Language
There are four issues here.
- How to pronounce "Oolite"
- Non-English languages and the associated difficulties of learning the game
- Languages in the Ooniverse
- Programming Languages
Non English languages
There are at least two problems.
- Non-English Keyboards
- This should be made easier for Oolite v.1.92 - Phkb has been adding a keyboard configuration screen to the Vanilla game code.
- Learning to play Oolite when all displayed information is in English!
- The various language packs date back to early versions of Oolite and don't work well with the current ones: see Downloading Earlier versions if you want to go down this route. There are also links on that page for early versions of many oxp's!
Oolite en Français
- Poovga's translation (2013) for v.1.77
- Keyconfig.plist for French (Gracieuseté du Monsieur le Commandant STyx, 2020).
Oolite auf Deutsch
Website seems to have died since 2012...
- SwissMäc's's translation (2009) for v.1.71.1
- Commander McLane's translation (2010) for v.1.74
- Ralph's "Oolite German" (2017) - Descriptions.plist translated into German
- Keyconfig.plist for German QWERTZ Linux keyboard (Mit reichlichem Gruß an Kommandant Freiherr von Tsoj, 2021).
- Keyconfig.plist for German QWERTZ Linux keyboard (Genugtuung an den wundersamen und illustren Kommandanten Slartibartfast). This might work for Windows, too.
- GermanCustomSound.oxp for Oolite (note that this OXP dates back to 2010!).
Oolite Italiano
- Another_Commander's translation (2013) for v.1.77
- BB Thread (2008-13)
Оолит по-русски
- Website (mostly 2012): Roolite.org: This is the best (and currently only) non-English site, a partial duplicate of this one, a little dated, but with a current forum/bulletin board and with Russian translations of old version OXPs such as PlanetFall.
- There are 2 OXPs - by CatSam (2009) and by RadCapricorn (2009). Roolite states that CatSam did a better job (words don't creep over each other).
- RadCapricorn's translation & BB thread
- CatSam's translation
- Tch has much Russian-language related material in his box: Tch's Box account (2014 - for v.1.77 and earlier)
- Oolite introduction in Russian (С обильным и обильным удовлетворением Командира Незнакомца, 2020)
- Mr Gimlet in Russian (by Stranger, 2020)
- Roolite Our BB: Thread in English (2010-11)
- OXP's with Russian translations (2013)
- Documentation in Russian (2014: Handling OXP conflicts, Making Planet Textures)
- Oolite Fiction in Russian (by Stranger 2015-20)
- Novosibirsk Elite (2006: Russian Classic Elite resources)
Oolite en español
- Keyconfig.plist for Latin American (Gracias al Supremo, Serendipitoso y Sereno El Señor Comandante Reval).
- Traducción del juego Oolite al castellano (GitHub) by ManuelAMS (2016, unfinished?)
Language packs: a thought
From the Roolite website
| First of all, I want to say that I am not a supporter of translating both the game itself and the oxp's into Russian.
Firstly, a localized product always looks flawed, both in content (the naturalness of the textual part laid down by the authors is lost) and in appearance (typography conceived for the Latin alphabet in the Cyrillic version suffers greatly). Secondly, it is simply unrealistic to process the entire amount of information with high quality and the game will constantly sin of bilingualism. Third, translations often create confusion in terminology. English names are more succinct and concise. For example, "radioactives" could be translated literally as "radioactive", but the trouble is that such a word has not yet been invented in Russian and there is no reason to invent it yet. Therefore, the translator needs to write something like "radioactive materials". This something does not fit into the geometry invented by the developers. Although, of course, there is always an alternative to indicate simply "uranium" or "plutonium", but all this will only cause controversy and completely unnecessary discrepancies, as mentioned above. Fourth, the amount of useful information is, after all, less than the general amount of information. Therefore, it seems to me that it makes sense to work with the translation of the documentation, not the interface. For example, on this site, materials translated word by word from an English-language source are not posted, but instead concise, summarized articles about the main thing, with verified content, linking to more complete publications (full of both technical points and all kinds of lyrics). |
| (Roolite) |
Musings - an addendum to the thought
It is possible that translating Oolite into various languages is not as necessary as it used to be. But I wonder if that holds true for all the OXP's. Especially all those which add immersion through communications - Communications Pack A & Death Comms. And also for Hints. I would have thought that translations of those would make much sense.
Links
Old versions of Oolite for the translation packages above
- 2012 version: v.1.77.1 see bottom of page
- 2008-9 versions
- Note that these older versions predate Cim's groundbreaking v.1.80 and that the play will be slightly different
Languages in the Ooniverse
- The peculiarities of Thargoid language may be due to faults in the translation.
| In terms of keeping things Cannon I’ve handwaved the fact that the GalCop translator clearly cannot translate insectoid communications correctly. This is why Thargoid transmissions appear as meaningless English words such as “Eat Parking Meters” on your coms display. Insect languages use wing positions, movement and pheromones as well as sounds which cannot be translated into text. Your onboard translator therefore translates the names of friendly insect members of the GalCop Union of Worlds into the nearest Ancient Earthian Latin meaning. Latin is chosen as this is a common known language of all human colonials regardless of local dialect for reasons lost in pre-history. |
| (LittleBear) |
- To correct Wolfs to Wolves in the planet descriptions, try Phkb's FixWolfs.oxz
Programming Languages
There is the language of the code of the Vanilla game, and then there are the languages of the OXPs.
For the Vanilla game code languages see the bottom-right corner
For OXP languages see Category:Oolite JavaScript Reference for newer OXPs & Legacy Scripting for older OXPs
