how to use I18n script?

[Serpentine]

Tels, I havent really looked into the translation stuff, so just go easy on me.

 

But would it not be easier if we adapted the built in map/gui localization to take the place of this script? (I'm assuming they do very similar work). It looks pretty clean, and I imagine having it in the engine would help everyone quite a bit.

 

If so, I'd be happy to translate the script if needed.

[Tels]

Serpentine, no worries, it is probably a bit underdocumented.

 

Anyway, offhand I don't think that would work. The script is only ever 95% complete, because it can f.i. not convert "graphical briefings" back to text - this requires human intervention. Also, it does not generate shaders or translate included GUIs.

 

While these could maybe added, I don't think this will work good.

 

Plus, you lose all the benefit of having the actual translation files in an extra PK4:

 

* updating the translation only needs to update a small file

* translators have an easy-to-access dictionary to translate

 

There is also the problem that the script cannot provide translations for unkown texts. So what if you load an English map and it contains "Foobar said" as string somewhere. How could that be displayed in German w/o a translator first translating it?

 

So, I think that's not going to work at all

 

In any event, the bug Echolon here was talking about is that if you have 2 missions, and each mission has a name and breif redme, than if you are in the menu, the current code cannot show these in the menu.

 

The reason is that when FM A is loaded, it's dictionary is active. So you cannot display tzexts from FM B at that time.

 

To make this work, we need routine that can extract the nec. stings from all FMs (wether they are currently installed, or not installed but just downloaded). Since TM already has some sort of text-based database, we probably should extract this info when the user downloaded the FM and store it there. (Since this file often has double entries etc, it should be checked, anyway)

 

The only downside then would be that the user can only the the mission info in english befor he downloads it - to make THAT work the text needed to be on the server (or the GUI must be smart enough to download the optional l10n.pk4 file, and take a peak inside).

 

ATM, I don't have time to look into this, tho, because it is arather complex problem for very little impact.