How about making buildings not only with English names, descriptions and queries?SimCity 4 is available in 18 different languages:
- 0x01 US English
- 0x02 UK English
- 0x03 French
- 0x04 German
- 0x05 Italian
- 0x06 Spanish
- 0x07 Dutch
- 0x08 Danish
- 0x09 Swedish
- 0x0A Norwegian
- 0x0B Finnish
- 0x0F Japanese
- 0x10 Polish
- 0x11 Simplified Chinese
- 0x12 Traditional Chinese
- 0x13 Thai
- 0x14 Korean
- 0x23 Portuguese
All in-game texts are available in a file called SimCityLocale.DAT, which is located in a folder under
\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\The name of the folder should be clear enough to tell you which language file it contains.
The following folders are all included in the European version of the game:
- Danish
- Dutch
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Italian
- Norwgian
- Polish
- Portgese
- Spanish
- Swedish
- UKEnglsh
Instead of providing texts in separate files for each language you might want to support, it is also possible to include all languages in one file, and let the game automatically pick the correct one, based on which language the installed version of SimCity 4 has. This is how Maxis did it with their official landmarks, those that are available for download at
http://simcity.ea.com/coolstuff/landmarks/index.phpThe procedure for making multilingual creations is found in the tutorial
LTEXT - Language Text Files, How to make multilingual buildings and queries (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=532.0).
At the moment, the following uploads on the LEX are multilingual:
- JB School Pack - Volume One (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=680)
- JB School Pack - Volume Two (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=681)
- JB School Pack - Volume Three (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=682)
- Prepo Arenan Talo (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=848)
- Prepo Helsinki Railway Station (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=849)
- Cogeo's Roadtop Mass Transit V3.50 (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1057)
Since nobody could manage to translate his/her building names and descriptions into all languages above,
this is the place to ask for assistance in the translations.
Just post the text you want to have translated, or attach a *.DAT file including all texts in English (or any other language), and hopefully you will get it translated into more than just a few of the languages supported.
I urge everyone who would like to see creations in their own language appear in the game, to help anybody asking for assistance in translating anything here.
Texts that appear in your creations might often be similar to existing in-game texts or variations of them. In those cases I would ask anybody translating to check what sentences are actually used in your version of the game. Those who know how to, may of course check for the corresponding text in the native SimCityLocale.DAT file.
Below are a couple of examples of text which often appear in the descriptions for civic buildings, with the corresponding translations into most supported European languages. Feel free to take advantage of these in your own translations:
| English | Monthly Cost | Capacity |
| French | Coût mensuel | Capacité |
| German | Monatliche Kosten | Kapazität |
| Italian | Costo mensile | Capacità |
| Spanish | Coste mensual | Capacidad |
| Dutch | Maandelijkse kosten | Capaciteit |
| Danish | Månedlig udgift | Kapacitet |
| Swedish | Månadskostnad | Kapacitet |
| Norwegian | Månedlige kostnader | Kapasitet |
| Finnish | Kuukausittaiset kulut | Kapasiteetti |
| Polish | Miesięczny koszt | Pojemność (civic buildings), Wydajność (utilities) |
| Portuguese | Custo Mensal | Capacidade |