I had intentions on making a customized language to go along with my custom texture pack. However, I have NO IDEA where to start. I know that there are .lang files in the language folder, but I have no clue how to open them, edit them, use them, or even understand their meaning or purpose. Can someone give me some basic instructions on how they work, or redirect me to a walkthrough of some sort? It would be really appreciated.
A couple things to note that may be of interest:
I don't want the change to be permenant. I want to be able to change between regular English and my custom language.
I want my language, still in majority, to be English. I just want to change a couple of the UK spellings and usages to US ones, (Like, Lead to Leash, trousers to pants, etc.) as well as change a few other names to fit my textures.
If possible, I want to be able to connect the language and the texture pack together, so they both open together.
PLEASE quote me when you have a helpful response. I'm not too horribly active on the forums.
Sorry that you had to listen to me ramble, but I really hope to be able to make this soon. Thanks for listening!
.lang files can be opened by any normal text editor. Notepad will work, but the return characters in lang files aren't recognized by Notepad, so you'll end up with all the line breaks disappearing and turning the whole thing into a jumbled mess. Notepad++ is a good, free alternative that works a whole lot better.
Once you've opened the lang file in Notepad++, it should be fairly straightforward. Each line will have a different word or set of words that appears in a certain pace in the game. The lines look something like this:
gui.done=Done
gui.cancel=Cancel
etc.
Changing the string of text after the equals sign will change what string of text shows up in the place indicated. The two values I pasted in are the "Done" and "Cancel" buttons in the game's user interface. All of the language entries are easy to understand, so it shouldn't be too difficult figuring out what goes to what (and if you get lost, you can always use ctrl+F to search the file for a certain word).
The first three lines of the lang file control how the language is implemented. The first two lines are arbitrary, they control the name of the language and the region. The third line is the language code for the lang file. You'll notice that each languages lang code is the same as its file name. US English is en_US, Australian English is en_AU, etc. If you alter this line of code specifically, it will change which language you're replacing. If you edit the default en_US and leave that line as you found it, you'll change just the regular English that the game uses by default. If you open the default en_US and change that line to, for example, en_CA, you'll replace Canadian English, leaving the default American English unchanged. Remember to change the lang file's file name to the lang code, or it won't work.
As for making the language automatically change when the pack is selected, there are some tricky things you can do. You can change the default American English to your custom language, and then change some other obscure language to American English so that it's still available.
Ah, ok. I saw some other people trying to get help with the language, and I saw lines of code. I feared that the language would be much more complicated than the way you described it. I'm downloading Notepad++ as we speak, and I'll be sure to ask if I need any help. Thank you!
A couple things to note that may be of interest:
I don't want the change to be permenant. I want to be able to change between regular English and my custom language.
I want my language, still in majority, to be English. I just want to change a couple of the UK spellings and usages to US ones, (Like, Lead to Leash, trousers to pants, etc.) as well as change a few other names to fit my textures.
If possible, I want to be able to connect the language and the texture pack together, so they both open together.
PLEASE quote me when you have a helpful response. I'm not too horribly active on the forums.
Sorry that you had to listen to me ramble, but I really hope to be able to make this soon. Thanks for listening!
-Robby
Once you've opened the lang file in Notepad++, it should be fairly straightforward. Each line will have a different word or set of words that appears in a certain pace in the game. The lines look something like this:
Changing the string of text after the equals sign will change what string of text shows up in the place indicated. The two values I pasted in are the "Done" and "Cancel" buttons in the game's user interface. All of the language entries are easy to understand, so it shouldn't be too difficult figuring out what goes to what (and if you get lost, you can always use ctrl+F to search the file for a certain word).
The first three lines of the lang file control how the language is implemented. The first two lines are arbitrary, they control the name of the language and the region. The third line is the language code for the lang file. You'll notice that each languages lang code is the same as its file name. US English is en_US, Australian English is en_AU, etc. If you alter this line of code specifically, it will change which language you're replacing. If you edit the default en_US and leave that line as you found it, you'll change just the regular English that the game uses by default. If you open the default en_US and change that line to, for example, en_CA, you'll replace Canadian English, leaving the default American English unchanged. Remember to change the lang file's file name to the lang code, or it won't work.
As for making the language automatically change when the pack is selected, there are some tricky things you can do. You can change the default American English to your custom language, and then change some other obscure language to American English so that it's still available.
Quoted you so you see