tymmur

Oh man, if that happens when you read Koiken Otome, then I better not do it at all

Sadly for you, I control both magic and Luna and will not do such a thing. I will not allow my precious Luna to aid undeads.

Sadly they are all too busy laughing at a failed coup attempt that they can't pay attention to you right now

After starting this thread: no at all

Have you ever heard about something called "the news"? They talk about nothing else today.

Your PM was intercepted by a hacker and posted online.

Go to the mall. There you will find a bench with some people drinking beer. They might join you if you give them beer for doing so.

Looks like the downtime is intentional. Somebody named PoodleCorp claims to be behind a DDOS attack. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/pokemon-go-down-servers-crash-nintendo-millions-try-access-game-a7140691.html

Which is why that isn't a good solution either. It's not even all computers, which have a DVD drive today. It's big and power hungry, which is why quite a number of laptops lacks them. I'm thinking some sort of solution where some sort of server is set up in windows. The user can open the browser and connect to the server and select the install dirs there and play as he likes. However since it's a server, other devices on the network can connect as well. Add some sort of "cache everything locally" for the client, then a properly made bookmark could be enough to have the VN on the go. AppStore requires Apple approving of the software, which I don't think will happen in this case, meaning a fully browser based solution would be preferred. The reason I say windows is because VNs tend to be installed in windows and it would be beneficial to have them in the same OS. Making the server cross platform would be better though. It's not that portable either because running unit scripts in windows is a hassle. I learned that if I need other people to execute something I wrote, telling them to install strawberry perl appears to be the way to go. It has a simple installer and has quite a number of unix tools. It also provides perl, which might also be useful.

No. I compared you to somebody, who had no understanding of ownership and rights to ownership. Considering that you still don't get why tracing is wrong, I will still claim you fail to understand ownership of images and what it implies.

I think the main problem is that @Nekolover never created anything people might steal and therefore completely lacks the awareness of what it's like to be the victim in such a case. When people create something of their own, they tend to put lots of time and love into their creations. If somebody else claims ownership, then it really hurts. On top of that, there is the financial part to it. Somebody else gets paid for what you did. I once encountered a guy, who started talking and he told that he had to break into a theater to see what was inside. He thought it was ok to break the door because they asked for it by locking it in the first place. I said the idea is that you pay to get in and see what they have inside and he went "no, that will cost money. I just want to see it. I don't want to pay". Unsurprisingly he also mentioned that he used to live in a home for criminal children removed from their parents. Sometimes you encounter the strangest people when standing on a train station. Somehow @Nekolover made me think of that guy. I'm not saying nekolover breaks the law, but the train of thought seems to be similar anyway. I can't tell if that is really skillful trolling or ignorance.

It's a tradeoff. Native implementation is more CPU efficient, but HTML5 makes it easier to be cross platform. Considering that devices like iPads appears to have been in mind when picking HTML5, I say it's a decent choice. If the "universal engine" is to be truly universally used, then it should adapt to ScummVM's approach where it can read the original source files. If somebody wants to play some VN you never heard about using a supported engine, the non tech people would really prefer a guide like "copy all the arc/bin/whatever the archives are called" and that's it. The reading could then be a plug-in system where 3rd party can write plugins for new engines. The approach with first converting the VN to a new format using one piece of software and then another piece of software to actually run it seems like a user unfriendly approach. Maybe a ScummVM like game selector menu could be nice. It could contain the import tool, in which case the user would feel that it's one piece of software even though it's a GUI, which actually calls multiple different pieces of software underneath.

I think that video says it all. The world has become full of zombies chasing virtual monsters and it appears quite dangerous.

I love the irony in multiple people liking this post

I'm a tech wizard.

While it's interesting to add support for more and more engines, what about improving support for the already supported engines? For instance make buttons and similar, which feels like the original VNs. Once Mikan gives a decent playing experience, which isn't degraded relative to the original VN, then it would make sense to add support for more engines.

I don't read the same into both sentences. In your version she flips through the book until she casually stops. In the original, she flips though the book and stops suddenly because she spotted something in the book. Sure I might be biased because I know the context of the entire scene, but I view that as a bonus. I think this will bring it closer to the meaning in the original line. The key difference here is that the stop comes very suddenly and completely unexpected to everybody, including herself. I agree that suddenly should be considered in each case. In this case it fits well because it's a very sudden event like "suddenly a loud bang could be heard and the lights died". The word suddenly tells that something happened without warning and likely quite unexpected. Other than that I really like the post. I will also add that I had the luxury of reading the VN when it was translated (the start that is. It's not done yet) and then again after Fred edited it. It was an amazing experience. The contents is more or less the same, but the reading experience and enjoyment have been significantly improved. I expected it to be an improvement, but not to the scale that it turned out to be. In fact when I read it yesterday, I realized that despite being aware that editing is a really good thing, I had still underestimated the importance of it. Reading the edited version compared to the unedited version was like... wow. Just wow. I think that's the most accurate description of my immediate impression.

It's commercial production. Learning a new engine and hence new "coding language" because it might be better involves the risk of completely wasting the time (hence money because he is paid) because it turned out that Unity would be the best choice. A free tool isn't free if you have to pay a worker to learn how to use it. Going with a tool, which requires no training of your staff is a valid approach. Another risk assessment they would have to do would be: what is the risk that we need something the engine can't provide? Unity allows coding it while Ren'py could be more problematic if that happened. In other words: Ren'py was likely dropped due to financial risk assessment rather than somebody being immature and too lazy to study a new engine. Sounds like it is building the engine and then port, which mean it isn't the timeframe for each port. You said stuff, which hinted in that direction, which is what I'm reacting to. However the word evil wasn't on my mind, in fact it would be the opposite if anything. I sense the issue is more like ignorance of how commercial code production works. It's very different from how people work for free on open source projects where moving in the wrong direction is just wasted time, but without financial consequences.

True, but that was due to @Fred the Barber going berserk over losing the link to his hive. Next person prefers all age VNs over 18+ ones.

I wouldn't call it immature. If you read Building a Better Higurashi by Doddler, then you will see that it writes about realtime rescaling of graphics to match screen resolution. Unity does this quite well while Ren'py... well Ren'py isn't written to maximize the performance in the GPU. This mean going with Unity will allow a better graphical experience. 1: how do you know porting itself takes 4-5 months for each port? 2: what is included in the porting time for MG? Doing what you did in a day will not take months. They might, you know, actually test what they made more than "the first 5 lines appears to work fine". You make it sounds like MangaGamer consists of a bunch of people who has no idea what they are doing. Considering they run a business and they have an engine, which seems to perform better than what you can offer, I say your words carry little weight. You might value their engine less than Mikan, but they optimized their engine for the best offline reader experience and in this field they beat your engine. You said your goal is cross platform support and online reading. Their aim is offline reading in windows, though Unity allows them to go cross platform without too much hassle. Don't get me wrong. Mikan is an impressive piece of software. It provides some features the unity based engine doesn't do or does worse. The problem I have with what you say is that Mikan is better. It looks like MG made an engine, which is significantly better than Mikan or most other engines when used as they intend it to be used: offline playing in windows.

That question contains the very essence of what editing is about. Not just about 〜, but in general. It goes for everything. Perhaps a bit more precise: "how would this line be written if it was originally written from scratch by a native English speaker and not based on a translation?". Reading the bullet lines I conclude it's one of those signs/words I don't like. The issue is that the meaning depends on context and sometimes the context doesn't provide the answer. This mean two people can read the same text and they end up not having read the same contents. Text should be clear and strait forward to deliver the meaning. Sure a VN could be intentionally vague to postpone revealing what really goes on until later, but that's not what I'm talking about here. It's about wanting to be clear and then write it in a way where people can read it in multiple ways. Considering that 〜 comes with such an issue, it can only be too slow to get rid of it and replaced with something, which can't be read in multiple ways.

You are being rational. Legal stuff doesn't work that way. They might write in the license contract that it has to be the same engine because then it will be the same file format/encryption. There could also be some complains from Japan that the new engine fail to display some effect correctly, hence altering the visual impression. While that is true, it will move to an always online solution, which will cause quite some negative talk. Plenty of people do not want that for multiple reasons, be it ideological or practical reasons.

That brings up an interesting question: if they haven't said anything about age rating, then why does VNDB say that they will turn an 18+ title into an all age title? I would have assumed the rating "unknown" unless they actually said anything. I would assume the same feeling in the English as in the Japanese if it contains the same scenes. My reaction is mainly aimed at scene removal, in which case it will become a different VN.

I'm feeling the same way. It's a shame that Sekai is butchering it by turning an 18+ title into an all age one.

I would however be sorry to see that happening because I really like the ability to play offline as well as with the lag we get from the HD rather than the internet. Looking at how people in general flame the "always online" need in some modern games, going all browser based could very well be a big mistake. They already felt the wrath of people hating DRM and online activation. Still I wouldn't rule out that they would have no interest at all as it would bring VNs to more devices, like iPads and mac/linux. They would however have the added costs of running a server to host such a service, which once again could make it risky for them. There could also be some issues with the VN licenses. They might not be allowed to "stream" the VNs online or port it to a different engine. They also have the cost of support. There are so many factors to consider other than how well the engine works that makes it tricky to figure out if MG is interested. My guess is that they will not be interested. Too risky from a business perspective.