GZDoom localization development thread [Split]

[Koto]

Where in the source can i find the language file? I want to make a Spanish translation.

This can serve as a base.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=57790

[Kostov]

Three things I’ve noticed, Graf:

1. In Doom, the header text in the Player Setup menu is now green. Is this intentional?
   
   
2. The language CVAR still doesn’t save.
3. When loading new bigfont lumps from a .pk3, it replaces all the other ones, and therefore, only the ones from the mod show up (as I tried with this WIP Serbian translation here, which contains a Cyrillic Ј):
   
   

Also, do you think it would be better to send all the extra European/Cyrillic BIGFONT lumps right now, or should I wait until you find a solution regarding the height differences of the sprites?

[Graf Zahl]

1. The green means it must pick up the Chex Quest setting somewhere.
2. I cannot test right now, I'll have to check later.
3. Yes, that's intentional. To avoid font mixups a font must be defined as one atomic unit, i.e. come from the same resource file. In this case I have to make a trade: Either ensure that font replacements do not pick up improper content or allow extending a font. And I'm sorry to say, case 1 is far, far more frequent.

[Graf Zahl]

I managed to fix and finalize a lot of stuff today, I think the one thing left is to allow text for patch substitution in the menu.

So what's the status with the fonts?

[Kostov]

So what's the status with the fonts?

The whole European block that we talked about is done for Doom, along with some extra Cyrillic characters. That should keep a lot of European languages supported when it comes to the BIGFONT. The smallfonts aren’t quite done yet. My only question is whether I’ll have to limit the height of the bigfont to a certain pixel value, and if so, I’ll have to spend some more time finalizing everything.

Also, I found someone who was intrested in translating Strife to French (along with Tapwave), so to help them out, I made Strife smallfont characters for the French alphabet, which I can submit to GZDoom.

[Graf Zahl]

I can only tell you that if you give me the font for testing. It may require some tweaks to get right but to implement those I need to see the font in action.

Also, it'd be great if the translation was made so that it can be inserted into the Google spreadsheet I created. That will ensure that nothing is missed and that I can later convert it back into text files without having to merge different pieces of work. Since there were some additions to the string list here and there, there's gaps in the French translation already.

[Kostov]

I can only tell you that if you give me the font for testing. It may require some tweaks to get right but to implement those I need to see the font in action.

extrabigfont.pk3

Also, it'd be great if the translation was made so that it can be inserted into the Google spreadsheet I created.

Didn’t know you have a spreadsheet. Got a link to it?

[Kostov]

Dang it, the file didn’t save correctly! Try downloading it again.

[Gez]

Didn’t know you have a spreadsheet. Got a link to it?

There's a blog post:
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=63737

[Graf Zahl]

While checking a few things with the BigFont I noticed that all the special characters like !, /, % etc are the larger versions. Do you still have the smaller ones? The big ones cause some layout problems because they do not match the rest of the font.

[Graf Zahl]

Update about the fonts: I just checked both BigFont variants in places where they might be used.
The BigUpper font looks mostly ok, but is missing the C with cedille (C7) character. It also causes overlaps when I use it for the main menu so it looks like I have to change the spacing if a font-based menu is used.

The regular BigUpper font looks mostly ok with two exceptions. For the C with cedille (C7) the cedille is a bit large and may cause some problems when using multi-line text. Can you reduce its size a bit? And the Thorn (DE) looks like the small, not the capital version of that letter which makes it stand out a bit. Can you make a smaller version of the capital variant from the BigUpper font for this?

Aside from those two the ones mentioned in my previous post still need replacement. The rest that needs to be done here is some fine tuning in the engine to reduce overlaps and cut off characters.

[Kostov]

I’m on it. Also, I have a couple of ideas in the sheets thread that I need permission for.

While checking a few things with the BigFont I noticed that all the special characters like !, /, % etc are the larger versions. Do you still have the smaller ones? The big ones cause some layout problems because they do not match the rest of the font.

Do you want the BigUpper font to use these smaller symbols as well? It would be inconsistent with the menu graphics.

[Graf Zahl]

You may be right, but I haven't seen such text yet.

Another bit of feedback about those fonts:

I tweaked the menu layout to work better with localized content, but there's one issue: I cannot widen the menu spacing as much as I'd like. Currently it uses 16 pixels, but the widest I can do without compromising the visuals is 18 pixels - 20 is already too much. That doesn't leave much room for diacritical marks, especially descenders - ascenders mostly look acceptable, though. Since BigUpper is essentially a small capitals font, we should see to reduce the size of the descenders as much as possible. From the latin characters between 0xc0 and 0xff the most problematic ones are the c with cedille (same issue as in BigFont) and the small Thorn which looks out of place in a small capitals font - it should be a small version of the capital letter (again the same as I already mentioned yesterday for the regular BigFont.) If there's Cyrillic letters with descenders they also should be reviewed if they can be changed, because they'll inevitably cause overlaps if anything with an ascender is below it.

And before I forget: The numbers in BigUpper are not properly offset, their baseline is too high.

[Graf Zahl]

I think I got everything implemented now. The last bit I just finished was to define the decision logic for the cases where a text graphic needs to be substituted with a font-based text.

Once I have the final fonts I think I can merge it all to the master branch.

[Kostov]

Great I’ve now reworked everything you’ve asked for, and I’ve also reworked the punctuation as well as the shading and outlines on some of the characters.



The only problem is that I don’t know how to make the cedilla much shorter without making it look unnatural (the BigUpper variant is currently 20 pixels tall, and the BigFont one is 17 pixels tall). Though…

Currently it uses 16 pixels, but the widest I can do without compromising the visuals is 18 pixels

Since we’re talking about verticality, do you mean that the tallest you can do is 18 pixels?

Lastly, I have a pull request that might be useful for the localization branch:

Add language menu to Options