Heaven’s Design Pages

The Language.dll File

by Dark Archer

You may have heard about the language.dll before, but have never paid much attention to it because you don't know much about it. Or you may have never heard of the language.dll and are now intrigued. That is why I have written this article about the language.dll and the languagex.dll. In this article I will cover the following questions:

- What does the language.dll do?
- Where is the language.dll stored?
- What does the languagex.dll do?
- Where is the languagex.dll stored?
- Are these files really necessary?
- What can I do with this information?
- I've deleted the language.dll accidentally. What can I do?
- Is there any way is edit the language.dll?
- Can you tell me how to edit the language.dll?
- I have a question not posted here. How can I find the answer?

What does the language.dll do?

As far as I understand the language.dll tells the Age of Empires.exe file what to say. What I mean by this is that the language.dll controls a lot (but not all) of the text in the game. Some examples of controlled text are the unit names, the artifact/ruins/wonder messages, the computer tribute messages, etc. As said before some of the game's text isn't stored in the language.dll but in other files one example of this is the text in scenarios. The text for the instructions are stored in the scn file. But this is not all that the language.dll does. It also stores the language that the game will use, for example I have an English language.dll so my game will be in English but someone Germany will have a German language.dll therefore their game will be in German.

Where is the language.dll stored?

The language.dll is stored in the main Age of Empires folder. So if you want to edit it (like I do) you must look there.

What does the languagex.dll do?

The languagex.dll is similar to the language.dll with two big differences. The first difference is that the languagex.dll has Rise of Rome units. The second and biggest difference is that the languagex.dll is a expansion of the language.dll. This means without the language.dll Rise of Rome cannot be played. What is in the languagex.dll could then also be asked so I will add the answer here. In the languagex.dll you will find the following: New units (slinger), New technologies (logistics), Old technologies affected by new units (stone mining) and Hero Herisfon. I know that it is quite strange that Hero Herisfon is in the languagex.dll but my theory is that his name was misspelt in the language.dll and Microsoft couldn't be bothered making a new landuage.dll the trying to get the public to download it so they left it, until Rise of Rome when they had to make the languagex.dll so they corrected Hero Herisfon's name at the same time.

Where is the languagex.dll stored?

The languagex.dll is found in the same place as the language.dll. But you must remember that you only have the language.dll if you don't have Rise of Rome.

Are these files really necessary?

Yes. I cannot say with authority why the language.dll and languagex.dll are necessary but I think it is because the game cannot run without knowing the text to write. I also notice when looking at the language.dll that there is a lot of strange programming at the start of the file which may also affect the game in ways nobody knows.

What can I do with this information?

With the information in this article you should be able to locate and know what the language.dll and languagex.dll do for if you ever want to edit them with a hex editor or Unicode editor.

I've deleted the language.dll accidentally. What can I do?

You have two options. Your first option is to copy the language.dll from your Age of Empires CD (This can also be done if you delete languagex.dll accidentally), your second option is to download my Language.dll Bundle which includes: Five edited language.dlls, the original language.dll and the Cygnus hex editor, but it must be noted that my bundle is only in English and will change your game to an English version if you install it.

Is there any way to edit the language.dll?

Yes you can but you will need a hex editor or Unicode editor, which are both available at our granary. It is quite confusing to edit the language.dll.

Can you tell me how to edit the language.dll?

Read this article

I have a question not posted here. How can I find the answer?

You can either e-mail me at jensen784@hotmail.com or just ask the question on the forums.

Writers note: Since this article has been up I have had e-mails asking for language.dlls. Please note I do not have AoK, AoM or AoE 3 or any of the expansions so please don't e-mail me asking for them. A English copy of the AoE language.dll can be found in my Language.dll Bundle.

The Dark Archer

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