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Outer Wilds fan makes a functional version of the alien translatorThe latest in Earthian technology
The latest in Earthian technology
The enigmatic system ofOuter Wildsis packed with scary things you wouldn’t want running around in real life: spine-tingling cosmic anglerfish, endlesstime loops, and a bunch of existential dread. (Oh, wait a minute.) Although, the spacefaring adventure has at least one tool that would be handy in everyday situations: the translator. One Redditor has thankfully recreated a functional version of the translator andthis clipshows the delightfully faithful tool.
6 Reasons Outer Wilds Is One Of The Best Adventure Games Ever Made | Outer Wilds ReviewWatch on YouTube
6 Reasons Outer Wilds Is One Of The Best Adventure Games Ever Made | Outer Wilds Review
The revolving planets in Outer Wilds have walls full of an ancient hieroglyphic language that you can scan and then translate onto a blue handheld screen. Redditor u/Snicker-Snag’s tool supposedly translates Spanish, French, and Japanese into English. So, it’s not the latest in Hearthian technology, although it looks exactly like the in-game tool.
“This translation isn’t actually handled on the device,” u/Snicker-Snag explained through a comment. “The device captures an image then sends it to my phone over bluetooth to use Android’s offline image-to-text and machine translation APIs.” Their phone then sends the translation back to the blue screen to be displayed. The can of marshmallows in the video, however, is empty. But I’ll ignore that lore inaccuracy due to how obviously impressive the device is.
The origin of the device is quite simple: “I played the Outer Wilds back around the end of 2022 and got the idea in my head at some point that a functional translator should exist,” says u/Snicker-Snags. They “might eventually post all the files” for the project online, which would allow fans to create their very own replicas or improve upon the already-great work that’s here. Sounds almost like a missed merchandising opportunity for Mobius Digital and/or Annapurna Interactive.
That’s one small source of joy, found in an overall great game. “Overflowing with a toyish love of astronomy and physics,” Brendan Caldwell said inour Outer Wilds review, “it jettisons stuffy formulae for adventures on dangerous planets full of sand, and one-way trips to icy comets hurtling around the sun. We don’t do star ratings on RPS, but if we did I’d give Outer Wilds a small galaxy.”
Outer Wilds is usually £21/€23/$25 onSteamand theHumble Store, but it’s currently enjoying a -40% discount on both storefronts. Theexcellent Echoes Of The Eyeexpansion is also on sale.
