vfig on 28/9/2018 at 08:12
I'm trying to understand the appropriate language settings to to put in the readme for my FM. Here's the setup I'm testing with (using NewDark's FMSel):
* The FM is primarily in English: all the original voice lines are only available in English, and all the text is available in English;
* I'm playing with the German version of Thief Gold (a.k.a. Dark Project: Der Meisterdieb: Director's Cut);
* But I'm supposing that I'd prefer French readables and/or subtitles if available.
And accordingly:
* install.cfg defines language german as expected.
* fm.cfg in my FM's directory defines variant_path english to ensure that the English voice lines and so on can be found.
* Following (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140086&p=2171674&viewfull=1#post2171674) this advice I've put fm_language french in cam_mod.ini (I also tried setting it user.cfg and the behaviour is identical).
Quote Posted by "Telliamed"
The change to FM language handling isn't described very well. Short of it is, put "fm_language whatever" in your cam_mod.ini and it will read FM resources in that language, no more having to rename folders and such.
This only partly works: the game's menus and so on are in German, as expected. The voice lines played are in English, as expected. The subtitles shown are the French subtitles from the FM. But the readables are in German, not French. Something's not working right: the 'language' setting is being used for readables instead of 'fm_language', and I expect the only reason the subtitles aren't in German is I don't have a German subtitle file!
I've not found any documentation of the fm_language setting
anywhere — Telliamed's post is the only mention I've found of it at all apart from log dumps.
I realise I might be trying too hard to get the "ideal behaviour" when the game+FM have different language resources and the player wants a third language, but it's not an unusual sort of configuration to have in software, especially in Europe! Unless most Thief players in and around Europe are using the English versions of Thief Gold, I expect some players to have this problem. And even if they're using the English version of the game, if the fm_language setting doesn't work right, then how do players configure the game to prefer different languages for readables, that is for FMs with translations?
TL/DR: If you play Thief FMs in a language other than English, what configuration settings do you use?
Yandros on 28/9/2018 at 11:55
I don't know anything about fm_language, but I will say that IMO the likelihood of anyone playing your mission with language and fm_language set to to two different, non-English languages is practically zero. I think you're wasting your time worrying about this scenario.
vfig on 29/9/2018 at 06:10
Yeah, I'm definitely chasing the wrong question here, trying to understand the technicalities of what the game will do instead of asking how people actually use it!