Multiple language CD

[Eric P]

I'm trying to make a new version of an ams3 project of mine, which had a DIVX video and came in 5 different CD's, one for each language.
Now, with ams4, I'm trying to make 1 CD with 5 langauges, and an MPEG1 video.
Mainly because of 2 reasons:
- no need to install DIVX codec
- 1 CD is cheaper and easier for my cliente

So I ran into some problems already......

I've created a page where the user chooses the language. This is stored in a variable. The rest of the application should behave according this variable. So when I jump to the next page, some text objects should display different text for different languages.... still with me ? I've been hiding and showing ;-) but it doesn't seem to work.

Also, I've created an MPEG1 video, with no sound. According the language variable, the separate WAV file, with the proper language audio, should be played. Doesn't work.... Can I only play a WAV file under a AVI ?

Any clues ? Thanks !

[Lorne]

Re: Multiple language CD

An easier way to go about this might be to build 5 separate projects, and put them all on the same CD (I would put them in subfolders, one for each language). Then use a single "master" project on the root of the CD that just asks what language, and then loads the appropriate project.

Not sure about playing wav over an mpeg...you could maybe try mp3, not sure if that would make any difference though. It's an interesting idea though (and something that would be easier to do in a future version...shhh [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]. You might be better off just using different videos for each language (if you have the room for it).

Also, instead of showing and hiding text objects on a page...you could just build different pages and jump to the appropriate page. An easy way to do that is to give each page a language prefix or suffix, e.g. Page 1 English, Page 1 French, Start Page Chinese, etc. Then store the language preference in a variable, and jump to pages with "Page 1 %language%" and "Start Page %language%" as the targets instead.

[Eric P]

Re: Multiple language CD

Thanks Lorne !

Wel, I'm glad to say the job is done, and I just want to say at this point how happy I am with this new version of AMS, it realy is a great product.

One of the good things, in my opinion, is the fact that there is no one-and-only-way to do things.....

But I would like to tell something about how I worked out this project, maybe it'll be of use for other members.

The main video is 15 minutes long, which translated roughly in about 200 Mb in the AVI format I found acceptable concerning quality: 15 fps, 320x240. Without sound.

As I had to make a CD with 5 different language versions, using 5 different video files was out of the question.

Also, the CD had to have a quit complicated menu structure, which would also cause me space problems if created one for each language.

So, this in mind, I went to work.

First I created an entry screen, where the user chooses the language he/she wants. I created 5 hotspots, with the name of the language.
Each of these hotspots had the same treatment as follows,for this example I'll use the Portuguese hotspot:

"On mouse click" the following :
%Language% = "P"
I also declared all my future variables here, for example concerning the several menu structures, as follows:
%MainMenuOption01% = "Hotel"
%MainMenuOption02% = "Talassoterapia"
%MainMenuOption03% = "Video"
etc.
And also:
%MenuTalassoOption01% = "Corridor de Marcha"
%MenuTalassoOption02% = "Duche Circular"
etc.

Each page with a menu, would have fields whose display would be changed at runtime, according the language choosen.
These fields I would name MainMenuOpt01, MainMenuOpt02, etc.
Then, when I display a menu, on the Page proprety, I would put:
On Initialize
TextObject(MainMenuOpt01).SetText("%MainMenuOption 01%)
TextObject(MainMenuOpt02).SetText("%MainMenuOption 02%)
etc.

Concerning the video part, I created a different audio WAV file for each language, and named each file with the last letter being the indicator for the language, so VIDEOP.WAV would be the sound file for the (P)ortuguese version.

Then, the screen with the AVI object, would have on the Play Actions of the AVI object:
Play %SrcDrv%\Data\Video%Language%.WAV

I also had several screens with textboxes, which I would load at runtime, using the same procedure.

Well, I hope you're still with me, and that I made myself clear.

But by using this approach, there is almost no limit to the number of languages you can use, spacewise I mean. And it's pretty simple to add and maintain the different languages.

Is it too obvious I'm happy with myself ? ;-)

Keep up the good work guys !!!!

[Lorne]

Re: Multiple language CD

Thanks for the kind words. Sounds like a very well organized project. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Using different audio tracks for different languages was a really cool idea.