Custom Voicesets

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Well, I was just talking to Darkstorm on Yahoo, and I got the idea to make my own custom voicesets.

However, everyone else would have to have them to hear them.

So I got to thinking... Would other people want to download that? Just to have an extra voiceset, and use it themselves maybe?

So I decided to ask.

[Arcanist]

Its a nice idea, however... if lots of people started making custom voicesets i would probably stop downloading them after a while. which could represent a problem, since a lot of people use their voicesets to say things like "follow me" and i would not be able to hear or see them say this.

[crazedgoblin]

cool idea!

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Alright, so, I've been talking this idea over, and I got to thinking on specific voicesets...

Well, I'll need some reasonably high-quality audio from some women, because I have a noticably masculine voice (heh), but basically the idea is to make some Layo-specific voice-thingies.

Ex. "Hound's teeth!" "By Lucinda!" "Ilsare's grace on you." etc.

[LordCove]

That would be cool! I made a voice set for a Playable character in a little mod I made for Baldurs Gate 2 years ago.
I would love to use the voice set, but the character of Lord Cove wouldnt be allowed.
Shame. I loved playing that character!

[Fatherchaos]

Just keep in mind you'll have a bit of a daunting task creating a voice set. Not only are there the 49 required audio files (if you intendend to replace every spoken bit by your char), but you'll also need a custom tlk file for the strref. I've been working on just such a set, and while the recording was not so difficult, debugging all the timings and strrefs is a bit of a hassled. If you'd like a good point of reference, grab this file http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Other.Detail&id=99 or visit here http://ccg.dladventures.com/index.php/CCGv4:_VoiceSets

[LynnJuniper]

Fatherchaos - 6/29/2006  7:57 PM

Just keep in mind you'll have a bit of a daunting task creating a voice set. Not only are there the 49 required audio files (if you intendend to replace every spoken bit by your char), but you'll also need a custom tlk file for the strref. I've been working on just such a set, and while the recording was not so difficult, debugging all the timings and strrefs is a bit of a hassled. If you'd like a good point of reference, grab this file http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Other.Detail&id=99 or visit here http://ccg.dladventures.com/index.php/CCGv4:_VoiceSets

On an almost totally unrelated note, I'd -pay- for Dur'Thak's slang on a voice set.

I like this idea though! it's awesome! It reminds me of the one night my friend and I stayed up until 4 AM reading parts of eachother's respective stories, and "voice acting" eachother's characters, to the point of acting out entire scenes!

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

You would, would you? Send me a PM with the phrases you want.

[darkstorme]

Strictly speaking, you don't need a custom .tlk (which is good, because then it'd have to be integrated into the Layonara .tlk) - you just need a hak with an edited soundset.... and people would have to make their characters using Half-Elf's Character Creator, since the soundsets are not loaded with the inbuilt character creator.

I think this is implementable, and I'll be looking into it for the next few days to see how the strain (if any) can be dramatically reduced for the project team.

(And Stephen, no offense, but I don't know if you have QUITE the voice for Dur'Thak. *grins*)

[Fatherchaos]

LOL - Dur'Thak already has a voice set for his "slang"  . . . it took me a while to prefect - had to shove two carrots in my mouth to truely immate how immaculately he pronounces "s" And you're right the tlk file is not required for the voicepack . . only if you want to emplore the speakscript (which is a bit of a must for me). Chars can be edited post creation though, the bic file on which ever vault it falls under.

[darkstorme]

I know they can be retroactively edited (and this is, in fact, a must if we want to implement this on layo), but to save effort on the servervault side of things, it'd be better if people built all new characters and imported if they intended to use the custom voice-set.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Hey, I'm an out-of-work voice actor, cut me some slack here.

But anyway, if we're making custom Layo voicesets, why alter the ones we currently have? Can't we just send the .bic in with the info that needs to be included in the .tlk?

[Fatherchaos]

The tlk and soundset.2da needs to be provided with the layo module (hak files) or it won't be referenced properly. It would be possible simply to create a new soundset that references existing strrefs for the speakscript, etc, and I believe that is the preferred method to do so. At the bare minimum, for layo to use custom voicesets, a custom soundset.2da/hak would need to be made and included in the module, most likely as a seperate zip. Chars would need to be created outside using the  half elf char generator, thus the team would still have to place the bic into the server vault. Or, the char would need to be created normally and the script applied later via bot/manual edit.

I was experimenting with a language bot that can modify the character to select the additional languages, but between all the projects I'm trying to complete in tandem (portfolio website *to those who know of it, I bit off way more than I could chew initially *, custom sounds, DIY projector, etc) I haven't had much time to really code for it.

*wonders at what point a .plan becomes a novel*