Community Event / Creation Galnews feed -> TTS

Winterwalker · Jan 24, 2015

@Dweezil_Moon ...

Understood. What my project might represent is the possibility to get an alert pushed through, telling you that there is new news on Galnet. Nearly, but not quite the same, as knowing there are new updates daily ...you can then listen, with your speech reader, in game.

A question might be, is your speach reader generating audio on the fly, each time it's activated? I'm looking at what it's possible to do; If the audio can be published online as an Mp3, then I'm looking at a solution for getting a regular phone call, from Galnet News (aggregator), to hear the Mp3, wherever you are? In no way a criticism of your system which is real cool.

I've also been messing about with (multiple voice, interviewees, manually generated) Galnet .. or the text alert MIGHT (depending on whether you're publishing the Galnet feed) add extra function to your reader. So, just for info, this is Galnet as it (automatically) appears in my blog .. and for which I got a partial text message and link come through.

Dweezil_Moon · Jan 24, 2015

Nah. I don't do the actual TTS. The tool is really just a couple of regexp and some basic strings substitution and just generates something that is more interesting to listen to than the raw feed. Honestly, there isn't much to it. The TTS in my video comes from Voice Attack, although any other program capable of executing a command and sending the result to microsoft's TTS engine should work equally well...

MrJWalk · Jan 25, 2015

I believe the download link is down. I'm getting a "page doesn't exist" error. I'll try again later just to be sure.

*Edit* The link is working. I blame Verizon.

Dweezil_Moon · Jan 25, 2015

MrJWalk said:
*Edit* The link is working. I blame Verizon.

Yeah .. so do I

Glad it's working again but I noticed that I didn't put enough new lines at the start of the news before the date, so it sounds a bit ... weird. I'll change that sometime today. Sorry for the inconvenience.

EDIT: done. there is now a longer pause before the date is announced.

sutex · Jan 27, 2015

Have the latest reader version & VA beta , which has the volume controls , but the reader only reads the DATE then stops ,, Last version of the reader with the non beta of VA worked ,

5an Holo · Jan 28, 2015

Dweezil_Moon said:
Latest Version: 3.04
changes for 3.04: fixed for the Galnet News website as of 2015-01-24. Would be nice if Frontier settled for a format. I removed Szokorad's archive as it is now obsolete since Frontier updates the official site daily. I added a new option --fluff. If set to anything but 0 a random non-immersion breaking "sponsored by ..." line will be appended at the end of the stream. Mail me if you have good ideas for new ones, as there are only 7 right now (Bank of Zaonce, the five ship constructors and a PSA regarding local news (which were introduced in 1.06)

Download (incl. VA sample profile) available at http://cosmic-bandito.com/elite/galnewsreader.7z

Good morning Dweezil_Moon. The quoted link returns a 404 error - File not found?

Dweezil_Moon · Jan 28, 2015

5an Holo said:
Good morning Dweezil_Moon. The quoted link returns a 404 error - File not found?

gah .. misconfiguration of my web server. Can't really fix it right away. Use https://cosmic-bandito.com/elite/galnewsreader.7z instead (the difference is in the ssl access)

5an Holo · Jan 28, 2015

Dweezil_Moon said:
gah .. misconfiguration of my web server. Can't really fix it right away. Use https://cosmic-bandito.com/elite/galnewsreader.7z instead (the difference is in the ssl access)

Thank you Commander. Calm seas, and fair winds, my friend.

sutex · Feb 2, 2015

Any chance that VATextReader and your Galnews feeder can be explained with pictures , as , it's only after loading the profiles that some of the cryptic help files became a little clearer, ( looking forVAReaderFile ) but still unable to get either of them to work,

I had an older version of VATextReader , that I dropped into VA loaded with the profile , no problems , nice an easy, but the latest one , noidea , I think both coders assume that people have some idea of what steps need to be taken I for one don't

Hilight · Feb 2, 2015

R+ For this thread OP --good stuff to be found here

Dweezil_Moon · Feb 2, 2015

sutex said:
Any chance that VATextReader and your Galnews feeder can be explained with pictures , as , it's only after loading the profiles that some of the cryptic help files became a little clearer, ( looking forVAReaderFile ) but still unable to get either of them to work,

I had an older version of VATextReader , that I dropped into VA loaded with the profile , no problems , nice an easy, but the latest one , noidea , I think both coders assume that people have some idea of what steps need to be taken I for one don't

Hmm .. I haven't grabbed the latest VATextReader. Maybe something changed. I'll check in a bit today and make the necessary modifications.

sutex · Feb 7, 2015

Dweezil_Moon said:
Hmm .. I haven't grabbed the latest VATextReader. Maybe something changed. I'll check in a bit today and make the necessary modifications.

So whats the change of a guide
Been reading the Google groups about VA and the VATextReader , should get some rep for that , anyone who tries it should, what a mess
Anyhow , there are a few people who brave this idea of forum to asked for a step by step guide too setup VATextReader/Galnews feed , I suspect there's a lot more ,but give up once they see Google groups
I do know it's two different programs , but they do work with each other.

Dweezil_Moon · Feb 7, 2015

Just tried it with the latest VoiceAttack version (1.5.7) and the latest VATextReader Version (1.07) and it works.
The installation is *really* simple, but here it goes :

A couple of notice beforehand

I'll use {INSTALL_DIR} as a placeholder for the directory you installed Voice Attack in. By default this should is C:\Program Files (x86)\VoiceAttack So If I write copy file A to {INSTALL_DIR}\App you will have to copy file A to the subdirectory App in whatever directory you installed Voice Attack in.
You will need 7z to unpack my plugin. You can download it for free from http://www.7-zip.org/

so... without further ado ...

Download and install Voice Attack from the Voice Attack Homepage
Download the archive containing the awesome VATextReader Plugin from https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90846278/VATextReader.zip. The discussion thread is located at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/voiceattack/VotudmB84hE

unzip VATextReader.zip archive somewhere. You should now have a directory called VATextReader with the following files directly in it:

Code:

-a---        24.01.2015     15:37        796 Changelog.txt
-a---        16.09.2014     09:46       1241 Readme.txt
-a---        26.08.2014     17:38         44 Test.txt
-a---        02.12.2014     21:57      20992 TestConsole.exe
-a---        14.09.2014     19:59        489 TestLong.txt
-a---        18.01.2015     10:19       1100 testXML.xml
-a---        24.01.2015     15:46      70746 VA Text Reader Help.rtf
-a---        24.01.2015     15:37      23552 VAStorage.dll
-a---        24.01.2015     15:49     126071 VATextReader Sample-Profile.vap
-a---        24.01.2015     15:37      57344 VATextReader.dll

copy the VATextReader Directory to {INSTALL_DIR}\Apps (I told you that would come. You should now have a structure
Code:
```
[B]{INSTALL_DIR}[/B] > [B]Apps[/B] > [B]VATextReader[/B]> [I]the files listed above[/I]
```
Download my plugin, located at https://cosmic-bandito.com/elite/galnewsreader.7z
unpack it somewhere
copy the file galnewsreader.exe to {INSTALL_DIR}\Apps\VATextReader
start Voice Attack and check Enable Plugin Support in the config panel (the one looking like a wrench). Read the warning notice and then click yes because if you are that far you probably still want to enable plugins.
probably restart Voice Attack ... I honestly can't remember if you need to do that after enabling plugin support.
import the sample voice attack profile provided with the galnewsreader.7z archive and look at the commands to see how it works
...(?)
profit

Just a small bit of explanation on how this functions : all my tool does is grab the text from the galnet news page, split it in separate article, changes a couple of things, like adding "quote" and "unquote" when someone is quoted, reformating the date and adding a bit of flavour using sponsor messages. When you call one of the commands from the sample VA profile it sets galnewsreader.exe as the source for VATextReader and standard output as the 'channel' the text is returned on, then it invokes VATextReader and passes whatever the plugin returns to Voice Attack's Text2Speech implementation. Using good voice engines is highly recommended by the way (personally I use Ivona Amy and Emma, but it#s all a matter of taste and budget).
For fun you can add a short news jingle before VATextReader is invoked. At least that´s what I do.

enjoy

sutex · Feb 7, 2015

I had an older version of VATextReader , that I dropped into VA loaded with the profile , no problems , It read the Galnet News nice an easy, but the latest one , noidea , I think both coders assume that people have some idea of what steps need to be taken I for one don't

Edit more time.
Given what you have written , "The installation is *really* simple, but here it goes" it's not the installation which was the issue for me , but the configuration of the xml and rss feed which VATextReader refers too was my issue In any event it stills holds true , All the busy people with half their brain somewhere else will be please ,like dolphins , I suspect your guide will help others , now its spelt out in one post, again
thanks mate

sutex · Feb 8, 2015

Dweezil_Moon said:
Just tried it with the latest VoiceAttack version (1.5.7) and the latest VATextReader Version (1.07) and it works.
The installation is *really* simple, but here it goes :

A couple of notice beforehand

I'll use {INSTALL_DIR} as a placeholder for the directory you installed Voice Attack in. By default this should is C:\Program Files (x86)\VoiceAttack So If I write copy file A to {INSTALL_DIR}\App you will have to copy file A to the subdirectory App in whatever directory you installed Voice Attack in.

You will need 7z to unpack my plugin. You can download it for free from http://www.7-zip.org/

so... without further ado ...

Download and install Voice Attack from the Voice Attack Homepage

Download the archive containing the awesome VATextReader Plugin from https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90846278/VATextReader.zip. The discussion thread is located at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/voiceattack/VotudmB84hE

unzip VATextReader.zip archive somewhere. You should now have a directory called VATextReader with the following files directly in it:

Code:

-a--- 24.01.2015 15:37 796 Changelog.txt -a--- 16.09.2014 09:46 1241 Readme.txt -a--- 26.08.2014 17:38 44 Test.txt -a--- 02.12.2014 21:57 20992 TestConsole.exe -a--- 14.09.2014 19:59 489 TestLong.txt -a--- 18.01.2015 10:19 1100 testXML.xml -a--- 24.01.2015 15:46 70746 VA Text Reader Help.rtf -a--- 24.01.2015 15:37 23552 VAStorage.dll -a--- 24.01.2015 15:49 126071 VATextReader Sample-Profile.vap -a--- 24.01.2015 15:37 57344 VATextReader.dll

copy the VATextReader Directory to {INSTALL_DIR}\Apps (I told you that would come. You should now have a structure

Code:

[B]{INSTALL_DIR}[/B] > [B]Apps[/B] > [B]VATextReader[/B]> [I]the files listed above[/I]

Download my plugin, located at https://cosmic-bandito.com/elite/galnewsreader.7z

unpack it somewhere

copy the file galnewsreader.exe to {INSTALL_DIR}\Apps\VATextReader

start Voice Attack and check Enable Plugin Support in the config panel (the one looking like a wrench). Read the warning notice and then click yes because if you are that far you probably still want to enable plugins.

probably restart Voice Attack ... I honestly can't remember if you need to do that after enabling plugin support.

import the sample voice attack profile provided with the galnewsreader.7z archive and look at the commands to see how it works

...(?)

profit

Just a small bit of explanation on how this functions : all my tool does is grab the text from the galnet news page, split it in separate article, changes a couple of things, like adding "quote" and "unquote" when someone is quoted, reformating the date and adding a bit of flavour using sponsor messages. When you call one of the commands from the sample VA profile it sets galnewsreader.exe as the source for VATextReader and standard output as the 'channel' the text is returned on, then it invokes VATextReader and passes whatever the plugin returns to Voice Attack's Text2Speech implementation. Using good voice engines is highly recommended by the way (personally I use Ivona Amy and Emma, but it#s all a matter of taste and budget).
For fun you can add a short news jingle before VATextReader is invoked. At least that´s what I do.

enjoy

This is the Voice attack file you need to load https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtp0s7hwdj5uyu6/English Galnet-Profile.vap?dl=0 Its an English version of the Commands

To hear the NEWS of Galnet, the NEWS commands is used So you speak.... "News galnet 1" or "News galnet 2"

The Read all command makes this file galnews.... it was inside VATextReader folder for me... rename this galnews to galnews.txt

Then it will all work

Dweezil_Moon · Feb 8, 2015

actually the galnews file that is created is there for people who don't use Voice Attack. The same applies for galnewsreader_stdout.exe file, which is exactly the same as the other exe except that it opens a dos box to which the stdout is redirected.
The Luca D's plugin can directly retrieve the standard output produced by my tool and output that automatically, there is no need to go the long way through the text file.

I can't check right now as I'm running Linux when I am not playing, but as far as I remember the sample VA profile at https://cosmic-bandito.com/elite/galnewsreader-sample.7z has english commands.
Sadly Microsoft didn't include localisations in anything but Windows7 Ultimate so I have to use german commands in VA :/

By the way : today I might add the ability to retrieve the Galnet News summary from Frontier's weeklly newsletter

cheers

sutex · Feb 8, 2015

The Luca D's plugin can directly retrieve the standard output produced by my tool and output that automatically, there is no need to go the long way through the text file.

I had to make it a .txt to get it working , which is what the .VAP profile was asking for

Dweezil_Moon · Feb 21, 2015

Bumping as I have a new version out (4.0), which adds the ability to read out the summary from Frontier's weekly newsletter, and fixes the regexps for Frontier's HTML. (Guys .. honestly! Could you please settle on a format???).
The archive (still the same url) also has an updated Voice Attack Sample profile with a funky jingle

Read the README.txt file for details.

sutex · Feb 21, 2015

Just download overwrite , used your sample , not working , there is no readme explaining how to use the commands , I'm just getting derived command at the end , saying "newsletter" as with the other commands just plays the jingle.

Can you explains it clearly please , as I have in the above post before

To hear the NEWS of Galnet, the NEWS commands is used So you speak.... "News galnet 1" or "News galnet 2"

Then it will all work

Dweezil_Moon · Feb 21, 2015

I just checked, and there IS a readme.txt file included, as can be seen in this screenshot :

Just replace galnewsreader.exe in c:\Programme (x86)/VoiceAttack/Apps/VATextReader. The rest is all in the readme, but the way to invoke the newsletter is just to use -weekly=1 instead of -item=something as parameter to the VA Plugin.