Custom voice acting in games.

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dj jack
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Custom voice acting in games.

Post by dj jack »

Hi to all...

I'm new to this forum but not to the SCUMM scene: I use scummvm since it's first version...

I have a question...

Since ScummVM is a pass-trough for every request the games "make" to the engine, why don't you add the possibility to create custom voice files to be used instead of the common monter.sou? I mean for example a folder full with wav or mp3 files for every single line of dialogue organized like the internal structure of the monster.sou file that are played when the game makes request for the VOC inside the .sou...

And would it be too difficult to add speech support to games that originally lacked it?Doesn't every text line in the games have a id number that could be binded to a specific sound file?

If something's not clear ask for explanations, since I'm Italian and my english is...awful XD

thanks a lot

dj jack
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eriktorbjorn
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Re: Custom voice acting in games.

Post by eriktorbjorn »

dj jack wrote: I mean for example a folder full with wav or mp3 files for every single line of dialogue organized like the internal structure of the monster.sou file that are played when the game makes request for the VOC inside the .sou...
It's possible, I suppose, though there isn't really any structure to the monster.sou file. It's basically just a bunch of sound files, concatenated into one big file. (I think there's some lip-sync information there, too, but that's about it.)

The sounds are identified by their position in the file, which could serve as an id. Though it means that you can't use the same set of ids to translate, say, the English and German versions to Italian.
dj jack wrote: Doesn't every text line in the games have a id number that could be binded to a specific sound file?
This depends on the game, of course. In SCUMM games, I believe the string is embedded directly into the script, with whatever formatting characters are needed to display it correctly.

None of this make translations impossible, but I don't think anyone has shown any interest in implementing it so far.
dj jack
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Re: Custom voice acting in games.

Post by dj jack »

eriktorbjorn wrote: The sounds are identified by their position in the file, which could serve as an id. Though it means that you can't use the same set of ids to translate, say, the English and German versions to Italian.
True, I didn't think about that. By the way is also true that some games like DOTT and FOA have only one language available as voice acting, so the sounds' offsets in the .sou are the same...And for FOA subtitles exist fan translations... :D
eriktorbjorn wrote: This depends on the game, of course. In SCUMM games, I believe the string is embedded directly into the script, with whatever formatting characters are needed to display it correctly.
Yes, I tend not to consider non-SCUMM games, but that's my fault... :D
eriktorbjorn wrote: None of this make translations impossible, but I don't think anyone has shown any interest in implementing it so far.
It could be a great feature to implement when you developers will have some free time...I think that playing Monkey Island, BASS or even some older games such as Maniac Mansion with localized brand new speech would be simply great...consider it :wink: :D

thanks for your time..

Dj jack
clem
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Re: Custom voice acting in games.

Post by clem »

dj jack wrote: It could be a great feature to implement when you developers will have some free time...I think that playing Monkey Island, BASS or even some older games such as Maniac Mansion with localized brand new speech would be simply great...consider it :wink: :D
I'm not sure if that is an issue with the games in question (too long ago I played them), but what about on-the-fly created lines? Like saying "I have <number of coins> coins in my inventory", where the number is inserted into the appropriate position?
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PsYcO
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Post by PsYcO »

change it to 'i have coins' :P
dj jack
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Re: Custom voice acting in games.

Post by dj jack »

clem wrote: I'm not sure if that is an issue with the games in question (too long ago I played them), but what about on-the-fly created lines? Like saying "I have <number of coins> coins in my inventory", where the number is inserted into the appropriate position?
That would also be a problem...Like the pieces of eight in mi1 and mi2...
Maybe PsYcO's solution would be a good workaround...
"I have enough pieces of eight to complete the game"... :)
clem
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Post by clem »

another instance is (as far as I remember) the coordinates where Guybrush dives in MI2

I still remember the good old DOS days where you could enter your name in a flightsim or RPG and they'd address you directly in the dialogue - gone are the days, thanks to pre-recorded speech :|
dj jack
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Post by dj jack »

But is also true that in FOA indy says the amount of beeds you have...And there IS a talkie version for that game...I'm gonna check that...
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JohnnyWalker2001
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Post by JohnnyWalker2001 »

The number of pieces of eight you can have is actually only very limited, as far I remember. Same goes for the number of beads in FOA.

It would be interesting to use this idea to insert some of the higher quality sound effects from the Amiga versions. Would that be possible (in theory)?
dj jack
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Post by dj jack »

Why not?

And I just noticed that in MI2 guybrush doesn't even say how many pieces of eight he carries...He just says "I'm rich!"...
spacetroll
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Post by spacetroll »

Why not simply use text for those rare dynamic dialogue moments? I just played BASS earlier this week and there are a few moments where they didn't record voice and it just switches back to text... it's not a big deal.
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JohnnyWalker2001
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Post by JohnnyWalker2001 »

spacetroll wrote:Why not simply use text for those rare dynamic dialogue moments? I just played BASS earlier this week and there are a few moments where they didn't record voice and it just switches back to text... it's not a big deal.
Really? I don't remember that happening when I played it.
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PsYcO
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Post by PsYcO »

realistically speaking, this is a very unlikely feature, there's just too many non-talkie versions of games, the work load is incomprehensible, unless we employ and/or donate our voices.

then the dev team has to put it in a single sound file, and index it matching the place in the game.

for a non-profit team this is a very large task to perform, while it would be nice, i don't see this ever happening.
spacetroll
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Post by spacetroll »

JohnnyWalker2001 wrote: Really? I don't remember that happening when I played it.
I definitely remember it happening when Mrs. Pierremount is on the phone with the club manager and Foster is free to roam the apartment -- ie, during scenes when characters are speaking during gameplay. Anyway, even if I'm missing audio files for that game, this would also be required in, for instance, the party scene at the Governor's Mansion in MI2... unless you want to deal with spontaneously alternating audio files depending on where Guybrush is standing in the room.
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Raziel
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Post by Raziel »

For that mass scenes one could aslo use some "grumbling" as ambience sound
If many people speaking on a party you wouldn't hear (understand) most of it anyway
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