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Insane idea of mine (and a much more insane story)


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#1 Zakxaev68

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Posted 27 April 2019 - 11:31 AM

Many would think I'm as crazy as I sound in the next few minutes. Hold your breath.

 

Let me bring you back to the first days of it. Very, very long ago, few years after I saw what Commandos is about on what's been the IBM computer of my dad and played it a lot... say the period after the disappointing Strike Force hit the market. I had an urge to do something unique to the series. A challenge I never attempted myself at before, instead of replaying the games over and over again  At one point I stopped and told myself. I'm gonna do it.

 

Fast forward to 2006, I decided to take on a translation project of Men of Courage.

 

I didn't have any clue how its done, neither I knew what Photoshop is so much about or how image editors work. I spend time learning an image editor I don't remember its name anymore, eventually a year later I was into Photoshop already.and had made some progress in the media department, mainly experimenting with stuff for the sake of getting a visual image how things can look in the end. Nothing wasn't really made as to the translation itself, I was yet figuring things and learning about modding.

 

Once I was into this and that, I began translating the core of the game. Pretty rough result. I had bad understanding of English, school to tackle, and limited time on the PC. Shortly thereafter I focused on other things, the idea bubble quickly bursted

 

In 2007, although, I returned to it. My files were still on that same PC. While I have improved my English vocabulary, it wasn't nowhere near perfect. Hours of hours each day to make it better and learn something myself (you can learn any language by many ways these days). In between the stages, when I was bored, I opened the image editor (dad had used a lot of it back in the day) and I was trying to create something I felt couldn't ever do. That would be a fancy logo, I did thanks to my dad. To be honest, it wasn't looking okay. No textures, no effects, solid white logo. At that point I kept learning Photoshop and once I had a head start, I started to experiment on my own. Can't say how many times I gave up. Must be millions. And I always go back, tell myself I can do better than last time.

 

Years went quickly. When on the computer I either played Quake, C2, Heroes III or Wolfenstein (RTCW & WolfET) or in the image editor and taking lessons by Google, at times I was trying to be less depending on how-to's. Practice, yeah, practice teaches you better than ever.

 

Looking at the calendar, it was already 2010. Already I had firm experience on modding and game translations. I always returned to improve. I kept doing it through the span of 2 decades until now. With a lot of breaks and issues I've came through. Somewhere during late 2010 into the year of 2011 the original Commandos 2 CD was lost. Then I gave myself a promise: I'll buy every game in the series, both to have access to game files and for nostalgia.

 

Here, a photo I posted on my Twitter acc to bribe Kalypso Media for news in regard to  "that new Commandos game":

 

https://pbs.twimg.co...AEbIu.jpg:large

 

After many attempts to obtain every game I could only get my hands on new copies of C2, C3 (almost a Collectors Edition, of sorts) and BEL. next to the eastern european version of C2 in a Jewel case, BTCOD is still missing from my collection but I am working on it. Not a fan of Strike Force, explains why I don't have it. Right?

 

You could tell this story ends here? Absolutely not.

 

During 2011-2015 I continued, few times started from scratch. I kept on. "I'll finish this some day. Whatever it takes", goes a thought in my head. Its a long, long road to walk.

 

That leads us to present day. Its 2019 and my "routine" playthrough happened in March, My collection still stands, my idea is still kicking alive. My efforts don't fail to impress myself alone. And I want to hear what the community thinks of what I wanna suggest could help both myself and fans who wanna feel useful in the community however they can.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Roughly few days ago I contacted herbert3000, of every one still browsing the forums, I trust him a lot. for the sole reason he opened new fronts to mod Comm titles. Worth to say he wrote almost, if not all tools to make it possible for mods land stuff to exist, Destination Paris wouldn't be a thing without herbert's valuable support and knowledge. I wanted his advice whether some things are doable or not and whether that would break the idea I had at the first place - to translate Comm2.

 

We talked a lot already, I appreciate his time, fuck yes I do. Though its would be a crime not to explain what I have in mind, it could prove helpful for other STUBBORN folks like me.

 

To begin with, I'll be as much brief I can. Most know Commandos 2 uses a fairly self-adapted engine. As one most of the formats are tied to a specific work manner, be it sounds, player navigation, maps. Textures apply too  I'll talk about textures. Never have the games in the series been multilanguage. Not until up to Strike force, which still had different versions for regions of Europe and USA, and those are only retail copies, Because of that, most of the story elements are spread across cinematics with no subtitles and textures. Small part of it is in text files, but those are rather interface.

 

Now here comes the real thing, the point of everything:

 

Textures are baked and complex, we don't have the sources for them. In order to bring, for example, Comm2, to another language, we need to also rework the textures to match the original, with little to no effect, so everything we do to be truthful and respect the art design of the game. Me and Herbert (when my brain fails to work) have some knowledge of how this can be done so we can replicate them - hopefully each one, almost 1:1 (I'm leaving a 10% difference). Though as different people have different skills and techniques in image editing, we can't all get the same results - my try might be shittier but someone else does it better, you know.

 

I'm opening this thread to see if people have interest in providing their help, voluntarily, to open a possibility for everyone to freely be able to translate Comm2 (and further into C3 and older games) into their native language. The concept here is we help each other prepare the required textures in the greatest quality to match the original, which then everyone could download and use and spare a nightmare-ish amount of work. No strings attached,

 

An example what needs to be done for this to happen:

 

LoadSave copy.png

 

TL:DR

 

Texture manipulation process is removing the text in the picture but retaining the background in tact. A lot of image editors allow for this with no loss of quality, if you have the experience to do it and the time to rework what you feel needs to be reworked to match better. Textures have complex backgrounds, some need to be replicated using materials available within the game, for example briefing screens,

 

Many more questions exist while translating. Fonts are as cruical as everything else. But that's a different topic.


Edited by Zakxaev68, 27 April 2019 - 11:42 AM.

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#2 dialog

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Posted 30 April 2019 - 05:57 PM

I'm opening this thread to see if people have interest in providing their help, voluntarily, to open a possibility for everyone to freely be able to translate Comm2 (and further into C3 and older games) into their native language. The concept here is we help each other prepare the required textures in the greatest quality to match the original, which then everyone could download and use and spare a nightmare-ish amount of work. No strings attached,


I can not help with drawing. But, maybe, you need cyrillic fonts/captions?

menu_fargus.png

#3 Zakxaev68

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Posted 30 April 2019 - 07:31 PM

Well. Good to see you, dialog! As for the fonts, kinda. If anyone has genuine solution or fonts that support a wide range of languages and it looks similar to the original, worn out, Stenciled look. This would be a major step to making progress too. I meant menu-wise, in-game Pyro uses a fairly common Windows font.

 

I myself have more expertise in texture editing and graphic design, so I try to do what I know best,


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#4 dialog

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Posted 01 May 2019 - 05:31 PM

If anyone has genuine solution or fonts that support a wide range of languages and it looks similar to the original, worn out, Stenciled look. This would be a major step to making progress too. I meant menu-wise, in-game Pyro uses a fairly common Windows font.


Well, it' easy.

http://www.mediafire...ptions.zip/file

I have 2 localisations of C2. Imho, Fargus localisation is better.



#5 Zakxaev68

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Posted 01 May 2019 - 06:13 PM

Hmm. Thanks. Still, I'm aware of almost anything in regards to C2. Localisations included. I have /or had/ few different versions on CD/DVD.  Not long ago German edition too (not anymore)

 

I meant if someone is able to create the font files; have a slightly better looking menu font, maybe even fix the English one and include additional language support. No jagged edges and that. Back then, in 2001, nobody had the tools to make everything perfect.

 

I myself would do that if I knew the bits and pieces of the engine, however I'm not that smart for that task.


Edited by Zakxaev68, 01 May 2019 - 06:14 PM.

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