Release thread for uLaunchELF support files

[dlanor]

As the subject line states, this thread is only for making releases of support files for uLaunchELF. This includes only functional support, such as support programs and keyboard map sets etc. It does not include purely visual support like JPG skin files. (Those have a separate thread.)

Since releases made here can and will affect uLaunchELF functionality, posting access is restricted to moderators (mainly intended for myself and EP). Others can only read and download attachments. If you have feedback on releases made here, you should either bring it to the main uLaunchELF thread, or start a new thread dealing just with your specific issue. The choice is yours.

Best regards: dlanor

[dlanor]

The following keyboard mapping sets are now released:

Keyboard_US.zip == The original US map, useful as starting point for new work.
Keyboard_SE.zip == Swedish key map, by me (dlanor).
Keyboard_FR.zip == French key map, by Polo35.

Others are welcome to make their own maps for other nations, or improve on the ones found here. Just post your work in the main uLaunchELF thread so that I or some other project moderator can integrate it with this release page properly (possibly after changes that may be needed in some cases).

Note that both the US and the SE packages contain programming/editing notes that may be helpful for those wanting to make new map files.

How to use each keyboard map is clearly described in a readme text included with each zip.

Best regards: dlanor

[dlanor]

From v3.95 uLE is now capable of limited support for non-english languages.

The main limitation of this functionality is that the current font has only english characters, so special characters beyond those are suppressed and displayed only as underscores. But hopefully we can improve this font later.

To use other languages with uLE, you need to go to "Startup Settings...", and use the new option "Language File:" which allows you to select an external file to replace the internal language definitions. (The original stuff remains too, so you can deactivate the external file to switch back.)

At release three such LNG files existed, for french (by Polo), and swedish (by me), and another one that is just identical to the built-in english defaults. But useless as that may seem, it is perhaps the most important one, as that english LNG is what all others should use as basis for their own translations into new languages.

The french LNG was probably the best looking one, as Polo avoided using the 'correct' french characters (that our font lacks). So all characters in that LNG were displayed correctly by our old font. But by french standards they aren't fully correct of course, as that would require the 'missing'characters.

I went the other way with my swedish LNG, using the three extra swedish vowels quite freely, even though the old font only displayed them as underscore. So menus and tooltips with this LNG did contain lots of such underscores, that should have been "åäö" or "ÅÄÖ" characters. Not very pretty at the time, but that changed when we extended the font.


This release thread is closed for posts by normal users, so if you have anything to contribute for this area, post it in the main uLaunchELF thread, and I'll transfer it here (as it would 'drown' in the main thread).

We now have some more LNG files that were contributed by users of uLE. Those LNG releases have the ps2-scene user name of its creator inserted in the filename of the ZIP or RAR containing that LNG. For some a version number is also inserted that way, to fully identify each release.

Note that from v3.96 the font support of uLE has been extended slightly, and some of the LNG files take advantage of that. So if you see missing characters in the uLE displays with some LNG, you may need to upgrade the program itself too. This font extension has now continued for several more versions, so most latin-based national character sets should now be covered completely.

Best regards: dlanor

[dlanor]

This is the second post containing LNG files released for use with uLE v3.95 or later (later versions are much better). The reason for splitting the releases into several posts is simply that the forum software only allows a maximum of 9 attachments per post.

Best regards: dlanor

[dlanor]

From v4.02 (and some earlier betas) uLaunchELF uses the new "usbhdfsd.irx" driver by Herben instead of the old "usb_mass.irx" drivers used in all previous versions of uLE. But as usual some users have compatibility problems and it has become necessary to add some way for these users to load the old drivers externally, to make their USB devices work with the new uLE versions.

But the old drivers had some bugs and limitations that made an important function (fioDread) fail with false error messages when used properly. The old uLE versions worked around that by a very bad method (but it was all we had then). But now, thanks to Herben, we have been able both to fix that bug and to change the workaround, so that both new and old drivers can be used by the new uLE versions. (Though old uLE versions can not use the newest "usbhdfsd" drivers.)

The four usb_mass drivers enclosed in the attachment are almost identical to the last four usb_mass drivers used for older uLE versions. But they have had the bug mentioned above fixed, and are also patched to allow fully correct access to timestamps (which never worked right before). But they are identical to the old drivers in all other aspects, even when it comes to a few bugs, as changing those might have changed driver compatibility too.

These four drivers will work as externally loaded usb_mass modules both for uLE v4.02, and all older versions that have such a feature. So these are the drivers you should use if you need to regain USB device compatibility lost in any recent update.

Each of the four drivers has a date in its name, and that date relates to when the older and unfixed version of the same driver was compiled. Hopefully this will help you decide which driver is best for you. But as a general rule, if more than one driver works for you, always use the one with the later date, as it will be better debugged.

Best regards: dlanor

[dlanor]

This post is for support of languages that need other characters than those of the Latin-1 variant of ascii. This includes russian, greek, and various other languages. And to qualify for this post, you need to prepare both a font file (FNT) and a language file (LNG) of the type used by LaunchELF. You can find various discussions on how to do such work elsewhere on this site.

Updates (latest change first):
'pvc1' has again updated his russian LNG, this time to include all features of uLE v4.16
'pvc1' has again updated his russian LNG, this time to include all features of uLE v4.13
''pvc1' has again updated his russian LNG, this time to include all features of uLE v4.09
'kada' released a turkish LNG using his turkish FNT
'zwyczajny' has again updated his polish LNG which uses the polish FNT by 'ffgriever'
'zwyczajny' released a polish LNG using the supplied polish FNT.
'pvc1' has again updated his russian LNG, this time for full compatibility to uLE v4.07
'pvc1' has updated his russian LNG to include the latest new strings (added in uLE v4.02).


NB: To make sure that you base your LNG translations on the very latest standards of uLaunchELF, use the file "lang.h" from the source folder of the latest uLE release. That file is the original english LNG used when compiling the default language setup of the program. So it always contains all new additions.

Best regards: dlanor

[dlanor]

This is the third post containing LNG files released for use with uLE v3.95 or later (later versions are much better). The main reason for splitting the releases into several posts is simply that the forum software only allows a maximum of 9 attachments per post.

However, this third post is also motivated by some extensions to the language files, compared to earlier versions. The files attached here are all fully compatible with uLE v4.07 . Note that you should not use these new LNG files with older uLE versions.

NB: The polish LNG has been removed from this post, as it is now replaced by a full polish language pack (FNT+LNG) in the preceding post.

Best regards: dlanor