How to start creating a translation mod?

[csanchez]

I downloaded AtomicTorch_ModsLocalizationUtility
The first time I run the program it shows the following error:

Parsing exception: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\VoidExpanse\Core\data\languages'.

Which basically just needs you to make the following folder structure of the Core folder:
\data\languages\localization

But then I run the program again, it gives the following error:

Parsing exception: The given key was not present in the dictionary.

I'm new and I really have no idea how to start, I would like to get the English language files and start translating without much problem 

[csanchez]

Heh I see the problem, I just had to unzip the Core.cpk file manually haha

Now I'm looking at how to test the language mod locally.

edit: ok I need just comprees the core in a zip file heh, great.

[ai_enabled]

Hello!
Sorry for the late reply. It seems like you were able to solve all the issues on your own!
BTW, you can leave Core.cpk unpackedΓÇöjust ensure that the folder name is exactly Core.cpk (at exactly the same path as the original Core.cpk archive file).

Regards!

[csanchez]

BTW, you can leave Core.cpk unpackedΓÇöjust ensure that the folder name is exactly Core.cpk (at exactly the same path as the original Core.cpk archive file).

Oh, this is great, so no need to create a zip every time changes are made

The Localization Utility it's great, however it has some minor details that I would like to see improved if possible.

1. The minimum window size is larger than what my 1366x768 monitor can display.
Even in full screen mode the window is not completely visible so the last lines can hardly be seen.
Observe the bottom of the window as it surpasses the Windows taskbar in fullscreen mode.


Please make it possible to reduce to less than 1366x768 the window and that it can be fully displayed in full window even in this resolution.

2. If a text is exactly the same as the original (English), show it as not translated, that is, include it in the list that is shown when the "Display only untranslated entries" option is activated.
This is useful for example for the UI section, since most of the lines are in English (or the language used as the basis) and are being replaced while the translation is going doing.

3. Highlight the current row
Useful to better see reference texts next to it (for example English and Russian strings) and making the current location more visible.
I leave an example of how it looks currently and how it would look highlighting the current rows.




4. Show the total number of translated lines and remaining lines?
Also taking into account the lines that are the same as the original (English, untranslated)

[ai_enabled]

Hello!
Thank you for your feedback!
Unfortunately, we can't make any changes to the VoidExpanse localization tool since it was created almost a decade ago...
We primarily used it for exporting text to a CSV file and editing it in spreadsheet software like MS Excel or LibreOffice Calc. This was because the tool lacks a spellchecker and is generally cumbersome to use as an inline editor. However, there were some issues with this approach (IIRC, using quote characters " without proper escaping would break the CSV). So, if you decide to use this method, I suggest translating incrementally and checking if the CSV import feature works properly.

Regards!

[csanchez]

Heh I see, although functional if I noticed that the tool feels a bit rough, many times the program freezes and all the progress is lost.

And couldn't you create a new version of the tool? Would it be very complicated?

After all the tool I guess is for all your games and not just VoidExpanse, right?

An alternative would also be to use GNU Gettext, which already has tools to translate comfortably and quickly, such as Poedit or POEditor.
Although this I guess is not very viable, they would probably have to rewrite a lot of things of the game I guess.

[ai_enabled]

The VoidExpanse localization tool is pretty rough indeed, written in early years of the studio...It's not feasible for us to rewrite it right now, whether from the old codebase or starting from scratch. Our newer games use a different engine, so there are no more XML/JS files like in VE...

BTW, in VoidExpanse, all the text is already extracted to TXT files, so you don't really need to use the localization tool. You can just copy the existing *.en_us.txt to use as the translation files for your language. So if you find the tool too rough and CSV editing too tedious, this is a valid alternative. Just make sure to handle multi-line text and quotes correctly.

Regards!