Tutorial:How to translate Cemu UI

Tutorial

• Download and install your favorite PO editing tool, e.g. Poedit.
• Choose the language you want to translate and either:
  • fetch the latest PO file for an existing language from here and open it; or
  • create a new translation and use the English cemu.pot file as source
• Submit your finished work (just the PO file) by making a pull request to the GitHub repository (learn about them here)

General translation guidelines

• Don't overtranslate technical terms. Translate English technical terms (e.g. stack, v-sync, upscaling etc.) into your language only if there's a commonly used equivalent word. In a nutshell: avoid literal translations that don't mean anything. If in doubt, use your country's Wikipedia for reference or check how the same word has been translated in other programs (Microsoft Terminology Database is a great place where you can look for this!). If both the original and the translated term are used in your language, stick to the most commonly used one.
• Ampersands within words are not mistakes. They are positioned just before the letter that is used to determine the keyboard shortcut for the menu entry corresponding to that string. You are free to change their position if you find appropriate to do so. (Just don't add them in strings in which they are not present)
• Keep placeholders as-is. Some strings contain placeholders which are delimited by curly braces (for example {} or {:08x}). These placeholders must be copied to the translation exactly as they appear in the original string (you must NOT use locale-specific variations of the characters), otherwise translated messages will be displayed incorrectly.
• Keep your work updated, if you can. Cemu is an actively maintained project and updates often add new strings or change existing ones. Therefore it is greatly appreciated if you update your translation whenever the English .pot file gets updated by Cemu developers. In Poedit, you can do so by clicking Catalogue -> Update from POT file and selecting the updated cemu.pot file. No hurry needed :)
• Want to discuss translations? You can comment on open PRs if you want to engage translators in a discussion on their work or create a new issue on the repository to report errors or other problems in existing translations.

Glossary

Here you can find the explanation for some specific terms that you will encounter while translating Cemu:

• title: a piece of software that can be installed on a Wii U. It can be a game, an update or a DLC.
• WUD (or wud): a file containing a dump of a Wii U game disk (acronym for "Wii U Disk")
• thread quantum: refers to CPU scheduling. In the context of Cemu, it is the amount of time that a game thread is allowed to run before Cemu suspends it and lets another thread to run (this is also known as "performing a context switch"). It is very likely that your language has a specific, technical translation of this term.

Testing/Using new languages

If you want to test your translation or use an existing translation from the repository/another user, simply create the folder with the correct language code in "cemu/resources" and insert the compiled "cemu.mo" file.

Supported language codes can be found here: language codes.

You can use Poedit to compile a MO file:

1. Open the PO
2. Use the menu bar: File -> Compile to MO...
3. Select the correct folder as destination