Roblox, the popular online gaming platform, will roll out automatic translation for 15 languages in 2024. This will allow users to translate all of the text in Roblox games, including chat messages, menus, and game descriptions. Roblox is also working on translating images, 3D models, and in-game items.
According to a blog post from Roblox, automatic translation on Roblox will work using natural language processing (NLP). In layman’s terms, NLP is a field of computer science that deals with the interaction between computers and human language. Roblox is building its own NLP models to translate Roblox content specifically.
This includes text, images, 3D meshes, avatar items, game products, game passes, badges, and even voice chat. For example, a Spanish-speaking user will be able to play an English-language game and see all of the text translated into Spanish. Another good example is a French-speaking user will be able to chat with a German-speaking user in real-time, and each user will see the chat messages translated into their own language.
It’s incredible to think about. Here are the languages specifically:
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Thai
- Turkish
- Vietnamese
Developers can help by making sure that all of the text in their games is properly formatted and localized. They need to avoid using slang or jargon because the meaning of slang changes over time and is based on region. They should also provide context for the text in their games so that language models can better translate.
While there are some places that can already do this well, they are normally structured and set in what they do. For example, a school my children have gone to was able to translate an English speaker’s words to Spanish automatically while also providing captions on a screen in both languages for everyone to see.
The main difference between a government building and Roblox is that a game community like Roblox is a huge environment with many factors and variables changing almost monthly. If Roblox is successful, it will be a major breakthrough for automatic translation.
Automatic translation on Roblox is still in beta testing, but it is expected to be rolled out to all users in early 2024.
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