Exult Forum

Hi to all, mainly to the fantastic Exult Team

Thanks to some exult tools I'm trying to translate these fantastic games (Ultima 7 and in a future Ultima 7 part2) in Italian, and then I'm searching for people who wants / can aid me.

Even a single dialogue translation contribution can be usefull, as the text in the game is really huge.

I have already translated almost 5000 sentences of the game (usecode)..., almost all the objects (text.flx)..., and some gumps (gumps.vga)

I've also developed a nice tool (for windows only) to help in the translation process.

If someone is interested, you can reach me at my email
mfocare@tiscalinet.it

Thanks to all, and excuse me for my "not good" english.
Maurizio.

I don't think your English is bad! I'm happy another one is trying to translate an Ultima Game. If you need further help on the "developing" side, best contact Artaxerxes who is in the team which translates SI to French.
Good luck

Maurizio, if you need help, I'm a bilingual English-Italian

Ehehe thanks Domino for your interest.

I will contact Artaxerxes to have some clues on the translation development

I have studied MY way to translate, but this method need refinement in some phases... i will ask him.
And some functions in the usecode are really hard to be translated without the contest of the dialogue...

Thanks again to all who will help me in future.
Maurizio.

Thanks Nadir.

Now I'm at university, and all the material is at home...

You are in the exult team, and then I think you know very well the format of the usecode file...

If you want I can send you via e-mail my translation program (except for the 1 MB DLLs it is a very little program) and some samples of translated files, so you can see if it is comfortable to translate with it and you can give me advices on how make this program better (any advice is ALWAYS appreciated...)

It is written in Borland C++ builder (the only tool I'm able to use...) so if you have it installed on your machine you don't need the 1MB DLLs.

Argh... but you are multilingual... I could write in Italian... hihihih.

I will send the email with the attachments one of these evenings.
But before, tell me if you want them.

Thanks in advance.
Maurizio.

Out of curiosity, how cross-platform is your translation program? (i.e., how easy would it be to get it to work under Linux)

Heh.. let me guess - MFC

- Tele

MFC ? What does that mean ?

Otherwise, I have been contacted by Sir Dester but I'm glad he also took to translate gumps.vga and has created a windows tool to help in the translating work.

I actually would be interested in looking at that tool. Sir Dester, could you make a few screenshots or explain what the tool does, please ?

Being in the french team for the translation of Serpent Isle, I know for a fact that a LOT of help is needed in translation the whole usecode. If any o you speaks some italian, then go ahead and offer your help.

All the best, Sir Dester.

Artaxerxes

Could be worse... could be VB... hang on... it COULD be VB

-Colourless Dragon

Maybe it would work under WINE? Okay, 19 out of 20 programs I try DON'T work under WINE, but there's always hope.

In any case, I think it's great to see Ultima translated to another language.

--- To Colourless Dragon:---
VB ? BLEACH ! No no, nothing is written in VB. I'm not a great programmer, but I use C and C++ It is written in BorlandC++ builder.

--- To WPJ: ---
I think it's not really easy to cross the program to Linux... it is strongly
windows based. Perhaps WINE can be the solution.

I can program in C and C++ but the only way I knew to make decent graphical user interfaces (using C language) was with or Borland C++ builder, as I haven't the necessary knowledge (and for now the necessary time to learn) to program the GUIs using Windows APIs.

I started translating the sentences in notepad (LOOL) and after that I decided to build a tool to make the translation process easier.

--- To Artaxerxes: ---
I'll organize a web page on my university webserver with a few screenshots and a brief description of the program and its functions.
I can also put the executable file on the webserver, so you can download it, but it is far from being "BUG FREE". (be sure, it does not format your Hard Drive, hihihi)

The tool is a little tricky as regard the format of input and output file. Having not the time to understand the real format of the usecode file, I started from the decompiled functions of the usecode (decompiled with Exult Tools) "parsing" them to extract the sentences.

I know that reading the data directly from the usecode file would be more
efficient, but when I started I only wanted a "fast developed" tool, without
loosing too much time understanding the usecode format.

The input files are the ASSEMBLER files extracted from the usecode, with a .data section and a .code section. I maintain the .code section unchanged and change only the .data section of the file, to generate the translated one.

Then all the files must be recompiled always using Exult Tools to regenerate, from the disassembled functions, the usecode file.

I'll try to explain better on the webpage.
Stay tuned
Maurizio.

Here is the link for the webpage:

www.cclinf.polito.it/~s88478/Traduttore.html

Let's try it

Any comment on my tool ? usefull ? bullshit ? ))

windows-only...

Artaxerxes

I understand it's the reign of Linux Programming... but for now I can only program under windows.
I'm sorry.
Maurizio.

Don't apologize; there's nothing wrong with making a tool for your own use any way you like.

BTW, it seems to work (at least a bit, as I don't have data files here) in WINE.

Thanks DrCode, it was my intention. To Create a tool for my own use in the only way I knew.

At least I hope my IDEAS are good, so some skillful Linux programmer can try to reproduce it under a more comfortable Operating System.

As regard the program, it's simple to get datafiles.
Use Exult Tools to extract a function from the usecode and redirect the output to a file named "xxxxxxx.txt"

Then open it with the program (if this was you problem)

Sir Dester:

There is certainly nothing wrong with coding for Windows... which OS is the best is a matter of taste but I don't think one can say that programming a tool for Linux is better or takes more skill than programming one for Windows. So there is nothing wrong with your tool as such!

However, Exult is a portable game engine and the tools developed for Exult is also to a large degree platform independant. Nomatter how good you have programmed your tool it is probably very hard to port it to Linux because as it's a windowed tool and thus it probably relies heavily on the Win32 API. Porting it to Linux would probably require 80% or more of the code to be completely rewritten

Hmm.. I guess there isn't really any point in this post except trying to explain that I don't think the Exult team has pretty much ignored your tool because it's poorly written or anything - just because it's not practical for them to use it in their development

- Tele

Telemachos:

Thank you, I wrote a message here in this forum because I knew it's read by many Ultima 7 fans and I hoped to find someone interested in helping me with the translation project.

Presenting my tool was an expedient to tell people: "If you want to help me there's a ready-tool that can help you in the translation".

It wasn't my intention to ask to Exult developers to port my program under Linux, I know it can be really hard. But I think this can be a starting point for a future Exult tool with these features, why not ?

For now there's this working and well tested "windows" tool for anyone who wants to use it (I'm happy it works under WINE).

Thanks to all who will reply my invitation.
Maurizio.

on a side note, you can develop tools that work with both linux and windows:

* TCL/TK is portable and very simple to learn (took me one day). Interpreted language thus a bit slower.

* wxWindows (http://www.wxwindows.org/) for more complicated apps that need to be compiled.

Artaxerxes

QT, GTK+

Thanks Artaxerxes, I will try them.
I'm downloading wxWindows and I'll try to convert my Bcc++ project.
I'll let you know.

Maurizio.

I must comunicate the new URL for the translation program, as the old URL is down for maintenance.

http://mfocare.gamersrevolt.it/Traduttore.html

Hi.