Where are my voice Files?

[Parxes]

I'm trying to replace the funny combat voices for my character. I've downloaded some mods, and would like to use them.

when I copied the sound files to the sound folder, I noticed there were no voice files in the beginning! How is this possible when I still hear the vanilla combat sounds?

In the oblivion/Data/Sound folder is no voice folder at all, hence no imperial/redguard and so on voice folders and files.

 

I searched for soundfilesthe entire oblivion folder, but only found 2 huge voicefiles in the data folder which had a size over several hundred mbs.

 

Well, nevertheless I simply copied the mod files to the sound folder, but as you can guess, nothing changed. Oblivion still uses the vanilla sounds, from wherever it takes them.

 

Any idea why there are no vanilla soundfiles and how to make the new copied soundfiles working?

Thx alot

[David Brasher]

The voice files are like the mesh and texture files. They have to be unpacked before they can be viewed and used by modders. When you are playing, the game just refers to the permanent copies on the CD. If memory serves, you use the utility BSA Commander to unpack the Oblivion files. To change the voices, you may have to make a mod. Unfortunately, TES CS has been broken ever since Shivering Isles came out, and it is hard to work with voice files since then.

 

Your mod will need to take the new .lip and .MP3 files and place them one by one in exactly the right places. Like if you say "Uhh!" in the original game and you have a new file where you say, "Ouchy! ouchy! ouchy!" You will have to remove the old file and add your new one to the exact spot. I believe you have to keep exactly the same name. I guess you could add one letter to the end of the old name to disable it and change the name of your new file to exactly what the old one was. You will have to do this for both the MP3 sound and the corresponding .lip lipsynch file.

 

I am very ignorant about this subject. I wish I could be of more help. What do the readme files of your mods say? Do they give good instructions on how to install them?

[Parxes]

Thanks for your reply. Fortunatly I don't have Shivering Isle, so this shouldn't cause any trouble.

 

I have taken a close look at many voice mods and noticed the .lip and mp3 files like you said. Though I'm very used to mods and the locations where to put them, I still consulted the modders readme just to be sure. But there's no differeance to the common way of where to put the files to: data folder.

Thats why I was surprised to see that I had no voice files there in the beginning. If the game takes the voices from the CD, that would be a good explanation, however, if I place the mods to the data folder with all repective subfolders, the game should use the new mod voices instead. I mean thats the idea of a mod after all :-)

 

I'm using the german verion of oblivion - don't ask why german, when all my other games are english, I couldn't wait for the english version in my stores ;-)

Could this be the source of the problem? However, I'm using about 30 mods currently, all of them are english and work perfectly.

I'f I had to change language, is there any way to do this without a new copy of oblivion?

 

Thanks for your help

[David Brasher]

I guess I am not sure if the mods you are trying to install add new content or replace existing content. It is easier to add new voice content than to replace existing generic voice content. It sounds kind of like the readmes are very poor, or else the mods are too complicated for anyone but the original modder to install.

 

I guess I don't know about the language versions. All of your NPC's speak German? You must know German, or you would make very little progress on the quests. Perhaps the mods were well-designed to drop the new voice files on top of the English voice files and replace them, but all the German voice files have different names and so the English files do not replace them and land right beside them. Furthermore, the program only has code calling for the execution of the German voices. If that is the case, you would have to determine which German file corresponded with which English file, rename the English file to the German file name, and remove or rename-to-disable the German file. It kind of sounds like way too much trouble for the reward.

 

I have heard of glitches where an English-speaker downloads a German mod, and then finds that way too many of his NPCs now speak German. I don't know how this happens, because to my knowledge, the German version is distinct from the English version. It is not multilingual game where you can just change a setting to change the language.

 

Prices for the Game of the Year edition have come way down. You might want to invest in an English copy of it.