Bomret's Skyrim Language Switcher

Introduction

As per default Steam will delete all the localized files—like the voices—when you change the game's language and download the new language files instead. If you're switching languages often, like me, this is rather annoying because it always takes some time to download more than one gigabyte of files.

This small script will make it much easier to switch the ingame language in Skyrim. You will have to download the localized files of the languages you want only once (maybe repeat after an update).

Preparation

At first create a folder for the language you want to add to the script in the same directory the script lies in. There are already folders for the english and german localized files. You can name the folder whatever you want (e.g.: en instead of english ) but it should be easy to recognize as the script will take the names of the folders it finds and assume each one contains valid localized files and you know which language they are in.

Switch the game's language in Steam to the one you want and wait for the download to finish. After that copy the following files and folders (if exist) from your steam/steamapps/common/skyrim/Data folder into the language subfolder inside the script's folder you just created:

Note: This list may not be complete. If you find out that something is missing here, please contact me.
Steam is usually installed into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam .

If you forget one don't worry. Steam will reload the missing ones from the internet. The good thing is: It won't have to download everything.

Repeat this for every language you want and create a new subfolder for each inside the script's folder.

How to use

  1. In Steam: Switch the language of the game to the one you want.
  2. Start the script by double clicking it. It will show you the folders it found. Enter the name of the folder that contains the localized files of the language you switched to in steam.
  3. The script will use Robocopy—a robust copy tool of Windows—and copy the files and folders inside the chosen directory into the skyrim/Data folder and overwrite existing ones (which is necessary).
  4. If the process was successfull the script will start Skyrim automatically.

Have fun playing!

Hint: To have a convenient and pretty shortcut on your desktop do the following:

  1. Right click the script executable.
  2. Select Send → To Desktop from the context menu
  3. Rename the shortcut on your desktop to something you like
  4. Right click the shortcut and choose Properties
  5. Click on the Change icon button
  6. Click Browse and browse to your Skyrim folder. Select SkyrimLauncher and doubleclick on the icon.
  7. Click Ok.

Known bugs & Annoyances

Steam has to be already started to use this script.

You have to switch the language in Steam before running this script. It would be great if this script could be used to control the localization without having to bother with Steam at all, but that's not (yet) possible.

The script worked in most (that's why it's a beta) of my test case but sometimes Steam has hickups. If it tells you that “The game is currently unavailable” right click Skyrim in Steam and choose Properties. Now choose the Local Files tab and click the Check game files for integrity button. Wait till it tells you that some files have to be redownloaded, then run the script again.

Contact

Web: bomret.com

Email: info@bomret.com