Hi, I plan to add multiple languages to my game. In the past I’ve just created a spread sheet (csv) and stored the English word and their translations in separate columns.
Then, depending on which language is selected in the menu, I will gather the translation for each time a piece of text in displayed in game.
This system has worked very well so far and gives me the flexibility I need. But it seems too ‘hacky’ considering there is an extensive built in Localisation system in UE.
I looked into it and it seems a lot more complex than the current system I have, yet I can’t see any benefit to using this much more complex system. Can someone please help me understand?
Thanks.
Epic’s was built for translation companies not necessarily having access to source code.
Third-party translation services are common.
FText() type was added specifically for that.
So is there no real benefit to me switching to Unreal’s system vs mine? especially since when I looked into unreal’s system there were 2 fields: text, translation. This is not ideal, because there needs to be a third column: context. Most of the time in order to give an accurate translation you need to have the context of the situation not just ( hello = 你好 ). My system allows me to have this additional column.
UE’s localization is built for automation. You can easily push updates and queue things for translation. You also don’t likely want your “Context” column to ship with your game (it’s just wasted space at best). You can just manually export the UE strings to a CSV and then join it with your own version that has the Context column before you send things off to localization.
Ok, thank you I understand now. I think I’ll just go with my own custom solution because I’m not working in a giant team so I don’t need those collaboration tools. At this point, I think it is just wasted effort to learn a new way to re-do something I’m already happy with.