I'm aware that there are several points in the game where a trigger is waiting only for an audio clip to finish playing. I'm wondering if any specific language version will have shorter on average audio. According to steam, the full audio is available for the game in German, French and English.
I'm going to try finding specific audio clips that the game is waiting for. Would anyone with a non-English version of the game be willing to check the length of these clips so we can see which version is the shortest overall?
yes I can
I thought about that to, but do you know which files to check ? I think this is important for the moment in Territory when we wait for a gunship to blow up a forcefield after the spider droid encounter, and also for the coward trooper clone speech on the first level of Assault Ship
you'll also have to tell me how to open .uax files ; or will we have to check in-game ?
You can extract specific sound files from the uax files using unrealed. I'm working on a process that can hopefully make doing it as fast as possible. Also, if you know of any more points where you are waiting for dialog, please let me know and I'll check them out. Some briefing scenes that we can't skip might have this.
strength of brothers (07's introduction) into the hive (is the advisor's speech related to the lift door ?) into the hive (at the end, when we're about to grapple down) to own the skies (waiting for the first demolition spot to appear) territory (spider droid's introduction + gunshipman)
the prosecutor (dialog between squad member + lame trooper) the prosecutor (dialog with 07 before slicing the terminal) delta down (07 going down) unwelcome visitors (38's monologue at the end, it's nothing though) alone (40 slicing the door) jailbreak (between 62's revival and the barricade blowing up) tactical suppremacy (advisor speech at the end) lockdown (advisor's speech before the slicing spots appear) lockdown (advisor's speech before the demolition spot appears) wrath of the republic (advisor speech at the end) saving the ship (advisor's speech at the beginning) saving the ship (advisor's speech before the demolition spot appears) overwhelming the odds (clones dialogues + advisor's speech before the walker platform is lowered to access the end) deus ex machina (07 talking about good ol' times) deux ex machina (final dialogs)
rescue tarful (advisor's speech before the demolition spot appears) bodyguards (advisor's speech at the end) critical strike (advisor's speech once the gunship is here) frontline (briefing) a bridge too far (briefing) a bridge too far (dialogs when the demo charge misfires) fate of the resistance (dialogs dealing with the wookie corpses before the 2nd guard spawns) search and destroy (briefing) heart of the citadel (briefing) the final strike (final dialogs)
Awesome. That should make it easier for me. I found a way of extracting all of the sound files, so it's just a matter of using Unrealed to find the file names of the sounds that are playing. The file names should be the same between different language versions, so I can just write a script that gets the right files from a list and adds up their total time. Would it be possible for me to get the geo/ras/yyy_voice.uax files from you? Then I can check to make sure the file structure is the same.
Thanks. I checked all of those spots out, and of them, all of them were actually waiting for dialogue, except:
Door opening after 07 is incapacitated in delta down Barricade explosion after 62 revived in Jailbreak Terminals and demo charge active in Lockdown Delay after destroying Trando dropship in Wrath of the Republic Most of the dialogue in saving the ship levels Briefing in frontline
These ones use timers instead of sound cues.
Then I extracted all of the sound files and wrote a script that compiles all of the sounds that you are waiting for. It turns out that the French version of the game is... a whole 6 seconds faster.
Which isn't huge. I wasn't expecting the difference to be huge, but I thought it would probably be at least 30 or so. But nope. It also turns out that the game has a lot of waiting around for dialogue. About 5 minutes of it. I'll have to try getting my hands on a copy of the German sound files, but I'm not very confident that the difference will be that great after this. It is interesting, as French supposedly has a slightly lower information rate than English, but I suppose there are translation differences that make it irrelevant.
But this brings up something else. Can we just delete the sound files altogether? Stopping the game from autosaving by manipulating the file system that the game is in is allowed. Is deleting the sound files going to far? It would save somewhere in the vicinity of 2-3 minutes, by my guess, from the total run.
I don't hide that the expirement would be interesting
but I consider that avoiding autosave is just an adjustement. And it doesn't (directly) save time (just reduces lag - we'll all agree that lag is a terrible thing - therefore saves time since I don't have to wait for the lag just as a matter of safety). Like, my game is in 16:9 too, technically it gives me a wider field of view, but... :/ I don't how to feel about this... this seems fair to me.
Whereas deleting files from the game seems not.
Btw, as you're forced to replace the dialog files to actually change language, that enters the field of what is borderline. But we can agree that changing the game language is just an adjustement too (it surely is).
We had this kind of discussion before on the forum, concerning the sniper rifle. Since we can consistently exploit the zoom damage modifier, I brought out that it wouldn't be different if we were to directly change the weapon damage in the game code, or map a macro to make the move. The argument ended with the conclusion that this wasn't legit, and all the modifications should be done through the game menu (and not the console).
Those graphics and language change overstep this rule, but I guess we'll have to make an amendment. (guys still around, would you give your opinions ?)
So for the moment have fun messing with the game, I'm looking forward to hearing from your report, but I'm arguing it could not be received as a run.
I agree. Not only is it a modification of the game that actually improves time, but it's really boring actually. I tried it out just to see if it worked, and having no dialogue makes it much less interesting in my opinion.
how will we get the information for other languages though ? There are no ressources online so far
I think you have to have the steam version of the game, then you can switch the language in your steam account and it will change the version that you get, but I'm not totally sure. I don't have the steam version, and it's probably not going to be any or much faster for the German version, so unless someone else has the steam version and wants to try getting it I'm not going to spend the money for it.
I have a physical version only, and I've seen steam threads where people complain that the steam version is in english and can't be changed. Our best chance is to ask some players from different locations but I think this is getting out of hand right now, the speedrun isn't competitive enough for us to start considering this kind of timesaves.
Spanish and Italian versions also exist.
@Lucky we just did and the timesave is worthless
the run is 1h50 long by now and noone is hyped to compete with those times, those 6 seconds are completely superficial
Exactly. So if someone happens to volunteer other language files, I'll check them. But if they are any faster, it's probably not worth switching versions for, so I'm not going to actively look for them.
I'm playing through the game with all sound file removed, just to see what happens.
I forgot these places :
to own the skies: 2nd demo spot belly of the beast: final dialogs
nothing new on Assault Ship
a lot of time is gained on Kashyyyk it feels really nice
as seen on twitch there is also a Russian version. And I think there might be Polish and Czech versions too
I think switching languages is ok (because the game was made in different languages), but removing game files to save time is actually a hack, so shouldn't be allowed.
This thread is broken. But it's letting me post now, which is nice.
I got the steam version and tested German. It is 14s faster than French, and 20s faster than English. Since I have it now, I think I might just use the German version, as there aren't any audio cues really, so it's basically a free 20s. But it's still not that much. Steam has support for Italian and Spanish subtitles, but no audio.
