Translating Alleg to different languages

voipscout · Post by **voipscout** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:49 pm

I am not sure if i am completely of topic here, but i was thinking.... is it possible to translate allegiance into other languages then english ? I mean, i am too lazy to look into sources, but if there could be a resources file or something, that can have as many languages as we manage to translate, it would be awesome... also multilingual VC packs would be great. At least the possibility to do so would be a great thing, this way, those volunteers who have time would be able to bring allegiance to non english speakers....

Sgt.Pepper · Post by **Sgt.Pepper** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:19 pm

Vietnamese VC FTW!!!

Post by **FreeBeer** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:58 pm

I think it's a little more involved that a resource file or three... I'm pretty sure a lot of the screen stuff is hard-coded, or otherwise fixed in graphic format. The there's the whole reconfiguration issue for languages that require more space than originally allotted. It's probably do-able, at least partially, but it's more than a trivial operation I think.

madpeople · Post by **madpeople** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:27 pm

actually, its even more complicated than that.. if you want to use languages that use characters included in unicode but not ascii.

allegiance uses 8 bit ASCII for text, it simply cant make fancy japanese/chinese/[isert non-english/american language here] symbols.

you would first need to change all thse parts of the code.

then make allegiance read more .mdl s to define the text and have several sections in them for different languages

Dogbones · Post by **Dogbones** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:55 pm

Yep, Alleg was not built with i18n in mind. Unlike some modern development tools, it is not simply a case of a few resources files. It would be a rather large project. The hard coded graphics would be the most difficult. A lot of the buttons are images and would need to be recreated in the other languages. Macro's (or some other wrapper) could be used to redirect things to the proper files either at build time (easier up front but harder to maintain) or at runtime (harder up front).

Post by **FreeBeer** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:40 pm

Dogbones wrote:QUOTE (Dogbones @ Jul 31 2007, 07:55 PM) Macro's (or some other wrapper) could be used to redirect things to the proper files either at build time (easier up front but harder to maintain) or at runtime (harder up front).

And that would put more pressure on the anti-cheat procedures - multiple checksums, etc would have to be maintained and updated, etc.

voipscout · Post by **voipscout** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:17 am

So, the i18n in two weeks ? right ? /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

I just had to say it: Microsoft sucks big time, from the 3 letter D word to the graphic shell on top of it, that changes name too frequently to even bother to remember what's the current version is called....

Evincar · Post by **Evincar** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:17 am

if you decide to translate i can help with spanish

Grimmwolf_GB · Post by **Grimmwolf_GB** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:20 am

voipscout, you forgot that MS wrote this game, so be careful when you say that MS sucks! /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Anyway, there is no real point in translating the game. If someone does not understand the small amount of english in the software, how will that person understand the very important chat?

Evincar · Post by **Evincar** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:49 am

you have a very strong point there grimm