Galnet Audio: The most useless thing in the whole game?

[wstephenson]

It's the Shipping Forecast but in space. What's not to love?

Speaking of which, I'd definitely pay at least a dollar to get a Peter Serafinowicz voice pack.

And I thought you were referring to getting Sassy Hudson reading your news...

 

[Yure]

Just one question - why? Seriously, why? IMO, this text-to-voice engine is the biggest waste of developer time. Do you really think someone would use it?

Yup.

Wasted time money and effort. How about manual waypoints for planets? How about a more cool skins for ships with only 4? How about just about anything that adds depth to what we do in space?

Nope... Siri on my news paper.

 

[Sphinx2k]

This. I don’t have to read and drive anymore.
I find it hilarious that people are so appalled by this feature. Do you really think it took that much time and money to develop? Text-to-speech is practically ancient technology at this point. It’s not rocket science.

Not to mention that the voices they chose are off-the-shelf IVONA2 voices, which are really good and not that hard to use.
I use them for TTS work on my PC already (voice attack and so on) - especially Amy (British UK) as per what Frontier chose for Galnet Audio TTS for english.

Addon PC apps like EDDI have already been doing this for ages now with limited ability, so it's good to see the option in game with extra features now and for console users, etc. Anyone who complains about this can simply not use it, move on.

 

[Stinja]

Just one question - why? Seriously, why? IMO, this text-to-voice engine is the biggest waste of developer time. Do you really think someone would use it?

I'll use this feature more than CQC...

 

[Y2K]

new galnet audio is great.. i hope they expand on it by having news flash's auto read out ect. ive not really used galnet due to fact you have to sit reading it instead of doing other stuff, having it read out while your on the move +1

 

[Whitehair]

I'll use it more than Powerplay.

 

[Surprised Brony]

I will use it as well. I've seen it pop up as a suggestion plenty of times before.

I love Galnet when it has content to read, so I'm hopeful for a more engaging Galnet as a result.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

No. And we really need that.

I wonder why not? The text is there, the tech is there it just needs to know where to look. I know I am no Dev but I am gonna stick my neck out and say a jump to date xyz and it read from the archives IS trivial

 

[smiths121]

I hope they expand the tts so that it reads out the important bit of missions. It might stop some of the annoying posts about travelling 5KLY and being scanned when entering the station and blown up unfairly.

It was funny for the first thread, now just concerning for the human race's concept of comprehension

Simon

 

[nexxo]

OP misses the point. Galnet Audio is computerised text-to-speech conversion with a synthetic voice that actually sounds fairly natural.

Now Imagine what else Fdev could do with feature in the game. More station radio traffic? Check. Actual voiced dialogues with NPC traders, mission agents, engineers etc.? Check. More flexible ship voice? Check. Breaking news or emergency messages as you enter a system? Check. The possibilities are endless.

 

[Barking_Mad]

I would have been FAR more interested in a galaxy encyclopedia like HCS has, so I highlight a star, and activate the voice to tell me about that. Or something in a menu, or galaxy map.

I have very little interest in a voiceover reading stories about people I don't care about doing something of very little interest in a system I have never heard of because of [political reasons].

I understand some do, so fine, but to me it's a waste of what seem like very good text to speech tech.

Frontier should have just made Elite into 2D scrolling shoot-out em up. That way there'd be no confusion as to what Elite is or isn't and what should or shouldn't be in it.

 

[lysan]

I'll use it, for instance, that's at least one person.

I’d use it too, love it.

 

[Watcher]

I'll be using it, I don't know how much but I definitely will.
The next big question is how much content they'll have, it is relatively thin on the ground at the moment so even though I'd be using it I wouldn't be doing so often..

 

[Valorin]

Galnet audio might not be the greatest thing since bread comes sliced but I like it and will use it. It's a "nice to have". Also looking at how much other stuff comes they invested lots of dev time in other things as well.

 

[Skizomeuh]

OP misses the point. Galnet Audio is computerised text-to-speech conversion with a synthetic voice that actually sounds fairly natural.

Now Imagine what else Fdev could do with feature in the game. More station radio traffic? Check. Actual voiced dialogues with NPC traders, mission agents, engineers etc.? Check. More flexible ship voice? Check. Breaking news or emergency messages as you enter a system? Check. The possibilities are endless.

This ----^

Whatever FDEV brings, there'll be complaints. Because it doesn't fit one's own expectations or just because complaining is a hobby. I really feel for FDEV's people having to keep up despite this continuous flow of whinning.

Darn, I bet if FDEV made Chess, some would complain peons move just one square.

 

[VR jefranklin18]

Its the ED forums. Anything you dont like took a billion man hours, and if it hadnt been included all your dreams would have come true.

And anything not in game that is wanted is "easy to develop" don't forget

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I shall use it for immersion, such as "What if Russia had won the space race?"

The Russian Galnet is super-cool!
Sounds like a '60s space project commentary.
Edit: especially from the exterior view!

 

[Alec Turner]

I'll just re-post something I just said elsewhere ...

<snip>

I was also fairly dismissive of Galnet audio. Right from the announcement at the expo I just thought meh, I can already do that with VoiceAttack and ED Toolbox. But actually seeing/hearing it on the stream last night? Brilliant. Good move showcasing some of the different languages too. I have to say you guys have done a terrific job with the voice synthesis, really top quality stuff (reminds me of when the avatar creator was first showcased - a new area of game development for Frontier, or at least for what we've seen in ED, something that's been done well by other software companies in the past, but Frontier proved themselves to be right there at the leading edge of what's currently on offer). Well done guys!

And new voices for the ship! That's very cool and I love that we can have different voices for different ships and/or the SRV. Quick question - was Victor voice acted or was it done using the new voice synthesis? I honestly couldn't decide (which is testament to the quality of the Galnet Audio voice synthesis that we heard).

 

[V'larr]

Of all the things to be complaining about in the current state of affairs, this has got to be the most petty.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

i missed the end of the vid.

Can i ask.. the new voices.. are they free or do we have to pay for them?

Also... i assume for now its just galnet audio but i can imagine they will be planning on expanding this to beacons, system information, and possibly even npc comms (and the beauty of the latter they can use all languages as i do not have to be able to understand what the pirate is saying so long as the universal translator puts it in my native tongue in the text.

but... that is just my imagination.. did the devs happen to comment on any of that?

thanks