Text to speech for NPC's

Mav359 · Apr 18, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syRE_nClBS0&feature=youtu.be

Anyone else try this

I have been having a play, its alright and adds immersion to the game, it aint perfect some of the voices are a little wooden and the cost of the speech-to-text portion of this (Could be upwards of £240 a year) makes this un-viable in my opinion but i do like the concept

Just curious to see if anyone else had a go.

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thinking about it

If everyone at frontier recorded these statements and opened it up to the community for them to do it as well they would have litterally 1000s of voice varients for these call outs, you wouldn't need the text-to-speech technology it would just be the computer calling for a file to play as needed.

Solved: do that

SeaFireliv · Apr 18, 2017

The cost is totally prohibitive. Nice idea, but no way if you expect me to pay extra. I mean £5 maybe , like with HCS voice packs, no annual stuff. Neither is it very easy to get it all going. I also don`t like how the cost isn`t mentioned until we get it. Not cricket.

just comes across as a money-making scam. Not worth it. To be honest it should be free with VOLUNTARY payments if we`re happy.

Ian Skippy · Apr 18, 2017

SeaFireliv said:
The cost is totally prohibitive. Nice idea, but no way if you expect me to pay extra. I mean £5 maybe , like with HCS voice packs, no annual stuff. Neither is it very easy to get it all going. I also don`t like how the cost isn`t mentioned until we get it. Not cricket.

just comes across as a money-making scam. Not worth it. To be honest it should be free with VOLUNTARY payments if we`re happy.

The thing is that whomever made it doesnt work for the company that has the TTS software, and the company who made the TTS software doesnt give a crap about ED.

ArchEmperor · Apr 18, 2017

Real time voice interaction is the way to immersion. Good points.

DragonIV · Apr 18, 2017

What are you all yammering on about regarding cost? The software caches phrases for each voice, and that's it. You'll spend about $32 bucks (after the discount included in the readme file) once to get them all the first time in each voice.

Only gets pricey if you enable TTS for player messages.

Personally, I think it's great.

It's also easy to get running. If you're having trouble, PM me and I'll help walk you through it.

I'll also agree that FD should have done this and built it into the game with real human speech (TTS is still an acquired taste, hehe).

For those of you who think the cost is still too high, maybe it is, but look at what else I've bought to enhance the game:

two HOTI (that's the plural of HOTAS, no?)
VoiceAttack
HCS Alexa and Insult-o-Matic, uh, I mean Eli
Oculus DK2
ED Tracker
a new computer (ok, ok, that wasn't just for Elite)

In other words, I've spent a lot more than I spent on just Elite to enhance my enjoyment of the game. Those who have done similar may find the ship voice enhancement worth their while--I certainly did.

Stamford Rider · Apr 18, 2017

dragoniv said:
I'll also agree that FD should have done this and built it into the game with real human speech (TTS is still an acquired taste, hehe).

They may have tried, but the script would be so cheesy, they'd struggle to find voice actors from a local am-dram group. (I'm gonna boil you up? Really?)

DragonIV · Apr 18, 2017

Stamford Rider said:
They may have tried, but the script would be so cheesy, they'd struggle to find voice actors from a local am-dram group. (I'm gonna boil you up? Really?)

Very true. Computer voice talent hasn't complained so far.

Andovar · Apr 18, 2017

dragoniv said:
What are you all yammering on about regarding cost? The software caches phrases for each voice, and that's it. You'll spend about $32 bucks (after the discount included in the readme file) once to get them all the first time in each voice.

Only gets pricey if you enable TTS for player messages.

Personally, I think it's great.

It's also easy to get running. If you're having trouble, PM me and I'll help walk you through it.

I'll also agree that FD should have done this and built it into the game with real human speech (TTS is still an acquired taste, hehe).

For those of you who think the cost is still too high, maybe it is, but look at what else I've bought to enhance the game:

two HOTI (that's the plural of HOTAS, no?)
VoiceAttack
HCS Alexa and Insult-o-Matic, uh, I mean Eli
Oculus DK2
ED Tracker
a new computer (ok, ok, that wasn't just for Elite)

In other words, I've spent a lot more than I spent on just Elite to enhance my enjoyment of the game. Those who have done similar may find the ship voice enhancement worth their while--I certainly did.

What he said.

Right now I'm using it for free. It's pretty cool.

Definitely worth trying out.
Just make sure you follow the directions and use the right credentials. (it's the cryptic ones that cere sends you after you register)

mossfoot · Apr 18, 2017

I like it, but is it a flat rate for voices or a monthly fee?

Akarana · Apr 19, 2017

As I understand it, once you have the CereVoice developer account set up, you get 10,000 credits free each month. One credit equals one character of processed TTS speech. According to posts on the TTS4ED support Reddit, this would cover you for a few hours of interaction with NPCs in game. I've been using TTS4ED around nav beacons for a few hours myself to test it and so far have used about 2,000 of the free allowance.

All speech processed by CereVoice is downloaded to your hard drive and the TTS4ED app keeps it in both its original and processed (with radio beeps, static etc) form. Any previously downloaded speech is reused when required, so will not spend any more of your credits.

The 100,000 credits bundle seems to be pay as you go, and was suggested as a one-off way to get all NPC text in the game processed in all the different voices and downloaded locally. I expect once you've got most of the NPC chatter saved, the 10,000 free credits per month would cover you for anything new, unless FD implement dynamic NPC speech or you use it to vocalise messages from friends. The developer said even with consciously travelling around trying to get every form of NPC chatter processed, he still had 70,000 of his credit bundle left.

Early days, but I really like it so far. It adds a lot to the game's immersion.

DragonIV · Apr 19, 2017

Akarana has it 100% correct. There is no recurring fee at all.

WindWpn · Apr 19, 2017

Mav359 said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syRE_nClBS0&feature=youtu.be

Anyone else try this

I have been having a play, its alright and adds immersion to the game, it aint perfect some of the voices are a little wooden and the cost of the speech-to-text portion of this (Could be upwards of £240 a year) makes this un-viable in my opinion but i do like the concept

Just curious to see if anyone else had a go.

- - - Updated - - -

thinking about it

If everyone at frontier recorded these statements and opened it up to the community for them to do it as well they would have litterally 1000s of voice varients for these call outs, you wouldn't need the text-to-speech technology it would just be the computer calling for a file to play as needed.

Solved: do that

Doesn't ED already have voices reading the NPC text messages?? In my install, I hear them all the time whether its a nearby cruise liner talking about some arrival delay, police scans, or a bounty hunter/pirate setting up for interdiction. I hear voices in all these scenarios, included space traffic dialog between stations. Do not others hear this too?

Noddie · Apr 19, 2017

WindWpn said:
Doesn't ED already have voices reading the NPC text messages?? In my install, I hear them all the time whether its a nearby cruise liner talking about some arrival delay, police scans, or a bounty hunter/pirate setting up for interdiction. I hear voices in all these scenarios, included space traffic dialog between stations. Do not others hear this too?

All I hear is some random chattering sounds near placed like space stations and bases. If I'm interdicted or in a fight they tend to text me.

To be honest, if it's recorded it becomes really annoying the millionth time you hear the same message, with the same delivery, with the same voice. Which is why games stopped doing this once the novelty of having enough drive and memory to do it wore off in about 95.

Speech synthesis tends to be similar, but very atonal. Unless you randomise the voice, speed, pitch it all tends to end up very like "Gorf", for those of us with longer memories. Even if you do, they're saying the same lines... soo.... again, it gets old fast.

Problem is that you're going to have hundred and thousands on interractions. Unless you have a HELL of a lot of recordings, some start to repeat themselves very soon.

This is why Elite has only short, to the point, useful announcements of important stuff. Lots of speech tends to become distracting and annoying once the novelty wears off.

SeaFireliv · Apr 19, 2017

WindWpn said:
Doesn't ED already have voices reading the NPC text messages?? In my install, I hear them all the time whether its a nearby cruise liner talking about some arrival delay, police scans, or a bounty hunter/pirate setting up for interdiction. I hear voices in all these scenarios, included space traffic dialog between stations. Do not others hear this too?

I hear dialogue from and in stations, but from the near liner, interdictions and police scans? nope, doesn`t happen. Dunno what you`re hearing?

WindWpn · Apr 19, 2017

Noddie said:
All I hear is some random chattering sounds near placed like space stations and bases. If I'm interdicted or in a fight they tend to text me.

To be honest, if it's recorded it becomes really annoying the millionth time you hear the same message, with the same delivery, with the same voice. Which is why games stopped doing this once the novelty of having enough drive and memory to do it wore off in about 95.

Speech synthesis tends to be similar, but very atonal. Unless you randomise the voice, speed, pitch it all tends to end up very like "Gorf", for those of us with longer memories. Even if you do, they're saying the same lines... soo.... again, it gets old fast.

Problem is that you're going to have hundred and thousands on interractions. Unless you have a HELL of a lot of recordings, some start to repeat themselves very soon.

This is why Elite has only short, to the point, useful announcements of important stuff. Lots of speech tends to become distracting and annoying once the novelty wears off.

Wow, no I hear different voices and indeed its basically read of the message text, but it is immersive and I do not have to look at the txt. I simply hear it. I will have to investigate why it is working in my install. I do run a few community tools such as G19 (that is known to impact space traffic dialog), but will have to try running ED solo, and then step turn on some of the tools to see what it is. Note, all that I use are free and available on this forum in the user plugins/api sub forum.

However, indeed there is something out there that reads and allows speech for all items in the messages window. Even when a CMDR sends a message, it is read.

Interesting, as I thought it was simply in the game.

CMDR-Bullsey · Apr 19, 2017

NO NO NO that sounds terrible , like stephen hawkings is doing the voiceover for NPCs
don't think i could listen to that for long never mind pay for it .

Rhaedas · Apr 19, 2017

I think the key to keeping annoyance of hearing constant chatter is to reduce the sound level down so it's there if you listen for it, part of the background if you don't. I've put together my own little code that reads the journal for messages and uses VA to read them, and one thing I've looked at doing is if it's a general (local) message or one directed towards you. You don't really need to hear the system authority announce about scans commencing over and over, but a pirate who tells you to drop your cargo, that's a bit higher rank in the messages (even if you decide to ignore him).

GG7 · Apr 19, 2017

I like the idea, and I wouldn't even mind paying the developer of this thing for their time but...

What do you do about all the DUPLICATE MESSAGES? I am in SC right now looking for some Combat Aftermath USSs, and the comm screen is chuck full of repeating messages, over and over and over again.

If I had to listen to that DIN of Redundancy THAT would get old real quick!

Rhaedas · Apr 19, 2017

I think in one post somewhere he mentions using or potentially putting in cooldowns. One way to do it in code is to look through the last X messages and if the last one was a repeat, just don't say it. Or like I mentioned, having a toggle to ignore scan messages from police, like in a nav/res zone, where that's most of their messages.

Noddie · Apr 20, 2017

WindWpn said:
Wow, no I hear different voices and indeed its basically read of the message text, but it is immersive and I do not have to look at the txt. I simply hear it. I will have to investigate why it is working in my install. I do run a few community tools such as G19 (that is known to impact space traffic dialog), but will have to try running ED solo, and then step turn on some of the tools to see what it is. Note, all that I use are free and available on this forum in the user plugins/api sub forum.

However, indeed there is something out there that reads and allows speech for all items in the messages window. Even when a CMDR sends a message, it is read.

Interesting, as I thought it was simply in the game.

Lol. Sounds like they're trying to sell something you have for free.

Did you work out which pluggin it was?