[TOOL] Tõlge: A tool to help translate Paradox Interactive games

[Svip]

Tool 1.0 available here: tolge.sviip.dk, please see this post for information on its status.
You need an account to translate, so register if you wish to contribute!

I post in the Crusader Kings 2 forum (despite the tool being for all of Paradox Interactive's games; EU: Rome, CK2, EU3, V2 and HOI3), because it is currently the focus and well, this is the game that inspired me.

When I play CK2 with my friend, we realise how great this game would be if it was translated to a bit dated Danish. An opportunity to revive archaic and forgotten words, that - while probably not used in the time frame - will certainly capture the spirit.

Now, of course, I could just open the .csv file in a spreadsheet editor, replace all the Spanish strings with mine and in a week or two, be done with it. But I doubt I would get that far; the .csv file is nightmarish to work with and I am fairly certain that this is not the way the original translators for Crusader Kings 2's 4 languages; English, German, French and Spanish did it.

I have a decent experience with software in different languages. Paradox's method has merit for being codename based, but gets serious minus points for not being scalable and being in a .csv file. But I am not about to take a swing at Paradox for their localisation decisions, you guys around here know how to take swings at Paradox for just about anything.

So I am working on a tool I call Tõlge („Tõlge” is Estonian for 'Translation') and it should, once polished (and finished) be able to help anyone willing to contribute with translating these games into their preferred language.

An example of how string translations look; with one translated and two not.​

An example of the interface right now. Green background indicates the message has been translated, red that it has not been. Untranslated messages gets filled it with the version you are comparing it against (currently you can compare it against English, German, French or Spanish) for ease of modifying the message.

Features (whether finished or not):

• Nominated account system (only people I select can contribute for now)
• Term memory database
• Search
• Ability to compare it against more than one language
• Obtain all other languages for a message on the fly
• Create the .CSV file where you can select which of the standard languages to replace with new ones

Suggestions are most welcome. And people interested in contributing as well.

 

[Keanon]

Will you release the Danish translation when finished?

 

[Svip]

Will you release the Danish translation when finished?

Of course, but it won't exactly be tomorrow, I want first to make this software usable by the masses.

 

[Kaiser Timo]

Nice initiative!

I would like to translate the game into Swedish with usage of old grammar, pm me the Tölge if you like (and dare to) when its done or at least at Beta stage!

Cheers

 

[Svip]

Well, some updates. The tool is unfortunately not mature enough to be available for widespread use; but it is getting there. Once I have the user management in place, I will allow people to translate languages they are assigned to. Only administrators may translate to what language they wish. And that will only be me, and I will behave myself.

Language status overview​

 

[unmerged(75409)]

Wow, this looks like a really powerful tool.

Could it also be used for the editing / management of already implemented languages? The German translation (as well as the others , I suppose) needs some serious work, and any tool that helps in this would be useful!

 

[Svip]

Wow, this looks like a really powerful tool.

Could it also be used for the editing / management of already implemented languages? The German translation (as well as the others , I suppose) needs some serious work, and any tool that helps in this would be useful!

It will also be available to do exactly that. Strings will be categorised between user translated and system translated ('system translated' means that they are what they were in the game). There will also be an eventual feature to have an 'approval' system, where strings can be approved by others (but never the same person who translated it).

New version of the overview system, where yellow indicates translated but not 'finalised translations' (e.g. not user translated or approved), while green indicates both types. There appear system strings in Danish because of some bad data being carried on, but that is now fixed; I just need to manually update each string.​

Edit: One of my worst fears have been answered.

Cousin only has one translation, not one for each gender.​

It is strange to me that the developers just made one string for cousin; REL_COUSIN, considering that in most languages other than English, male and female cousins have different names (although not Swedish, I guess that's why, but the game isn't officially translated into Swedish).

French has « cousin » (male) and « cousine » (female), German has „Cousin” (male) and „Cousine” (female) (but „Vetter” and „Kusine” would be far more time appropriate) and Spanish has «primo» (male) and «prima» (female).

The game uses « cousin(e) » in French, „Kusin/e” in German (even though incorrect) and «primo» in Spanish (even though it does not capture females).

But none of these 'tricks' can be used in Danish, where it is only »fætter« (male) and »kusine« (female). I call upon the developers to fix this in a patch!

And I am certain it will be seconds before someone points out that in Turkish, the name also relates to whether it is the father's or mother's sister's or brother's son or daughter, e.g. a father's sister's daughter is "halakızı". Which I suspect is derived from Arabic, which have the same rules.

Mandarin has similar constraints, but relates to whether the cousin is older or younger than you. But I think I'll settle for REL_COUSIN_MALE and REL_COUSIN_FEMALE for now.

 

[Kallocain]

This looks really neat. We are discussing adding gender support since many other languages need it, but it is going to take a while, it is no simple feat.

 

[Keanon]

This looks really neat. We are discussing adding gender support since many other languages need it, but it is going to take a while, it is no simple feat.

But it'd be awesome of you

 

[Svip]

I am pleased to see PI interest in this tool!

I am currently on the auto-translation system. But I want to stress something important, what this system generates is suggestions, not translations. It will help with duplicates, etc.

One translated and three suggestions.​

A suggestion or 'fuzzy translation' is a blue text field. Currently it translates the string to full matches of itself, but it will eventually also have a 'term system''. The term system will recognise certain terms, such as 'Piety', 'Prestige', 'Lord Spiritual', etc. in the case of CK2, and will know their translations into other languages.

So while it may not be able to translate the entire sentence, it will be able to translate parts of it. But for usability purposes, this will not be a blue field, but rather light blue. Indicating that just hitting 'Translate' is unlikely good enough.

 

[Wallain]

This looks really awesome. I really does. Looking forward to the first release version.

Also: <3 Svip.

 

[GIG_I]

Me too, I will definitely use it!

 

[Descri]

What about right to left script languages? Do they work?

 

[Svip]

What about right to left script languages? Do they work?

Woah, that is a complicated question to answer. Currently, the strings are saved in Western ISO-something Latin-1 crap, which certainly does not support Hebrew or Arabic. Or even Greek or Cyrillic for that matter.

So while the tool could (and probably will) support RTL languages, the games won't, unless Paradox do something about that.

Update: I have no visual updates (in fact the auto/fuzzy-translations don't even work now, but they will!) for you now, because I spend the better part of the day converting my old code to 'better' code, I suppose. I rewrote a lot of my SQL queries to Stored Procedures[1] and reworked jQuery into the JavaScript to ensure cross-browser compatibility.

The short answer is; you will need JavaScript to use this tool.

I will eventually publish the entire code on GitHub, once I believe it is ready.

Eh update: I went ahead and published it on GitHub. Still no site, but if you have a github account, you may post issues (which can be suggestions too, etc.).

[1] Writing Stored Procedures for MySQL sure is nightmarish!

 

[ewphoenix123]

*bookmarked*

 

[SlyEcho]

What about right to left script languages? Do they work?

I don't think there is any support for that. The bitmap fonts can be replaced by other fonts containing any 8-bit encoding, but text direction is probably hardcoded.

Or you could use reversed texts, which is a bit crude.

 

[Svip]

I just created the feature where other languages can be displayed for a strings, so you can compare them against it.

It shall eventually be possible for users to make choices on what languages they want to see.

It is sometimes useful to compare a string against other languages' version.

The other languages for a string obtained through the 'other languages' link.​

I also intend to add links to each language version to go directly where you can translate the same string into that language (in case you feel something is wrong with it).

Update: Now when this happens, 'goto' links appear by each language.

Translating to Danish, links to other languages.​

Clicking it will send me to the same page on the other languages:

Now in German!​

I will soon create the registration system, so you can start registration. Registration will require either your e-mail or Paradox Forum ID, so that I can contact you. You will also be able to write a comment, so I can see what languages and games you are interested in.

 

[Svip]

Big news!

I am pleased to announce version 1.0 is now ready to use. 1.0 is a 'bare essentials' version and for the time being, for instance, does not support adding more games' text files, etc. That will be for 1.1.

But in the mean time, you can register, provide some information about what languages you are interested in and I will look to assign you accordingly.

Once you are assigned, you can begin translating and approve others' translations. Please report any issues with the site, recommends are more than welcome.

Link again for good measure: tolge.sviip.dk

Note: Don't worry about a user named 'testbob', he is my test account that I use to test a non-admin user.

And now I will go to bed, because I think I deserve it by now. Just in case you wonder why your assignment was not instantly approved (which I apologise for in advance).

 

[ChristianMolina]

Big news!

I am pleased to announce version 1.0 is now ready to use. 1.0 is a 'bare essentials' version and for the time being, for instance, does not support adding more games' text files, etc. That will be for 1.1.

But in the mean time, you can register, provide some information about what languages you are interested in and I will look to assign you accordingly.

Once you are assigned, you can begin translating and approve others' translations. Please report any issues with the site, recommends are more than welcome.

Link again for good measure: togle.sviip.dk

Note: Don't worry about a user named 'testbob', he is my test account that I use to test a non-admin user.

And now I will go to bed, because I think I deserve it by now. Just in case you wonder why your assignment was not instantly approved (which I apologise for in advance).

the link says "Not at all like Prussia", nothing more

 

[Svip]

the link says "Not at all like Prussia", nothing more

Embarrassingly, I wrote the link wrong, it is tolge.sviip.dk. Fixed it in the original post.