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General How-To

Custom localization configs can be used to personalize the text elements of the game without disrupting the experience for other players. To the extent of the playerbase's knowledge, the practice is non-invasive - any and all changes appear exclusively on the client's side.

The entire philosophy of custom localization configs in APB is based on substituting language files with custom ones. By default, APB comes with 7 language folders in the \APBGame\Localization folder in the game's directory. Despite each folder's files seemingly using a different format, the structure of each file is the same (so TaskObjectives.INT has the same content as TaskObjectives.RUS). Each file has to have the same extension as the folder it's placed in.

If you are interested in creating your own personal localization config, it's a relatively simple and easy process. Here is a rough step-by-step outline of how you can handle the process:

• I heavily suggest using a less basic text editor than the built-in Notepad that comes with Windows. My personal recommendation is Notepad++ for many different reasons, the most important one being its search feature which lets you scan entire folders in search of what you're looking for.


• For first-time customizers I recommend simply copying all the files from the INT folder into the GER folder and changing all the file type extensions to match the folder name. This way you can search in the GER folder and find the text you're looking to customize without issues.


• Remember to retain the syntax of one string per line: StringID=Your text goes here. Do not break the ID before the = sign, keep your edits to the area after the = sign, and keep in mind that one string does not equal one sentence - a medal's name is stored in one string, but so is LeBoyce's entire biography. If you need to move text to the next line, use a newline character listed a bit lower on this page and never use the Enter key for it.


• Whenever you see tags that look like <This>, do not touch what's between < and >. These tags are basically the game calling for a dynamic value from its logic, not for actual text. Editing/breaking the tag will make the string display the same text every time instead of accessing that value. My advice is not to touch the tag itself in any way (unless you really want to hide the value in question for some reason).


• Feel free to scout through the different files and see what's in them. A lot of what you'll be interested in will be in the APBUserInterface file. However, that file is not the end of it. Thankfully the strings are sorted into different files, so the thing you're looking for might be in one of the other files in the directory.


• Be aware of just how much text content APB contains. If you're actually trying to translate the game into a different language instead of making a cosmetic config, there is an absurd amount of text you'll have to go through, ranging from important things like mission descriptions to fluff like item descriptions. Anyone who has released a public localization config of their own can certify that actually creating one such config is a time-consuming effort, so keep that in mind and respect the craft!

Implementing Custom Localizations

The game can be forced to load a specific localization through the use of a user-made shortcut to APB.exe in the \Binaries directory. After creating the shortcut, open its properties and add the desired language command (-language=[num]) at the end of the destination.

The following is an example of a correctly configured shortcut to launch the FRA localization for users running the game through Steam, with APB's files being located on the D:\ storage drive:
"D:\Steam Library\steamapps\common\APB Reloaded\Binaries\APB.exe" -language=1036

The language folders and their respective numbers are as follows:

• INT – International – this is the game's default English localization and the directory which the game will override during updates;
• BRA / -language=1046 – Brazilian Portuguese
• FRA / -language=1036 – French
• GER / -language=1031 – German
• ITA / -language=1040 – Italian
• RUS / -language=1049 – Russian
• SPA / -language=1034 – Spanish

In absence of a string in any given language (as in: when there are no characters after the =, not even any spaces), the game may fall back to the default English localization. If you want to properly blank out a string, it is advised to use a whitespace character like the one provided in the next section.

Symbols and Special Characters

The following non-alphanumeric symbols can be displayed by APB's interface without any issues.

~ • × ¡ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ ¦ § ¨ © ª « ¬ ® ¯ ° ± ² ³ ´ µ ¶ · ¸ ¹ º » ¼ ½ ¾ Α Β Χ ∆ Ε Φ Γ Η Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ο Π Θ Ρ Σ Τ Υ ς Ω Ξ Ψ Ζ _ α β χ δ ε φ γ η ι κ λ µ ν ο π θ ρ σ τ υ ω ξ ψ ζ { | } ° ± • ¬

Newline instruction character: [↵]
Blank/whitespace character: [ ]

Fonts

The game can be forced to display certain fonts from a predefined set. However, these fonts are mostly just size settings, with the most obvious offender here being the ammo counter font with its size. Changing the font will not work with lines which use <col:> tags for coloring; only lines with <Color: R= G= B=> tags will work in tandem with the font tag.

Below is a list of all working font tags known by the community:

• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Bold_11>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Bold_13>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Bold_14>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Bold_24>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Bold_32>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Regular_11>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Regular_12>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Regular_14>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Regular_16>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_Helvetica_Regular_28>
• <Fonts:APBMenus_Font.APB_HUD_AmmoCounter>
• <Fonts:EngineFonts.TinyFont>
• <Fonts:EngineFonts.SmallFont>
• <Fonts:EngineFonts.MediumFont>
• <Fonts:EngineFonts.LargeFont>

Fonts are known not to function properly when given closing tags. It is recommended not to use the <Fonts:/> tag and instead set the rest of the line to a desired font.

Keep in mind that the Engine font uses a different character sheet and as such some (if not all) of the symbols from the previous section may not show up in-game.

Color Codes

This section lists known color tags supported by APB's localization. This refers to predefined tags in bits of formatting code such as <col:Ceremony_Highlight> that result in the text being rendered in a predefined color, as opposed to <Color:R=1.0 G=1.0 B=1.0 A=1.0> that appears in some files.

In order to properly terminate coloring, the right formatting tags have to be used:

• <col:TagName> colouring has to be terminated with </col>
• <Color:R=1 G=1 B=1> has to be terminated with <Color:/> instead of </Color>

The game varies in which tags it uses; you may encounter both methods in use within the same file, but in different lines. There is no real method to figuring this one out besides observing what the game already uses in certain places and maintaining the same tags it did, or just plain old trial and error.

The values provided here were found by forcing the game to load a localization file containing all of the color codes. The numerical values were then pulled from the current.log file. If a known tag/code is not listed here, it has been omitted for technical reasons, most likely "it's not an actual color, this is just white again".

The 👁 emoji denotes tags to which the exact values are unknown and have been picked manually through a screen color picker. Keep in mind that the brightness of your screen will influence or offset these colors from exactly how they appear here.

site by myamai // based on information compiled by Flaws and Iazer