Author Topic: An alternative Xan voice  (Read 9442 times)

Offline slick

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An alternative Xan voice
« on: May 17, 2018, 04:44:41 PM »
Hello, my unfortunate friends. No doubt a comrade or two has met their deaths and you expect me to fill their still-warm boots.

Over the last few days I've transcribed the voice files for this wonderful mod and re-recorded them with my best try at an impression of the inimitable Xan.

I share it here now for your feedback and ideas. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KBWUHGnpZjdLQU0yIUBh4psCB5a2wrUx/view?usp=sharing I'm lacking a bit of context with these lines (as all I did was copy down what the original voice said rather than read from original scripts).  There's also a couple of occasions where I absolutely completely definitely say the wrong thing. And, performance-wise, it's possibly a bit inconsistent, since I recorded these over a couple of days and I felt like my Xan voice was shifting a bit as I went (the later ones are numbered lower, and I think they're probably far closer to BG1 Xan)...

Anyway! With all those excuses caveats aside, please let me know what you think! I'm really eager to hear from more fans of the Xans. Cheers!

Offline Mike1072

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2018, 07:48:23 PM »
I listened to a couple and thought they were pretty good.

Offline Kulyok

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2018, 07:14:52 AM »
Wow! I'll be happy to go over them and install them into the mod, yes, of course, thank you ever so much.

I'm really, REALLY behind on my coding, though, and not feeling very well, so I'm wondering - would anyone like to help me add those sounds in the mod? That won't take too much time, but the players will be very happy.

If you like to help, just post the ready mod link here or - better yet - pm me with the link or mail me at Kulyok, at yandex.ru , and I'll add the link to the site for the public download at once.
(if not, I'll do it myself, sure, but with all the stuff going and two new cats, it might take me as long as two weeks, sorry about that)

Offline jastey

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2018, 10:24:08 AM »
What would be your install option of choice, make the new sounds an optional component or have a "player must chose" during the install of the main component? The latter is a pain for BWS, but doable.

I can't promise I will make an update with all known problems fixed, but throwing in the audios should be no problem.

Offline slick

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2018, 11:39:18 AM »
Guys, here's a v2 of this alternate Xan voice - everything should be consistent at this point but some playtesting is probably required to make sure nothing sounds weird: https://mega.nz/#!jDA2zBhY!_JtFzY_XEMV_eK6TchkTtvU0lRXI2GGZ5InqA_0e7vI

@jastey, not sure of the advantages/disadvantages of either of those options, what do you think? And @Kulyok, hey, really nice to see you here!! Not sure how much help I'd be coding wise but I'm happy to try whatever.

Offline Kulyok

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2018, 11:45:57 AM »
What would be your install option of choice, make the new sounds an optional component or have a "player must chose" during the install of the main component? The latter is a pain for BWS, but doable.

I can't promise I will make an update with all known problems fixed, but throwing in the audios should be no problem.

Both options work fine for me - optional component is more than okay.

Offline jastey

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2018, 02:08:56 AM »
Kulyok: Please specify which voiced lines you want to have included, the first set or the second or a mix of both. If it's going to be a mix, I'd need a folder containing the files the mod should contain or at least a list.

And while you are here, what is your opinion regarding the option for EET to give BG2 Xan his BG1 soundset as stated here? Which would also mean that whoever choses this shouldn't hear any of the BG2 voiced lines, if I see it correctly.

@slick Making an optional component is easy to code and means the player installs the main mod, then has another prompt whether (s)he wants to install the component "alternative Xan Voice from slick [y]es [n]o [q]uit".
Integrating it into the main component is more complex and makes the installer halt and prompt the question during the installation of the main component like "which voice set do you want to install? Select 1 for the default and 2 for the alternative from slick and press Enter".

Speaking of which: slick, how do you want to be credited in the readme?
« Last Edit: May 21, 2018, 02:15:43 AM by jastey »

Offline slick

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2018, 04:48:18 AM »
Awesome jastey, that sounds good! If i need to record anything additional to include an EET/BG1 option I'm more than happy to!

Can you credit me as Joey Bracken? Thanks :)

Offline jastey

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2018, 05:00:11 AM »
Well, there 's the BG1 voiceset (the one from the game) and also Kulyok's BG1 XanFriendship mod and the Xan romance in bg1npc Project - although I think those two mods do not add voiced lines. But for an BGT / EET playthrough the BG1 lines consistent with your lines would be awesome, I guess? I do not know whether they are different from the BG2 ones, though, content-wise. (I won't go through Xan's voiceset, though, I'm only here for updating the mod.)

Offline slick

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2018, 05:07:25 AM »
Gotcha. AFAIK the voice set lines are the same as the BG1 stock game, but there's also a 'meet' line from Xan when found in the Nashkel mines ('I thank you for my freedom, friends, for I have languished in these dismal vaults too long').  I'll record that too.

Offline slick

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2018, 06:14:52 AM »
actually, thinking about it, some lines may be different — I think the original 'party member killed' line ia 'Another victim in our hopeless crusade', but I think the BG2 Xan mod has a different line? I'm out at the moment so can't check for sure

Offline Kulyok

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #11 on: May 23, 2018, 01:16:43 AM »
Hey, folks, sorry for the delay in the replying - I do reply to my e-mail more often) Thank you for your help very much, jastey.

Okay:
- second set is fine;
- BG1 soundset for BG2 as an option is fine.

Thank you again.

Offline jastey

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2018, 07:16:20 AM »
@Kulyok: thanks!

@slick: If you'd recorded the BG1 lines, too, that would be awesome - imagine a whole BGT / EET playthrough with Xan and your voiceset! Do you think you will make them, too?
« Last Edit: May 24, 2018, 07:16:54 AM by jastey »

Offline slick

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2018, 09:42:19 AM »
@jastey yeah! I'm recording now. Though, I'm not sure how to name these - they'll be generically numbered unless someone can direct me otherwise?

Thanks!!

Offline slick

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #14 on: May 24, 2018, 10:13:32 AM »
OK guys! Here's Xan's BG1 lines! They're in the same format as the BG2 lines (O#Xan000).

https://mega.nz/#!ea5FCQBA!w5_kP9kfUj8MtMPf-36-Hu38WWXPvoinEtiguZBUqs0

Offline jastey

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #15 on: May 25, 2018, 03:06:49 AM »
slick: awesome! I wanted to point you here as a reference but it seems the link is no longer working.

What I noticed: Your recorded sounds seem to be very loud. In comparison with BG2 voicesets could it be they are louder than normal? Because if so, I'd ask you to reduce the volume as it would be uncomfortable while playing.

Offline slick

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #16 on: May 25, 2018, 05:36:06 AM »
Oops, I meant to normalize peaks to -6db, roughly the same as stock BG2 dialogue, but I may have forgotten on this set? I can check later :)

Offline jastey

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #17 on: May 25, 2018, 10:22:05 AM »
That would be great! I only listened to them with Audacity and to the opriginal BG1 and BGII ones with NI, so maybe it's just my personal impression. I know that BG1 is a bit less loud than BGII, so maybe the BG1 ones could be a little less loud. Do you have any specifics on the voiceing for BG? (Because I don't really).
« Last Edit: May 25, 2018, 10:23:28 AM by jastey »

Offline jastey

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2018, 01:19:35 PM »
Kulyok  and slick: I am very sorry, but I won't be able to keep my promise to update Xan, at least not in a reasonable amount of time.

Offline Kulyok

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #19 on: June 02, 2018, 04:55:41 PM »
Jastey, that's okay, thank you very much for offering help, I'm very grateful. You're doing more than your share already.

Okay, folks, I've started on the coding, but I'm lost - Xan's code only says LAF HANDLE_AUDIO END, and that's all. Um, er, I'm not sure how to proceed from here. Help?

Offline Mike1072

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #20 on: June 02, 2018, 08:16:16 PM »
HANDLE_AUDIO converts all the .ogg files within a folder and then copies them to the override.

Quote
With no configuration, HANDLE_AUDIO expects your audio, oggdec.exe and SoX to be located in mymod/audio.

So by default, it converts all the .ogg files in the Xan/audio folder, which is fine for the main component.

If you want to introduce a separate component for the new recordings, I'd put those .ogg files in a different folder (e.g. Xan/audio/slick).  Then, in the new component, you can specify that folder when you use HANDLE_AUDIO.

Code: [Select]
LAF HANDLE_AUDIO
  STR_VAR
    audio_path = ~Xan/audio/slick~
    oggdec_path = ~Xan/audio~
    sox_path = ~Xan/audio~
END

Offline Kulyok

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #21 on: June 03, 2018, 01:41:40 AM »
Mike, you're the best, thank you ever so)

Offline Kulyok

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #22 on: June 03, 2018, 03:32:25 AM »
Okay, I added a mini-mod with Joey's soundset for BG1. Will work on Xan now)

Offline Kulyok

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #23 on: June 03, 2018, 04:42:49 AM »
All done! Let me know if it doesn't work, I only tested it once.

Slick, you're my hero))

Offline Kulyok

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Re: An alternative Xan voice
« Reply #24 on: June 03, 2018, 04:54:02 AM »
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