Character Audio - a Long Requested Mod Resource

[LuciaofArroyo]

This has been requested many times in the past, and once before by myself, and nobody was really interested in making it happen, but look, this is a good idea:

 

What we need is somebody with the scripting know-how to recreate a basic template that can be assigned to new NPCs for usermade mods, basically in order to provide these NPCs with audio in combat and general situations. Veronica, for example, "says stuff" when she's engaging in different situations, this is what people need to give their own NPCs (or custom made creatures) the ability to speak outside of a regular conversation to add character and depth to them.

 

 

Is somebody able to recreate a script that can be assigned as an NPC voicepack that has triggers for all of the situations that, for example, Veronica has? This could be filled up by usermade audio files, blank mp3's titled 1.mp3, 2.mp3 etc which are assigned to fire when a particular event happens; engaging in combat, becoming wounded, that kind of thing.

 

 

The sections that I've read have talked about the impossibility of this happening, saying that each voicepack is scripted to work with a particular NPCs character ID, but this isn't the case at all. It's perfectly possible to go into the GECK and assign different voices to anybody, and it works. There's no reason that an .esp can't be created as a modders resource to actually do everything I've mentioned, and it would be incredibly cool to have a resource like this to let people create custom companions and creatures that would be so much better if they had their own voices- and sadly not everybody (myself included) knows how to create voicepacks which is why this should be created!

 

 

Hey look, if anybody feels like making this happen I absolutely guarantee it'll be put to use on my mods, if nowhere else :)

[gunslinger6792]

Very interesting idea I hope your idea works for you. I'd help but I can script at all I just make houses lol.

[devinpatterson]

This has been requested many times in the past, and once before by myself, and nobody was really interested in making it happen, but look, this is a good idea:

 

It does seem like it would help speed things up. OK I think I have a handle on what your asking, and what can be done. I'v spent some time designing custom companions, especially in a mod that will be coming out soon featuring the Marilyn Securitron. Let me touch on a few points below and see what we can work out.

 

Is somebody able to recreate a script that can be assigned as an NPC voicepack that has triggers for all of the situations that

The voice pack doesn't really contain that info, it's pretty much all stored in the quest itself, but I understand what your asking for and I don't see why it couldn't be done.

 

for example, Veronica has? This could be filled up by usermade audio files, blank mp3's titled 1.mp3, 2.mp3 etc which are assigned to fire when a particular event happens; engaging in combat, becoming wounded, that kind of thing.

So the way the geck goes about the acutal audio files for this is as* backwards. It determines the file names and you follow suit by renaming your audio files to those same predetermined names. Not a show stopper in any way, for what you want to do, just that the procedure will be different.

 

The Script on the NPC usually doesn't really contain much of the dialog, "barks" (those little random bits of babble that pop out now and then),etc. But it can contain items used by the quest (and therefore the dialog) like variables to set up the result scripts conditions and such.

 

But I don't know why it wouldn't be possible to setup a new quest script or latch on to the main one with a generic, placeholder actor. He/she/it would have all the same basic dialog options. There would be a small caveat, you couldn't rename the base id, it's tied to the quest, but I don't think that's a real problem. You can change everything else on that actor.

 

Probably better to make more than one of these placeholders, in case you want more than one companion in the mod.

 

The sections that I've read have talked about the impossibility of this happening

I'll do a search, but could you also link me to any threads that say it's impossible? In case I'm missing something.

 

, saying that each voicepack is scripted to work with a particular NPCs character ID, but this isn't the case at all.

What they might be referring to is that some of the conditions (in the result scripts, in the companion quest) use voicetype to identify whether or not something is possible with that specific character. Think of it as an identifier. If it's voice typer veronica, than this "Veronica related thing" can happen, if it's not the condition returns a 0 and whatever is associated with that condition can't happen.

 

Hey look, if anybody feels like making this happen I absolutely guarantee it'll be put to use on my mods, if nowhere else :smile:

I think I have a handle on what you want and how to do it. I have a fair amount on the request "to do" list, but I'll try to at least look into it in the next few days for you.

 

BTW have you done any voice work? I'm starting to feel like a telemarketer/sales making cold calls, but I'm trying to get more voices for companions and/or npcs, tourists on the strip etc. They are for a mod that extends NV past 2nd the battle of hoover damn and is tied to what faction you supported for a Independent NV, a House NV or a NCR NV. If you'd consider recording some lines for the mod that'd be great, if not no worries. I understand not all of us are comfortable with voicework, or have the hardware setup for it. But if you do, here are some lines;

 

1. With Mr. House dead, what will happen to New Vegas? <worried>

2. I'v heard he's called the monster of the east <fearful>

3. All of the securitrons are different now. <puzzled>

4. I was here during the riots, It was horrible <fearful>

[devinpatterson]

Oh another restriction (minor, just a bit of busywork really). If the mod is renamed the modder will have to rename the voice files directory to reflect the change.

[LuciaofArroyo]

DevinPatterson! Glad you're still here!

 

The Script on the NPC usually doesn't really contain much of the dialog, "barks" (those little random bits of babble that pop out now and then),etc. But it can contain items used by the quest (and therefore the dialog) like variables to set up the result scripts conditions and such.

 

 

 

The random babble is exactly what I'm wanting to focus on: a series of condition based triggers that activate usermade soundfiles that would function as easily as changing the voice of a random non-vanilla raider in the GECK from the fiend voicepack to the ghoul voicepack, or more specifically to be used in monster creations and for custom homemade companions.

 

Ideally this would be a template setup in an .esp files where people could literally drag and drop their own audio files into a folder that would correspond to the triggers; a bit like ripping the voice for a molerat out of the game files and changing the audio for clips of Henry Kissinger talking about foreign policy. Or something.

 

I'll do a search, but could you also link me to any threads that say it's impossible?

 

 

I was going from memory on what people had said in the previous threads, I know making custom voices is possible to do, because it's been done all over the place, but there seems to be too much over-sophistication on the concept of quest scripting which makes the idea of "dragging and dropping" or a "one size fits all" template seem impossible- but really, for a simple NPC, this could be done.

 

From my own experience you can change, for example, Motor Runner or Veronica (ok, V's a bad example because she's so heavily embedded into the quest lines) to have different voices. Their in-conversation dialogue remains the same (apart from "goodbye") but their combat barks change to the type that it was set to, without really any fault. This does vary though, I don't know enough about the GECK to figure out why this happens for sure, but some NPCs will refuse to enter conversation at all and break the player character when they're spoken to. I'm guessing that has something to do with a conflicting script on the initial "greeting" soundfile that should play, and that's why I suggest leaving the hello/goodbye triggers blank if this drag and drop/ template idea goes ahead.

 

I'm not saying this way would be perfect, it'd be a quick and dirty job, but it's worth a go to see whether it'd work. If it does then it'd be a great little tool to use.

 

In fact if it's set up properly (and it is that easy) then the esp could be cloned, renamed or merged and then reused over and over with just an edit to the base ID of the template to make as many voicepacks as needed. (they are called voicepacks right? i dont want to add to confusion by using the wrong terminology)

 

 

BTW have you done any voice work? I'm starting to feel like a telemarketer/sales making cold calls, but I'm trying to get more voices for companions and/or npcs, tourists on the strip etc. They are for a mod that extends NV past 2nd the battle of hoover damn and is tied to what faction you supported for a Independent NV, a House NV or a NCR NV. If you'd consider recording some lines for the mod that'd be great, if not no worries. I understand not all of us are comfortable with voicework, or have the hardware setup for it. But if you do, here are some lines;

 

 

That looks pretty ambitious. I'll ask around and see if I can convince anybody to do that, you don't need me -yet another english voice- popping up in Nevada after 250 years of nuclear winter. That'd be about as realistic as that British Army in the Mojave mod :wink:

 

I like the idea of the Independent Vegas... at the very least as a way to continue gameplay after the story ends. I suppose this is kind of related, but I'm surprised nobody has released a "post-hoover dam" mod to adjust the terrain and NPCs based on the players actions; turn the BoS bunker into a graveyard, stick Legion flags all over The Strip, that kind of thing.

 

Like the comments are saying, it'd be a big mod to construct, especially going at it from 4 angles to cover every possible faction ending. I think that might scare people away from getting on board with it, but I don't know... if you need a hand with audio editing or sound effects though, that's one thing that's no problem for me to do. (and NPC making for that matter, tweaking the faces, making them look hideous or cute)

Edited July 12, 2013 by LuciaofArroyo

[llamaRCA]

 

I'll do a search, but could you also link me to any threads that say it's impossible?

 

 

I was going from memory on what people had said in the previous threads, I know making custom voices is possible to do, because it's been done all over the place, but there seems to be too much over-sophistication on the concept of quest scripting which makes the idea of "dragging and dropping" or a "one size fits all" template seem impossible- but really, for a simple NPC, this could be done.

 

From my own experience you can change, for example, Motor Runner or Veronica (ok, V's a bad example because she's so heavily embedded into the quest lines) to have different voices. Their in-conversation dialogue remains the same (apart from "goodbye") but their combat barks change to the type that it was set to, without really any fault. This does vary though, I don't know enough about the GECK to figure out why this happens for sure, but some NPCs will refuse to enter conversation at all and break the player character when they're spoken to. I'm guessing that has something to do with a conflicting script on the initial "greeting" soundfile that should play, and that's why I suggest leaving the hello/goodbye triggers blank if this drag and drop/ template idea goes ahead.

 

I'm not saying this way would be perfect, it'd be a quick and dirty job, but it's worth a go to see whether it'd work. If it does then it'd be a great little tool to use.

In fact if it's set up properly (and it is that easy) then the esp could be cloned, renamed or merged and then reused over and over with just an edit to the base ID of the template to make as many voicepacks as needed. (they are called voicepacks right? i dont want to add to confusion by using the wrong terminology)

 

 

If you cannot articulate, clearly, and in excruciating detail, what it is you are trying to do I am going to feel compelled to continue to give overly-sophisticated opinions on this :P Mostly because dialogue is tedious for a lot of reasons. If someone can come up with a way to do it in a drag and drop kind of way I would be thrilled.

 

Re: exactly what you want

 

One of the reasons I'm skeptical about something super simple being developed is because no one has done a good job of explaining, clearly, what they want so I can't imagine how something could be developed.

 

So, can you very, very clearly starting from step 1 explain what it is, precisely and clearly, what you want to do? You want to change a voice in what kind of NPC? What kind of voice do you want to use to replace the original voice? Is that voice a new voice that you or someone else is recording? Is the voice doing the same exact same lines of the original NPC? Or are you wanting to create brand new written dialogue as well? If so is that still replacing a NPC or are you wanting to create new NPCs, etc.

 

And, while you are explaining what you want, don't try to guess what the game is doing or what you think the Geck can do. Just tell us what you want. I'm not offering to do this, btw, but I can't understand what you want, so I'm sure other people don't either, and until someone does, no one will be able to build it. But, I may have a good idea about how to do it if I understand what you want. I have a lot of experience with dialogue.

 

Oh, and, btw, this isn't a scripting issue. This is more of a basic dialogue set up issue which might include some basic scripting, but not what you seem to be thinking about. Idle chatter, combat and detection chatter are all set up through tabs in quests just like regular topics that are used for NPC to player dialogue. That isn't to say it isn't originally done through coding, but it's done "under the hood" and we don't see it and can't access it so can't mod it. Those tabs are the Conversation, Combat and Detection Tabs. Once the dialogue is entered there it will automatically play at the correct times in the game. It's very convenient and requires no further scripting, although it needs conditions. There are some dialogue scripts the devs wrote for the companions to do special comments and Cass has a idle chatter script and most of us with companions that chatter use one as well, but you can set up idle chatter through the conversation tab, it just plays very often.

 

 

@devin

 

Sorry I poked my nose in, but I was definitely in one of the earlier threads as one of the overly-sophisticated opinion givers. I felt I had to comment at this point. :)

[devinpatterson]

@devin

 

Sorry I poked my nose in, but I was definitely in one of the earlier threads as one of the overly-sophisticated opinion givers. I felt I had to comment at this point. :smile:

No Worries llamaRCA, you know more about this subject than I do, so I appreciate when you can help and or correct me when I'm wrong.

 

DevinPatterson! Glad you're still here!

Good to hear from you amiga :smile: . I had to take a break (was essentially pulling 7 day shifts, well 6 & then a social commitment on the 7th), just didn't have any free time.

 

The random babble is exactly what I'm wanting to focus on: a series of condition based triggers that activate usermade soundfiles that would function as easily as changing the voice of a random non-vanilla raider in the GECK.....where people could literally drag and drop their own audio files into a folder that would correspond to the triggers;

I just wanted to touch on a few points here before I take off, but I'll try to be more comprehensive later tomorrow when I'm in front of the geck.

 

So there may be a 2nd way to do this, if you primarily concerned with the barks. This is just a theory, havn't tried it, just brainstorming. You could do a little bit of a hack. Essentially place all of the barks in the NPC's script & do all the conditions from there. Use functions like "say", "sayto" etc. Name the sound files with some place holder audio files (split second of silence), with generic titles like NPC1_saysOuchIvBeenHit.ogg (might have to be wav, don't know). The form would be something similar. You could avoid the inflexible path/file name requirements of topics in a quest. We could name the place holder files whatever you want and the potential modder would just have to overwrite the file with his/her custom audio. But I won't have any idea if this is feasible until I get a chance to look things over on the pc.

 

So I'd mentioned the proper way of doing this was as* backwards. Usually we make an asset and direct the geck to it. In this situation it's the opposite. The geck decides the directory the voice audio files will reside in (named after the esp name) and the filenames (which will usually have part of the topic but a numerical suffix, which can make it a little tricky to guess sometimes, by just scanning the directory). But there's no flexibility about it, the geck is adamant. That means we (if we want to do this the way the vanilla game does) have to have some place holder audio files, and the potential modders custom files have to be named exactly the same and overwrite them. But I can type up a quick little list that will make it easy to know which file is for what topic. for example;

follower fired 1st response; data\sound\voice\genericNPCmod.esp\UniqueNPC1\VNPCFollower_followerFired_123457_1.mp3

follower fired 1st response; data\sound\voice\genericNPCmod.esp\UniqueNPC1\VNPCFollower_followerFired_123457_2.mp3

etc. for at least 31 entries. More if you want there to be multiple replies to the same topic (so the NPC doesn't seem one dimensional/completely predictable).

 

So you hop over to that directory and you see that you need to overwrite VNPCFollower_followerFired_123457_1.mp3 with your custom mp3 (or ogg), then just rename your audio, drop it in the directy and answer yes to overwrite. It's not elegant, but it wouldn't be hard.

 

The downside is you'd have to edit each topic to put txt in there, or just have audio only (I'd put a single period in to hold the spot).

 

In fact if it's set up properly (and it is that easy) then the esp could be cloned, renamed or merged and then reused over and over with just an edit to the base ID of the template to make as many voicepacks as needed. (they are called voicepacks right? i dont want to add to confusion by using the wrong terminology)

That's a bigger question, but it will be easy to answer with a few minutes in front of the geck. To do something as simple as change the name, much less merge the mod, would depend on whether it breaks the topics response sound file path. I don't think it will, but it's so damn inflexible in re: to path and filename, that it might. I'll test it and let you know.

 

I was going from memory on what people had said in the previous threads, I know making custom voices is possible to do, because it's been done all over the place, but there seems to be too much over-sophistication on the concept of quest scripting which makes the idea of "dragging and dropping" or a "one size fits all" template seem impossible- but really, for a simple NPC, this could be done.

Sounds like we're going about this in two different ways. I'm creating a template (where most of the work is, hopefully, already done) in the same format as the vanilla game. Your looking to do this in a different way, without the quest to provide topics etc. I'll try to look at it from your point of view and see if I can get a handle on how you want to go about it.

 

From my own experience you can change, for example, Motor Runner or Veronica (ok, V's a bad example because she's so heavily embedded into the quest lines) to have different voices. Their in-conversation dialogue remains the same (apart from "goodbye") but their combat barks change to the type that it was set to, without really any fault.

OK so what we're talking about here are voice types. I think the reason is that all voice types share a common set of "topics". I put topics in quotes because that "topic" could just be a combat grunt. But companions have additional set of (minimum) 31 topics and I doubt non companion voice types have them. Things that you will need for companions, like something as simple as wait. But that's neither here nor there if your just looking for the voice types.

 

OK so if I understand you right, you want me to find where and how the voice types audio files are stored. If they are stored in a way that can be overwritten, for instance say a discreet set of audio files in a directory, then we want make them accessible to our potential modder overwriting his/her own audio files. Then he/she can choose <nameOfThisModNPC1> voice type and non dialog will have our potential modders custom audio.

 

Does that sound like I'v got a handle on what you want?

[devinpatterson]

 

In fact if it's set up properly (and it is that easy) then the esp could be cloned, renamed or merged and then reused over and over with just an edit to the base ID of the template to make as many voicepacks as needed. (they are called voicepacks right? i dont want to add to confusion by using the wrong terminology)

That's a bigger question, but it will be easy to answer with a few minutes in front of the geck. To do something as simple as change the name, much less merge the mod, would depend on whether it breaks the topics response sound file path. I don't think it will, but it's so damn inflexible in re: to path and filename, that it might. I'll test it and let you know.

 

This is in response to doing it the vanilla way I suggested with place holders. I realize you meant for doing it your way, so disregard in respect to your method.

[devinpatterson]

Well crap, it looks like the voice types are a dead end. They aren't actually anything other than a simple identifier for several dialog quests (Generic, GenericAdult, GenericAdultCombat etc.). I know it looks like the voice types have the audio files in them, because when you switch them, you get new audio for the NPC, but they don't. That's all in those dialog quests. So that looks like it puts us back to square one, with one of the two methods I outlined above.......or something new.

[LuciaofArroyo]

So, can you very, very clearly starting from step 1 explain what it is, precisely and clearly, what you want to do? You want to change a voice in what kind of NPC? What kind of voice do you want to use to replace the original voice? Is that voice a new voice that you or someone else is recording? Is the voice doing the same exact same lines of the original NPC? Or are you wanting to create brand new written dialogue as well? If so is that still replacing a NPC or are you wanting to create new NPCs, etc.

 

Idle chatter, combat and detection chatter are all set up through tabs in quests just like regular topics that are used for NPC to player dialogue. That isn't to say it isn't originally done through coding, but it's done "under the hood" and we don't see it and can't access it so can't mod it.

 

 

Ok, step by step: what I want is the ability to assign my own audiofiles to custom made NPCs and creatures -nobody tied in with any quests or the main storyline-, to have them say new things during combat situations, when they get hit or when they die or whatever. Examples would be feral ghouls and molerats; they have no actual dialogue, but they have plenty of "barks", and it's the barking aspect that I'm interested in focusing on:

 

Let's say we examine the audio related instances that go on with a generic molerat, it has a series of audiofiles that are activated when it spots an enemy, or gets hit or attacks, and those are the condition-related-audiofiles that I want to work with to change the audio and be able to add new "barks" to new NPCs and creatures.

 

"moleratsqueal.ogg" (hypothetically) is the bark that's activated when the creature gets hit, I want to keep the conditions that make squeal.ogg activate on the creature, but I want to change squeal.ogg and all the molerat type oggs (squeal.ogg, attack.ogg etc) and replace them with (hypothetically) "HenryKissingerCough.ogg" and a series of henry kissinger type oggs, to recreate "the impression" that the molerat speaks with the voice of Henry Kissinger instead of the voice of a molerat.

 

The molerat or the feral ghoul, now that I think about it, are better examples to focus on instead of characters like Motor Runner, because these standard creatures don't have any conversation dialogue at all, and they do have those combat barks which is all I'm interested in.

 

 

If we looked at this in terms of creating audio for creatures would this make more sense?

 

 

They aren't actually anything other than a simple identifier for several dialog quests (Generic, GenericAdult, GenericAdultCombat etc.). I know it looks like the voice types have the audio files in them, because when you switch them, you get new audio for the NPC, but they don't. That's all in those dialog quests. So that looks like it puts us back to square one, with one of the two methods I outlined above.......or something new.

 

 

 

But that's not the case with creatures is it? I've taken a Feral Ghoul creature and given it the voice of the Big Sal NPC, and other creatures like it, and it works because the identifiers will be corresponding to the appropriate voice files depending on which voice type has been assigned to it in the GECK. (like i said, problems only arose when I did the same thing to actual NPCs who had preexisting conversation dialogue- likely for the reason you describe)

 

I mean, it works for all practical purposes, the combat audio triggers (searching: "where are you?", combat taunts, etc) work. The Feral Ghoul speaks with the voice of Big Sal, likely because Big Sals shares the same identifiers that the feral ghoul already has.

 

(now, according what you said, this shouldn't happen. But the only reason this wouldn't work is if the game makers had done the most complicated and time consuming thing in the world by creating from scratch the scripting and identifiers and triggers for each individual NPC, rather than, as every other game has done; reuse the same basic "have conditions been met Y/N" template over and over. And this is what they seem to have done based on the fact that I've been able to change voices with the creatures. If we start with the premise that essentially the same basic template exists, then we can work with it...

 

...or something new.

 

 

...or simply create it ourselves by cloning and adapting the preexisting sound and conditions that exist for Mole Rat or Feral Ghoul)

 

So, if a template was set up based on the model of a molerat or a feral ghoul that had a different ID to the feral ghoul (obviously) and could have audio "dragged and dropped" into it to correspond to these simple combat events via the identifiers, then that'd be the job done, and done relatively simply.

Edited July 13, 2013 by LuciaofArroyo