[Mobius]

Depends on BSG fans, though...if many of them would like to do it, well...

[KaraBulut]

I can translate the English version to Turkish.
But I don't how to do it. I doubt it'd be like editing a text file.

[Mongoose]

It pretty much would be, for the most part.  There's one table file that would allow you to translate all of the general interface text, and you'd be able to take care of in-mission text simply by opening each mission up in FRED and changing the relative dialogue.

[Mobius]

You need to extract "strings.tbl" from the root FS2 VP file and then open it with notepad to translate it.

As for the missions I think Karajorma is right, there should be a tstrings.tbl file the translators will be assigned to edit. Changing the mission files means propagating the same bugfixes several times(English version of mX fixed, Spanish version of mX fixed, Italian version of mX fixed, etc. etc.) which surely isn't the best choice.

[karajorma]

Well work on translating strings.tbl can be done now as we'll just be using the FS2 version. Any version translated now would also have the advantage of working with pretty much every other mod and TC for FS2_Open since I don't think any of them have ever bothered with a translation project before.

I don't think any of the translations will actually work in-game until someone makes the font required for them available but that's pretty easy if you use the fonttool program (which I happen to have a copy of here) and I believe the version for French and German (which should also be good for other languages) are available from here.


Anyway this is a path I've been down several times before. Someone says that they're willing to translate the game but when it comes down to actually doing it nothing happens. Translating strings.tbl is something that can be done now. I'm even going to attach a copy to this post of the most recent version I have. If it gets translated I'll consider getting the rest done. But if no one is willing to translate a file that will make translations available for every single FS2_Open TC and mod including Diaspora I'm not going to bother wasting my time altering the missions so that they can be translated.

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[Mobius]

I'm even going to attach a copy to this post of the most recent version I have.

Is it any different from the regular one?

EDIT: How do I use the fonttool program?

[karajorma]

I don't think it's different but it stops anyone complaining about having to get it out of the VP.

As for how to use fonttool, I can't remember. It's a DOS program IIRC so just call it with /? and it should tell you anyway.

[Mobius]

Urgh, I'm not that expert with DOS...well, I guess I can use fonttool later...

[Mobius]

There's another important thing, though. I might not translate the part of strings.tbl about multiplayer because I can't test it. A minor error or a translation that is longer than its English counterpart(it happens in Italian) might crash the game or compromise it.

The point is that while my translation of strings.tbl might be incomplete(but efficient if you consider the necessary strings) my translation of tstrings.tbl shouldn't...

[Backslash]

Here's polish FreeSpace shot:

You can see there polish symbols... I really don't know how CD Projekt (translation company) menaged to add those symbols into FreeSpace 2.

:eek2:Do you or anyone have this version?  If you were to give me the fonts files from this version we'd make some major progress...

[karajorma]

The fonts are included in the VP file Shiv. I'd appreciate it if you could also give us the strings.tbl and tstrings.tbl from that version. They really should be added to the standard FS2 version I already posted so that the game can support all 4 languages as well as any others that get added in one download.

Otherwise if Italian gets added and we ship with VPs to include it Polish will basically stop working.

[Mobius]

Should translations work as mods? Should the files be placed in folders used via Launcher?

[karajorma]

Doesn't matter at this stage. Eventually they'll probably end up in the media VPs. Especially if the work Backslash is doing pays off.

[Mobius]

I was refering to a translated tstrings.tbl for Diaspora...

[karajorma]

Why the hell would we include tstrings as a mod? Kinda goes against the whole point of having tstrings in the first place.

[Backslash]

I suspect he was thinking tstrings only contained one language at a time.

Here's my font WIP if you want to look at it.

[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

[Admiral_Stones]

I could tranlate into german and swiss german. Swiss german would be teh awesome, quite a surprise!

[karajorma]

The engine already supports German so all we'd need to do is find some Germans to translate the dialogue, mission briefs, etc.

[Admiral_Stones]

I could tranlate into german and swiss german. Swiss german would be teh awesome, quite a surprise!

[karajorma]

We probably need more than one. BtRL had about 1/4 of the in-mission dialogue in the whole of FS2 and was only 3 missions long.