too much bandwidth consumption...

Translation patches files are only between 150Kb and 250Kb each.

I don´t think they will get downloaded massively as for example ScummVM is when a new version is released.

I think any free webhosting site would provide more than enough of the space and bandwidth we would need to store these.

Once again, my limitation is mainly the time required to set up a site like this, even though I'd really love to. However... maybe I will have to end up doing so... someday.

[bobdevis]

http://www.legaltorrents.com/

Ofcause, someone will have to make arrangements to be a continuous seeder to keep stuff alive.