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Contributing

Translating the viewer

Each language has a Fluent catalogue in crates/block-i18n/locales/. Bundled today: en, fr, ja, es, de, and pt-BR. The files are embedded at build time; adding another .ftl adds a language to the Preferences without changing the Rust code. The file name must be a language identifier, such as de or pt-BR, and language-name holds the name that its speakers recognise, with a flag emoji so the switcher is easy to scan (for example 🇪🇸 Español).

The embedded fonts only cover European scripts. Other scripts, Japanese included, are drawn by the system fallback fonts (Meiryo UI or Yu Gothic UI for Japanese on Windows, see ui/fonts/fallback.rs), found before the first frame. egui breaks Japanese and Chinese lines between characters. A date is a message with named components (date-day-month), never an order written in the code. Japanese has no plural: a plural select of the English becomes plain text ({ $count }件), while a select on anything else keeps its variants. Japanese uses the official Second Life terms of the Legacy Viewer’s xui/ja interface (インベントリ, 区画, リージョン, 初期設定…).

The saved choice takes precedence over the OS; “System language” follows the OS. Regional variants use the exact catalogue if it exists, then the one of the main language. An unavailable language or a missing message uses English. The language and its visibility to scripts are sent to the simulator through UpdateAgentLanguage, after login, a region change or a change to the preferences, following the Legacy Viewer’s LLAgentLanguage::update.

A new text uses an explicit key and its version in every catalogue in the same PR, at the same place as in en.ftl. A key missing from one catalogue fails the parity test, in scripts/check.ps1 and in the merge queue.

ui.label(block_i18n::tr!("inventory-empty"));
let message = block_i18n::tr!("resident-online", name = name.as_str());

# en.ftl
inventory-empty = Inventory is empty.
resident-online = { $name } is online.

# fr.ftl
inventory-empty = L'inventaire est vide.
resident-online = { $name } est en ligne.

# ja.ftl
inventory-empty = インベントリは空です。
resident-online = { $name }さんがオンラインになりました。

Variable names must be identical in every language. Passing a number directly lets Fluent choose the plural:

let label = block_i18n::tr!("inventory-count", count = items.len());

# en.ftl: 0 and 2 are plural
inventory-count = { $count ->
    [one] { $count } item
   *[other] { $count } items
    }

# fr.ftl: 0 and 1 are singular
inventory-count = { $count ->
    [one] { $count } élément
   *[other] { $count } éléments
    }

# ja.ftl: no plural, plain text
inventory-count = { $count }個のアイテム

Japanese, beyond the plural:

  • Buttons, menu items, titles and short labels are concise nouns or verb stems (保存, 削除, フレンドに追加), without です／ます nor a final 。; sentences, hints and errors use the polite です／ます form.
  • Japanese punctuation is full width (、。「」（）！？：); no space between Japanese text and a placeable, a number or a unit ({ $seconds }秒, { $distance }ｍ).
  • Abbreviations, units and digits written in the Japanese text are full width (ＵＵＩＤ, ＬＳＬ, ＨＵＤ, ＵＲＬ, ３Ｄ, ｍ, ＭＢ, ％, １つ): half-width capitals look squashed next to kana and kanji, and the Legacy Viewer’s Japanese interface writes them the same way. The value of a placeable is formatted by the code and stays as it is, and so does what the user types or compares with another text: key names (Ctrl, WASD), chat commands, file names and extensions, the identifiers of the Dev Toolbox tools (J2, L1).
  • Terms: アバター, インベントリ, フレンド, グループ, 区画 (parcel), リージョン, 不動産 (estate), オブジェクト, 装着 (attach), アウトフィット, 容姿 (appearance), 初期設定 (Preferences), 設定 (Block’s own settings), 近くのチャット, テレポート, ランドマーク, スクリプト, テクスチャ, フォルダ, ごみ箱; look an existing one up in ja.ftl before choosing a new one. Second Life, L$ and product names (Blender) stay in Latin letters. The viewers are Blockビューア and レガシービューア: “Legacy” is レガシー, as in the option labels the Legacy Viewer’s Japanese interface already translates (昼間（レガシー）).
  • A label quoted in a hint (「…」) is the exact text of that label in ja.ftl.
  • A continuation line of a multi-line message cannot start with *, [ or .: Fluent reads it as a variant. Reword it (Japanese often starts with the Markdown bold of the English, **…**).

tr! borrows labels without variables from the cache; a message with variables returns a String. Localized<T> caches an array of labels for each language, so that a change also applies to the menus already open. Dates are messages with named components. For visible decimals, use number or number_text, and integer to group thousands; the egui controls use the same separator, and parse_number accepts it on input.

Translate only what Block writes for the user. Protocol fields, command or widget identifiers, UUIDs, font names and saved identifiers stay stable. Names, descriptions and messages written by residents or received from the server stay as they are.

cargo test -p block-i18n checks the syntax, the uniqueness of the keys and the parity of the keys and variables with English, as well as selection, fallback and plurals. scripts/check.ps1 also runs the viewer and network tests.

To compare the languages without changing the preferences:

$env:AURORA_DEMO = '1'
$env:AURORA_DEMO_OPTIONS = '1'
cargo run -p block-viewer -- --language en --title "Test langue-viewer"
cargo run -p block-viewer -- --language fr --title "Test langue-viewer"
cargo run -p block-viewer -- --language ja --title "Test langue-viewer"

Remove --language to check the saved choice and its change while the viewer is running. For screenshots in demo mode, set AURORA_DEMO=1 and any AURORA_DEMO_* scenario you need, then capture the window titled with --title.