Text to Speech

[quicksand 0]

Hy all,as you I've read the preview in Pc Gamer and found out BIS ambitious plans for Game 2 and their dream of creating a RPG to the true sense.

It is crystal clear that for BIS it is their priority to give the player total freedom on the war that we will be fighting in.They are creating a very inteligent AI and a dialogue interface that will work with every NPC.I can imagine that there will be literaly thousands of NPC on the map when the game starts so wouldn't it be logical to give NPC the ability to choose what they will say rather then strict pre-recorded audio messages that would limit the scope of the game.

The only hame similar to Operation Flashpoint in size is Morrowind.Bethesda(Morrowind developers) are working on a sequel named Oblivion and they've said in an interview that they will use text so speech to acompany their revolutionary non scripted AI(it sleeps,it communicates with other NPCs,).

Here is aDEMO of text to speech at work that you can play with.I think it does the job perfectly for non essential characters(essential characters to the storyline-if there are any- can be voice acted for a more indepth feeling) and it would make a perfect addition to implement in a dynamic campaign.

Imagine the following non scripted scenario.You get seperated from your platoon and wander around in a small village that hasn't been tainted by the brutality of war.

Walking weary on the unpaved roads of this small town you see an inhabitant[friendly module] approaching you creating an unberable tension for your hands that are holding your weapon,but the man simply starts a conversation asking how you got to be in this place afterwards confiding that he considers you and your country his liberators and you are welcomed to stay in his home for the night as it is dangerous to travell now, another inhabitant [unfriendly module] intrerupts and claims that it is dangerous for the village to host you and you should leave their village immidiatly,he knows all to well that your country's intention is to occupy the country after the war ends.

While dialgoues don't necesary have to be this complex,with such an option Game 2 would have a gameplay of endless possibilities and limitless hours.

[gandalf the white 0]

some of the things there sound... odd .

Since the answers are generated randomly, it would be nice if they included that, dunno how much power it takes to do something like that though...

[kegetys 2]

I'd propably rather have no speech at all than poor synthesized speech :P That synthesizer is better than most, but its still far to monotonic to make anything believeable, especially for a war game where you would expect people to be scared/excited/etc sounding.

[llauma 0]

Making an AI that can talk totally randomly and still make sense is pretty complicated.. We're talking about true AI.

Using samples with words is much better as I doubt the AI will be that advanced when it comes to conversations.

This is what I think of text to speech at this point

..but I guess it will improve in the future.

[sanctuary 19]

I'd propably rather have no speech at all than poor synthesized speech :P That synthesizer is better than most, but its still far to monotonic to make anything believeable, especially for a war game where you would expect people to be scared/excited/etc sounding.

It reminds me of Mary , how much disapointement once i discovered why she repeated everything i typed on my system.

She was just a program

[quicksand 0]

The reasons why I've sugested text to speech is because it came to my mind the number of NPCs(thousands if not tens of thousands) that will be on the map in Game 2.

If you can toggle chat with each and every one of them BIS would either cover Game 2 on a pack of DVDs with literaly hundreads of hours of voice acted files or keep the NPCs silent,which for me is frustrating-it just isn't the same to see a text on the screen and the NPC having his mouth sealed and looking with a dumb face at you like in most OF user missions.

The demo which I linked to is but an example that I found through a quick search,I imagined the technology is more advanced for game developers and such a software would have yet more personality in which even would suit to be implemented in Game 2.

I remember 3 years ago text to speech was much more primitive then it is in the link I posted,I am not sure if it gets any better but a text to speech version with some variation of personalities(sad,happy,scared,irritated,weary,confused) implemented with BIS masterful touch and coupled with the exciting AI would make make Game 2 a game that will never age and open new prospects for mission makers.

[funnyguy1 0]

Normally I wouldn`t pay attention to stuff like that...

Well It`s possible, and probably appear soonner or later in games...

The thing is, that ofp is becoming more and more rpg like...

Maybe It`s not the right time to suggest this sort of things, but If game3 would be even more rpg like, and this text sfuff, would be much more sophisticated, well...why not...

I don`t think that game2 would be so much rpgish, that It would need the text to speech...more than classic rpgs...

[MulleDK19 21]

NeoSpeech is the most realistic Text-To-Speech I've ever hreard.

http://www.neospeech.com/Default.aspx

[-)rStrangelove 0]

I like the way how they implemented speech in Oblivion. Prerecorded messages but spoken by all different characters. I think there were about 4 or more speakers recorded, 1 old male, 1 young male etc etc.

Yes there were messages you recognized were repeated sometimes but since there were soo many different ones you hardly paid attention to that. The different moods like anger or happyness were also very well done.

[EDIT]

@Celery: I have played the german version only, dunno about the quality of other versions.

Edited May 19, 2009 by ])rStrangelove

[celery 8]

)rStrangelove;1285811']I like the way how they implemented speech in Oblivion. Prerecorded messages but spoken by all different characters. I think there were about 4 or more speakers recorded' date=' 1 old male, 1 young male etc etc.

Yes there were messages you recognized were repeated sometimes but since there were soo many different ones you hardly paid attention to that. The different moods like anger or happyness were also very well done.[/quote']

Personally I think Oblivion has some of the most apathetic voice acting in gaming history. Everyone sounds the same and there's no emotion whatsoever.