Topics

1

Translations / How to use translations (in nightlies / git)?

« on: February 27, 2024, 07:32:33 pm »

Hi!

OpenXCOM does not come with any translations (at least the Linux version doesn't). I'm using the GIT version.

It seems the instructions in https://openxcom.org/downloads-extras/ and https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Translations_(OpenXcom) are out of date (what on earth does for_use_openxcom_x-com-1 -part even mean, how does one get this file, why is it mentioned twice???).

First, it seems the game does not look for translations at all in the user home directory, or if it does, I don't know which folder I should use. This would be kind of mandatory when testing translations or pulling the most recent translation zip. I could not get the release nor the git version to find translations from there.

... which brings us to the folder structure and discrepancies in the latest.zip and the installation.

In /usr/share/openxcom I have:

• ./common/Language
• ./standard/xcom1/Language
• ./standard/xcom2/Language

Out of which all contain only en-GB.yml and en-US.yml;

but the latest.zip contains a [countrycode].yml files in:

• . (the root)
• openxcom.openxcom
• openxcom.x-com-1
• openxcom.x-com-2

I.e. four files per translation. Now where is a user supposed to put these files? Is one of them for the release and the rest three for the nightlies / GIT?

I can get it to load translations but only partially, by extraction the zip in common/Language -folder (there is no data/Language -folder), but only menus and options are translated, while all other parts of the game are not. The translations do seem to work correctly in the release, however.

2

Open Feedback / Improving MIDI music support (ALSA MIDI) on Linux?

« on: February 27, 2024, 04:57:47 pm »

Hi!

Now I gather most users will either use Adlib emulation or some OGG/MP3/wav soundpack floating out there. MIDI is a thing of the past.

But then there are the outlier like me who may have HW MIDI synths (old soundcards), or just want to try out different SW synths =). I can see the feature to implement ALSA midi ports in SDL Mixer has been requested, but never implemented. It would shift the burden off implementing SW MIDI off from any project using SDL, and open up a lot (well, any) possibilities to the users.

Seems like currently the MIDI music options are quite limited in OpenXCOM. Both GM and MIDI (only in GIT/nightlies, release has only MIDI) do the same thing (but, from a few threads, they are different on Windows?). This stems from the fact that SDL_Mixer has always been limited and can only use the bundled timidity or fluidsynth =(. There used to be a native-MIDI support in SDL_Mixer, but it is obscure and not well documented. It seems it relies on OSS /dev/sequencer support which is not a thing anymore (I skimmed trough the source of the latest 1.2.12-12, and actually could not see how it is supposed to work; I'm not even sure the current package on Arch even has native MIDI compiled in).  It seems like SDL_NATIVE_MUSIC=ANYTHING should make SDL_Mixer relay MIDI data to ... something, but at least this is not ALSA. It would be cool if it (for example) open an output port in OpenXCOM and (optionally) try to connect to any input port it can find, but it seems SDL_Mixer knows nothing about ALSA MIDI.

EDIT: Oh, btw just in case someone comes along here wishing to use SW MIDI music: even using Fluidsynth on Linux in OpenXCOM is also a bit obscure and not well documented. Scouring the net I found out setting

Code: [Select]

SDL_SOUNDFONTS=/usr/share/soundfonts/SGM-V2.01.sf2 (or any other soundfont of your choice) makes and SDL_Mixer application use the internal Fluidsynth with this soundfont. I.e. run openxcom like this:

Code: [Select]

SDL_SOUNDFONTS=/usr/share/soundfonts/SGM-V2.01.sf2 openxcom Internal Timidity is broken with any modern timidity config files on any modern distribution, but could be worked around by editing this file, while breaking the more modern config in the process - but luckily, there is little reason since Fluidsynth should be superior. But as already stated, the crux of the problem or limitation  is there seems to be no way to relay the MIDI to an external SW or HW synth.

Now, enough of the chatter! To the questions:

• Anyone got native MIDI working on Linux?
• Any plans to add ALSA Midi support into OpenXCOM?

I'm not sure, but point 2. could be a low-hanging fruit. I may make an attempt later when I have the time (I have some rudimentary programming skills).

3

Translations / Finnish Translation

« on: October 02, 2013, 07:38:52 pm »

Hi,

I've started a Finnish translation. I'm not sure if it is a good idea, as some things are very difficult to translate (and, as a final result, may sound quite stupid). Also there's a few (weird) translation jokes in there currenty . It is in terrible shape in other ways too, since currently I'm the only contributor, and also quite unfinished.

I may see if I'll ever finish it, but contributions are wellcome. I wuold first like to see how the currently done translation fits in the game, to see if there's any oversights made by me in the way I'm translating - but there's no wasy way to test the translations yet. But that might change.

I believe a good place for any discussion about the translation would be here. But if I'm alone with this idea, this will be a monologue ;-)

Luulen että suomenkielinen keskustelu ei haittaa, kunhan se pysyy tämän ketjun sisällä ;-)