This actually seems great! Sounds like a lot of work, and I'm happy someone went through all that effort.
AI should not be used by commercial products to reduce the costs of Artists or Voice Actors, but this is a free mod. That makes it quite different in my eyes.
Sure, having actual Voice Actors record the lines would be better, but that's obviously not feasible, so it's AI or Silence. If the demo video is anything to go by, AI voices definitely seem more interesting than silence.
Only thing that makes me worry is how Modded conversations will stand out.
This actually seems great! Sounds like a lot of work, and I'm happy someone went through all that effort.
AI should not be used by commercial products to reduce the costs of Artists or Voice Actors, but this is a free mod. That makes it quite different in my eyes.
Sure, having actual Voice Actors record the lines would be better, but that's obviously not feasible, so it's AI or Silence. If the demo video is anything to go by, AI voices definitely seem more interesting than silence.
Only thing that makes me worry is how Modded conversations will stand out.
That's my main problem with it. I have too many mods that I would never expect anyone to take the time to do this on and so my game would be inconsistent. I have zero problems with AI as it's just a digital tool like photo shop. It's popular for trend followers to hate on it but when it comes to modding there really is no reason to be against it. Having a small mod that fixes the missing voice actress from SOD would be something I'd download and install every time I play though. I'm always shooting for better consistency between games to make them feel like one large game.
This actually seems great! Sounds like a lot of work, and I'm happy someone went through all that effort.
AI should not be used by commercial products to reduce the costs of Artists or Voice Actors, but this is a free mod. That makes it quite different in my eyes.
Sure, having actual Voice Actors record the lines would be better, but that's obviously not feasible, so it's AI or Silence. If the demo video is anything to go by, AI voices definitely seem more interesting than silence.
Only thing that makes me worry is how Modded conversations will stand out.
That's my main problem with it. I have too many mods that I would never expect anyone to take the time to do this on and so my game would be inconsistent. I have zero problems with AI as it's just a digital tool like photo shop. It's popular for trend followers to hate on it but when it comes to modding there really is no reason to be against it. Having a small mod that fixes the missing voice actress from SOD would be something I'd download and install every time I play though. I'm always shooting for better consistency between games to make them feel like one large game.
Think of it this way: the game is already inconsistent with some lines voiced and others unvoiced. By using this mod you're just increasing the percentage of voiced lines. Of course in a modded game there will be lines introduced by the mods that are unvoiced, but it's already a step up from vanila.
It's probably just me but I use BG1NPC project not because I think the conversations are interesting after having seen them multiple times but instead to make BG1 consistent with BG2. I just installed a NPC banter pack for Ice Wind dale so when my characters leave the sword coast and head to the spine of the world I still have consistency of my party having random banters and commenting on the environment and goings on of the party throughout the adventure.
As it stands, main characters speak the first line of dialogue and minor characters don't speak at all. This is consistent all the way through the game. If I were to install this everything would be spoken and then it would suddenly stop when I went to Ice Wind Dale or Neverwinter. This is too inconsistent for my tastes.
My personal opinion is that this technology if focused on a small amount of content and tweaked to perfection can lead to good results. Otherwise if it just gets applied to a large amount of content where there is little time for tweaking it usually sounds like someone is just reading off of a card, void of any emotion. That being said, the technology is getting better at a rapid pace and I wouldn't be shocked to hear a perfect vocal match that sounds like a real human with little effort in a couple of years. When that time comes it will probably be much easier to convert this stuff real fast and people will then apply the tech to almost all mods if the mod makers don't do it themselves. Until then, I'm going to wait it out but don't let me and my opinion stop you. I'm glad to see such ambitious projects under way and who knows maybe I will give it a shot once you finish the main games. I figure at the least, I will give it a chance to win me over once the base games are covered.
As intrigued as I was by this mod, I was immediately put off by it getting Winthrop utterly wrong. Elminster was pretty bad too. I guess Jaheira is so good in the preview because there is a lot more of her voice to work with.
There are some voices feeling a bit off, while certain other voices feel flat and emotionless. But there are also gems in there. Try talking to the Nobleman on the second floor of the Friendly Arm Inn. That one definitely is one of the better sounding NPCs.
I also notice, especially in Beregost, that quite a few minor NPCs do have an established voice, and that the voices added by this pack sound completely different.
For example, if you approach Gurke, you can hear him hail you as he walks over, but when he talks to you, his voice changes completely. If you talk to Berend, you first get a dialogue that's normally unvoiced, and if you repeat talk to him, you get a voiced line that's completely different from the voice this pack gives him.
As intrigued as I was by this mod, I was immediately put off by it getting Winthrop utterly wrong. Elminster was pretty bad too. I guess Jaheira is so good in the preview because there is a lot more of her voice to work with.
How do you suggest I approach Winthrop? Maybe more raspy? Any ideas are welcome and I will redo him in the next update. He was done very early and the voice options and my workflow have changed a lot since then.
Elminster was done by cloning his voice. I think the voice itself bears verisimitude but the presentation can be improved.
I also notice, especially in Beregost, that quite a few minor NPCs do have an established voice, and that the voices added by this pack sound completely different.
For example, if you approach Gurke, you can hear him hail you as he walks over, but when he talks to you, his voice changes completely. If you talk to Berend, you first get a dialogue that's normally unvoiced, and if you repeat talk to him, you get a voiced line that's completely different from the voice this pack gives him.
Gurke hails you using a generic dwarf line ("Me temper's bad enough without ye botherin' me"). A lot of dwarves share that line, and if I clone that voice and use it for all dwarves they would all sound the same.
Have you considered doing something about the talkings going on, even after one interrupts the Dialogs? Or is that not on your agenda?
As of now, I'm slowly getting used of it, but it's still a bit annyoing in some cases. For instance if you have a dream in an inn, the innkeeper is usually still talking, while the dream sequence allready plays...
Have you considered doing something about the talkings going on, even after one interrupts the Dialogs? Or is that not on your agenda?
As of now, I'm slowly getting used of it, but it's still a bit annyoing in some cases. For instance if you have a dream in an inn, the innkeeper is usually still talking, while the dream sequence allready plays...
That is an engine issue and I don't think there is anything I can do about it, sorry.
I don't know how much of a hassle this might be, but you could offer an installation Alternative, where every last part of a dialog ist cut out or maybe only the first Sentences are voiced.
That's how the original Soundset handles it in my opinion.
How do you suggest I approach Winthrop? Maybe more raspy? Any ideas are welcome and I will redo him in the next update. He was done very early and the voice options and my workflow have changed a lot since then.
I'm Scottish, so I'm no expert on English accents, but "My 'otel's as clean as an elven arse" sounds like West Country, maybe?
How do you suggest I approach Winthrop? Maybe more raspy? Any ideas are welcome and I will redo him in the next update. He was done very early and the voice options and my workflow have changed a lot since then.
I'm Scottish, so I'm no expert on English accents, but "My 'otel's as clean as an elven arse" sounds like West Country, maybe?
The "My 'otel's as clean as an elven arse" line is a generic "innkeeper" greeting line so it does not necessarily have anything to do with Winthrop's character per se. Nevertheless I'll try if I can find a West Country accent for him in the next update. I'm not an accents expert either but I looked it up and it does give the same vibe.
Hahaha, if you signed an NDA you wouldn't even be able to make the initial claim. If you make stuff up and post it to make a company look bad, like you arguably just did, Beamdog could go after you for libel. They definitely have the receipts to show your claim has no merit.
Man Morpheus I love how you were watching the comments silently but had to reply to this one guy about this.
While he's most likely lieing, since Ai Voice software wasn't how it is now when SOD came out, it is possible that he's just bending the truth, stretching it so faaaar, that "techinically" he is telling the truth but honestly it's not what is really been talked by in this post (had someone use this kind of argument for this exact topic on this exact mod on Gibberlings but for the opposite reason, being disingenuous in the argument basically).
I say this because while you might think an NDE would keep someone quiet, yet we have forums like for the War Thunder Game where people will be leaking Government Classified Documents on military hardware just so they can win an argument with a random stranger on the accuracy of a tank (or other military gear).
This happened more than once and involved people getting court marsheld.
AI should not be used by commercial products to reduce the costs of Artists or Voice Actors, but this is a free mod. That makes it quite different in my eyes.
I feel compelled to reply to this, but to keep it short, you should search up the history of Textile manufacturing during ndustrialization, that's a more tangible grasp of what's going to happen. (Besides the killing and burning stuff down, because we don't do that anymore)
Additionally it's more than just cutting costs, there's things Ai can do for the gaming industry that human Vas Can't (but will still allow the better (smarter) VAs to a make a good amount of money).
Think of it this way: the game is already inconsistent with some lines voiced and others unvoiced. By using this mod you're just increasing the percentage of voiced lines. Of course in a modded game there will be lines introduced by the mods that are unvoiced, but it's already a step up from vanila.
Potentially to make this mod a staple mod like Portraits Portraits Everywhere, I think you should release a guide on your own process, and how you develop your voice Samples, then post them and allow other mod makers to follow your same process then contribute what they do to you, so that it's less disjointed when someone makes a mod separately that's silent and that your mod could cover things like BlackHearts EET if the creator ( @AWizardDidIt what do you think?) was interested.
Man Morpheus I love how you were watching the comments silently but had to reply to this one guy about this.
While he's most likely lieing, since Ai Voice software wasn't how it is now when SOD came out, it is possible that he's just bending the truth, stretching it so faaaar, that "techinically" he is telling the truth but honestly it's not what is really been talked by in this post (had someone use this kind of argument for this exact topic on this exact mod on Gibberlings but for the opposite reason, being disingenuous in the argument basically).
I say this because while you might think an NDE would keep someone quiet, yet we have forums like for the War Thunder Game where people will be leaking Government Classified Documents on military hardware just so they can win an argument with a random stranger on the accuracy of a tank (or other military gear).
This happened more than once and involved people getting court marsheld.
I've already made my opinions known regarding the use of ai voice acting in mods in other discussions and had nothing new to add here except to call out the lie above. I have signed NDAs, as many people on this board likely have. There are lots of reasons why one may be signed and nothing wrong with it. To your example, I have never had to sign an NDA when I oversaw millions of dollars worth of military equipment (artillery and other various items) as well as did some testing on some cool stuff coming to us. People leaking on War Thunder is a completely separate discussion and nothing to do with an NDA and generally a really bad comparison. I don't know the legal technicality (e.g., specific laws the leakers would be in violation of), but I'm guessing breach of their security clearance (which I've had a security clearance).
In the above example, it would be incredibly stupid to go onto the forum owned by the people who made you sign an NDA and then talk about the contents of that NDA. The alternative, equally stupid idea is to libel Beamdog on their forum making the claim above.
@morpheus562 I do think it's comparable as my point is that irrelevant of what people sign, there's a human that is going to humsn and release the stuff not even for personal gain but just for the sake of a random argument (though I guess winning internet argument points is personal gain for them in the moment, but you get my point).
Military hardware "is" in the millions and besides losing security clearance, thier job, being dishonorably discharged, leaking the stuff is also a federal crime with prison time.(several laws being broken here and if they really wanted to they could charge the person with violating the Espionage Act, though I doubt they would)
You say it is stupid, but my point is "people are" stupid. (especially on the internet)
I also notice, especially in Beregost, that quite a few minor NPCs do have an established voice, and that the voices added by this pack sound completely different.
For example, if you approach Gurke, you can hear him hail you as he walks over, but when he talks to you, his voice changes completely. If you talk to Berend, you first get a dialogue that's normally unvoiced, and if you repeat talk to him, you get a voiced line that's completely different from the voice this pack gives him.
Gurke hails you using a generic dwarf line ("Me temper's bad enough without ye botherin' me"). A lot of dwarves share that line, and if I clone that voice and use it for all dwarves they would all sound the same.
Also who's Berend?
I see your point that the hail line is a generic dwarf voice, and you don't want to have all dwarves sound the same, but it's pretty jarring nonetheless. How many people hail you and then have a dialogue with you? Could it be possible to use the iconic dwarven voice for just those people? Or would it be possible to update the hail sound?
He's one of the NPCs in Beregost, though I might have his name misspelled. I'll repost if I can get another example, but I came across several NPCs in Beregost that have a bit of dialogue, with voices from this mod, and then if you continue talking to them, they have this voiced oneliner that sounds completely different.
Have you considered doing something about the talkings going on, even after one interrupts the Dialogs? Or is that not on your agenda?
As of now, I'm slowly getting used of it, but it's still a bit annyoing in some cases. For instance if you have a dream in an inn, the innkeeper is usually still talking, while the dream sequence allready plays...
That is an engine issue and I don't think there is anything I can do about it, sorry.
I did notice that dialogue sounds tend to interrupt the previous dialogue sound, so if it was possible to play a brief silent dialogue sound at the end, then that could interrupt the sound? Probably much more hassle than it's worth, though. Yeah, it's a bit annoying for dream sequences, but outside of that, I didn't mind.
Potentially to make this mod a staple mod like Portraits Portraits Everywhere, I think you should release a guide on your own process, and how you develop your voice Samples, then post them and allow other mod makers to follow your same process then contribute what they do to you, so that it's less disjointed when someone makes a mod separately that's silent and that your mod could cover things like BlackHearts EET if the creator ( @AWizardDidIt what do you think?) was interested.
I might take a look at this and see if it's possible to make some kind of tool. If I do make one then I will release it with the SOD part of this mod and then people can create audios for characters, be it for their own mods or as a suggestion for the voice of any character covered in my mod.
How many people hail you and then have a dialogue with you? Could it be possible to use the iconic dwarven voice for just those people? Or would it be possible to update the hail sound?
I actually don't know how many characters do the "hail" thing. I'll take a look. If there are few then maybe they can share the dwarven voice. If there are many then I will make them approach you silently. Maybe a mix of both. Currently the iconic dwarven voice is reserved for a very specific dwarf.
He's one of the NPCs in Beregost, though I might have his name misspelled. I'll repost if I can get another example, but I came across several NPCs in Beregost that have a bit of dialogue, with voices from this mod, and then if you continue talking to them, they have this voiced oneliner that sounds completely different.
Please do keep me posted about this, as I have not seen this myself before. I suspect it should be related to the audio lines associated with the characters themselves.
I did notice that dialogue sounds tend to interrupt the previous dialogue sound, so if it was possible to play a brief silent dialogue sound at the end, then that could interrupt the sound?
If I remember correctly, it has to be a dialogue-related audio that can do the interruption. Therefore, the silent audio will have to be accompanied with some dialogue. However, at this point the user has already exited the dialogue box...
Rather than muting the hail, would it be possible to replace the hail with one more appropriate to their voice?
Found another example of a character having built in voiced lines that show up after a few dialogues. In Beregost, enter the Feldepost Inn and go upstairs. Talk to the Traveler in the Eastern room. The first two times you talk to him, you get a dialog with a voice from this mod. Then if you keep talking to him, you get a default in-game sound, which has a completely different voice.
Mr. Colquetle, in the house north of Firebead Elvenhair, has the same issue, as does his Butler. Same for the two men two houses east of there.
There's another small issue in Beregost. In the house south of Firebead Elvenhair, there are two women. One of the women's voice lines are added by this mod. The other woman has several dialogues, but seems to have a default sound attached to all those dialogues, while its only the correct sound for the final dialogue. This is probably vanilla, but because of that, this mod probably failed to replace those with proper voicelines.
Found another example of a character having built in voiced lines that show up after a few dialogues.
In Beregost, enter the Feldepost Inn and go upstairs. Talk to the Traveler in the Eastern room. The first two times you talk to him, you get a dialog with a voice from this mod. Then if you keep talking to him, you get a default in-game sound, which has a completely different voice.
I tried and only got the first two dialogs. After that he refuses to talk to me anymore. However if I right-click him he says "'Ey! Get outta me way, ya crummy lager-head." which is voiced by the game itself.
Is this the line you were mentioning? It is a generic "male townsfolk" line that is used across different characters.
Comments
AI should not be used by commercial products to reduce the costs of Artists or Voice Actors, but this is a free mod. That makes it quite different in my eyes.
Sure, having actual Voice Actors record the lines would be better, but that's obviously not feasible, so it's AI or Silence. If the demo video is anything to go by, AI voices definitely seem more interesting than silence.
Only thing that makes me worry is how Modded conversations will stand out.
That's my main problem with it. I have too many mods that I would never expect anyone to take the time to do this on and so my game would be inconsistent. I have zero problems with AI as it's just a digital tool like photo shop. It's popular for trend followers to hate on it but when it comes to modding there really is no reason to be against it. Having a small mod that fixes the missing voice actress from SOD would be something I'd download and install every time I play though. I'm always shooting for better consistency between games to make them feel like one large game.
Think of it this way: the game is already inconsistent with some lines voiced and others unvoiced. By using this mod you're just increasing the percentage of voiced lines. Of course in a modded game there will be lines introduced by the mods that are unvoiced, but it's already a step up from vanila.
As it stands, main characters speak the first line of dialogue and minor characters don't speak at all. This is consistent all the way through the game. If I were to install this everything would be spoken and then it would suddenly stop when I went to Ice Wind Dale or Neverwinter. This is too inconsistent for my tastes.
My personal opinion is that this technology if focused on a small amount of content and tweaked to perfection can lead to good results. Otherwise if it just gets applied to a large amount of content where there is little time for tweaking it usually sounds like someone is just reading off of a card, void of any emotion. That being said, the technology is getting better at a rapid pace and I wouldn't be shocked to hear a perfect vocal match that sounds like a real human with little effort in a couple of years. When that time comes it will probably be much easier to convert this stuff real fast and people will then apply the tech to almost all mods if the mod makers don't do it themselves. Until then, I'm going to wait it out but don't let me and my opinion stop you. I'm glad to see such ambitious projects under way and who knows maybe I will give it a shot once you finish the main games. I figure at the least, I will give it a chance to win me over once the base games are covered.
For example, if you approach Gurke, you can hear him hail you as he walks over, but when he talks to you, his voice changes completely. If you talk to Berend, you first get a dialogue that's normally unvoiced, and if you repeat talk to him, you get a voiced line that's completely different from the voice this pack gives him.
How do you suggest I approach Winthrop? Maybe more raspy? Any ideas are welcome and I will redo him in the next update. He was done very early and the voice options and my workflow have changed a lot since then.
Elminster was done by cloning his voice. I think the voice itself bears verisimitude but the presentation can be improved.
Gurke hails you using a generic dwarf line ("Me temper's bad enough without ye botherin' me"). A lot of dwarves share that line, and if I clone that voice and use it for all dwarves they would all sound the same.
Also who's Berend?
As of now, I'm slowly getting used of it, but it's still a bit annyoing in some cases. For instance if you have a dream in an inn, the innkeeper is usually still talking, while the dream sequence allready plays...
That is an engine issue and I don't think there is anything I can do about it, sorry.
That's how the original Soundset handles it in my opinion.
I'm Scottish, so I'm no expert on English accents, but "My 'otel's as clean as an elven arse" sounds like West Country, maybe?
The "My 'otel's as clean as an elven arse" line is a generic "innkeeper" greeting line so it does not necessarily have anything to do with Winthrop's character per se. Nevertheless I'll try if I can find a West Country accent for him in the next update. I'm not an accents expert either but I looked it up and it does give the same vibe.
Man Morpheus I love how you were watching the comments silently but had to reply to this one guy about this.
While he's most likely lieing, since Ai Voice software wasn't how it is now when SOD came out, it is possible that he's just bending the truth, stretching it so faaaar, that "techinically" he is telling the truth but honestly it's not what is really been talked by in this post (had someone use this kind of argument for this exact topic on this exact mod on Gibberlings but for the opposite reason, being disingenuous in the argument basically).
I say this because while you might think an NDE would keep someone quiet, yet we have forums like for the War Thunder Game where people will be leaking Government Classified Documents on military hardware just so they can win an argument with a random stranger on the accuracy of a tank (or other military gear).
This happened more than once and involved people getting court marsheld.
I feel compelled to reply to this, but to keep it short, you should search up the history of Textile manufacturing during ndustrialization, that's a more tangible grasp of what's going to happen. (Besides the killing and burning stuff down, because we don't do that anymore)
Additionally it's more than just cutting costs, there's things Ai can do for the gaming industry that human Vas Can't (but will still allow the better (smarter) VAs to a make a good amount of money).
Potentially to make this mod a staple mod like Portraits Portraits Everywhere, I think you should release a guide on your own process, and how you develop your voice Samples, then post them and allow other mod makers to follow your same process then contribute what they do to you, so that it's less disjointed when someone makes a mod separately that's silent and that your mod could cover things like BlackHearts EET if the creator ( @AWizardDidIt what do you think?) was interested.
For what it's worth, I'm completely against it.
Using AI to reproduce real people's voices without consent is, at least, truly inappropriate.
In the above example, it would be incredibly stupid to go onto the forum owned by the people who made you sign an NDA and then talk about the contents of that NDA. The alternative, equally stupid idea is to libel Beamdog on their forum making the claim above.
Military hardware "is" in the millions and besides losing security clearance, thier job, being dishonorably discharged, leaking the stuff is also a federal crime with prison time.(several laws being broken here and if they really wanted to they could charge the person with violating the Espionage Act, though I doubt they would)
You say it is stupid, but my point is "people are" stupid. (especially on the internet)
I see your point that the hail line is a generic dwarf voice, and you don't want to have all dwarves sound the same, but it's pretty jarring nonetheless. How many people hail you and then have a dialogue with you? Could it be possible to use the iconic dwarven voice for just those people? Or would it be possible to update the hail sound?
He's one of the NPCs in Beregost, though I might have his name misspelled. I'll repost if I can get another example, but I came across several NPCs in Beregost that have a bit of dialogue, with voices from this mod, and then if you continue talking to them, they have this voiced oneliner that sounds completely different.
I did notice that dialogue sounds tend to interrupt the previous dialogue sound, so if it was possible to play a brief silent dialogue sound at the end, then that could interrupt the sound? Probably much more hassle than it's worth, though. Yeah, it's a bit annoying for dream sequences, but outside of that, I didn't mind.
I might take a look at this and see if it's possible to make some kind of tool. If I do make one then I will release it with the SOD part of this mod and then people can create audios for characters, be it for their own mods or as a suggestion for the voice of any character covered in my mod.
I actually don't know how many characters do the "hail" thing. I'll take a look. If there are few then maybe they can share the dwarven voice. If there are many then I will make them approach you silently. Maybe a mix of both. Currently the iconic dwarven voice is reserved for a very specific dwarf.
Please do keep me posted about this, as I have not seen this myself before. I suspect it should be related to the audio lines associated with the characters themselves.
If I remember correctly, it has to be a dialogue-related audio that can do the interruption. Therefore, the silent audio will have to be accompanied with some dialogue. However, at this point the user has already exited the dialogue box...
Found another example of a character having built in voiced lines that show up after a few dialogues. In Beregost, enter the Feldepost Inn and go upstairs. Talk to the Traveler in the Eastern room. The first two times you talk to him, you get a dialog with a voice from this mod. Then if you keep talking to him, you get a default in-game sound, which has a completely different voice.
Mr. Colquetle, in the house north of Firebead Elvenhair, has the same issue, as does his Butler. Same for the two men two houses east of there.
There's another small issue in Beregost. In the house south of Firebead Elvenhair, there are two women. One of the women's voice lines are added by this mod. The other woman has several dialogues, but seems to have a default sound attached to all those dialogues, while its only the correct sound for the final dialogue. This is probably vanilla, but because of that, this mod probably failed to replace those with proper voicelines.
I tried and only got the first two dialogs. After that he refuses to talk to me anymore. However if I right-click him he says "'Ey! Get outta me way, ya crummy lager-head." which is voiced by the game itself.
Is this the line you were mentioning? It is a generic "male townsfolk" line that is used across different characters.
Also, is it me, or is there something off about Branwen's voice? It sounds like it got recorded on a 1 dollar microphone...