Voiced Dialogue

[beardedbroccoli]

Hello all modders!

I started using GECK almost a year ago and have been practicing modding ever since. I haven't really set my mind to making anything because of the insurmountable difficulty that is voice modding (which I suspect is why most nexus FO3 mods don't have voice actors). I have only found one tutorial on the subject and found it distinctly unhelpful. I was wondering if any of you have had success and if you could provide any tips, if there is already a thread on this subject feel free to bump me there. Thanks a million!

[BadPenney]

The difficulties are not insurmountable, though if you want NPCs to have custom voices that are lip synched then the current solution is convoluted. I believe that a voice mod tutorial was made by Crow Bennett, but that may be the one that you have already found to be unhelpful. Other than the fact that he did not convert voice files into .ogg files, his method was much the same as the one that I used. I started without any tutorials, just unpacked some voice files from the FO3 .bsa files and looked at the way vanilla NPCs are voiced. That is a good, unambiguous way to see how it is done.

 

If you are going to record your own files with your computer then you need a good condenser microphone and recording software. I used Sony SoundForge, but there is free software that can be downloaded (Audacity?). I believe that .wav files can be used, but .ogg files are the type that FO3 uses and they use less memory while providing CD quality sound. Once you have your own files then you can set them up the same way that vanilla FO3 does, using Quest dialogue and conversation tabs. But that will make NPCs appear to be speaking without moving their lips unless you create .lip files. That is the trickiest part.

 

The GECK appears to be set up to create lip synch files, but it doesn't. The reason for that is longwinded and boring. But Oblivion's TEX Construction Set will make lip synch files (at least older versions like the one I have do, though I think newer versions may not). In order to make .lip files for FO3 NPCs I used .WAVs of my voice files in the CS and then pasted the .lip files into my FO3 voice directories. There is a lot of file renaming that needs to be done, because the GECK assigns filenames to the voices when you create dialogue in quests. Voice and lip files have to use that same assigned filename and be in the proper sub-directory in your data folder to work.

 

That is just a brief overview of it. I'm sure that I and others have gone into more detail on the matter though. I would recommend using the search function in the forums. Search for voice, voice acting, sound, dialogue, and such.

 

It takes a good deal of patience and determination to make it look right. I would recommend that you start with a simple few lines of dialogue at first.

[Nimboss]

I have only found one tutorial on the subject and found it distinctly unhelpful.

 

Hi, You tried this one? Lip file creation by Gunmaster95

No fancy pictures but he do tells what steps needed to make and include a simple work set to speed up a bit.

 

The procedure IS messy since it includes switching lots of files in different formats, and using the first version of Oblivions TES CS (Ver. 1.0.303) that has a working lip creation tool. The general work flow is to record a Mono 16 bit 44100Hz .wav file ( If you search that out on Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls Construction Set later part of the page).

I have seen comments on forums about some difficulties to translate to correct .lip files, one suggestion was to record a duplicate at same speed but with louder clear voice and .lip sync with that one.

Anyhow FO3 uses .ogg and as long I investigated it's a 70kbs mono version of your .wav sound file ( 70 is not a "standard" bitrate that could indicate VBR decoding, I have not have the fun to play with it yet, but tried to examine the .ogg files in FO3).

 

For a few lip synced files this is still a picky job that can be done, but for a mod including hundreds unique voice/lip sync files this is not fun anymore.

I have some ideas on how to "automate it" but I don't know if the demand is high enough to spend all the time and tests needed with AutoIt to try script the whole process with CS. Most mod creators "seems" accept the current situation.