[Alex Navarro]

Although translating in-game messages and such is the most important thing the awesomeness of a translated interface shouldn't be underestimated.

I agreed. I don't know how to do that, the anis are not in my capabilities. But, well, if you want to test your changes, i would suggest to put them like a mod (a folder named "my changes" with "data" and everything inside, missions, hud, interface...), activate the mod and see what happens, how it looks like in the game. I don't know if that is the answer you were looking for, but nevertheless i wish you luck in your task.

[Mobius]

I'm not touching the long texts such as Tech Descriptions and Species.tbl... basically I'm doing stuff like this in the strings.tbl:

Wing ---> Squadra

Weapons ---> Armi

Countermeasures ---> Contromisure

Kills ---> Abbattimenti

Do you really want to end the mission? ---> Vuoi davvero terminare la missione?

...hoping that they should affect the game. In the strings.tbl there are three languages(English, German and French), I simply added Italian to the list.

[Alex Navarro]

Aah, ok. I don't know if adding a forth language can succeed. I'm overwriting the english part with spanish just to make sure it works, and it works.

[Mobius]

That's what I was doing in the first place, just before changing...I think you're right, translating the English text directly should be the best solution. Thanks...

[Alex Navarro]

Glad to help. If you want a secure method, that's what i suggest.

[Mobius]

I tried it, it works nicely!

I'm experiencing one problem, though: the game crashes whenever I target something. It must have something to do with the targeting text I translated so I know how to solve the problem.

[Alex Navarro]

I'm experiencing one problem, though: the game crashes whenever I target something. It must have something to do with the targeting text I translated so I know how to solve the problem.

Really? I didn't experienced any problem like that... well, i didn't experienced any problem in fact. If your're changing only the text, things like that are... very strange. I hope you find the problem and solve it.

[Mobius]

It must have something to do with the length of the text. Translating English words in Italian usually implies many, long words.

"Skip training" in the briefing became "Salta l'addestramento", which is too long...part of the text, in fact, is on the button. I'll write "Salta" instead. This is just an example.

[Alex Navarro]

Oh, ok.
Same here sometimes, i have to abbreviate some sentences. For example, in the flight HUD, the "kills" gauge, in spanish would be "derribos", but that's too long, so i was bound to put "derrib." instead.

[Mobius]

Yep. "Kills" becomes "Abbattimenti" in Italian so I need to write "Abbatt.".

Could you host my translation as well?

[Alex Navarro]

Could you host my translation as well?

Sorry, i don't understand this question. What do you want from me? The quarry from the Shadows: What do you want? 

[Mobius]

We need to make the translations available to the public. Are you going to use your own site or sites like FSMods?

[Alex Navarro]

Nope. In my case i'm transfering via hotmail my translation to a friend that post it at a spanish translation web with a link to megaupload, clan dlan in this case. I don't know how to do that, i'm not registered to megaupload and anything like that, sorry. But yes, we have to put this available to the public. You have friends here, i suppouse. You can ask them to post your translation in freespacemods. Or, is there any italian web that translate games to italian and ask them a place for the translation of Freespace 2 to italian and post your work there?

EDIT: one day i'll try to post my translation in freespacemods, but when the spanish players grow up a little more.

[Mobius]

I don't know. To be honest I think translations should be offered to mod teams, which probably are the best potential users. I hard believe theren't Italians or Spanish people among the many hundred thousand people who DLed BtRL and other successful mods. Providing links to DL strings translated in many languages should really boost the popularity of a mod and make it appear more professional and well organized.

That's why I think we should limit our efforts to the strings.tbl, at least for now. A translated strings.tbl is universal since all mods and total conversions use the same FS2 interface. Translating all Tech Descriptions and messages requires more time and surely doesn't give the same result in terms of popularity and effectiveness.

[Alex Navarro]

Yes, you're right.
 I've already translated the strings table. Indeed i only have 5 missions left and the translation will be completely done. When i can, i'll try to put it in freespacemods, the entire translation (tables, missions...) in one hand, and the strings table separated in the other hand for modders. Like you said. This is what you are saying, isn't it? And advertise our product to the modders, right?

[Mobius]

They're for total conversions. At least, that's what I'd like them to be. A various choice of languages is ideal for a TC.

On a side note...

;-------------------------------------------------
; File: HUDTargetBox.cpp
;-------------------------------------------------

[...]

350, "d: %.0f%s"
351, "s: %.0f%s"

I translated "Of" with "Di" thus causing the crash. That "Of" is part of the code and shouldn't be translated. Don't touch it. 

[Alex Navarro]

Thank you for the tip. Coincidentally I didn't translated that part, but i didn't know that changing "of" could cause a crash. Good to know, Mobius.

A various choice of languages is ideal for a TC

Of course. But unfortunately it is not a usual practice, mostly because english is the most spoken language in the world and almost everyone understand it, and they think that translating to other languages is just unnecessary. But doing that they are loosing a "market opportunity". Well, if you want something well done you have to do it yourself. So if we want a TC, a mod or a campaign translated to our language, we have to offer our skills as translators (most recommended), or wait for the day that someone offers to do it instead of you (ineffective, because that day may be delayed indefinitely).

[Mobius]

I refer to the FS interface. A translation of it would be universal. Translating the strings.tbl will work for all TCs so no, I wasn't refering to TCs' tech descriptions, messages and such.

By the way, although I changed the "Di" to "Of", the game still crashes when I target something. I'll find this out...