As every man must brave the razor's edge at least once in his life and get a proper shave with a Cut-Throat Blade (not one of those stupid plastic things), so it comes that one must do things the hard way.nikos wrote:...that's the million dollar question, where is the english dll? there isn't any, so you have to make one. There is no point me supplying one because you need a new one every time there's a new version out
For those who want a proper x2 English dll to call their own and corrupt with wild abandon, and yet do NOT wish to go through the rigmarole of installing Visual Studio just to do this, here is a simple step by step.
First, you need a copy of ResHacker. If you are using the x64 version of x2, be sure to download the beta version of ResHacker as it allows extraction of x64 resources.
You're also going to need a copy of your xplorer2.exe file, and one of the pre-made translation DLL's - the easiest way of getting one is just to re-install x2 selecting "Greek" (or something) as the language. It will start up in Greek (obviously), but this is not important - we're going to be using the command line for this. Now, shut up you complainers in the back! If you're man enough to hack resources, you're man enough to use the command line. (Remember, this is about shaving with a blade, after all.
)Now, I'm going to simplify the command line references by just giving you the basics - it's up to you to sort out the filepaths for yourself, as there are many combinations depending on where you installed things. For simplicity you can just copy your explorer2.exe and the x2t_greek.dll into your ResHacker folder and open a command line from there - the end result is the same. Just like a Clint Eastwood western, two files go in, only one file is coming back out.
This is actually fairly simple - three commands will do it, but keep in mind that they will look a little weird. Be sure to copy the syntax exactly as I have it here. I mean it. If you don't, bad men will come in the night and steal you away. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Command the First: reshacker -delete x2t_greek.dll, x2t_Blank.dll,,,
Notice there are 4 commas on the line. These are very important for ResHacker's command syntax, so be sure you keep them in place. This command just takes the Greek resources (which we don't want) and removes them from the dll, leaving a 1.5 Kb file called "Blank.dll" in the folder. Simple.
Command the Second: reshacker -extract xplorer2_64.exe, Goombah.res,,,
Yes, more commas. If you look at them in the right way, they kind of smile back at you so it's ok.
Anyway, this command copies the English resources from x2 into a compiled resource file (.RES) called Goombah.res, just because that's just the kind of guy I imagine Nikos to be. 
The new file should be 211.5 Kb in size.Command the Third: reshacker -add x2t_Blank.dll, x2t_English.dll, Goombah.res,,,
Ooh look! 5 commas that time. Very impressive. Anyway, as you might imagine this just takes the compiled resources from our favourite goombah and adds them to the empty dll we made earlier, creating a new file called x2t_English.dll which should be 216 Kb in size. Now, as Nikos pointed out above, this file can be called whatever you want, as long as it starts with x2t_ and ends with .dll, so use your imagination. Go on, humour me. Use something like x2t_Zorba_the_Castrated.dll just to watch the fish in the sea quiver with joy. Again, remember the razor blades.
So, there you go. Be sure to remove the x2t_greek.dll from the x2 installation folder, and copy the new x2t_English.dll one into it. Considering that the whole point of this exercise is to rape and pillage that new little innocent file, I suggest you make a backup of it, so you can always start clean again in the morning, your sins washed away like some Bacchanalian rhapsody gone awfully awry, but in a nice way. Remember that. Always in a nice way. It never hurts to wink at the pretty girl in the corner shop, even though you know she's living a terrible dead end trip to nowhere. Suggest to her one day that she move to a garret in Paris and learn to paint. You could change the world by doing that.
(You know she won't, of course, but even the hopeless can dream of spiritual emancipation.)The irony here, of course, is that all we did was create a duplicate of x2's English resources, so you won't see any difference when you run it again.
You have to use ResHacker to go into that DLL and change everything to the way you think it all should be, and of course, only you can be the judge of that.The reason I gave all these instructions to do it yourself (instead of providing a handy download for the quick and the dirty) is that as Nikos said above, you will need to have a new English dll for every release - this way you can make it yourself with a minimum of trouble. The commands could easily be made into a batch file to copy/change/move the necessaries so it's all simplified to one click. (With ResHacker scripting the modification of x2t_English.dll can also be simplified to one click for forthcoming releases, you just have to use your imagination.)
So I leave it up your good selves to form the future and undermine Nikos' design mentality.
- The Shankill Butchers run tonight
You better shut your windows tight
They're sharpening their cleavers and their knives
And taking all their whiskey by the pint
And everybody knows if you don't
Mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers want to catch you awake
-- The Decemberists
I will definitely give this a try.
