NPC Voice mods

Has anyone done a mod to add in voices for the NPCs without voices (Sog, Vollinger, Janna, ...) or even some of the other people (Doc Roberts, Don Throgg, H. T. Parnell, ... ). If not, would it be hard to do?

 

I would be up for trying it ....

The only problem is I know nothing of modding (and little of computers in general). I was thinking about it and it seems like I would need to do three things:

1) Figure out where the dialogue text is. Certainly its in some file somewhere, but I am not sure if I will be able to see it directly, or if I need to unzip something.

2) Figure out how to make voice files. Is there something built in to computers that will allow me to do this? Do I need editing software?

3) Figure out how to tell the program which voice file goes with which piece of dialogue text. I would guess I would need to give the voice files certain names and provide links to them somehow.

If someone could give me pointers on how to do these things (either in this thread or just with links to other threads or webpages) then I will try adding voice to an NPC!

 

Actually, I will check out the amtut

Actually I just found this:

http://amtut.terra-arcanum.com/

which may answer one or more of my questions. I will check it out any repost about anything it does not cover.

 

Hello,

Adding speech files seems to be a reoccuring question that I haven't seen answered satisfactorily. The other night I was able to open and export Arcanum.dat which has the existing files for the speech and endings. Although I haven't recorded anything, I'll tell you what I think is the way to go about it.

Create folders Arcanum/modules/Arcanum/sound/speech/##### where #'s are the code number for the dialog file you want to have talk.

I cut this from some tutorial. A sample line of dialog looks like this:
{N}{Text}{G}{I}{Test}{R}{Result}
{N} is the line number

For an NPC response,
{Text} is the NPC response if the PC is male
{G} is the NPC response if the PC is female
{I} must be left empty
{Test} must be left empty [unless has voice]
{R} is usually empty, but on a generated dialog line for an NPC, the R field may be filled in with a response line.
{Result} contains results which are triggered if the NPC speaks this line in dialog (but not if used as a float or barter or other message).

For a PC response,
{Text} is the text of the dialog message
{G} field is left empty if any gender can say it, 0 if only female PC’s can say it, and 1 if only male PC’s can say the line.
{I} is the minimum IQ (if negative, it’s the maximum IQ, and it CANNOT be zero)
{Test} contains tests to see if the PC can speak this line.
{R} is the response line (or if negative, it’s the script line to run if this response is chosen, or if zero, it means to return to the calling point in the associated script).
{Result} contains results which are triggered if the PC speaks this line.

OK, imagine that you've started or opened a dialog file and it begins with the NPC:
{1}{Hey, Dude.}{Hey,Babe.}{}{1}{}{}
{2}{Do I know you?}{1}{5}{me 0}{11}{}
{3}{Who are you to call me "Babe"?}{0}{5}{me 0}{11}{}
{4}{Who you?}{}{-4}{me 0}{11}{}
{5}{Hey, Bens.}{}{5}{me 1}{21}{}
{6}{Big hug for Big Bens!}{}{-4}{me 1}{21}{}
{11}{They call me Big Bens}{They call me Big Bens}{}{2}{}{}

Passing the line number, the next {1} in the {test} field is for speech file 1. In line 11 the {2} is for speech file 2, and so on. You would name them:
v1_m.mp3
v2_m.mp3
Now since his opening line is different for a woman than a man, you'll need another file:
v1_f.mp3
They'd be saved in that folder you made, got it?

Let's say you want add your voice for the NPC you encounter upon leaving the crash site. That way you'll hear it at the start of each game (unless you throw a grenade at him). Get ahold of the file:
01714Molochean_Agent_at_Crash Site.dlg

Opening it Notepad it starts thus:
{1}{Hold there...what are you doing up here?}{Hold there...what are you doing up here?}{}{}{}{gf2322 1}
{2}{Good god, man! I just survived a blazing inferno!}{}{5}{pa -6409, lf1 0}{11}{lf1 1, lf2 1}
{3}{Good god, man! I just survived a blazing inferno!}{}{5}{pa 6409}{-2}{lf1 1, lf2 1}
{4}{Who are you to ask? What are YOU doing here?}{}{5}{pa -6409}{23}{lf1 1}
{5}{Who are you to ask? What are YOU doing here?}{}{5}{pa 6409}{-2}{lf1 1}
{6}{I just saw the accident and ran up here as fast as I could...}{}{5}{pa -6409}{35}{lf1 1}
{7}{I just saw the accident and ran up here as fast as I could...}{}{5}{pa 6409}{-2}{lf1 1}
{8}{Uh...I got out of blimp! It crash!}{}{-4}{pa -6409}{11}{lf1 1, lf2 1}
{9}{Uh...I got out of blimp! It crash!}{}{-4}{pa 6409}{-2}{lf1 1, lf2 1}
{11}{Then you were on the IFS Zephyr and survived? Did you happen to see a gnome...his name was Preston Radcliffe?}{Then you were on the IFS Zephyr and survived? Did you happen to see a gnome...his name was Preston Radcliffe?}{}{}{}{lf3 1}

Now, there are no speech codes in lines 1 and 11 so you'd have to add them, like so
{1}{Hold there...what are you doing up here?}{Hold there...what are you doing up here?}{}{1}{}{gf2322 1}
{11}{Then you were on the IFS Zephyr and survived? Did you happen to see a gnome...his name was Preston Radcliffe?}{Then you were on the IFS Zephyr and survived? Did you happen to see a gnome...his name was Preston Radcliffe?}{}{2}{}{lf3 1}
Then continue 3,4,5 for each successive NPC line. Then save the dialog file in folder:
Arcanum/data/dlg

Let's say you recorded your voice and labelled the files as above (for these two lines you don't need separate "to female" files). Then you'd save these mp3 files in the new folder:
Arcanum/modules/Arcanum/sound/speech/01714

Yesss... You understand?

(I finally heard Kan Hua's voice for the first time and I'm already sick of it.)

I just found the speech files the other night, I haven't recorded anything yet. First, I intend to fix Ending #18 (v12_m.mp3) which uses Joachim's death comment instead of the narrator's.

EDIT: I had the wrong folder, which I discovered when I fixed the ending file and found where it needs to go. I corrected twice above.

EDIT2: Finally got my mic out and tried it. I upped the volumes to max even though I was afraid it would record too loudly - it didn't, it played back too softly. Oh well- I don't want to hear my voice anyway.