Translate the game ?

[Sayger]

Hi there, i love playing the game and also like to spread the word about it to my fellow French Citizens.

I'd like to know if there is any way to get access to all the texts in the game to make a translation. I am not a pro that's for sure, but i do believe that à have the skills to make a fairly good fanmade translation for those who really can't understand clearly all those silly words, as I've reported many newbies on some forums that simply won't get into the game because of that.

Thanks by advance :3

[diomedea]

Text with the stock game is not accessible (would require decompilation, forbidden by the EULA) and even it it was, changing that would require manipulation of some KSP files (and redistribution of those files, manipulated or not, is again forbidden).

The possibility of localisation of the game is however quite interesting for many nationalities where english is not the first language. Squad may make that possible, so that volunteers may do the translation themselves. But certainly anything of that kind won't come before the features of the game are completed, and that is better also because with each new version, the game includes new text.

[Greys]

We tried to have this discussion a long time ago ( link ), Unfortunately everyone was against it.

Users were seemingly insulted by the idea of people who don't speak english, and the representitives of Squad who spoke up clearly did not understand the issue. Significant changes are required throughout the codebase to permit localization, but more specifically extended or alternate character sets. As it stands, Squad has just added huge new portions of the code base that will need to be almost rewritten in order to permit localization, and they stand to be adding more which just makes the work harder later on.

[Dunbaratu]

but more specifically extended or alternate character sets.

C# strings default to unicode rather than ascii, so I doubt that's the problem.

While they could put localization support in the code and let the fanbase do the translations, I doubt that Squad would want to farm out translation to the fanbase. You have to put an enormous level of trust in the person that you are letting rewrite everything your game tells the user. You might want the assurance that the translator has some degree of financial obligation to do it right (i.e. someone you contract out to do the task, rather than a random volunteer). If nobody on your own dev team knows the target language, you are giving the translator an opportunity to put whatever words they feel like into your company's mouth - insults, plugs for other games, libelous statements, etc. The extra trust you'd get from knowing you could sue them for a breach of contract if they do that might be important.

The game does seriously need localization support in the code, but I doubt they'll want the fanbase to write the text.

[rkman]

A bit of googling indicates that Unity has basically no localization support, but apparently there is a plugin for Unity that does: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/released-smart-localization-for-unity3d.173837/

[Greys]

C# strings default to unicode rather than ascii, so I doubt that's the problem.

C# sure, but GUI code not necessarily and as Majiir states in the linked thread, he tried, and Korean doesn't work. Logically because Korean doesn't work, neither will Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Sanskrit, Cyrillic, wingdings, kerbaleze, etc.

You have to recognize that C# offers features, it's up to the engine and the game built on the engine to make use of and not break that feature.

[Majiir]

If nobody on your own dev team knows the target language, you are giving the translator an opportunity to put whatever words they feel like into your company's mouth - insults, plugs for other games, libelous statements, etc. The extra trust you'd get from knowing you could sue them for a breach of contract if they do that might be important.

We can already do this in English and other languages. What makes you think Korean or Japanese fans are more likely to make intentionally bad translations than French or German fans? Moreover: who cares? There are all kinds of awful or illegal things you could mod into KSP, and yet we don't see that happening. This is a bogus argument.

[cpast]

We can already do this in English and other languages. What makes you think Korean or Japanese fans are more likely to make intentionally bad translations than French or German fans? Moreover: who cares? There are all kinds of awful or illegal things you could mod into KSP, and yet we don't see that happening. This is a bogus argument.

I think that post was about translations given an official status by Squad, not unofficial mods. If Squad were to officially endorse translations, then yes, that's an issue. If they're mods, no problem.

[Ringkeeper]

Fan made transalations that are realeased by a company are always a risk, specially if the company has none that can check the translation.

And "official" translations are horrible expensive. You can calculate around 0.10 EUR per word for a normal translation. If you start with "not daily words" and technical blabla it goes up ... 0.30 EUR per word and more.

How many words has KSP?

Furthermore, how easy is KSP to translate? Are variables used all the time or hard-coded descriptions etc? Multiple variables for the same word? Easy to export/import the translations?

And it doesn't stop at translation. You should later check grammar and the words combined should make some sence in that language 1 to 1 translation doesn't work.

*edit* before the edit: 124 words... so just that post would be 12.40 EUR for translation into 1 language.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Ringkeeper

[Ippo]

While they could put localization support in the code and let the fanbase do the translations, I doubt that Squad would want to farm out translation to the fanbase. You have to put an enormous level of trust in the person that you are letting rewrite everything your game tells the user. You might want the assurance that the translator has some degree of financial obligation to do it right (i.e. someone you contract out to do the task, rather than a random volunteer). If nobody on your own dev team knows the target language, you are giving the translator an opportunity to put whatever words they feel like into your company's mouth - insults, plugs for other games, libelous statements, etc. The extra trust you'd get from knowing you could sue them for a breach of contract if they do that might be important.

Well, actually I see translations happen a lot in the Skyrim community, and afaik there haven't been any problems: basically they are just like any other mod, and yet you don't see modders hide plugs for other games.

If the game supported localization they could just leave the translations to the modding community without endorsing them. I'd really like to have a polandball space program translation.

[pxi]

I've seen a few open-source programs crowd-source their localization.

Once you have a few native speakers to both translate and verify the text, there rarely seems to be an issue.

[blizzy78]

https://crowdin.net/ is a nice platform where lots of people can work together to localize text in many languages. Of course that would need some work to be done by Squad first to produce the strings.

[Master Tao]

Unfortunately, it looks like 0.24 will make translations even more difficult. The contract text is procedurally generated, and based on the quality, I believe it's set up as carrier phrases with (somewhat) appropriate words filled in. It seems syntax-aware, meaning that Squad would need provide a data structure that allows for vastly different syntaxes and marking fill-in words/phrases based on parts of speech. That's something I'd like to experiment with, but it does complicate translation.

[blizzy78]

I'd suspect the contracts texts are placeholder at best, but I don't know Squad's plans for those.

[Master Tao]

My interpretation was that procedurally generated contracts (and texts) were a feature to limit repetition. We'll have to see where Squad takes them.

[blizzy78]

My interpretation was that procedurally generated contracts (and texts) were a feature to limit repetition.

They are, in some sense, but personally I don't really see what use they are if they are unreadable like that. So that would look like they needed to add something to limit repetition in an area where there's no need to read the text in the first place, because it doesn't make sense.

[Dunbaratu]

We can already do this in English and other languages.

False. The API to change the strings shown to the user is NOT there. This invalidates your claim that "this is a bogus argument".

[Dunbaratu]

Well, actually I see translations happen a lot in the Skyrim community, and afaik there haven't been any problems: basically they are just like any other mod, and yet you don't see modders hide plugs for other games.

If the game supported localization they could just leave the translations to the modding community without endorsing them. I'd really like to have a polandball space program translation.

I was talking about the original suggestion to have outsiders write the GAME's translations, rather than outsiders writing a MOD to the game that provides the mods' own translations. Those are very different things in regards to what I was saying about putting words in the company's mouth.