voice synthesis

OrLoK · Nov 18, 2015

Hello there

Will we ever see Text to Speech synthesis in game?

Reading is so 1990's

I'd love to have ship comes read out to me as well as the galnet feed while I'm supercrusing.

Systems like Ivona are very good as AI vocals.

Any chance?

Rgds

LoK

Freaker · Nov 18, 2015

I was thinking about this the other night while doing some of the new missions in the 1.5 beta. I mean who in their right minds bothers to type messages to you when they are under attack and need saving.

lysan · Nov 18, 2015

Should be a task to overcome, been in flight sims for years.

Armour · Nov 18, 2015

There's a plethora of speech synthesis work that could produce an endless supply of natural-sounding voices, and with the right text markup and some forethought, line readings could be suitably emotive in a way that makes sense. The issue then becomes internationalisation - who's going to do the same thing for other languages than English?

igor37 · Nov 18, 2015

Please don't. I have yet to hear any Text-to-Speech system that doesn't sound completely terrible, and it will probably still take at least 2 decades until the technology is refined enough.
I don't want to bring up that immersion stuff but voice synthesizers would be a reason for me to switch off the sound or uninstall the game. Just leave it as it is and maybe add some lines with real voice actors.

Crook · Nov 18, 2015

I find googles voice acceptable.

[VR] Deggial · Nov 18, 2015

If I am not completely wrong, the current ship voice is already synthetic.

At one point during the beta phase (for 1.0), the voice changed considerably. FD's comment on this was, that the new voice grants them greater potential (or something alike).
I think, the "original" voice was recorded, the new one computer generated.

If this assumption of mine(!) is indeed true, all sorts of usage should be already possible... at least in principle.

Crook · Nov 18, 2015

In principle yes but I believe it's not as easy as that to do it automagically from text even when you have the phonemes, there is still artistry required.

lysan · Nov 18, 2015

igor37 said:
Please don't. I have yet to hear any Text-to-Speech system that doesn't sound completely terrible, and it will probably still take at least 2 decades until the technology is refined enough.
I don't want to bring up that immersion stuff but voice synthesizers would be a reason for me to switch off the sound or uninstall the game. Just leave it as it is and maybe add some lines with real voice actors.

A lot of programs do it in a ok way, of course they sound a bit robotic however that is just fine by me.
We use it is flight sims all the time, and together with voice recognition you soon forget the mechanic voice, and just go along with it.

who? · Nov 18, 2015

If you could apply filters/effects (such as the natural compression artefacts you get in digital comms) these would hide the "artificialness" of the voices. Assuming they wouldn't add too much of a performance penalty.

lysan · Nov 18, 2015

who? said:
If you could apply filters/effects (such as the natural compression artefacts you get in digital comms) these would hide the "artificialness" of the voices. Assuming they wouldn't add too much of a performance penalty.

Yes, example of voice recognition and text to speech below. (only one human here, the others are AI)

[video=youtube;VOXKStXq3VU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOXKStXq3VU#t=80[/video]

OrLoK · Nov 18, 2015

Hello there

I get the Ivona voice packs to read books to me all the time and its *very* close to human in sound and often in inflection. Perfect for reading out new/technical info.

So there are systems that work well out there that dont sound, and forgive the crude analogy, like Stephen Hawkin's "Voice"

Rdgs

LoK

fennster · Nov 18, 2015

Deggial said:
If I am not completely wrong, the current ship voice is already synthetic.

At one point during the beta phase (for 1.0), the voice changed considerably. FD's comment on this was, that the new voice grants them greater potential (or something alike).
I think, the "original" voice was recorded, the new one computer generated.

If this assumption of mine(!) is indeed true, all sorts of usage should be already possible... at least in principle.

In one of the recent Q&As on Reddit with the sound department of Elite, somebody asked who did the voice of the ships computer because he found it attractive. The developer answered that it was in fact his wife that did the voicing. The next comment from someone was "Docking Request Denied".

Cmdr Pli55ken · Nov 18, 2015

I mean who in their right minds bothers to type messages to you when they are under attack and need saving.

That's what predefined voice command macros are for. (And, yes, I realize how bizarre it is to speak a command that types words for you because you can't speak to another commander)

Ii use 'Britsh Amy' as voice output for any reply phrases for voice commands, because it is reasonably close to the voice used in ED (closer, I feel, than Ivona)

igor37 · Nov 18, 2015

Lysander lysan said:
A lot of programs do it in a ok way, of course they sound a bit robotic however that is just fine by me.
We use it is flight sims all the time, and together with voice recognition you soon forget the mechanic voice, and just go along with it.

Just no. Currently all these voice programs send me straight through the uncanny valley, and I just can't stand these mechanic voices. I'm a fan of new technologies, but this voice synthesis is something I absolutely don't want to hear anywhere because it's still really unrefined. And I don't care what other flight simulators do, I just don't want it in Elite. There's a reason why many sci-fi-games still use voice actors for computer voices like EDI in Mass Effect or GlaDos in Portal. Everything else sounds cheap and unauthentic(no voice synthesis in 3301 will sound that bad).