Subtitles out of sync

[Gawam]

I've reported this problem, but patch after patch, nothing has been fixed.

I'm French and I do not support the French voice, which are horrible. So I played in English, with subtitles for better understanding. I am able to read English than listen. Except that subtitles are not synchronized with the voice. They are much too fast.

So it is unplayable. Since the first version I expect a patch to allow me to play, to understand the story and the game overall.

[Alan Phipps]

Are your subtitles in English or French? The English subtitles may seem fast to you if English is not your native language and you have to think through the translation before it disappears.

Why not play in French language with subtitles on and the voice channel sound turned low?

I am not being critical, just trying to understand your problem better.

(Link to Public beta thread.)

[God-Demis]

Really op? That is your solution? He tells you that the subtitles are out of sync and you tell him to lower the sound? My god, why do you do this? Why instead of fixing the sync of the subs you introduce us to a workaround? Fix it, or tell us that you can't fix it. Both solutions are acceptable, the one you offer is not.

[Goobers]

Really op? That is your solution? He tells you that the subtitles are out of sync and you tell him to lower the sound? My god, why do you do this? Why instead of fixing the sync of the subs you introduce us to a workaround? Fix it, or tell us that you can't fix it. Both solutions are acceptable, the one you offer is not.

Actually, his solution was the switch to French language, including the subtitles. As a native French speaker, he should be able to read it much faster.

And FYI, I am, for all intents and purposes, a native English speaker (technically, it's my third language, but I've lived in the US most of my life so I'm more comfortable with English than Chinese or Khmer). And I also use subtitles. I can read it just fine. I use it because I have a hearing issue where I can't filter out sound/background noise/music... meaning if the ships engine is going or there's too much background noise, I'll miss a few words here and there.

When I attempt to read other language subtitles and even listen to audio in what's supposed to be my primary or even secondary languages (Chinese or Khmer), I find exactly what Alan Phipps said... I have to mentally translate it to English and that ends up delaying my reading/understanding.

PS, "OP" is usually a reference to the "original poster" that created this thread, not the other person that responded.

[God-Demis]

The point is, since the first X game I ever played, that was X2 The Threat, the subtitles where always out of sync. And where never completely fixed. Seems like the people who are responsible on making this procedure are not very good at it. I am tired of people complaining about problems of the game and the operators/moderators(that was why I said op) tell excuses as an answer and possible workarounds. I don't want an workaround. I want a fix, or a statement that something is not possible to be fixed and the reasons. I just want to be treated like a normal person, not like a child.

[Goobers]

Adjusting the timing of an overlaid subtitle isn't hard... the issue is, what is the timing supposed to be?

You claim it's out of sync since X2... I've also played since X2 and never felt it was out of sync.

So it feels like it's boiling down to just your preferences vs mine vs someone else, etc.

[Alan Phipps]

@ God-Demis: Nobody treated you as a child here because nobody was directing any advice at you or your own game issues.

Neither was the OP here treated as a child, but rather his actual issue was explored a bit further and a possible temporary workaround was offered for his stated *dislike of the French voice acting*.

I am sure we can let him respond for himself in his own Technical Support thread should he wish to. That is more the way you treat someone as an adult.

By the way, a moderator here is usually just another player-volunteer and not an Egosoft developer, employee or 'operator' (whatever that is).

OK, back on topic now please.

[Gawam]

Are your subtitles in English or French? The English subtitles may seem fast to you if English is not your native language and you have to think through the translation before it disappears.

I tried in French and English, the result is the same. Subtitles are never synchronized, there is always this gap with the voice.

Why not play in French language with subtitles on and the voice channel sound turned low?

I confess to not having thought. But after testing, it is also unplayable. In many cases, it is not clear who is speaking.

Neither was the OP here treated as a child, but rather his actual issue was explored a bit further and a possible temporary workaround was offered for his stated *dislike of the French voice acting*.

I create the problem, it is true, with my rejection of the French voice. This does not apply for X-Rebirth only, but all the games. But if subtitles are not synchronized, what are they for?

[Alan Phipps]

Previous X games are unlikely to be changed in such respects now, but there may be time to improve things in X Rebirth.

I think that there are two things worth you doing for now.

First, if you can identify and list some of the worst dialogue/subtitle mismatch areas (such as by mission or character encounter), we can at least ask for those to be checked out by the devs and linguists in French and in English as a priority.

A second measure will need the gamefiles to be extracted so will not suit you if you are not able or willing to do to such modding. I believe that by renaming the extracted English voice folder to that of the French voice folder (after backing the latter up), you should be able to play with English voice and French subtitles with the Steam game language set to French. That way you can see the French text, subtitles and control captions while hearing the different character voices speak in English without having to think through their translation. The result may or may not be better than what you have tried so far, but could be worth trying if only once.

[Almsi]

I am also experiencing this issue, but with the english subtitles. The whole plot dialogue and especially the encyclopedia entries are out of sync. The text goes way ahead of the sound, and some phrases differ from the spoken lines.
But since there are people saying that they do not have any issue with english subs, probably it is a bug that affects only certain settings or system configurations.

I'm running the game on an AMD FX8350 4.2 with R9 280X, omega drivers installed, 16 GB RAM and highest possible settings.


PS: since the last patch, i keep getting crashes with a message that the video driver stopped working and recovered, i've spent the last few days formatting, reinstalling and trying to fix it. I was searching for a solution here but no luck so far, if you had such problems and i'm not the only one let me know, might put my mind at ease knowing my hardware isn't failing. Tho other games don't seem to have problems.

[UniTrader]

A second measure will need the gamefiles to be extracted so will not suit you if you are not able or willing to do to such modding. I believe that by renaming the extracted English voice folder to that of the French voice folder (after backing the latter up), you should be able to play with English voice and French subtitles with the Steam game language set to French. That way you can see the French text, subtitles and control captions while hearing the different character voices speak in English without having to think through their translation. The result may or may not be better than what you have tried so far, but could be worth trying if only once.

far simpler: set the startup parameters for XR like this:
-lang 33 -voicelang 44
no need to extract files and play around with them

[Alan Phipps]

@ Gawam: There you go, UniTrader has a simple solution for your trial that I knew nothing about until now!

@ Almsi: Thanks for the input on the subtitles issue but your video driver instability issue needs to go into your own separate thread with all your system information.

As far as the English subtitles are concerned, the difference between spoken and subtitle text is worrying and unusual if it is a regular issue for you - have you verified the Rebirth gamefiles cache recently and have you modified your game at all?

[Almsi]

Hello again.

I do not use any mods. And didn't change anything in the game files myself in any way. While trying to solve the crashes, i formatted the computer, reinstalled everything, including the game. Had the same issue with the subs.
And i had that problem before the crashes started, so i do not think they can be related in any way.

I'll get a nvidia card from a friend later today, will test it with that and see if they're out of sync as well or not.

[Alan Phipps]

@ Almsi: I was rather more worried about this comment than the sync business: "some phrases differ from the spoken lines" as that could have indicated a corrupt or modded game installation if it was frequent and severe. You have pretty much answered that concern now though.

[Almsi]

@Alan Phipps: To be honest, the difference is not that bad, might be caused by an american actor reading british lines, or the other way around. It also might seem worse than it actually is, since the text goes way ahead and can't read it "in real time", so to speak.

The nvidia card didn't fix the subs being out of sync.

Th othere are other obvious differences: when you open menus, like property owened for example, your head turns right towards your copilot,and a panel opens above that computer there, larger and more buttons.
On my AMD card, there was just a list opening in front of you,no animation,less buttons.

Oh, and it fixes the crashes

[Alan Phipps]

A change of graphics card and driver changing the system vulnerability to graphics crashes I can well understand, but also changing the gamecode and displayed actions in-game? I don't think that very likely!

Maybe you are seeing the result of a game update in that behavioural respect, or perhaps just a change of field of view, resolution or other in-game option.

[Pesanur]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but, not any fix to this problem yet?

I'm using Spanish subtitles, and they are showed too fast, not giving time to read them.