brokensword1: Do not define alternative language in monolingual packages

Otherwise, scummvm (as of 2.7.0 at least) fails to start the game when the chosen language matches one listed which is also not the one the packaged data support.

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• c5fa3dc0 - brokensword1: Do not define alternative language in monolingual packages

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@menschel-d : are you here to comment ?

Hello everyone,

I've tested the language lists that I've added in commit 86ee8cf1 once more for the German and English versions of the game to which I have access.

To be more precise, I've tested the following package sets:

• German CD version
  • brokensword1-de-data_76_all.deb
  • brokensword1-de-orig-video_76_all.deb
  • brokensword1-orig-music_76_all.deb
• English version (from GOG)
  • brokensword1-en-data_76_all.deb
  • brokensword1-en-dxa-video_76_all.deb
  • brokensword1-ogg-music_76_all.deb

As a testing system, I've used an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with ScummVM 2.5.1.

Although each language version only features a single audio language, they also support additional languages as subtitles.

A complete list of possible languages can be obtained by starting scummvm without additional arguments and then trying to manually add the game:

Interestingly enough I get the same language list indepenent of whether I've installed the English or the German version, so it's basically a list of possible languages that might be supported.

I've then simply tried each language candidate for both the German and the English version. If the selected language is indeed not supported by the installed version of the game, then ScummVM will terminate with a segmentation fault.

As a proof of concept, here are a few screenshots showing the subtitles of the first scene in the game for all the languages that are supported by at least one of the aforementioned versions:

If you press F5 during the game, you even get a localized menu and title screen.

So to make a long story short, at least for ScummVM 2.5.1 these languages are indeed supported.

@vpelletier May I ask which language version of the game you've used for testing, and what the actual error message looks like?

I'm using the English version of the game as currently available from gog.com .

To reproduce the error message on scummvm 2.7.0+dfsg-1 (current Debian sid) I started scummvm with:

$ LC_ALL=C scummvm -q de -p /usr/share/game/brokensword1-en/ sword1

and here is the error message I see, in the middle of the scummvm window, first thing after the scummvm startup logo:

(LC_ALL is just to get the error message in English instead of the LANG-localised one)

In the scummvm UI, I cannot choose another language (disabled dropdown box):

It looks like there were substantial changes in scummvm since 2.5.1 then.

EDIT: I'm browsing through scummvm commits for the sword1 engine, and this one stands out: SWORD1: Switch to AdvancedMetaEngineDetection .

I have now successfully reproduced the problem with ScummVM 2.7.0.

Until and including ScummVM 2.6.1, the options menu still lists the different languages from the English GOG version:

In the game list there is now an option to group the games by certain criteria. When selecting "Language" as the grouping criterion, ScummVM states "LANGUAGE NOT DETECTED" for Broken Sword 1:

In ScummVM 2.7.0, the options now look the same as those which @vpelletier has posted:

Furthermore, when returning to the game list and grouping the games by "Language" again, the group headline now states "ENGLISH":

So the question boils down to whether the new language identification method is indeed the intended behavior, or whether it is a regression from the previous versions.

I opened ticket #14542 on the scummvm tracker to have their feedback on this.

Reply by criezy on the scummvm bug report:

Yes, even the original CD releases had subtitles for multiple languages, and being able to switch to a different language for subtitles was something I implemented a long time ago. Sadly this feature was lost when the detection code for the game was changed for the 2.7.0 release. This is a know issue, and I still have it on my list to bring this back.

So, the 2.7.0 state is not the intended behaviour.

So I believe this merge request can be closed. Feel free to do so if you agree.

intended behavior

On a more global the desired behavior is the Universal Operating System one, which GDP strive to implement by supporting as many translations as possible, even unofficial ones.

I believe this merge request can be closed.

It is a pinch sad to close a so perfectly documented MR. :-)

closed