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Patch Translations and Localization


Arthmoor

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The unofficial DLC patches are currently being distributed as language localized ESP files.

 

What does this mean? It means instead of the ESP being English-only, we are now shipping them using String files found in the Data\Strings folder inside each BSA. What this allows us to do is have one ESP with all of the important changes done and then include standalone translation files to provide support for various languages in the game.

 

Bethesda officially provides support for Spanish, French, Italian, and German in addition to English. When our unofficial patch betas are uploaded, these 4 additional languages will be considered minimum requirements before we release them as live updates on Steam, Nexus, DC, and TESA.

 

To that end, we need translators to assist with this. If you're fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, or German, please let us know. We'd like to be able to establish some reliable contacts to go to when the time comes to update these on each release.

 

There are a few utilities out there that will make doing this work easier. StrEdit, TESVSnip (please only use this for making String files!!!!), SkyrimStringTranslator, and TES5Edit. As long as whatever is used can produce viable String files the game can read, that's fine.

 

The beauty of the String system is that one file can support multiple languages, so we can also support inclusion of language files for Polish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Czech, and any number of other languages. While we will not hold up a live release if one of these languages is not available, we are willing to update a live release after it's made to include as many languages as people feel the need for.

 

So if you know someone who can help, or you yourself can help, feel free to let us know here. Especially if you'd like to become a regular translator for one of the DLC patches.

 

Sadly, due to size issues, it isn't currently feasible to do this for the main USKP since compressed BSA files break the string support in the game.

 

Also, can't stress this enough, DO NOT issue translated ESP files based off of the DLC patches! This will screw up the game text in a big way.

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  • 1 month later...

I never said it explicitly but it sounds like I'm the regular translator for the french part. Rather easy and quick to achieve for DLC patches, but longer for USKP (if this has to happen again in the future). I'm in contact with McGuffin (TESVTranslator's author), and his automated tool can handle nearly 98 % of the translation process by building a 'dictionary'.

 

The 2 % left have to be hand-made, however. And making proper translations for them can be a relatively time consuming job. That can take up to 1 week (including IRL and unrelative management  :P).

 

Well I point this out only to highlight the fact that waiting for proper translated strings files before live releases can be a serious brake. Without regular and 'official' translators for each foreign language you may endlessly have to wait for 'late translations'.

 

Except english, releasing beta updates with strings files from an older translation also leads to text garbage for foreign testers. You shouldn't include them at all, or provide 'identical to english" ones. It is just a suggestion for convenient purpose. I know personally how to deal with it, but as you're the conductor you should do as you wish.

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Do you know how to use any of the utilities listed in the OP? Those are the only known programs capable of generating these files. I'm afraid I can't be of much help in that since I don't know how to do it with StrEdit or SkyrimStringTranslator. TES5Edit is mainly for the purpose of creating the localized ESP to start with and I have no idea how one would go about editing the strings in Snip.

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Hi all and good evening,

 

I'm here to ask if there are news about the Unofficial DLC Patches italian translation. I've given a look at the 3 .esp files and with TESVTranslator I see only a few strings that need to be translated, I was thinking about doing it for personal use but this sounds a little egoistic. This said I need to know exactly which file you need to merge the italian strings with your great work, just the translated esp file or I have to extract something from them? Asking 'cause I've started using TESVTranslator recently and I don't know all its potentials.

 

Anyway, I have a doubt about some strings I've found in all the esp files: "Version tracking for retroactive scripts" - "Retroactive fixes for UDBP 1.x.x" - "UDGP Retroactive Fixed for 1.1" - "Update tracking for the UDGP". Those kind of strings also need a translation?

 

Thanks a lot for your effort.

 

Salutations

 

 

Brezzaâ„¢ :woot:

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I'm not familiar with what TESVTranslator is or does. When translating for these patches, you need to be generating the string files found in Data\Strings. ESP translations will not work and will actually mess things up pretty badly if you go that route.

 

The quest names for the various retroactive update scripts don't need to be translated. The user will never see those displayed.

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I'm not familiar with what TESVTranslator is or does. When translating for these patches, you need to be generating the string files found in Data\Strings. ESP translations will not work and will actually mess things up pretty badly if you go that route.

 

The quest names for the various retroactive update scripts don't need to be translated. The user will never see those displayed.

So I need these 3 files to accomplish the work?

 

1 x .strings

1 x .dlstrings

1 x .ilstrings

 

That's what you need?

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Yes. If I knew the details of how you'd go about getting to that point I'd tell you :)

 

Pretty sure you'll need to at least have the base DLC strings handy somewhere, plus the ones from the UDBP so the changes register, and then translate from there.

 

I really wish this process was smoother and better supported by the CK itself, but it's not.

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Yes. If I knew the details of how you'd go about getting to that point I'd tell you :)

 

Pretty sure you'll need to at least have the base DLC strings handy somewhere, plus the ones from the UDBP so the changes register, and then translate from there.

 

I really wish this process was smoother and better supported by the CK itself, but it's not.

So sorry if yesterday I didn't reply but I've had to go.

 

Anyway, never mind, I've found out how to manage it using TESVTranslator (aka SkyrimStringTranslator) and nothing else. In fact, using this program, you open a .esp file that has its strings inside a bundled .bsa, and it lets you export the translated strings files which you may put back inside the .bsa and profit of your translation.

 

I've done a test extracting the strings files from the bsa with FO3 Archive Utility, than i've opened the UHFP .esp file with the translator, didn't translated anything and finalized exporting (generating) the strings files, and in both cases the files size were the same.

 

I'm waiting for some infos and than I'll proceed with the translation, if needed. I tell you when I'm done.

 

 

Regards.

 

Brezza :woot:

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Hexxae was able to provide the necessary files for the upcoming UDBP release, so we're fine on that for now. Since there are always more bugs to fix, we'll have more releases coming that will need these files.

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Hexxae was able to provide the necessary files for the upcoming UDBP release, so we're fine on that for now. Since there are always more bugs to fix, we'll have more releases coming that will need these files.

Fine! Seems like you don't need my help anymore :wink:  If you need something in the future just send me a PM on the Nexus and Iif I can manage your request I'll be happy to help! :D

 

Regards

 

Brezza :woot:

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  • 1 month later...

Although I never  have worked with TESVTranslator if it will help, I can translate in Greek.

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Sure. Any translations that are offered are welcome. I can't really offer up much help with the translator programs, but you can find out more about TESVTranslator at the official forum.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Unless somebody else did already offer to do it, I would be willing to tackle the German translation (and I also do presently have the time to do it). In the process, a few specific bugs could be fixed that occurred in the official translation.

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  • 1 month later...

Belated update.

 

With regret, we have decided to terminate this support in all future unofficial patch updates. Even with our slowing release schedule it was becoming very difficult to get translators to commit to providing what we needed, and in some cases they simply never responded at all to any of our messages.

 

We can't continue to operate this way, so ad of a couple of weeks ago the unofficial patches will be shipping as standard English only ESP files. Translations are still allowed, but we will no longer assume responsibility for the integrity of the data or provide support for them.

 

We wish it hadn't come to this, because multilingual support files is a great idea, but the reality is it just isn't possible to maintain at present.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I know I am late,but I would like to ask if the person who claimed the Greek translation needs any help.

I know it is hard and you can't support the translation files anymore,but I have previous experiences as an application translator so I am familiar with the difficulties.

Please reply soon!

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As far as I'm aware, there were never any Greek translations provided for the Unofficial Patches. The person who offered to do them hasn't been active since May.

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As far as I'm aware, there were never any Greek translations provided for the Unofficial Patches. The person who offered to do them hasn't been active since May.

I could do this by myself.It will take a few months though

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  • 6 months later...

New here but I'd be happy to do English -> French or German translations. I study French in college, of  a very high standard, and have a decent knowledge of German. Also have access to many resources at home for improvement. Experience doing subtitles for internet trailers before, so I'm not a total noob. Very eager to get into the world of localisation, if you're feeling kind let me show you what I can do! 

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Thanks for offering your help i guess. But this thread is old, and the project planned here was abandoned. The different teams did not provide their language files in time during two consecutive beta periods so this was decided to not be a feasable direction. Localized uskps are once again distributed separatelly by their local team. If you have fun working on localizations, i think it would be best to get in contact with them. I'm pretty sure they upload their patch localizations to the nexus. I can not speak for the french version, but the germans are very thorough in their work. There is a regular uskp translation on the nexus (it's usually released 1-2 weeks after the english release and they are partly the reason why the unified project did not work out). But then after their localization they package the uskp into one big download and add a german texture pack on top as well (for inn signs and posts and the like). This wider scope is probably the reason they did not bother with the unified uskp project to begin with.

Long story short: The reason the unification did not work out was not for lack if manpower, but lack if willingness to cooperate.

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Kwak kwak ! The french translation already has someone dealing with it ! :D We don't release it on Nexus though, but on the main site of our community : http://forum.wiwiland.net/index.php?/topic/54779-patch-non-officiel-201a/

 

We pack the various patches in an installer with other esps containing fixes specifically dedicated to our localization issues (nearly exclusively typos) and also translated signs for inns and shops, as the German community does (or did). Arthmoor gave us a global translation approval for all his mods a long time ago, and I personally handle the process. When an update is released I can often handle the translation within 7-10 days. The delay often comes from the necessity to port the audio fixes from the USKP to french. Soundforge is a valuable tool. :)

 

Hexaee is also the regular translator for the italian community. I don't know how the other communities achieve this, but I can assure you it's a big duty if you don't know how to handle the existing localization tools and don't build dictionnaries that can automate 90-95 % of the process. (USKP contains about 7500 text entries). Plus, the process should be done IMO by a native language speaker, because machine translation often delivers huge oddities.

 

Finally, even if Arthmoor's idea was good and philantropic, I have to say it was probably a bad idea for at least 3 reasons :

 

- Arthmoor constantly had to wait for very late (and sometimes never coming) translations, even if only the 5 main languages (EFIGS) were concerned. Delaying the entire USKP release for that reason was a disaster IMO.

- Only Hexaee and I are still achieving this task for our own communities. No faithful translator through time in other communities to my knowledge.

- A localized USKP (I mean with strings files) is a very bad thing, and I'll explain why.

 

In its actual shape, every player on the planet can play with the USKP. It's in american, right, but everyone can enjoy it. But if the USKP comes with (let's say) english and french string files, then only english and french players can use it. For the other languages, if strings files are missing then you have an instant CTD at main menu... :(

 

FWIW, I'm totally convinced that translations should be achieved by specific foreign communities themselves and, BTW, Arthmoor already has so much to deal with only bugs...

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