By default your Project Zomboid server runs in English, which means server-generated text such as radio and TV broadcasts, item names and world text will stay in English even if your players have changed the language in their own game. To translate that content you need to set the language in your server's options.ini and then set the same language in your ProjectZomboid64.json file.
Here's how to change the language on your Project Zomboid server.
Setting The Server Language
In this example we'll set the server to German, which uses the language code DE. Swap this for the code of the language you want, some example codes can be found further down this guide.
- 1
Log in to Bropanel and
Stopyour server. - 2
In the sidebar, go to
Files, navigate to.cache/and openoptions.ini. - 3
Find the
languageline and change it to your preferred language code, then click save:language=DE - 4
Go back to the root folder in
Filesand openProjectZomboid64.json. - 5
Find the
vmArgssection and add the following line to it, using the lowercase version of your language code:"-Duser.language=de",Your
vmArgssection should end up looking similar to this, leaving the rest of the arguments as they are:"vmArgs": [ "-Duser.language=de", "-Djava.awt.headless=true", "-Xmx4656m", "-Dzomboid.steam=1", "-Dzomboid.znetlog=1", ... ] - 6
Click save and start your server.
Caution
Every line in vmArgs except the last one needs a comma at the end. A missing or extra comma will stop the server from starting, so double-check the file before saving.
Project Zomboid Language Codes
Here are the codes for some of the most commonly used languages. Set language to the value in your options.ini file, and add the matching line to vmArgs in your ProjectZomboid64.json file.
| Language | Value | vmArgs |
|---|---|---|
| German | DE | "-Duser.language=de", |
| French | FR | "-Duser.language=fr", |
| Japanese | JP | "-Duser.language=ja", |
| Korean | KO | "-Duser.language=ko", |
| Russian | RU | "-Duser.language=ru", |
| Spanish | ES | "-Duser.language=es", |
Project Zomboid supports more languages than the ones listed above. You can find the code for any other language in the game's options menu.
Note
Players still choose their own language in the game's options menu, this setting only controls the text the server itself generates. For the best experience, players should select the same language you set on the server.