Samual Posts: 582

Threads: 53

Joined: Mar 2010

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Programmer

#1 EDIT 2019: The translation instructions and guidelines have been updated and moved to the wiki:



Original post below:



Hey everyone, got some great news!



Antibody and I have been setting up a new website for us to use which will allow us to crowd-source our translations: http://translate.xonotic.org/

New page: https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/xonotic/



If you're able to speak English and another language well, please sign up for an account and help us out ASAP, we want to get the game translated as well as we possibly can for the 0.7 release coming up very soon. (No, I can't say when exactly yet )



Some things to note...

If your language is not on the list, please request it on the development tracker under the "translations" section, as seen here: http://dev.xonotic.org/issues/1615 (or if that fails, request it on the forum post here... we'll try and get around to it ASAP)

WE NEED HELP! I'm looking for someone to manage translations from now on, I can't handle yet another responsibility unless we sacrifice quality and abilities from the translations. Basically what i'm looking for is someone who:

...A: Has coding experience,

...B: Has experience with multiple languages and speaks/writes English fluently,

...C: Understands version control (especially Git) at least a little bit, and of course...

...D: Is trustworthy and capable of dedicating some time to making translations go smoothly.

There is now a channel for all translation/language development discussion! Join #xonotic.translate on irc.quakenet.org if you're interesting in pitching in for translation development. We'll be able to help you out, or you can help others out as well. Please speak English in this channel if you're asking a question, as that is the most common language that everyone in the channel should know.

Finally I have to say, due to the nature of translations, we have quite a lot of guidelines/rules that we have to establish to avoid mistakes or problems. Please read through this list before attempting to contribute to language/translation development...

Xonotic Translation Guidelines

First create an account using a proper nickname and a real email address (we'll use this to give you credit for your contributions, and so that we're able to contact you later if we need further translation help)



Always match newlines and whitespace with translation strings-- if a string has 4 spaces in the beginning of it in English, do the same thing for the translation. If a string has 2 newlines at the end of it, or one in the middle and another at the end, repeat the same thing in the translated string.



Always match variables in the strings properly, seen here: http://docs.translatehouse.org/projects/...ables.html



Keep color codes the same, like ^BG or ^TC or ^F4 or ^2, these are special color codes and are handled by the HUD/text rendering code.



Normally do not translate proper nouns, like most weapon names (excluding Rocketlauncher, Shotgun, etc), or game mode names-- unless they make sense in your language to be translated. Mutators CAN be translated, but not mutators which have proper names, like "MinstaGib", or "NIX" which is an acronym.



Pay attention to these little warnings when working with strings: http://docs.translatehouse.org/projects/...tests.html -- they show up on the top right of the translation box with a little red circle showing if there is a problem.



Additionally, especially pay attention to capitalization... scoreboard columns for example are intended to be LOWERCASE. In general, it's always a good idea to follow the context of the English writing, and make sure the capitalization matches in English (Unless your language has some other grammatical rule that makes more sense here.)



Strings that have no English words do not need to be translated, like "%s %s (%s%s)" should not be translated-- if you see these, please report them on dev.xonotic.org, as they should not have been added in the first place.



do not need to be translated, like "%s %s (%s%s)" should not be translated-- if you see these, please report them on dev.xonotic.org, as they should not have been added in the first place. If you are even slightly unsure of the context or meaning of a string, read the code or ask someone in #xonotic.translate, if you're still unable to be 100% sure, then mark the string as "needs work" and MOVE ON, do not risk adding an improper translation.



Some strings have prefixes which help you know the context of the string... For example, say there is a listbox in the menu which controls effects settings, we can add a prefix into the translatable string for each item in the list like this: "PREFIX^translatable text". In the case of effects, we can do: "EFFECTS^Low", "EFFECTS^Medium", and "EFFECTS^High", and you can then know the context of the Low/Medium/High translation easily. When forming the final translated string, REMOVE THE PREFIX AND THE ^ SYMBOL. However, be careful not to confuse these with color codes or intentional placements of ^. If in doubt, read the code, context sensitive lines of code which use this prefix idea will have a ZCXT() wrapper around the whole string, giving you a good clarification as to how to proceed.



NEVER pervert, profane, or mock a string that is not normally written as such in English. If there is no joke or gore in the English writing, do not add one in the translation. We must adhere to supporting cl_gentle (a non-swearing, "E rated" version of the texts) even in translations.



Users who abuse the translation system (i.e. putting innappropriate language in places it should not be, advertisements, spam, or other such problems) will be banned from the translation system.



Overall, just try and write the translation in a way which fits your language best... If something is silly in English and it's okay to do it silly in your language, then go ahead-- just try and make it match the English meaning as closely as possible.



After you have completed translations, please test them both in the menu and in game to make sure there aren't any mistakes. WARNING: If you make a mistake while translating a notification system string, it CAN crash the game upon loading, as the notification system analyzes all strings and ensures they are written correctly! ( See here, an earlier problem I noticed on the old German translations: http://i.imgur.com/mePBYvO.jpg )



Last note: Later on, we will be adding a "goof"/"joke"/"lol" translation, which will allow all strings to be made into jokes or mockery. I know some people have requested to do funny things with the translations, but we have to say "No" to the majority of them, keep it on par with the English messages.... Except for *this* translation. Once we have it up, it will be an English joke translation which contains all kinds of crazy shit probably.



Thanks, and happy fragging! Or should I say... glücklich fragging! Reply The translation instructions and guidelines have been updated and moved to the wiki: Translating Original post below:Hey everyone, got some great news!Antibody and I have been setting up a new website for us to use which will allow us to crowd-source our translations:-- Powered by "Pootle," this website basically provides a powerful tool for many people to contribute to the translation of the game, and allows us developers to organize it in a far superior way to using a mailing list and directly handling the internationalization files manually.If you're able to speak English and another language well, please sign up for an account and help us out ASAP, we want to get the game translated as well as we possibly can for the 0.7 release coming up very soon. (No, I can't say when exactly yetLast note: Later on, we will be adding a "goof"/"joke"/"lol" translation, which will allow all strings to be made into jokes or mockery. I know some people have requested to do funny things with the translations, but we have to say "No" to the majority of them, keep it on par with the English messages.... Except for *this* translation. Once we have it up, it will be an English joke translation which contains all kinds of crazy shit probably.Thanks, and happy fragging! Or should I say... glücklich fragging! Reply