Jump to content

Musumaker Translation Project (Mikan, Karin, Ichigo, Suika, Zakuro, Yuzu routes complete!)


RaurosFalls

Recommended Posts

26 minutes ago, kenVBliar said:

if you send it, I'll give it a go and see what happens...  got nothing better to do with my time and I'd love to be able to help out

Great. I will get back to you once I have HD images to decensor. It is released in a month from now. Actually quite precisely in a month because it is released on the 27th of May.

 

EDIT: just to be clear. Odds are that I will NOT have the images on release day, or the next day or anything like that. I need to extract all files and then verify that I can modify them and insert them back into the game engine without issues before any real work starts as it would be pointless to get started on something, which can't be used. The duration of this task is unknown as it depends on how many issues I encounter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds good, I'll be here.  I'll do my best to mess around with whatever you can send me and we'll see what happens. 

 

I confirmed the other issue I had mentioned earlier, with the ending scenes just going to black screens, were in fact fixed with the region/locale setting as well, so everything works fine now.  It was my first time finishing the game after many different attempts and I had forgotten to switch back to the Japan region the other day. 

 

If there is anything else I can do to help with whatever, let me know.  If I knew what kinds of coding requirements were needed I could start learning and maybe help out with that in the future as well...

 

the_w

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

There has been a bit of progress again. I started writing a script to extract the translated text and make it possible to put back into the game script. Next up is putting it back. If everything goes according to plan, it will be done in time for the release of the HD version. Once I have that one, all I have to do is to make it possible to insert text into both versions and we can reuse the translation in the HD version. It requires some automated checks if the lines changed and stuff like that. It is a whole lot of work, yet the workload seems to be minor compared to do all this manually. Also the time I spend is extra time spend, not taken from translation time.

 

Meanwhile the translation progresses. Suika's route is nearly complete. It's missing 11 of her spoken lines, meaning it's missing 20-25ish lines.

 

I plan to do a patch release ASAP for the HD version. At this point I don't really care about translation milestones, just release something for the HD version as it would be better than nothing. The release date is "when it's working", which sadly might take a while. There are so many details to look into. Most noteworthy is redrawing all the buttons to contain English text, though unless some graphics artist magically appears and does them, odds are that the outcome with be something quick and ugly to at least get started. My goal isn't to make everything perfect, but to make it playable and then perfect in the next patch. Any graphics artists around, who likes to draw buttons? (no, I didn't write bottoms, though decensor artists are welcome too).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finished my programming project, meaning I can now pull text from the game script and insert it again. A brief look tells me that it is working, but due to the importance of no failure at this point, I plan to walk through all files and get the computer to show changes to make sure it didn't change anything I didn't plan to change. With a bit of luck, the system I have made will be plug-n-play for the HD version as well. A nice bonus is that it will be much easier to translate now and much harder to mess up the code while doing so. I will write more about how easy it is to translate once the system is ready to be used for actual translation work (not just for testing).

 

News on the official HD release

Looks like there are new info for the HD version. It was originally scheduled for a release on the 27th, but now it says 24th, though it doesn't seem to be updated everywhere. HD requirements have been increased from 5 to 9 GB. The minimum OS requirement is listed as vista on the official site, but getchu and similar tends to write that it works on XP.

 

I wouldn't consider any of those changes major, but they are still big enough to be mentioned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now there is a consensus on the release date. It is now Friday the 24th of June. While the delay isn't ideal, it's still better than releasing something, which would have to be patched afterwards in order to be useful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello guys. Just discovered this project and although I can't help you because I'm busy with other projects myself I just want to wish you luck, because you're doing a titanic work here and you'll need as much support as you can get.

Have a nice day guys! :sachi:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Aizen-Sama said:

Hello guys. Just discovered this project and although I can't help you because I'm busy with other projects myself I just want to wish you luck, because you're doing a titanic work here and you'll need as much support as you can get.

Have a nice day guys! :sachi:

Thanks. You are right that the workload is massive. RaurosFalls translated around 28% himself, which is around 14k lines and around 400k kanji/hiragana. Quite impressive, but I wonder if the workload is taking it's toll on him. It would be nice to get some support for him. Not just nice words, but more translators to take active part in the translation.

 

What is the best way to attract more translators? Just making this thread and announce recruitment haven't resulted in any useful translated text. I'm wondering about trying some active recruitment, but I'm a bit uncertain on how to do it best.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, tymmur said:

Thanks. You are right that the workload is massive. RaurosFalls translated around 28% himself, which is around 14k lines and around 400k kanji/hiragana. Quite impressive, but I wonder if the workload is taking it's toll on him. It would be nice to get some support for him. Not just nice words, but more translators to take active part in the translation.

 

What is the best way to attract more translators? Just making this thread and announce recruitment haven't resulted in any useful translated text. I'm wondering about trying some active recruitment, but I'm a bit uncertain on how to do it best.

Well, I'll try to give you my impression on the matter. In my honest opinion, either the game you are translating is known, you wait long enough and somehow a person willing to translate appears (unlikely) or you actively recruit. My team is looking for translators as well, and being active not just here, but in several places (team's website if you have one, social media, other forums, etc...) is what will guarantee the arrival of translators in the long run.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did an interesting experiment. I took the HD screenshots and searched the net for similar screenshots from the old version. I decided to go all age only, meaning I can post all of it in this post. I could make my own screenshots to make them more identical, but I don't think it's worth the time. I might write a bit of code to make the very same screenshot in both versions once I have both versions.

 

Spoiler

827068-screen73.jpg

 

 

Spoiler

gamen02.png

Spoiler

827075-screen100.jpg

Spoiler

gamen.png

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got news of the progress. After some negotiation with Luna Translation, we merged, or you could say we joined their team. Naturally this mean major changes and I will try to sum them up here.

 

  • Majo Koi Nikki is being translated right now
  • Musumaker have no active translation right now
  • Musumaker will be translated by Luna Translations once Majo Koi Nikki is done
  • Efforts to make a HD patch ASAP is unchanged

 

While it may sound like a delay, it really isn't. Luna Translations started out with just one translator two weeks ago and now there are 4 (and still recruiting. Do tell if you are interested). The team also has an editor, meaning translators should only translate, not edit. In fact translators would not have to do anything but translate as all other tasks are dealt with by other people. RaurosFalls worked as sole translator and editor for Musumaker and the result has been that he got through less lines in a month than Luna Translation have gone through each week so far.

 

This mean even though Musumaker has become second in the queue, the ETA for a full translation has become much lower. Assuming the translation progress for the last week will stay stable, the remaining lines in Musumaker would be possible to translate in just 10 months. RaurosFalls would need years to finish on his own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, Tymmur pretty much summed it up for me. We'll be tackling this project when ours is finished, and if we keep our current speed we will only take 10 months to finish the game. After so many years Musumaker will finally be finished! 

I'm the current recruiter/main editor of Luna Translations and we're very glad we took on this project. If you're by any chance interested in joining our ranks be sure to pm me!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Haah... I would like to help this and so many other projects but unfortunetly my japanese language knowledge is just a few basic words and lines they use on a daily basis right now.

Anyone know a good way to learn the language (especialy the kanji reading) alone to help out projects like this one?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/11/2016 at 0:02 AM, Klonosz said:

Haah... I would like to help this and so many other projects but unfortunetly my japanese language knowledge is just a few basic words and lines they use on a daily basis right now.

Anyone know a good way to learn the language (especialy the kanji reading) alone to help out projects like this one?

To be honest, that's kind of the wrong mentality to have. For starters, you need to know more than just some kanji, you need a solid mastery of the language to be a decent translator, and that means a couple years of studying. We don't really need more people in this scene who spend a couple months learning basic grammar and a few dozen kanji, trying to make sense out of the VNs they're "translating." 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/6/2016 at 11:12 PM, Decay said:

To be honest, that's kind of the wrong mentality to have. For starters, you need to know more than just some kanji, you need a solid mastery of the language to be a decent translator, and that means a couple years of studying. We don't really need more people in this scene who spend a couple months learning basic grammar and a few dozen kanji, trying to make sense out of the VNs they're "translating." 

As much as I would like assistance from more people, I have to agree with this statement. Looking at the log and old forum posts, I would say RaurosFalls started out like that. The will to translate, but not really the Japanese skills to do so. He translated the best he could, studied whenever he had a problem and studied in general and within 3-4 years he actually became a decent translator. Being quality minded, he then went back and retranslated everything he had touched so far a 2-3 times (not editing, actual translation work relative to the original lines). The quality improved significantly and this is the quality you see in the patch. This mean it is possible to train to become a translator, but it takes so long that Musumaker will hopefully be fully translated once the training pays off and delivers quality good enough. I would still encourage people to start studying Japanese if they want to translate. Just do not expect to start translating Musumaker within a few months.

 

Speaking of quality, I plan on adapting the approach used for Majo Koi Nikki. This mean translation, tlc, edit, qc and so on. Joining Luna Translations allows shifting the focus from just getting the VN translated to getting a quality translation. More on this later. For now I will just say there is a much stronger focus on quality than there used to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2016/6/12 at 11:12 PM, Decay said:

To be honest, that's kind of the wrong mentality to have. For starters, you need to know more than just some kanji, you need a solid mastery of the language to be a decent translator, and that means a couple years of studying. We don't really need more people in this scene who spend a couple months learning basic grammar and a few dozen kanji, trying to make sense out of the VNs they're "translating." 

I agree, though this line: "We don't really need more people in this scene who spend a couple months learning basic grammar and a few dozen kanji..." comes off very wrong.

We do indeed need more translators, and everyone has to start off somewhere. (You obviously should not translate in that state, but motivation goes a long way when you start learning.) Telling someone they aren't needed in the scene, as if it belongs to you somehow, doesn't sound right at all. Might be a good idea to mind your wording a bit, as it comes off a little too harsh.

 

Anyways, it's nice to see Luna translations branching out. Best of luck guys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

I agree, though this line: "We don't really need more people in this scene who spend a couple months learning basic grammar and a few dozen kanji..." comes off very wrong.

We do indeed need more translators, and everyone has to start off somewhere. (You obviously should not translate in that state, but motivation goes a long way when you start learning.) Telling someone they aren't needed in the scene, as if it belongs to you somehow, doesn't sound right at all. Might be a good idea to mind your wording a bit, as it comes off a little too harsh.

I think that's more or less what I said as well. More translators will always be needed and I would not flame people for wanting to start. If I could, then I would love to open some "translator school/training ground". However now that a quality translation of Musumaker is within reach, I will not sacrifice it to train some wouldbe translators. It might be an idea to make a translation project with an easy to read VN for new translators to train themselves, but Musumaker will not be used that way.

 

33 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Anyways, it's nice to see Luna translations branching out. Best of luck guys.

I'm not sure branching out is the right choice of words for this. The plan is to translate Majo Koi Nikki before starting/continuing on Musumaker, not to translate in parallel. I'm currently the only one working on it and I'm restructuring/reorganizing how the translators need to input the translation. This will make it easier for the translators, less risk of screwing up (like touching a line of code, which then makes the game crash) as well as making administration easier. I can't really do this while translators are working, which makes right now is the perfect time to do something like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Musumaker HD got delayed again. They found an error in their master and has delayed the release by one day. It will now be released on the 25th. source

Since they announced this 8 days before the release, odds are that they are stuck with their master and a bunch of already produced DVDs. My guess is that there is a bugfix patch on their homepage on release day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DigitalCute released a demo video of the HD version: http://digitalcute.com/digitalcute/musumakerhd/special#movie (spoiler warning, though not overly serious)

I had problems playing it in the browser, but there is a download button and the mp4 file plays fine in VLC. It's a 588 MB download though.

 

The video is 8:15 long and is at full resolution, which means 1280x720, aka 720p. Some comments compared to the 2008 release:

  • resolution is 1280x720 instead of 800x600 (as expected)
  • sprites are animated
  • CG animation improved
  • each person has a unique color for nametag and text. The nametag might be a sprite
  • the pixel blur censuring use smaller pixels. It looks way better and you can get a glimpse of what is behind the blur
  • looks like some sprite based conversations have been replaced with event CGs
  • the backgrounds of the rooms appears to be upscaled rather than drawn at full resolution (still looks ok)
  • Converting 4:3 to 16:9 seems to have cut top and bottom once in a while, which may or may not matter
  • Karin's training scene looks bad in 16:9. The anus is out of frame, which will likely make anything anal related quite dull
  • the date thing in the top left rotates. It quickly gets annoying. Odds are that I can freeze it in place though, which mean this might not really be an issue. They might have made this animation optional
  • audio appears to be unchanged. They are likely reusing the very same files

Overall fairly impressive and the higher resolution looks much better. Not sure what to say about the switch to 16:9. The training seems overly zoomed in now, but we can't be 100% sure it's the same once it's released. I certainly hope they didn't end up releasing with an anal scene with the anus out of frame (which was in frame in 4:3).

 

EDIT: it just occurred to me that they might have zoomed in too much in training scenes intentionally. After all they are of a nature, which most places wouldn't even allow in a video. I guess we really will just have to wait and see how it turns out. I will tell here once I know more.

 

EDIT2: added comment on audio. Not really anything to say about that though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Musumaker HD is out. As predicted they have a patch on release day: official patch.

Sadly there is no sign of a free trial version.

 

EDIT:

Now that there are two patches out on release day, I have decided not to do anything for the time being. If I start working on the script and a patch comes out and updates the script, it will be more work for me, possibly significantly more. Because of that I will wait for the time when I sense that they stopped throwing out hotfix patches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So now that Witch's Garden has been picked up by Luna Translations does that mean this VN has gotten pushed back even further? Hope not considering I'm looking forward to this one the most out of the three. At least I think it is 3 now, don't know if I missed one. Though I do hope you guys manage to translate them all. Good luck to you all and hope this grouping turns out for the better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, Codesterz said:

So now that Witch's Garden has been picked up by Luna Translations does that mean this VN has gotten pushed back even further? Hope not considering I'm looking forward to this one the most out of the three. At least I think it is 3 now, don't know if I missed one. Though I do hope you guys manage to translate them all. Good luck to you all and hope this grouping turns out for the better.

Regarding that, the ETA for Musu hasn't changed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure the Witch's Garden translation will affect Musumaker at all. The merge is at leadership level, not that much on workforce level and the two projects will run in parallel. This mean we will not move people from Majo Koi Nikki to Witch's Garden. Instead they will be "new" people as in the people already working on that VN as well as new recruits. This means the ETA for Majo Koi Nikki should be more or less unaffected and the same goes for the start date of Musumaker.

 

Nothing can really be done about Musumaker for a while anyway. It seems that they are spraying out hotfix patches right now. 3 already this weekend. It really need to stabilize before anything can be done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Aizen-Sama said:

Regarding that, the ETA for Musu hasn't changed.

 

2 minutes ago, tymmur said:

I'm not sure the Witch's Garden translation will affect Musumaker at all. The merge is at leadership level, not that much on workforce level and the two projects will run in parallel. This mean we will not move people from Majo Koi Nikki to Witch's Garden. Instead they will be "new" people as in the people already working on that VN as well as new recruits. This means the ETA for Majo Koi Nikki should be more or less unaffected and the same goes for the start date of Musumaker.

 

Nothing can really be done about Musumaker for a while anyway. It seems that they are spraying out hotfix patches right now. 3 already this weekend. It really need to stabilize before anything can be done.

Nice to hear this. My dumbass brain automatically went into pessimist mode upon seeing the Witch's Garden revival post. :amane:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...