Translating GZDoom's text content. Read if you want to help

[Graf Zahl]

The main question with Hacx should be whether it would make sense to make an 1.3 release or to just integrate this stuff into GZDoom itself, I guess the main blocking factor for doing it as a new release would be the need to do a .pk3, because Wads would have trouble handling all the needed assets.

[Xaser]

A 1.3 release is planned, but it needs to be a .wad for compatibility with other ports. We could either add the font to GZDoom, or 1.3 could include a separate hacxfont.pk3 that gets autoloaded similar to Strife's voices.wad.

[Rachael]

It might be better to do something like hacx_gzdoom.pk3 for GZDoom-specific stuff, in general, in case you need more. And it also allows you to keep things in your own hands, too.

That way, GZDoom can handle the individual translations through the spreadsheet Graf is using, and you can focus on the fonts and the artwork and the scripting for it.

[Xaser]

That makes sense -- that way we can also get the DECORATE lump out of the IWAD and organize it sanely (and prolly also convert it to ZScript). That was kind of a weird inclusion in 1.2 in retrospect -- the idea was to have a canon set of DECORATE actors for everything to match the other Doom games, mostly for reference purposes, but past-me thought it would be a good idea to include some custom puff sprites so the intent is kinda all over the shop.

[Graf Zahl]

If you want to clean that up, please also consider exporting the things that are missing, e.g. the Nitro bottle is still a Dehacked barrel.
I also have made some dynamic light definitions a few months ago, they could also be included.

[Rachael]

https://github.com/coelckers/gzdoom/com ... 7bddccd821
I named it "hacx_gzdoom_stuff.pk3" - because I wanted to make sure the name was somewhat more specific, since it's pretty easy to find people who might've misnamed something "hacx_gzdoom.pk3" in their wads folder.

[Graf Zahl]

A quick status update of how far the translation has progressed.
Currently, discounting some menu items that do not require translation, there's 3755 strings to translate, plus 246 for translating the free IWADs Chex Quest 3, Hacx and Harmony.

The current state is: (Numbers are missing strings for main content/Number of missing strings for the 3 free IWADs):

Czech: 3237 / 246
German: 3 / 0
Spanish: 29 / 233
French: 28 / 0
Hungarian: 2337 / 237
Italian: 234 / 233 (Missing main content is nearly all Strife dialogues)
Korean: 2 / 50
Polish: 3197 / 246
Portuguese: 150 / 99 (currently the most active one being worked on and looks to be finished soon.)
Romanian: 3508 / 246
Russian: 0 / 233
Serbian: 3126 / 246 (currently inactive)

The text list should be complete - all relevant game text has been added to the spreadsheets by now - there only might be the occasional addition to the menus if a new feature gets added, so there's currently no plans to localize more content - the remaining IWADs are either unfinished (Freedoom, Blashpemer) or in a state that prevents efficient localization (Action Doom 2.)

I think we can expect French and Spanish to be filled in shortly because there's active contributors and the amount of texts is not this high - but obviously for Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Italian and Romanian it'd really help if more people worked on it, and if someone was found to work on Serbian.

Also: Is there someone interested in doing a Chinese translation?

[Captain J]

Speaking of Complete, we already completed all the strings that are empty. Including Hacx and Harmony. Foxtongue, one of our team members are checking out the spelling errors. And Freedoom... Yeah, we really should translate that one too. It needs more love, after all. And Blashpemer? I haven't heard that IWAD, but this should be fun to play/translate. I'll wait for it.

Anyway if there are more strings to be filled, just let me know!

[Graf Zahl]

Blasphemer is the Freedoom equivalent for Heretic. The main issue with both projects is that they apparently never get finished because there's no active project leader - Freedoom nominally has one but so far this person has been the single biggest roadblock why every time the project was gaining momentum it was ground to a standstill again by somehow driving out all the active contributors.

And as long as these aren't finished I am not investing any work in them. For other IWADs like Adventures of Square it's up to their maintainers to decide whether they want localization or not. If they want I'll help but I won't act as a project leader or producer on such a localization effort. The goal right now should be to get the above list to close to zero for all entries - and somehow get the Japanese translation effort folded back into the engine itself.

[Kinsie]

For other IWADs like Adventures of Square it's up to their maintainers to decide whether they want localization or not. If they want I'll help but I won't act as a project leader or producer on such a localization effort.

Square will be pretty tricky to localize. Not for any technical reason, mind, but because of all the terrible puns.

[Captain J]

Maybe so, but i think i can take whatever the pun can be, rough, complicated or not. I've got something to cover them. Heck, i even translated every single dialogues in Episode 2 Cutscene!... Although it's kinda secret.

Blasphemer is the Freedoom equivalent for Heretic. The main issue with both projects is that they apparently never get finished because there's no active project leader - Freedoom nominally has one but so far this person has been the single biggest roadblock why every time the project was gaining momentum it was ground to a standstill again by somehow driving out all the active contributors.

Hmm... I see. Still, there's always chance to be played by someone knows korean, so i might translate that just in case. And Freedoom one definitely should be on the spreadsheet!

[Nekitk0]

Hey, can I contribute to the Russian translation? I noticed there are some things that could use some correction, like grammar and punctuation. I'm a native Russian speaker studying translation btw.

[Graf Zahl]

Sure you can. Please send a request for editing via Google Docs or send me a PM with your Google mail address. Of course, I'd appreciate if you could also have a look at the untranslated texts for Hacx, Harmony and Chex Quest 3. That's something where there's still a little work to do.

[Esrael]

Just sent a request in the spreadsheet, so I can work on a Finnish translation. When you guys decided to start localizing, did you consider other options, such as Transifex? Transifex is used with OpenXcom, and I think it's quite a nice tool.

[Graf Zahl]

I have investigated translation services but haven't found one yet that doesn't involve $$$ when considering the amount of text we have to deal with, or are a bit picky about copyrighted content (which the majority here actually is.) Transifex may be nice but it's too expensive. Ultimately this is a hobby project and unless we find a service that allows to connect to potential translators who might be willing to contribute for free to an Open Source project it's unfortunately not of much use here.