Translating TOAW 3

[ralphtrickey]

An addendum to this post. Please take a good look at the zipped file before deciding. If you volunteer to translate to your native language, you can get a free copy of TOAW 3. This isn't sonething that is going to be easy, there is a LOT of text in the game. This will translate the base game only, not the scenarios. We've alredy got volunteers working on French and German.

Ralph

I thought that I'd post a quick thread on how to translate TOAW 3 to other langueages.

This is preliminary, and may change before (or after<g>) release.

For simple changes, you can use a tool like XN Resource Editor to update the English.dll directly, rename it to the name of your scenario, and place it in a subdirectory of the AltGraphics directory. Please see the installation for examples.

We currently plan to ship with French and German enabled.

To translate into (for example) Italian, you should to the folloowing.

Download the file Translate.zip. It includes both the French and English versions (I'll add German later.)

The files included are...
Strings.h and WSstrings.h - Strings used through most of the program.
equipment_english.h - Equipment definition strings
english.rc - This is a 'resource file' It defines the menus and character set displays. The & character is translated into an underscore and is used for hotkeys.

For right now, the process is to send the files to me, and I'll process them and return a DLL that should be put in the TOAW 3 directory. I'll provide the source code to the little program I use to do the translations to anyone upon request, and I'll post it after I've gotten it cleaned up.

Ralph

[Levelworm]

Does TOAW 3 support oriental language like Chinese?

[ralphtrickey]

Does TOAW 3 support oriental language like Chinese?
It supports languages which can be written left to right. The current version mainly supports European languages, but might be stretched to include Russian like languages. The characters are individually drawn, you can look at TOAWFONT.BMP if you want to see what it would take.

You MIGHT be able to stretch it to include Japanese with it's phonetic characters, but it would take a lot of work.

For the next version, I hope to use the windows character fonts, which will expand it's capabilities. I may try to do something to make it easier in the next patch.

Ralph

[Hellen]

It supports languages which can be written left to right. The current version mainly supports European languages, but might be stretched to include Russian like languages. The characters are individually drawn, you can look at TOAWFONT.BMP if you want to see what it would take.

You MIGHT be able to stretch it to include Japanese with it's phonetic characters, but it would take a lot of work.

For the next version, I hope to use the windows character fonts, which will expand it's capabilities. I may try to do something to make it easier in the next patch.

Ralph

Is Punjabi included? I want Punjabi.
/sarcasm off
FER CRYIN' OUT LOUD SHIP!!!!! SHIP!!!!!!!!
I presume a "Gone Gold" announcement will be on SZO front page soon?

[Telumar]

Is Punjabi included? I want Punjabi.
/sarcasm off
FER CRYIN' OUT LOUD SHIP!!!!! SHIP!!!!!!!!
I presume a "Gone Gold" announcement will be on SZO front page soon?

And the Runic Alphabet ! :ogre:

To be serious, it's a great feature and could make toaw more popular in europe..

Maybe toaw could be edited in almost every detail (like civ IV or III) in the future, that would be great.

[JMass]

This isn't sonething that is going to be easy, there is a LOT of text in the game.

I'll give a look but I am short of time now, p.e. this evening I am working on the final version of my mod's file Standardbuttons.bmp...

:bored:

[nemo]

I'll give a look but I am short of time now, p.e. this evening I am working on the final version of my mod's file Standardbuttons.bmp...

:bored:You'll definitely need more than one evening to translate the whole thing - meglio preparare molti caffè ;)

[Telumar]

You'll definitely need more than one evening to translate the whole thing - meglio preparare molti caffè ;)

Damned, always got the feeling i forgot something..coffee! :p