Hello everybody !

For a long time now I have lingered on this forum, reading everyone's thoughts and comments about the amazing game that is The Void, but without really participating in any debate or discussion. This time is now over !!
I will use this opportunity to thank the developpers for having allowed me to play to their game, which I found really amazing ! And I also wanted to say that I really enjoyed coming to this forum once in a while to check the news. To everyone who happens to participate in this forum, you guys are great !!

Now down to the main topic. As you probably already know by now, I'm French (wow, that one sounded like a confession ). I happen to be quite fluent with English, so playing the Void did not cause any problems for me (of course, I'm only speaking about language !! ). However, many people can't even understand written english well enough to play to untranslated games . Not to mention the Void is hard enough as it is, and that the level of english in the game is quite high.
That's why when I saw that some guy here (in french) was trying to do something about it, I decided to join in to try and make this happen...

So ! What are we trying to do, exactly ?
That's simple, really. We're thinking of translating all of The Void's text from English to French, and then... nothing. That's where the problem is. We're only two (more soon, I hope !!!), and all we can do for now is to translate the texts that we can find in the game folders or ingame (but thet's really inconvenient, believe me...). Nevertheless, I've already begun the translation and I will hopefully go on for as long as it takes.
I'm motivated, but there are things I don't know how to do (like finding a proper access to the texts, for starters...), and without help this project will never come to an end.
Of course, as fans, we know that this game holds great poetry, and that translating from the english version (which has already been translated) isn't a good way to stick to the original ; but this is all we have (knowing noone who knows enough russian), and I believe that the english translation is already really great. As such, I will do my utmost best to preserve the beauty of the texts I will translate.

There you are... If you want to help, protest, comment, cheer on us, or anything else, feel free to do so ! And if by any chance there are any French people here, please come help !! I'm looking forward to any kind of reply !

P.S.: I thought I'd contribute to the list of reviews held by Throdax. There you go !
-http://www.jeuxvideopc.com/test/45334-the-void.php (maybe you already have this one)
-http://www.jeuxvideopc.com/test/45334-the-void.php (this one is really great, imho)

That's great news!
Anything we can help you with?
You might want to check out the English re-translation project here for the best quality: http://ice-pick.com/translate/forum/index.php
And we can create you a sub-forum there for your convenience and assist, if questions arise.

Ask.

There's also a Polish translation project underway...

Hey ! Thanks for the quick reply !!

A subforum would be really great, but is really not needed now. Like I said, I fear that for the time being, it would only benefit me, and it would'nt do much besides taking space for nothing. IMO, this thread is already sufficient for now. But thanks anyway !
On another note, I checked the link, but what you were talking about was the Pathologic re-translation project, no ? (And the same goes for the Polish team doesn't it ?)

As for help, I do need some . I was hoping that you could tell me how I can access all the texts of the game conveniently. Let me explain : I opened the data/properties file with total commander, so I have now acces to the strings subfolder, and what it contains. So I can already work with the .txt files in there, which is already good.
But I still can't open the voiceover.dat file which contains most of the dialogues of the game (I assume those are subtitles?). If you could tell me - if possible - how to do this, that would do the trick . If not, well, I can translate what's inside using word or something, but it's not really convenient.

Eventually, in order for my translation to have a meaning, I will have to "put" what I have translated into the game... How will that happen ? Will I have to do it, or will it be up to you guys or someone else ? What form will that take ? Some kind of patch ?
Let's put those questions aside for now, it's still far too early . (But if you really want to tell me, go ahead though ... I'm always curious, and have great thirst for knowledge )

To finish, I have a question concerning the translation : As you may, or may not know, in French, there are 2 ways of translating "you". It can mean you are adressing only one person, politely or more familiarly, or even many people. I don't know if it's the same in russian, but if it is, I would like to know how the characters in the game (Colors, Hunters, Sisters) are calling the Hero. In an really polite way (mostly reserved for elders or hierarchic superiors in French), or more directly (for family, friends, or people your age or smaller) ?
That's something I will discuss with other french people, but I'd like you to tell me which way you intended it to be. My personal opinion would be the more "direct" way, for various reasons...

More to come !!

Ah, indeed, I didn't notice you were talking about the Void.

Do you have Skype or ICQ? I'll explain how to extract and translate the texts.

As for you - in the Void everyone is most likely to refer as the less-polite variation, as the Brothers address Young One as their apprentice, and the Sisters as their potential friend. (We have the same rule for using you in Russian.)

I do have an old and rusty skype account, I'll pm you about it. (But although I do have a mike, I don't really like to use it, cause it's an XBox 360 one ; and each time I use it for the pc I have to go trough the trouble of pluging the controller receiver, connecting the controller, and configuring skype... )

One problem I see is that many voices do not have subtitles — the intro and outro poems, the whispers of colour when you pick some up, the thoughts of the Sisters or the commendments of the Brothers while traveling in the Void — though I guess that in the worst case scenario you can create text files with the translations for people to read out of the game.

I might also be able to lend a hand with the translation if you guys still look for people to help. I usualy got a busy schedule but maybe I can work something out.

Hi!

First things first: congratulations for this fantastic game, guys!

I'm working on a spanish translation to The Void (the english release). After reading this forums, I managed open, extract and translate all texts from the game, except voiceover.dat. Question is: how can I edit this file to complete the translation? Any help would be appreciated. If you prefer, can answer me via PM.


Thanks in advance.


Edit: Can the game show the special characters like this?
http://jrgraphix.net/research/unicode_b ... hp?block=1

(this is an unicode example, Latin-1 supplement, correct spanish needs some of them)

The game can show any Unicode character that exists in your font. The rasterized fonts in current version contain the symbols found in corresponding texts, i.e. for Russian/English/German (probably, Polish in Polish version). However, one can translate the game into Italian, French or Japanese - we'll only need to have a typeface with all the characters available, and run a utility through the subs database to rasterize all the characters required to display such a text.