Translation questions

Discussion in 'Modding' started by heke, Jul 1, 2013.

  1. heke

    heke Member

    Greetings everyone.

    The thing is, we have more or less translated Dungeons of Dredmor into Russian. More or less means we have translated XML files and they are correctly displayed in game.

    Following the progress of all other translation teams we have stuck on the game executable file, which contains some vital data for translation to work. Item names, skill names, everything the game is looking for in XML is hardcoded into the exe file.

    We have even used special tools (Radiatrix) to crack open the file and replace the data, but CP1252 (Russian encoding) seems to be taking about 1.5 times more space, which means translations should be 1.5 times shorter than original. For such spacious language as Russian this is impossible.

    And so, the question.
    We need to learn to extend line space for the text used in executable file or find some other workaround for text entry. I just suppose that some of the modders might have struggled with this aspect of the game and would be able to share their discoveries. I even secretly hope for someone from the dev team to read this.

    Any input on this topic would be greatly appreciated.
    Thank you in advance!

    Also, here is a Bolt Council loading screen to demonstrate the extent of our work:
    [​IMG]
     
    Kazeto likes this.
  2. Daynab

    Daynab Community Moderator Staff Member

    I'll poke the devs about this.
     
    Kazeto likes this.
  3. heke

    heke Member

    Thank you!
     
  4. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    We looked at this for other translation teams, but there is a LOT of text in Dredmor.

    *sigh*

    Let me figure out what to do about it and get back to you. We now have translations in three languages stuck on the same problem.
     
    Kazeto likes this.
  5. heke

    heke Member

    It is quite reassuring to hear from you!
    I suppose you have your hands full with Clockwork Empires and still found time to address our question.
    Your attention to this matter is much appreciated.
     
    Kazeto likes this.
  6. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    We're definitely doing things much, MUCH differently for CE. Let's just put it that way!
     
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  7. heke

    heke Member

    Ehehe. We are really looking forward to Clockwork Empires too. No doubt it is going to be awesome~
     
  8. heke

    heke Member

    Good day everyone, Nicolas.

    I would like to update the status of our request with the news that we are pretty much finished with the translation of Dungeons of Dredmor to Russian. All meaningful text from the XML files has been translated, proofed, tested and actually even released.

    You can check the results of our labour here if, of course, you are interested in seeing XML files filled with bunch of Russian letters. There is a couple of HEX-fixes in the executable, but they are just gameplay fixes (lutefisk cube, burned wands and such have to be fixed to work).

    In brief - it is quite good, very playable, but miserable-looking. All those bits of information from executable file are showing up everywhere and they cannot be properly translated, somewhere there are string size limits, somewhere game just refuses to work with translated lines.

    I would say we are one step away from providing you with decent and marketable Russian version of the game, so I am eager to once again draw attention to this topic. We need a help from the Gaslamp devs to make this translation happen to the full extent. If you guys are interested in this, your Russian fanbase would definitely be overjoyed.

    Thank you in advance~
     
    Daynab likes this.
  9. Nicholas

    Nicholas Technology Director Staff Member

    ... wow, I'm impressed. Uh.

    Obviously, I'm swamped with Clockwork Empires stuff, but I'll try to find an hour to grab the XML this evening and see what things are blowing up and where. IF you have a more itemized list, that would be useful.
     
  10. heke

    heke Member

    You mean an itemized list of issues, correct?
    Sure, in a couple of hours I can provide a list of the most problematic ones.
    On the other hand, maybe it is possible for you to provide us with a dump of all lines from the executable file? Afterwards it can be translated and... um... compiled back into the game. Or am I talking nonsense here?
     
    Last edited: May 6, 2014
  11. heke

    heke Member

    So, to the list

    - Map objects like doors, vendors, Dredmor statues, fountains, fridges and such. Actions like "Break" and "Open door" are affected as well.
    It seems there is a hard-coded size limit for those. A couple of Russian letters fits there, rarely more.

    [​IMG]

    - Item classes and actions. Things like "Potion", "Ammunition", or "Eat To Slowly Restore Health". Those lines have different size limits but always rather confining.

    [​IMG]


    Those two points above are rather major issues we can do absolutely nothing about. No amount of HEX-fixes can do us any good here. There is a number of small issues in other parts of an executable, calling for a more complex solution, but those two have frozen our progress at this point.

    Hope this helps. Anyway, if we can provide any other data that may be of any use - please do tell.
     
  12. Alex_ReD

    Alex_ReD Member

    So, it was two and half months since your last reply. Can we hope on some help from your side? (After the CE release maybe?)