Custom voice acting in games.
Moderator: ScummVM Team
Custom voice acting in games.
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
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
- eriktorbjorn
- ScummVM Developer
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Re: Custom voice acting in games.
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.)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...
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.
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.dj jack wrote: Doesn't every text line in the games have a id number that could be binded to a specific sound file?
None of this make translations impossible, but I don't think anyone has shown any interest in implementing it so far.
Re: Custom voice acting in games.
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...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.
Yes, I tend not to consider non-SCUMM games, but that's my fault...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.
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 iteriktorbjorn wrote: None of this make translations impossible, but I don't think anyone has shown any interest in implementing it so far.
thanks for your time..
Dj jack
Re: Custom voice acting in games.
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?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
Re: Custom voice acting in games.
That would also be a problem...Like the pieces of eight in mi1 and mi2...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?
Maybe PsYcO's solution would be a good workaround...
"I have enough pieces of eight to complete the game"...
- JohnnyWalker2001
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- Location: London, UK
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- JohnnyWalker2001
- Posts: 405
- Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:27 pm
- Location: London, UK
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.
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.
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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.JohnnyWalker2001 wrote: Really? I don't remember that happening when I played it.