Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General fan-made Czech localization via AI would be illegal?

Hello,
I have a question, my friends and I are really enjoying the early access Baldur's Gate 3, the only thing that spoiled our experience was the localization to our language. I am a programmer and I wrote a program that translated the early access texts into Czech, via AI translator. The translation wasn't perfect, of course, but more than sufficient except for some anomalies that weren't difficult to fix manually, so we enjoyed the game 100%. I didn't distribute the translation in any way, only me and my friend have it.

The full game is coming out in a few days and the text in it will be very extensive, up to 16 times compared to early access from what I've found. And it would be very difficult for me to do this translation alone. So I contacted a group of translators who are dedicated to machine AI translation. And they would love to collaborate on such a project, but they don't want to because another translation group says they have a contract with Larian for this translation. And maybe they do, I'm not saying they don't, but it's a translation that will then be available on Steam. It's just that they haven't even been able to release a localization for early access in 3 years, I don't want to know how long it will take to translate the whole Baldur's Gate 3. Plus their leader is a horrible choleric and goes over corpses to prevent any other translation, that's why he claims that anyone who does a translation without a contract is doing it ILLEGALLY.

We would produce a sufficient translation, free of charge, and it would be up to everyone to download that translation or not. Just a fan translation. And I personally believe that even such a translation would help a lot with the sales of the game, as hundreds of players from our, albeit small, country are already writing that they simply won't play the game without a translation. I am writing this post because I don't want to have any problems and to convince the translation group that we can't have any problems with Larian. Of course, I tried to email Larian directly, but I haven't gotten a reply yet, and I may find answers here. I want to know if it is possible to do such a Czech translation, or if there really are no rules for that and we could get into trouble.

Thank you

Idk, but someone most likely has already been tasked with Czech translation, given DOS2 got a Czech localisation.

I doubt there would be legal repercussions, unless you guys try to monetize it.

Illegal for you to mod it? No.

But it is likely to open the possibility of the translation company getting sued by the other one. They probably don't want to risk a lawsuit for a small amount of money.

Yes, the same group that did the translation for DOS2 was in charge of the translation, but they have a deal with Larian (supposedly) that will probably come out on Steam as well, from what I understand. It's just going to take an awfully long time. I appreciate their work and will probably download their Czech too, but I just don't feel like waiting, like a lot of other people.

I want to play in Czech ... for all those words with 3-4 consonants and not a vowel in sight ... a pity there is no Krt Wildshape ...

But the other translation group, the one I'm in contact with, is just a fan group. They all do it for free in their spare time. What could the other group possibly sue them for?

If it’s all for free and they’re not a formal company, and you release it as a free mod hosted on a free platform, and if, being AI produced, it is not high quality enough to replace the eventual official translation (not a market substitute), I THINK you should be good, but I am not familiar with EU laws regarding this issue.

I think most Czechs want to play in Czech. I can send you a link to youtube where my friend and I played the game in my AI translation. So you can see what state it's in. As I write in the original post, there are anomalies, but they were not a problem to fix, now I have fixed some things. That's why I would like to work with that group, so that more of us can debug these bugs.

I see. As long as they don't make any money doing any translations (for anyone or anything), then they are probably good. If they sell translation services at all though, in the U.S. it would be enough to get it in front of a judge which means legal fees.

They do not make money from translations, or offer translation services. But neither does the other group, it's also a group that operates solely on voluntary donations. But on their forum they post things like anyone who does translation without having a contract with the company is doing it illegally, which I personally thought was stupid from the start and they just want to maintain their exclusivity.

Earlier this year, the group that does these AI translations for games did a translation for an unnamed game that the other one was working on, and they had some beef with each other, but only on the internet, Facebook, etc.

But now they're saying things like it's illegal, etc. That's why I'm getting more detailed information.

Beef =/= Legal Action.
If they don’t have legal grounds to sue, their complaints don’t matter. 😎

With Siege of Dragonspear it was the same with the German translation. It took years and was bad because no native speakers were hired. A German volunteer team released a language patch and asked Beamdog to use it. Beamdog refused because they were two-track and the other team was probably close to completion. But the patch was still made freely available in relevant German forums because it was also the better and more immersion-logical translation. I think it's just like benbaxter says, as long as the translation is not offered for money, it's like any mod, a freely provided extension. Of course, if in doubt, you can just ask Larian if they have anything against it?

Thank you for your reply with an example. This translation would of course only be made as a freely available "mod". I wrote to Larian at info@larian.com, but they did not reply.

Or consult a local attorney.

There is several groups working on Czech localisation allready ...
The bigest one would most likely be this: https://prekladyher.eu/preklady/baldurs-gate-3.590/

They even take more people, if you wish to help ... it would probably be much more productive, if more people would join forces, rather than create bzillion separate projects.
But, its your decision ofc.

I dont ...
Most names of places, spells and people sounds horrible in our language ... not many people play with words carefull enough to make it sound interesting. xD

There are exceptions tho!
Like Lord of the Rings, wich had phenomenal translation. :3

Can you think of a bad example? I'm just curious.

Yeah, asking on a gaming forum whether or not something would be legal is like asking which is a more miserable city to live in in August, Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Yes, I know about them, that's the exact group I was thinking of. It's just that their translations take an insanely long time. I understand that if more of us were involved, it would be easier, but even 10 people can't help here. It's a huge project.

And this English would be fast, but not as good.
But I'm saying, it's sufficient. We've played it a few times with Early Access and we can't imagine playing it now without localization. I don't want to compete with anyone, I'm saying I'll gladly download the translation from Prekladyher when it's ever finished and play through the game again.

That's why I say most. Not everyone. But this isn't Call of Duty, there's a serious need to know English very well

Not much from the top of my head. :-/

Im particulary alergic on "Stříbrolunní" wich is often used as translation for "Silvermoon city".
And in context of BG-3 ... "Srdcestín" is in this particular project translation for "Shadowheart".

Said few thousands people.