Internationalization, support for many languages in the game Options

[Serge]

The game currently supports the following languages:
http://ufo2000.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/...k/translations/

Some of the messages are 'fuzzy' (original English text for this message was changed, but the translation was not) or untranslated. This needs to be fixed.

One more possible problem can be that the translations may be not very good, for example message text does not fit screen. Also some translations can look good in a language file, but have quite different meaning in the context of other messages in the game.

Being one of the translators of UFO2000 messages myself, I know that it is a hard work which requires a lot of patience and time, it is quite easy to make some mistakes

So for updating old translations, just download language file using one of the above links. Update the translation text searching for 'fuzzy' marks and removing these 'fuzzy' marks after ensuring that the translation is correct. Add missing translations. After that, use this language file with the game and check if all the messages are translated, translated right, fit the screen, ...
Fix language file if any problems are found. In the end you should have a file that contains no fuzzy marks and all the messages correctly translated. After everything is ready, submit an updated translation to ufo2000 bugtracker: http://ufo2000.xcomufo.com/mantis/view_all_bug_page.php

2 new translators:

For making a new translation, you can use template file ufo2000.pot:
http://ufo2000.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/...ons/ufo2000.pot

The game uses english text for any untranslated messages, so you don't have to translate everything at once. It is possible to translate just a few messages for a start and run ufo2000 to see how they look in the game.

Some more instructions and links to useful tools:
http://ufo2000.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/...ranslations.txt

This post has been edited by Serge: Aug 27 2007, 12:08 AM

[Azrael Strife]

I can help make translations into Spanish, if you need to, but I see you have Trotsky there, tell me if you want me to help

[SupSuper]

i'll do a portuguese translation as soon as i have the time.

[Serge]

i'll do a portuguese translation as soon as i have the time.

Thanks, that's very good. Sorry, did not notice your post before (did not get email notification for some reason).

[hyos]

I could help with updating the Polish files. Will post later today.

[Serge]

It is time to update current foreign language translations (there are some new messages added since the last time the translations were last updated). Also we could probably add support for some new languages

I have updated our internationalization guide and hopefully it is a bit more clear now:
http://ufo2000.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/...ranslations.txt

So if anyone is interested, you can download the latest beta and try to improve support for your native language.

Ask here if you have any questions.

This post has been edited by Serge: Aug 26 2007, 11:52 PM

[Violazr]

Here's a new german translation, with all blanks filled, existing lines aligned or cut to fit, and some other corrections.


Text not in the list (and therefore not translated):

error "failed to connect"
races
armor types
appearances
game mode titles (are in but don't work)
tips of the day
item names


P.S.:
The way some lines are used multiple times in different places of the game type descriptions made it kinda hard to translate them.

This post has been edited by Violazr: Aug 15 2005, 05:42 PM

[Serge]

Thanks, added your translation to the latest beta (first version, only just noticed your update). Also there is one problem, not all the messages have fuzzy markers removed. And I have updated the game to ignore such translations at all (gettext tries to guess closest variant for translation, but sometimes it is just too wrong with weird results for partially translated language files (currently for all languages but german), it is better to use english message in such case). So please veryfy all the translations with fuzzy markers and remove these markers.

Also forgot to mention, there are messages in the end of the file which are no longer used and commented out because of this (those that start with "#~"). You don't have to translate them.

About item names, mission types and some other messages. Item names can't be translated right now (as they are defined in the external addons, terrain names too), maybe we will fix it later. Mission types are not translated intentially as they are used in server statistics (http://ufo2000.lxnt.info/results.php). Some other messages really don't have translation, these are bugs which need to be fixed. Also there is 'internationalization' category on our bugtracker, such issues can be reported there.

What about lines that appear multiple times? Could you be more specific?

And thanks again, it is sad that people don't provide much help translating the game lately. We even had to remove Polish and Finnish readme files as there are no volunteers to support them. But probably it is still better to provide good support for game messages and integrate intuitive help system. People rarely read readme files, so it is not so important as translating game messages

[Violazr]

OK, here's the final one without fuzzies and some more corrections.

The others really should be updated, too.
- Most languages are REALLY messed up right now.

Come on people, it's just some textfile editing...



The lines I meant are in those texts that describe the objectives.
scenario.ccp:136 is missing in the place it should be, and is instead defined earlier, together with scenario.ccp:90.
Looking up those numbers I just realized one can make a separate entry in the right place with ease, but it would be less confusing for translators if there already was one.

This post has been edited by Violazr: Aug 15 2005, 05:41 PM

Attached File(s)

 trans_ger.zip ( 19.35K ) Number of downloads: 314

 

[Mnemonic]

I have enough spare time. It´s summer and results for college are only out in september 19th.

I was looking forward to translate the game to portuguese language...I need some guidance though.

If I could be of any assistance, mail me!!

[Violazr]

Wohoo, we're rolling.


Well, what do you want to know? It's rather simple.
I just don't know how to get the game to use a new language file, but for making it, you can do this:

- Get the latest beta

- Make a copy of, say, the spanish language file (/translations/ufo2000-spa.po)

- Open the original with any text editor

- Fill all msgstr parts with the portuguese translations of the msgid above, deleting all #, fuzzy entries on your way

- Run the Beta, choose "spanish" and check for correct messages/length/alignment

- Correct and repeat if neccessary

- Rename the file and post it.


Some tips:

The msgid must remain unchanged! If you accidentially edit one, copy & paste from another file.

Try not to make your translations longer than the english lines, or they might not fit.

The src/... lines give you a clue as to where a text appears, making it easier to decide which translations/abbreviations are appropriate.

In src/editor lines with spaces and F-Keys, the spaces are used for alignment (for the list in the unit editor).

"Icon panel tooltips" means that an explaining message pops up when the mouse is moved over a button in the battlescape controls.

[Serge]

I have enough spare time. It´s summer and results for college are only out in september 19th.

I was looking forward to translate the game to portuguese language...I need some guidance though.

If I could be of any assistance, mail me!!

That's a good news.

A link to the internationalization guide is already given in my post above:
http://ufo2000.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/...ranslations.txt

If you encounter any problems, ask them here.

This post has been edited by Serge: Aug 26 2007, 11:53 PM

[Mnemonic]

If all goes well, I´ll have the translation finished by Thursday´s evening.

[Qzela]

I'm willing to translate between english and finnish.

[Blood Angel]

Perhaps the time has come for me to be useful. If you wish, and if there isn't already one, I could provide a bit of French translation. Working towards that GCSE has to be good for something, and it would impress Mr. Sutton.

[Sporb]

i beleive Nachtwolf is working on a french translation ATM.

[nachtwolf]

i beleive Nachtwolf is working on a french translation ATM.

It has already been added.

[zaker]

I'm completing Italian translation

In few days or weeks i'll post here the "ufo2000-ita.po" file

bye

[Tervez]

I'm willing to translate between english and finnish.

Damn, someone already got that one.
But anyway, i could translate it into Finnish.
By the way, could someone explain what does " start sitting if second" do?

Edit: Qzela, if you want i can send you the Finnish translation i have done so far... it is far from complete and may have mistakes, but if you want it Pm me.

This post has been edited by Tervez: Dec 31 2005, 05:34 AM

[Kratos]

That is a toggle feature for the second player. If you choose to sit if second player (since you can't pick map), you will be able to do more accurate shots if 1st player attacks on first turn...but it prevents you from moving as fast the second turn because you lose 8 or 10 TUs by getting up.

[zaker]

Finally done!
UFO2000 italian translation, based on version 0.7.980

let me other few days for "readme_it.txt"

Does someone has suggestions on howto translate the "./docs" files?
Which editor do i have to use?

There are an .html, .lhtml and .txt that have the same content.

Maybe i've to translate only the .html, and then the other two files (.lhtml and .txt) are obtained from the .html

thanks, bye

This post has been edited by zaker: Jan 3 2006, 04:12 PM

Attached File(s)

 ufo2000_ita.zip ( 17.91K ) Number of downloads: 303

 

[Serge]

Finally done!
UFO2000 italian translation, based on version 0.7.980

Thanks, it will be added to the game as soon as server problems are resolved. But don't hesitate to remind me about italian translation if I forget about this.

let me other few days for "readme_it.txt"

Does someone has suggestions on howto translate the "./docs" files?
Which editor do i have to use?

There are an .html, .lhtml and .txt that have the same content.

Maybe i've to translate only the .html, and then the other two files (.lhtml and .txt) are obtained from the .html

Now I'm really not sure if these additinal files need to be translated. That's more work and it is hard to keep translated files in sync with english version (as opposed to in-game messages translation, updating of outaded translation is fully automated). Maybe what we need to do is to make the game as intuitive as possible, so that any extarnal readme files are not needed

[Serge]

I can't download ufo2000_ita.zip, I get a broken archive

[Azrael Strife]

I can't download ufo2000_ita.zip, I get a broken archive

Works for me, let me PM it to you see if you can open it.

[nachtwolf]

I can't download ufo2000_ita.zip, I get a broken archive

Works for me, let me PM it to you see if you can open it.

For some reason, Internet explorer saves the files on the forum as broken archives. it works #1 with firefox though.

Reason might simply be that Internet explorer is broken itself (which is true from a web developper's point of view).

I suggest you get firefox.

[Blood Angel]

Yes. It has a marvellous tabbed browsing system.

[zaker]

Sorry for broken zip, i can't explain why...
It's my pc fault, or my firewall (kerio), can't understand...

I downloaded the uploaded file and it loses last 15 bytes!!!
can't explain this weird thing...

Repost rar version of ufo2000_ita.po with recovery record
It says an error occured but the .po file extracts correctly

I tried with Mozilla 1.7.12 and with firefox 1.5, same error...

bye

This post has been edited by zaker: Jan 23 2006, 03:27 PM

Attached File(s)

 ufo2000_ita.rar ( 14.75K ) Number of downloads: 291

 

[Serge]

Thanks, committed to repository.

[vozice_09]

Hi to all,
I attached czech version of ufo2000 readme. Is possibly add this file into ufo distribution?

Tomas [Matahl]

Attached File(s)

 readme_cz.txt ( 8.65K ) Number of downloads: 445

 

[Serge]

Hi to all,
I attached czech version of ufo2000 readme. Is possibly add this file into ufo distribution?

Hi

There are some technical problem with readme files:
- It is hard to keep english readme file in sync with the game
- It is hard to keep different translations in sync with english readme

I don't see a good solution to readme files problem unfortunately. A preferred way to provide native language support in the game is to translate game messages as they are much easier to deal with and update. And if we try to make user interface as intuitive as possible, readme files will be not required at all

[Adim]

First of all hiya!
I've been playing UFO2000 for some time and I love it!
I checked the text file and I think I can handle the Polish translation, that is if no one is making one already..

[vozice_09]

Hi to all,
I attached czech version of ufo2000 readme. Is possibly add this file into ufo distribution?

Hi

There are some technical problem with readme files:
- It is hard to keep english readme file in sync with the game
- It is hard to keep different translations in sync with english readme

I don't see a good solution to readme files problem unfortunately. A preferred way to provide native language support in the game is to translate game messages as they are much easier to deal with and update. And if we try to make user interface as intuitive as possible, readme files will be not required at all

I can translate game texts to czech... how I can make it? which files?

[Serge]

I can translate game texts to czech... how I can make it? which files?

Everything should be explained here: http://ufo2000.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/...ranslations.txt
If you still have some questions after reading these instructions, feel free to ask.

This post has been edited by Serge: Aug 26 2007, 11:54 PM

[commander]

heya
good ol ufo 2000
I have been away, trying to get a life
but that didn't work out.
So I thought I would like to do a translation.
I will get the code and start working on it again.
I might do some other stuff, we'll see.
right not there are some dead links, ( apparently dead links )
but sometime soon I'll start working on it.

commander

[Serge]

right not there are some dead links, ( apparently dead links )

Thanks, bad links fixed.

[Intri]

Hello everyone!
I started to play this game about 2 years ago but I haven't had yet chance to write something on forum. I have noticed throuht 2 years that some people wanted to make Polish translation but I can't find any effects of their work on forum or in game distribution. I have spent a little time and made my own Polish translation
file for Ufo2000 hoping that maybe there is someone who will use it and enjoy playing in our national language. I tried to make as good translation as I can but I am aware that some of these things are hard to translate in good way and people would ask me why I used certain words or phrases:
- at some places Polish special letter werent displayed correctly so I had to use some words that dont contain those letters (mostly at inventory and stats screen)
- at some other places there was too little space for good translation so I had to write shorter, less-matched words
- I left some error messages and important words in English because I think it would be better for gameplay

If there are some errors or mistakes that I havent noticed please, let me know where are they (here or e-mail to address from beginning of translation file or even other way) and I will try to correct them (where it is possible). Any opinions would be fine too.
I have made two archives in case of problems with extracting one of them.

This post has been edited by Intri: Sep 2 2007, 04:28 AM

Attached File(s)

 ufo2000_pol.zip ( 20.33K ) Number of downloads: 232
 ufo2000_pol.rar ( 19.49K ) Number of downloads: 233

 

[Intri]

Hello again,
I saw that there is new beta version available (good job ) so I have a question: Is there any possibilty to add Polish translation file to the next version?
Or maybe there is special procedure for doing that?

[Todt]

i working on czech translation
it is finished on 20.2.2008


pls nekdo jim to přelozte-->>

delam na cestine a asi 20.2.2008 ji budu mit hotovou pac musim taky chodit do prace
zbyva mi jen par textu a je hotovo
cestina je bohuzel bez diakritiky
nezkusite ji tam nejak pridat???

This post has been edited by Todt: Jan 31 2008, 08:37 PM

[Exoskeletor]

hi, i have problem translating in greek. im selecting utf-8 encoding but i still cant see the text properly do i have to put charset or something else?

[Serge]

hi, i have problem translating in greek. im selecting utf-8 encoding but i still cant see the text properly do i have to put charset or something else?

No, you don't have to put charset anywhere. The game only supports utf-8. There might be some problem with fonts if greek characters are missing. Could you please upload your (unfinished) translation somewhere? I can have a look what is wrong.

[Valuial]

The last German translation is out of date and incomplete, I can help out with this if you need another translator.

I just have one request: Please don't split sentences into several gettext() invocations. German grammar changes the order of the words, which makes it hard to translate parts of a sentence at a time.

regards,
Valuial

[Serge]

The last German translation is out of date and incomplete, I can help out with this if you need another translator.

Sure, improving translations is a good thing. Just trying to contact the previous translator first may be a good idea.

I just have one request: Please don't split sentences into several gettext() invocations. German grammar changes the order of the words, which makes it hard to translate parts of a sentence at a time.

Agreed, this is a bad thing, and it only happens in mission description texts. The game should split this text description into lines automatically and not have each line stored separately.

[7Saturn]

I might translate new versions of the readme from english to german. Problem is: are there any newer versions of the readme than 0.4.2 $Rev: 1018 $? Or better question: how old is this version? Current version of the german readme is 0.4.0 $Rev: 444 $, so i might start with upgrading this version, but it wouldn't make much sense, if there was a rather new version, and I'd end up translating something obsolete.

[Serge]

I might translate new versions of the readme from english to german. Problem is: are there any newer versions of the readme than 0.4.2 $Rev: 1018 $? Or better question: how old is this version? Current version of the german readme is 0.4.0 $Rev: 444 $, so i might start with upgrading this version, but it wouldn't make much sense, if there was a rather new version, and I'd end up translating something obsolete.

Yes, ufo2000 readme files are messed up right now (you can search this thread for "readme" keyword). I'm not even sure if it is a good idea to have them shipped with the game. English readme may be fine if it gets updated, but keeping the translated versions for all the languages up to date seems to be nearly impossible. External wiki pages may be a better choice for providing this type of information, for example http://www.ufopaedia.org/