Quick Guide: How To Localize ARK!

[Jeremy Drake Stieglitz]

Please contribute to our Work-In-Progress Localizations @ https://crowdin.com/project/ark-survival-evolved , the ARK Community thanks you!!

As of v235, ARK now supports user-created localizations and custom fonts!

1. In the Windows game, you'll find a new app here:
\Tools\LocalizationManager\LocalizationManager.exe

Run it, check the languages you wish to work on, and then click "Update Archives from Manifest" to update your language's set of strings with the latest global strings from the game, then click "ArchiveFiles->XLS" to generate an Excel spreadsheet of all the localizations (separated by Tabs if you wanna work on more than one language at a time). This export process takes a couple minutes, so give it time and it will eventually say "completed" on the status panel.

Then you can upload that XLS to Google Docs or whatnot for easy group editing.

2. When you're ready to reimport new localizations, click "XLS->Archive Files" and then choose your XLS, and it will import and integrate the localization data for the checked languages.

(Alternatively, you can skip the XLS phase entirely and iterate directly on the localization text files here: "\ShooterGame\Content\Localization\Game\YOURLANGUAGE\ShooterGame.archive", but they're pretty awkwardly formatted so spreadsheet is easier typically for translators to view. You must still do the "Generate Game Files From Archives" in the next step anyway,.)

3. Next, click "Generate Game Files From Archives" and it will actually prepare the corresponding shipping binary localization data for the checked languages for display in-game. (this "\ShooterGame\Content\Localization\Game\YOURLANGUAGE\ShooterGame.locres" binary file is what is actually used in-game for speed)

The localization files themselves are located here, in whatever language subfolder you want to specify:

"\ShooterGame\Content\Localization\Game\YOURLANGUAGE\"

There are no hardcoded language directory names, so whatever language subfolder name you want yours to be, you just then run the game with the following commandline:

\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\ShooterGame.exe -culture=yourlanguage

(Ideally yourlanguage is the corresponding two-character language code from the standard here: http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/langcode.htm )

For example, for Spanish (which we've not yet translated!):
\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\ShooterGame.exe -culture=es

Finally, to implement custom fonts, just replace any TTF (from "\Engine\Content\Slate\Fonts\" ) with a same-named TTF in your language's subdirectory, and they will override the corresponding Font. There are also some "distance field" UASSET fonts that can be be reimported cooked out of the DevKit to be overriden:

/ShooterGame/Content/OldAssets/UI/HUD/Roboto18.uasset
/ShooterGame/Content/OldAssets/UI/HUD/Roboto51.uasset
/ShooterGame/Content/OldAssets/UI/HUD/SansationBold18.uasset
/Engine/Content/EngineFonts/Roboto51SlateFont.uasset
/Engine/Content/EngineFonts/RobotoDistanceField.uasset
/Engine/Content/EngineFonts/HandwritingDistanceField.uasset

Specifically grab the latest ARK Dev Kit from GitHub (v235), and open each of those Font assets in the Dev Kit. Goto the "Import Options" properties of each Font, change the "Font Name" to whatever Font you want to reimport as, and change the Unicode range to whatever is appropriate for your font (for Russian, it's 0-451 for example). Then right-click the Font asset the Content Browser and select "Reimport". You can iterate on how the Font looks by playing the game in PIE while you Reimport, adjusting the settings until it looks good with some test language text. After the Font has reimported satisfactorily, save it, and then right-click and choose "Quick Cook Single Asset". Select an output folder, and then go ahead and copy the Font Asset from the Output folder (it'll export into a \Output\ShooterGame\* subdirectory, so ignore all the subdirectories and copy the Font asset file directly) into your Localization Language's folder (without any further subfolders). That Font UASSET will then override the corresponding one from the original game!

To distribute your localization, just zip up your Localization language's subfolder and then be sure to tell your players where to extract it, namely into here:

"\ShooterGame\Content\Localization\Game\"

You're welcome to rename the multi-line string in the Join Session menu to give credit to the people doing the localizing. We forgot to add a dedicated Credits text field for that, but we will soon :)

Once enterprising groups get going with localization, we'll edit this post with sticky links to good work-in-progress localizations!

Have fun and soon we'll be providing some big bounties for quality localizations in every (real world :) language under the sun! Good luck all, and happy multi-lingual surviving to you!

-Drake

----
ARK v237 fixes the problem with custom Fonts UASSETS being loaded for Localized language!

Also as of v237, you can now Add custom Main Menu Credits to your Localization. Just "Update Archives from Manifest" for your language, and then the first string in your localization archive file, fill out your Credits, like so:

"Subnamespaces": [
{
"Namespace": "Content",
"Children": [
{
"Source":
{
"Text": " "
},
"Translation":
{
"Text": "Авторы и редакторы:
Anton Shikhov (aka AsH)
<RichColor Color=/"0.1,0.5,1,1/">crowdin.com/profile/ash4resh</>
Vitaliy Shirokov (aka SileNTViP)
<RichColor Color=/"0.1,0.5,1,1/">crowdin.com/profile/SileNTViP</>
Roman Sultanov (aka Regul)
Daladin <RichColor Color=/"0.1,0.5,1,1/">crowdin.com/profile/daladin</>
Avessup <RichColor Color=/"0.1,0.5,1,1/">crowdin.com/profile/avessup</>
Pavel Nozdrin (aka BerlingX7)
<RichColor Color=/"0.1,0.5,1,1/">crowdin.com/profile/BerlingX7</>
Yana Masur
Ilya Kurilov"
}
},
----

[Vichingo]

You what? Localize ark. That would be awesome.. If you guys need dutch translators.. gimme a call. I'll be happy to assist.

[Tom | proa!m]

Das Deutsche ARK Sprachpaket steht nun weltweit exklusiv bei uns im Forum als Download in der Version 1.0 für den PC zur Verfügung - jedes Mitglied kann sich die Datei nun runterladen, wir freuen uns über Feedback. Wer es sich nicht jetzt runterladen will, kann es sich auch mit dem nächsten offiziellen ARK Update automatisch runterladen.

Vielen Dank an alle Beteiligten: http://arkforum.de/index.php/Thread/3931-Download-ARK-Survival-Evolved-Deutsch-Deutsches-Sprachpaket-Version-1-0-Version/

[TomberWolf]

Can we load custom languages server sided?

Kein Grund zu schreien, Tom, solltest du als Community-Betreiber eigentlich wissen...

[Natsu]

The Manager wont start :/

[Vichingo]

İlk olarak Tom tarafından gönderildi:

GERMAN IS DONE ALREADY :)
DEUTSCH IST SCHON FERTIG

good, then I can do the Dutch translation, as in the language people speak in The netherland and Belgium.

[Smpl]

İlk olarak VichingoNL tarafından gönderildi:

You what? Localize ark. That would be awesome.. If you guys need dutch translators.. gimme a call. I'll be happy to assist.

The above How-To Drake just went over will allow you to do it yourself; you can probably then submit it to ark forum..

[Vichingo]

İlk olarak UberSlackr tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak VichingoNL tarafından gönderildi:

You what? Localize ark. That would be awesome.. If you guys need dutch translators.. gimme a call. I'll be happy to assist.

The above How-To Drake just went over will allow you to do it yourself; you can probably then submit it to ark forum..

I posted my comment before his lengthy text.. So, yes, o/c I'm going to do it myself, but as they stated in the patch notes they needed help translating, so I responded.

[Anti-Jello]

What does localizing the game do? someone tell me I wanna know if this is something I could use

[Karaswa]

İlk olarak Tom tarafından gönderildi:

GERMAN IS DONE ALREADY :)
DEUTSCH IST SCHON FERTIG

Und wo ist die Datei ? In den Spiel-Daten jedenfalls nicht.

[Tom | proa!m]

İlk olarak Karaswa tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Tom tarafından gönderildi:

GERMAN IS DONE ALREADY :)
DEUTSCH IST SCHON FERTIG

Und wo ist die Datei ? In den Spiel-Daten jedenfalls nicht.

Liegt den Entwicklern zur Implementation vor

[XenWolfson]

kannst du die xls teilen damit wir die schon verwenden können?

[Tom | proa!m]

İlk olarak XenWolfson tarafından gönderildi:

kannst du die xls teilen damit wir die schon verwenden können?

Ich hab die in der .archive Datei übersetzt, nicht im Excel

[Akhos]

İlk olarak Tom tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak XenWolfson tarafından gönderildi:

kannst du die xls teilen damit wir die schon verwenden können?

Ich hab die in der .archive Datei übersetzt, nicht im Excel

Die nehme ich persönlich auch wohl ;) Kommt ja im Endeffekt aufs Selbe hinaus. Wäre echt super von dir, wenn du die raus haust! :D

[Tom | proa!m]

Geduldet euch, bis sie offiziell im Spiel landet :) Dürfte ja wohl mit 236.0 soweit sein.

[Akhos]

İlk olarak Tom tarafından gönderildi:

Geduldet euch, bis sie offiziell im Spiel landet :) Dürfte ja wohl mit 236.0 soweit sein.

Oooch... Das ist ja fast schlimmer als die ungeduld zur Weihnachtszeit im Kindesalter! xD Aber nagut, bleibt ja nichts anderes. Trotzdem Danke schonmal für die Mühe! :)