What is the Process to Translate Russian Labeled Instruments to English?

[DieHard]

Looking for a Russian alphabet to English, letter by letter.

 

Is it the .lua files where the instrument labels are found?

 

Can I change them for myself as a dedicated change to English?

 

Do I need some kind of utility(ies) or graphics tool to use to do this?

 

A place to start; never have modded files.

 

I have Devrim's mod English from Russian cockpit labeling for the Su-27.

 

Would like to translate other Russian labeled cockpits.

 

Where do the Mig-29S warnings labels reside?

 

Any translated hard-copy cockpits references around anywhere?

 

I have lots of free time, I'm retired.

 

Thanks for any help.

Edited June 24, 2016 by DieHard

[uboats]

What is the Process to Translate Russian Labeled Instruments to English?

 

You need photoshop, and find the cockpit texture zip file, and view each dds in PS then you will find almost everything you need

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited June 24, 2016 by uboats

[gospadin]

uboats is right

 

at its most basic, you're just editing existing texture files with photoshop, gimp, or a tool of your choice

 

some cockpits use animated text indicators which can be edited in the .lua (SA-342 for some warning lights) but most just use textures

[LeCuvier]

Photoshop native does not open .DDS files; you need to install the "Texture Tools for Adobe Photoshop" from NVIDIA, which can be downloaded from https://developer.nvidia.com/gameworksdownload#?dn=texture-tools-for-adobe-photoshop-8-55

I opened some of the MIG-21 *.dds and that was no problem. I also managed to edit the label on a speed gauge. But if you are not familiar with Photoshop it's a bit challenging as Photoshop is not intuitive. The other issue is that you need to have a good understanding of what the labels mean in the context of that cockpit. Translating from a dictionary will result in nonsense as a russian word can have many different valid translations depending on context. Also, Russian nouns change a lot with declination and the dictionaries usually show only the base form.

I found the Flaming Cliffs cockpit files under C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\Flaming Cliffs\Cockpit\Textures

This will keep you busy for a while!

[Devrim]

Friends said all.

 

While we talking about "text", I'd like to state that it's not a real text that you can easily modify like in a text document. It's a graphics pasted on the textures.

 

So, the most difficult part (if we call it "difficult") -in labeling process- is clearing the Russian texts from the texture. To do it, you'll need some Photoshop skills. Edit: I wish that the developers would provide cockpit template textures someday.

 

After that, to me, the rest is really fun. :)

Edited July 2, 2016 by Devrim

[LeCuvier]

Changing cockpit labels with Photoshop

 

I felt challenged to try and just to see if it works I changed the labels on 3 Mig-21 cockpit instruments: Speed, RPM, and Angle of Attack. And when I was done and ran a MIG-21 mission I actually saw the English labels in the instruments. If you have never used Photoshop this is challenging. But I don't think anybody would buy photoshop just because they want to translate some labels. So if you have Photoshop and know how to use it, it's not really that difficult. But focus and discipline required! My process:

1. Make a backup copy of the file MiG-21_Cockpit.zip from C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\aircraft\MIG-21bis\Textures to a safe location

2. extract the file you want to edit. For the cockpit instruments, that is Mig-21-cockpit_018.tga.dds

3. Open the fiile in Photoshop (assuming you have installed the plug-in from NVIDIA). The file shows all instruments in a kind of unstructured bitmap format with no object boundaries visible.

4. Create a new layer as copy of the original. Rename the new layer to "Edit Layer". Rename the original layer to "Original" and hide it

Caution: All editing must take place in the Edit Layer only!

5. Choose which instrument you want to edit (e.g. Speed indicator) and zoom in to a good size for editing. Select the "Clone Stamp Tool" and adjust its size. Then, holding the Alt key, click on the dial's background colour. Release the Alt key and paint the background colour over the Russian word "CKOPOCTb". Then activate the "Type" tool and type "SPEED". Adjust foreground colour, font size etc as required (must select the entire word!). If the text is not well placed, go to Edit/Free transform, move the text to its right place and hit Enter. Note: the added text is actually on a new layer named "SPEED". Continue for the other instruments. Each new text is on a separate layer.

6. When you're done, or you want to suspend the work and resume later, make sure you save the edited file in Photoshop format (.PSD) preserving all the layers. When you are done, or you want to test what you did so far, save the file in .DDS format. This will create a "flattened" bitmap file without layer structure, and without the information from the hidden Original file.

7. Move the changed .DDS file into the file "MiG-21_Cockpit.zip" and run a mission to check the results.

Note: Due to access right issues I had to copy the .ZIP file to a folder outside "C:\Program Files", make the changes there and then copy the zip file into it's original location overwriting the original. I use 7ZIP and found the handling a bit tricky.

Edited July 2, 2016 by LeCuvier