GUI localization

[akortunov]

As you know, Morrowind uses string GMST's for menu localization. OpenMW now has some hardcoded English strings in GUI, because there are no suitable GMST's in Bethesda's resource files.

We can provide small localization esp's, of course, but I don't like an idea to force players to use it. Maybe we need a way to provide fallback values for these strings.

In current implementation OpenMW uses something like:

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MWBase::Environment::get().getWindowManager()->getGameSettingString("sChooseClassMenu2", "Favorite Attributes:");

but this way is not flexible, because it needs for a custom code for every widget.

Maybe we can modify MyGUI::LanguageManager to accept fallback values, something like:

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"#{sOurCustomMenuString%Fallback value}"

or just store fallback values in config files somehow.

What do you think?

[Zini]

Localisation esps are the right way to go. Localisation in MW/OpenMW is specific to content files. Does not make sense to hardcode them into the engine for new text values. That would be inconsistent with everything else.
What we can do is store the fallback values (default English) in the openmw.cfg file. But the actual localisation still needs to be done in content files.
We can figure out something within the launcher that makes the process less bothersome for the user.

[Chris]

Localisation esps are the right way to go.

Having separate esps/omwaddons for different languages sounds a bit sloppy. IMO, it would make sense to store the different languages together, so that it can be changed during run-time if the user desires a different language (with defaults auto-selected based on system language settings). Having proper editor support would also mean you could compare the default displayable strings with various localized variants, so you can easily tell at-a-glance what still needs to be done. This seems as though it'd be much harder to do if the languages were left as separate esp/omwaddon patches.

[Zini]

There is no mechanism to change language at run time. Every single piece of MW content places the localisation in content files and we can't switch out content files at runtime.

Regarding editor support: I have something in the pipeline that should work reasonably well with content file based localisation. That is a post-1.0 feature though.

[Chris]

There is no mechanism to change language at run time. Every single piece of MW content places the localisation in content files and we can't switch out content files at runtime.

Right. Which is why I think for proper localization support, it would be a good idea to rethink how it's handled. As it is, I don't know any modder that likes how Morrowind handles localized content. Rather than simply presenting the game in another language, the game data is replaced using different text strings and voice files. That's not how modern localization works, and for good reason. Obviously there's nothing we can do about the base MW data files, but for new games or mods, the process can be cleaner and more flexible. And I wouldn't be surprised to see a mod that re-localizes the game taking advantage of OpenMW's localization capabilities.

[Zini]

Agreed. Except that I have done most of the rethinking already. Don't have the time to get into it right now. I will present it as a part of my large post-1.0 brain dump, once we have the 1.0 release out of the way.

[Jyby]

What value add if any is there to changing localizations at run time? Don't people with a good language grasp stick with it? Or are many German / Russian / European folks going back and fourth?

@zini won't English defaults in the openmw.cfg be massive? Did you mean English is the default. Is putting actual string values in the openmw.cfg a good idea?

NVM

[Chris]

What value add if any is there to changing localizations at run time?

Bilingual people may prefer switching between languages depending on their mood. And people learning a new language may like to temporarily use that language for a bit, before switching back. Having to quit out of the game to change the language would be annoying. Ideally you shouldn't be forced to quit the game to change any setting, so the fewer instances of having to do that, the better. At the very least you should be able to do it from the main menu, if not in-game.

[Jyby]

+1 healthy points.

[akortunov]

Storing fallback values in openmw.cfg file works fine, but how can I add a new GMST? It seems neither TES CS nor OpenMW-CS allows this.