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Translation Issue with Missing Characters

I'm working on translations for my game and I'm having an issue with some characters becoming missing. It seems to happen after I import the translation. 

Here is an example line from the original translation text: 

88|Speech|Looks like something's there but it's too dark to see... |Parece que há algo ali, mas está muito escuro para ver...

Here is the same line after I export the same translation from the Speech Editor

88|Speech|Looks like something's there but it's too dark to see... |Parece que h� algo ali, mas est� muito escuro para ver...

You can see the accents are all missing. This happens for every instance throughout the translation where there are accents over letters. I can confirm that the font I am using does indeed include these symbols. 

Example of font in Microsoft Word: 
image
Example of how it appears in game: 
image

I'm using AC v1.54b and Unity 5.4.1f1 (64-bit). 
Is this a bug or is there perhaps a step I'm missing? I couldn't find anything in the manual or tutorials that points to a culprit. I also tried using Arial font with no luck. 
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Comments

  • And how does the translation look inside AC once you've imported the correct-looking one?

    This could be more of an issue with the way you import the CSV file to edit it.  Once you've imported a correct translation, how does it look in raw-form, e.g. Notepad, once re-exported?
  • The examples above are what the correct import looks like. It goes in correct and comes out looking as seen above (with missing characters). 

    The first example I show above is copied from the raw-form, direct from Notepad, before import and after imported/exported. 

    Here are the steps I followed to handle the translations: 

    1) Exported all English text as a CSV from the Speech Editor (using four columns: ID|Type|Original text|Translation)
    2) Emailed CSV to translator
    3) Recieved completed CSV with all translations in the fourth column
    4) Added CSV to Assets folder
    5) Imported CSV in the Speech Editor, for the correct language


    Everything seems to have worked fine except for the special characters. 
  • What I meant was: how does the correctly-imported text look inside AC's editor window (the Speech Manager).  If you select a line to view it's translation, is it correct there?

    The Demo game uses such characters for it's French translation, which I've re-tested in the same version of Unity.  It may be that this is an issue only on PC - I will test on that and let you know if I find an issue there.
  • edited November 2016
    In the Speech Manager, the characters are still missing but I figured out what the issue is. I hadn't opened the files in Excel (I just use Notepad to view them), so when I opened one in Excel I noticed there was an error with the file. It said it didn't match it's CSV extension and is actually an SYLK file.

    This happens on every file, even when exporting the original language CSV from the Speech Manager. 

    If I go to save the file out from Excel, I still can't get it to save properly. However, once re-saved and re-imported, there are no more missing characters in the translation. Which is good but every single line now has a bunch of commas after it. These commas show up in the file, in the Speech Manager and in game. 

    Here is an in-game menu to show what I mean by the commas: 
    image

    Hope that's helpful! Let me know if you need any more info!
  • It sounds like this could be more of an issue with Excel rather than AC - the file is indeed a CSV, so it may be that Excel is reading it incorrectly, and therefore making unnecessary changes to its format upon saving.

    Even if it's just to test, try using OpenOffice instead - it's free to download, and I've had no such issue with managing special characters with it.
  • I tried OpenOffice, I didn't get the errors with it (like I did with Excel) though I still get the missing characters once it's imported into the Speech Manager. I don't understand because when I open the file before importing it into AC it is totally fine. Tested opening the exported CSV in OpenOffice too and it has the missing characters. 
  • Let's try to pin down the exact source of this.

    AC lets you write translations for lines directly into the Speech Manager - so try manually entering in some of the special characters into it, then exporting, then re-importing it back into AC without opening it in anything else.  What does it look like then?
  • edited November 2016
    Okay I tested that and it works fine. 
    Then I tested only opening and editing it in Notepad, that works fine. Then OpenOffice, which also worked. Then Excel - and that's when the issue crops back up (missing characters). So I guess it's an issue with Excel and maybe not AC at all. 

    More info: Upon further inspection, I noticed that in Excel the columns aren't getting properly divided by the |  so then I tried to import the data into a new Excel file, where you can set the columns to divide by the |. This worked within Excel but when trying to save it, all of the  | are replaced with commas. Which then won't import into AC. 

    So for this one I am just going to edit it by hand in Notepad and then request that all future translation work be done in notepad or OpenOffce. 

    Thank you for your help, Chris! 
  • edited February 2017
    Hi Chris
    Im having similair problem with translations.
    So please maybe You will know the best how to handle it.
    (already few hours passed by and I cant fix it :/)

    1. when I edit text in any csv editor and "translation import" into project is sucesfull than commas apear:
    same thing like in other guy's case so same image:

    2. So I re opened this CSV edited it (removed commas).
    (in Open office/Excell/Google Sheets it looks okay now)...

    but after I save it
    and trying to import this error is striking:

    (this time translation is not imported and only standard text can be seen during gameplay, translation switching in options is not working).
    Any ideas ?



  • Ok, Solved !
    I used Notepad (didnt know it can save as CVS - and now it works).
    :D
    Those complicated applications (like Excell) are adding stuff (unnecesary stuff into file I guess and there is problem).

  • Good to hear.  Again, I recommend using OpenOffice to edit your translation files - never had an issue when using that.
  • Yep I have Open Office and tried it but in my case no sucess (error during inport). But simple Notepad works just ok.
  • Importing under the UTF-8 character set?
  • I'm having the same problem as the original poster.

    I make the translation on Excel, after that I export to CSV delimited by commas, change that file to a txt with explorer, replace ; for |, change the file to csv with explorer, and Import it with Adventure Creator.

    Is strange that when a simple txt file says "á", Adventure creator reads � when we're talking about a common txt file, but as other people have had to done working translations along the years, I guess, maybe is a problem about format conversion. Any tips on this since the topic rise up?

    (Pd: working with last adventure creator version)

  • The Demo game's French translation features accented characters, which were written in OpenOffice - so it's likely a format issue.

    Try opening it in a raw text-editor that lets you set it's character format. However, I should also note that the upcoming v1.70 update will let you use the standard CSV format (i.e. true comma-separated values) in Unity 2019.2 or later.

  • I just had the exact same problem in Excel but figured out that it works if you (in Excel) Save As->CSV UTF8 (rather that exporting to CSV) 👍

  • I know this thread is getting a bit old, but I wanted to add here my small experiment in case others are searching for an answer too.

    I did Chris' "Creating a 2D primer game" tutorial (really great to get the basics!) and I wanted to push the translation part a bit further by exporting the text to CSV and do a translation for French and Japanese.

    After exporting the text, I opened it in Excel -> Save as -> set the encoding to UTF-8 with BOM so it keeps both French special characters (à, é, è, ü, etc) and Japanese characters (あ、ア、漢字).

    Finally, I imported the text back in AC (Import text...) and both translation worked; in other words, no character problem.

    However, the "Fallback language: Original" for French or Japanese was not working anymore. It would stay blank when playing the game in Unity and when playing the build. The untranslated fields were left blank in the CSV file.
    Plus, when testing the game, it would start in French, not the Original language (English), and when playing the build it would start in Japanese.

    Maybe it has to do with the encoding. I don't know. But I would do the translation at the very end of the game or chapter update and backing up the game to avoid any problem.

  • Welcome to the community, @KAYOKIIN. What are your AC and Unity versions?

    However, the "Fallback language: Original" for French or Japanese was not working anymore. It would stay blank when playing the game in Unity and when playing the build. The untranslated fields were left blank in the CSV file.

    Would you be able to PM me a .zip file containing the CSV file along with your Settings and Speech Managers, as well as details about which lines have this issue?

    Plus, when testing the game, it would start in French, not the Original language (English), and when playing the build it would start in Japanese.

    Do you have Use '_Editor' prefix for Editor save files? checked in the Settings Manager? This will cause Editor and builds to use different profiles, allowing for separate default languages.

    If you delete the build's PlayerPrefs registry, things should reset back to the default language set in the Settings Manager's Default Options panel. Is this the case?

  • Hi Chris, thanks for the warm welcome.
    I'm using Unity 2021.3.2f1 and AC 1.75.3

    Would you be able to PM me a .zip file containing the CSV file along with your Settings and Speech Managers, as well as details about which lines have this issue?

    I will send it to you with a Google Drive link. Basically it's every fields that were not translated. I can still click on the buttons or dialogues in game and the action is correct, but there's just no characters.

    Do you have Use '_Editor' prefix for Editor save files? checked in the Settings Manager? This will cause Editor and builds to use different profiles, allowing for separate default languages.

    If you delete the build's PlayerPrefs registry, things should reset back to the default language set in the Settings Manager's Default Options panel. Is this the case?

    Yes, it was checked. Maybe I misclicked once and checked it by mistake. I unchecked it now.

    I deleted the PlayerPrefs of the project in the Registry editor and it reset the game to the Original language (English) and default values I set for speech/VFX/music volume when I play it in the Editor.
    But when I build it, it sets different values for the speech/VFX/music volume. The Original language stays though. I will drop a short video to show you how I did it. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

  • I will send it to you with a Google Drive link

    The link has the CSV file but not the Managers - I need these to get a clearer picture of the problem.

    For Japanese, are you using a custom Font asset? Include that along with your Menu Manager as well, if so.

    I deleted the PlayerPrefs of the project in the Registry editor

    In the video you sent, you delete the PlayerPrefs inside the UnityEditor section of the Registry - this'll reset the Editor values, but not the build. These are stored separately - see the "Standalong player storage location" section of the link above.

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