UFO:Alien Invasion

Development => Sounds and Music => Topic started by: Winter on September 20, 2006, 01:23:07 am

Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Winter on September 20, 2006, 01:23:07 am
Lately I've been wondering about voice acting. Do we want it? If so, when do we want it, how much of it do we want, and exactly what should it entail (voiceovers, soldier voices (we should specify exactly which lines would be required here), maybe an audio UFOpaedia?)?

I'd be happy to contribute some voices if it might be useful.

Regards,
Winter
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: v29a on September 20, 2006, 09:48:05 am
in my opinion it would be pretty cool to have ... if we can reach a halfway descent quality.

all thoses recorded samples should sound consistent ... there arent many people with the right equipment at home.
maybe we should do some test recordings and decide later ...
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Psymong on September 20, 2006, 03:51:08 pm
I like that idea a lot.
The only problem would be that it would take a lot of audio for this.
Might be worth it if we found someone with a good voice for the job.

What we want is the voice from the guide in the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy radio shows ;). Fantastic voice that man's got.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: v29a on September 20, 2006, 07:19:02 pm
btw: we would need localized voices then wouldnt we?
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: vorticone on September 21, 2006, 12:09:12 am
How about spoken words from the soldiers in their native languages? Like a soldier with an english name speak english, a german name speaks german, italian speak italian, I guess you get my point.

Something like "Moving out.", "Verstanden.", "Si." and so on.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Winter on September 21, 2006, 03:31:22 am
Quote from: "v29a"
btw: we would need localized voices then wouldnt we?


Not need as such, though I'm sure some people might want it. Personally I'm only interested in doing (and hearing) voices in English.

Regards,
Winter
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Elbenfreund on September 21, 2006, 11:05:33 am
i like the "soldiers native language" idea !:)
also ufopedia is nice, but if we do so we would actualy need to have the aim to do it for all languages. considering the fact that open source is always work in progress it would be enough for a release to have a english version ready. we could offer / ask for  localized versions later...
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: nahen on October 09, 2006, 10:12:55 pm
You know, just in case, go to http://voice123.com/ and see if you can find voices there.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Elbenfreund on October 10, 2006, 01:59:37 pm
unfortunatly this seems to be a commercial one, isn't it ?
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Northen_Wolf on October 14, 2006, 07:48:43 am
I don't like the idea of diffrent languge speaking, BUT i would like to hear English with diffrent accent for example: Guy from russia speaks english with russian accent and also would use some russian words inside hes text. But not talk all the time in russian. Guy from Estonia would speak english with estonian accent, guy from german with german accent sometimes using words like "Halt" and stuff...... (sorry not good with german languge :D)

Talking in hes own languge all the time would also be dumb as if every person speaks his home languge it would be hard to understand eachother...
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Elbenfreund on October 14, 2006, 11:40:01 am
Quote

Talking in hes own languge all the time would also be dumb as if every person speaks his home languge it would be hard to understand eachother...

maybe i got something wrong, but that "communicative aproach" is no valid point at all as it is just "one way communication" anyway. it is the player who is to understand the came characters. I think voice acting is more of a tool to create atmosphere than to transport information. and i think that for this aspect most people prefer their own language simply because they are far more sensitive to stilistic differences. Nevertheless as said before an english version vor the release should be enough.

Thanks for your time, eric.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Northen_Wolf on October 14, 2006, 11:59:06 am
Quote from: "Elbenfreund"
Quote

Talking in hes own languge all the time would also be dumb as if every person speaks his home languge it would be hard to understand eachother...

maybe i got something wrong, but that "communicative aproach" is no valid point at all as it is just "one way communication" anyway. it is the player who is to understand the came characters. I think voice acting is more of a tool to create atmosphere than to transport information. and i think that for this aspect most people prefer their own language simply because they are far more sensitive to stilistic differences. Nevertheless as said before an english version vor the release should be enough.

Thanks for your time, eric.


?eric?


 Under most pp perfer theyr own languge u mean theyr own languge sounds? so there will be diffrent audio msgs for each languge? For example if ur game languge is german is the audio u hear german or what?

all i ment is guy(troop, not player) from china/usa/estonia/russia (in game) speak languge with his country accent.... that takes some time but i belive least some guys will help u:D it would be c00l to hear russian speaking with russian words between english.... Sorry if i misudersttod and for my typos and nutsy text :D
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Elbenfreund on October 14, 2006, 05:31:31 pm
hey northen_wolf ! :)

i fear there is a danger to misunderstand each other with the line "
I don't like the idea of diffrent languge speaking" ... i got it like that. I dont want localized versions but an english version with accents. so to summerise there seme to be thre emajor options:

1) english only
2)we desperately need localised version for release
3)if any voice acting at release, english will be enough BUT with an dedicated remark towards wanting to extend the speech-base with other languages if volunteres show up

Each of those three can be done with more or less effort: from one speaker for all to different nations get different accents. I would prefer option three, and of cause as good as we can manage (this explicitly includes your cool feature of accents) :))

ok, if i got something wrong, nevermind me :) otherwise thanks for your time, eric.

btw: has anyone any experience with voice acting / tecnical aspects at all ? how to create a good aplication text potenial speakers need to read and stuff like that ?
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Northen_Wolf on October 14, 2006, 06:36:08 pm
sorry for my crappy english btw :(

... "i got it like that. I dont want localized versions but an english version with accents" <-- thats right only english sounds with different country accents it would be c00l(yeah, realy) to hear japanese guy(only an example) to mention something in japanese or listen russian trying to say english words(some speak quite good btw)....

Its possible to get speakers from diffrent countrys, its not "must be" and it will take lots of work and time as we don't want 1-2 words repeting over and over again...

btw: ???eric????  :?:  :? W*F?

Btw2: is it possible to attach somekinda "From" value to soldier so it would tell wich audios to play?? i have no idea how to program, but i got a terrible weapon, my mind!

btw3::idea:
Idea wouln't the sounds for each translation make ufo:ai BIT TOO big?
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: sirg on October 28, 2006, 01:58:45 pm
I also was thinking about voice acting. I don't know if Winter had in mind the Jagged Alliance 2 voice acting style, but I'm suggesting something similar.

I have some ideas regarding this topic. First, because you already have localised versions of the game, it will be hard to have voice acting for all the localised versions. So, to sort this thing out, the voice acting should be in an optional add-on, and in the begining, start only with English voice acting.

I would like some voice acting for the soldiers, like each having a set of vocal replies during combat - the common "yes, yes sir" and other typical lines ("good as done", "ready and waiting", "I'm on it", "One alien less", "Shoot to kill"). Besides, they could also say "I'm out (of ammo)", "I'm under fire", "I'm hit", or "I got you now", "You're disection material" (when an alien is killed), or say something when using reaction fire. A problem is having soldiers from all over the world, so there should be several voices for each kind of line (to fit each actor type) plus several accents to accomodate for each continent/country.

The designers should think about how many soldiers a player will have/use in a game, from start to the finish. If there will be less than four squads, then it would be nice if the soldiers will have a clearer identity, like a file. Fallout Tactis featured a similar system, but the player controlled only one squad.

Some voice acting could be used on the geoscape as well, to hear feedback from your pilots or even base commanders (when you click on a base or craft). Civilians should have some lines as well, like "heeeelp", "we are under attack", "we're all going to die", "my sister is missing", etc.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Northen_Wolf on October 29, 2006, 05:49:46 am
Well u got my point :P... Its kinda foolish that soldiers speak only english...

For example Chinese looking guy would speak chinese... I don't ask him to tell me a goodnight story, I'd like little comments on bf... Like i once asked is there possible to add some tag  "from where" to soldier once its created...

 Civilians should also make sounds, scream when they see an alien, run for they life, Searching for missing child/wife/man/sister, Crying at corpses... Whatever...

 Should there  be some base assistant who would say something like "entering to workshops" and on base attacks: "unknown life form(s) detected at living quarters A2" etc...

IMO no file of soldier is needed cuz we can see that in equip menu, but if some file is added then it should be something like :
Height: XXX Cm (XX inch) Age: XX years,
From: XXXX, Eye colo(u)r:XXX,
hair colo(u)r:XXX,
School(s) it passed [education: XXX at XXX school or army training base] (for fun only)...
When joined with army(Joined with army:),
When Joined with phalanx[Joined with palanx: XX.XX.XXXX),
How long time ago(in days or/and years)[Joined:,
Missions:XXX, Kills:XX  

Also ufopedia reading voice (that should be in english) would be nice :P but u should be able to shut him/her/it up....

i know its a lot of work, but what else is this project for to not show ur skills? and/or improve 'em (skills not alien belivers)
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: sirg on October 29, 2006, 08:35:00 am
No, my position was that it's kind of weird that all the soldiers to speak different languages during combat. It's totally unrealistic. Besides, it would be like a tower of Babel, each with his/hers natural language. It's natural that each soldier learns some basic words in the accepted "official" language of that military organization, and uses those lines to communicate with the team. This isn't Age of Empires or Civilization IV, where each civ has its own voice set. If you like, some soldiers could have additional lines featuring their own language - everybody curses best in the native language :) but nothing more. Besides, it would be very difficult for a free project team to gather actors which speak Chinese, Indian, African languages, Persian, Japanese, etc. This game isn't developed by EA, so the devs have their limits. Even if you know people native from such countries, they have to feature some talent for voice acting. Thus, it's much more easier, and OK, to find one or two good voice actors, who can imitate accents and several voice tones, than a bunch of international professional cast of actors.

Think about how it is in a major soccer team in Europe - most of the players are from other countries, but still, on the pitch, they use a common language - Spanish, Italian, English, etc, usually that country's language. If a player doesn't know that language, he must learn the basics and most used words to be able to communicate with his team. It's natural for a military squad to follow the same principles. Any grunt will learn "yes, sir",  "roger that", "negative", etc quite easily.

I don't think creating a short bio file for each soldier would be much of a problem. Like you are saying - stats, some military background, reasons for joining the PHALANX, and yes, that's a good idea - a quick mission list.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Northen_Wolf on October 30, 2006, 04:09:13 am
Quote from: "sirg"
No, my position was that it's kind of weird that all the soldiers to speak different languages during combat. It's totally unrealistic. Besides, it would be like a tower of Babel, each with his/hers natural language. It's natural that each soldier learns some basic words in the accepted "official" language of that military organization, and uses those lines to communicate with the team. This isn't Age of Empires or Civilization IV, where each civ has its own voice set. If you like, some soldiers could have additional lines featuring their own language - everybody curses best in the native language :) but nothing more. Besides, it would be very difficult for a free project team to gather actors which speak Chinese, Indian, African languages, Persian, Japanese, etc. This game isn't developed by EA, so the devs have their limits. Even if you know people native from such countries, they have to feature some talent for voice acting. Thus, it's much more easier, and OK, to find one or two good voice actors, who can imitate accents and several voice tones, than a bunch of international professional cast of actors.



WHy am I confusing everyone?  :cry: Yeah, they talk english but few lines in theyr own languge, would be great like:
 When german gets hit he/she would say "Å¡hiÅ¡e"?  (dunno how to write it)[darn in german as much as i know]

  They would still talk in english, but add few words in theyr own languge when swearing or even using some words in theyr languge inside of english text... i know its difficult, and u guys are no EA (u are better), [btw was civ 4 made by EA?]

Also you should should understand that we can't have just 2-5 words or combination of words the units use as it gets boring soon enough, instead of negative, i propose:
"Negative" - when unit can't do certain thing
"No way, sir" (mam') - when unit can't do something and has certain level of moral(80-60?)
"No-can-do"(ich wil das nicht machen) - when player tryes to make something inpossible when out of TUs
"NO!"("niet" "nicht") - when unit has moral low and he can't do something
"Thats SUICIDE!"  --- when unit has got hit/moral low and u order him to move somewhere?
"Fuck you" --- unit is paniced or bersek...
/\
 I   Something like this, would it be accepteble? and possible with game engine and ufo:ai? and will there be (or is there) fear factor added ? [like when unit is scared he won't go stabing aliens, he won't go even near 'em?

I'D LIKE TO SAY SORRY FOR MY CRAPPY ENGLISH AND GERMAN (i have not learned german only've been watching rtl2 and mtv)
<emoticons>
< :idea: > Under "mission list", should it be just number of missions(Missions: (number passed) or missions: (click for list[like ufo assault 1,5,9,21, base assault 1,4, 5)
and how bout counting the wounded  being time, and total time in hospital?

How bout making missions and kills list clickeble? so u could see just number and  if u'd like then which alien killed on wich mission... Also adding friendly fire and friendly kills in "bio file"

 All non improtand strats (when joined, why joined, where joined, how long time back joined w army, which school (uni) he/she was) would be randomly generated.... Same as age and country tag could be also watched from that menu(BIO file). ITs nothing much of use in game but its  should be fun...  </ :idea: > </emoticons>
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: sirg on October 30, 2006, 07:57:43 am
Quote
... i know its difficult, and u guys are no EA (u are better), [btw was civ 4 made by EA?]

You can't compare the development of almost any commercial game with the development of a free open source game which is made with passion, true, but in the developers' free time. Besides, think about the people behind Civilization IV - Sid Meier and his team... after so many successfull games, they can afford having their own companies and hiring professional actors, like Leonard Nemoy (1st officer Spock - Star Trek) to do their voice acting.

It would be great if the developers find enough talented people to make at least 2 or 3 quality voice sets. It's so easy to spoil a game with poor voice acting, so they should be picky.

Regarding the file for each soldier, I think those stats, including the "clickable mission list", are a bit useless. Some background won't hurt, but to much is pointless. Maybe, instead of counting how many aliens, civilians and pets a soldier has killed since birth, there could be a medal-award system. If the soldier kills more than 3 aliens in a mission gets the medal X, if the soldier makes more than 10 successful hits gets the medal Y, and so on.. but the medals should be awarded monthly. .. Just an idea... :)
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Northen_Wolf on November 01, 2006, 08:09:04 pm
Quote from: sirg
Quote

Regarding the file for each soldier, I think those stats, including the "clickable mission list", are a bit useless. Some background won't hurt, but to much is pointless. Maybe, instead of counting how many aliens, civilians and pets a soldier has killed since birth, there could be a medal-award system. If the soldier kills more than 3 aliens in a mission gets the medal X, if the soldier makes more than 10 successful hits gets the medal Y, and so on.. but the medals should be awarded monthly. .. Just an idea... :)


Is this only me or is this going WAY TOO OFF-Topic?<OFF TOPIC>(i like awards idea :P but how bout stunning stuff(read: "aliens and few "star trek" Spock too) too</OFF TOPIC>

Anyway, I just wanted that soldiers would say few words in theyr own languge... Most comments should be still in english, but few screams, swearings... why not? And i'd like ufopedia voice reading (if that isn't installed yet) but u should be able to force that reader to "shut up" as it might get annoying ....
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Reenen on November 02, 2006, 07:41:46 am
Ok, I read through the topic, and I want to add my 2c.

Voice acting (as in StarCraft when a unit is given an order) is great.

One first click they say: "Yes?", or "Your order?", and when ordered to walk say "on-the-move"  (or whatever). A grenade "Fire in the hole!".  On Fire "Die alien scum" etc.  Stun-rod would say "Buzz-off"  :lol:

These types of comments as I understand Sirg, should be heavily accented, or even in the unit's native language.  "Hasta-la-vista, baby" :D

However plot related voice acting should only be in english (if at all), and a ufopedia reader... well, I think it's a nice idea, but with all the translations... English only?  The game will be getting extremely big.  (But it is big already, so why not increase it more?)
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Northen_Wolf on November 04, 2006, 06:46:20 am
UFOPedia reader - reading ufopedia in english only, opion to shut that reader up (reading urself with out sound) UNDECIDED

Voice acting - Few taunts in local languge. Mostly in English.

ACCENT - UNDECIDED (uses english accent or local accent? [speaks some words in accents some not]

Medals award system - UNDECIDED/OFF TOPIC IMO it should give a little bonus to guys too(5 KOs[wo hurting alien first] = 5-10%+accur???), but we don't want reward system like GBA Tactcis ogre: KoL where u had to get rewards to get supermans....

Random Bio file -UNDECIDED/OFF TOPIC -I like it). Where is unit from? how old is he/she. When did join with army, When joined with phalanx?, What weapon he uses most? Pointless data, that stores some Important things (like unit accents, fav weapon) other data is just for fun generated randomly.

IDEA

how bout making those accents/reading downloadeble so the guys who would dl em could hear accents :P <-- That would maintaince low Size of file for orignal ufo and would give chanse to those who would like to hear accents?
Title: Short and simple
Post by: GIJOE317 on November 18, 2006, 06:55:24 am
Can we get some 'short' sounds when an alien, citizen, or team member
dies?
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Illarane on February 11, 2007, 02:22:28 am
*waves hi since this is his first post*

I'd be happy to provide, either personally or from other people if possible, some voice acting or process and/or otherwise deal with sound recordings if they're wanted.  I've got a small recording studio at home and a few years' worth of recording and production experience.

Anyone got any specific (non-copyrighted, Reenen ;)) stuff that would probably be used?  If so, I can do some sound clips a la Command and Conquer (static at the start of/end of/throughout recordings) and dump them somewhere they can be accessed.

WRT UFOpedia reader, perhaps having it as a separate download would be a good idea, if it does get produced.  Experience in the Wikipedia project tells me that it takes about twelve hours to record, edit and touch-up a three page (at 1024x768) article, so, depending on how much goes in to the UFOpedia, it could take anything between a month and a year to complete.

Edit: *grins* Cannon Fooder? ;)
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: tempsanity on February 11, 2007, 10:39:48 am
Great! Can't wait for the results mate :)
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Winter on February 11, 2007, 01:48:41 pm
Quote from: "Illarane"
WRT UFOpedia reader, perhaps having it as a separate download would be a good idea, if it does get produced.  Experience in the Wikipedia project tells me that it takes about twelve hours to record, edit and touch-up a three page (at 1024x768) article, so, depending on how much goes in to the UFOpedia, it could take anything between a month and a year to complete.


Considering the fact that we've already got a novel's worth of material for the UFOpaedia, and we're maybe halfway with the storyline, I think it'd take a while to record audio for all of it . . .

It would be awesome, though, if we had different voices for each character in the UFOpaedia.

Regards,
Winter
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Illarane on April 07, 2007, 02:59:21 am
Hiya guys,

Just to let you know, my laptop went to the land of not-GDI recently as the direct result of a repair company, so I'm getting a new one off them.  Downside is this is taking ages and I'm thus without a machine capable of editing anything more complicated than a fart. :(

Will let you know once I have the new toy and something substantial to show.

Ben.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Destructavator on April 24, 2007, 04:27:20 pm
Hi,

When you get your hardware, feel free to contact me - perhaps we can pool together all the soldier voices I made with anything you can create so that they are all processed the same way with the same FX, not to mention that we need more than just one human voice to work with in making recordings.

If possible, it would be nice to have several male and several female actors doing voices - I'm not having much luck where I live finding other people who can do recordings.

Perhaps there could be a notice posted on the main project page that we are looking for voice actors?

Just an idea...
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Moredeth on April 25, 2007, 09:56:14 am
just wouldn't it be a nice idea to have a list of "text-line" that we want?
maybe have a wiki page for voice acting with the line, and the different accent, so people could upload their sample and it would be [to evaluate], then [accepted] and finally [edited] for the radio effect.

actually i already pmed both of you guys for acting so just waiting answer and then will send you samples.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Destructavator on April 26, 2007, 02:00:49 pm
OK, I see we now have several people who are interested in making voice files, but before we start recording away random samples, I think we should get some input from the coders as to what groups of sounds we should work on.

To give you an idea what I'm talking about, here are some proposed groups:

- voices for when a unit is clicked on ("Yes Sir?," "Ready!", etc.)
- voices for when a unit is told to move ("Moving Out," etc.)
- voices for when a unit shoots an alien
- a group for when the shot alien is killed or taken down successfully
- a group for when a hostile unit is spotted

If we plan groups like this I think it would be much easier for the coders to implement the soldier voices, rather than just a huge pool of random recordings.

Perhaps we should wait for the audio coders to post some input here first on what they think they can implement and what they don't think would work, before we start recording away.

Once we get this point cleared up, I heard from my web hosting service that there is a way to grant ftp upload access to some folders on my site, I could then allow anyone interested in doing voices to simply upload their recordings there, and then once I process the files I can make sets available for people to download and evaluate for use in the game.

Or, if anyone has a better idea about how to plan this, feel free to speak up.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Winter on April 26, 2007, 02:13:39 pm
Quote from: "Destructavator"
OK, I see we now have several people who are interested in making voice files, but before we start recording away random samples, I think we should get some input from the coders as to what groups of sounds we should work on.

To give you an idea what I'm talking about, here are some proposed groups:

- voices for when a unit is clicked on ("Yes Sir?," "Ready!", etc.)
- voices for when a unit is told to move ("Moving Out," etc.)
- voices for when a unit shoots an alien
- a group for when the shot alien is killed or taken down successfully
- a group for when a hostile unit is spotted

If we plan groups like this I think it would be much easier for the coders to implement the soldier voices, rather than just a huge pool of random recordings.

Perhaps we should wait for the audio coders to post some input here first on what they think they can implement and what they don't think would work, before we start recording away.

Once we get this point cleared up, I heard from my web hosting service that there is a way to grant ftp upload access to some folders on my site, I could then allow anyone interested in doing voices to simply upload their recordings there, and then once I process the files I can make sets available for people to download and evaluate for use in the game.

Or, if anyone has a better idea about how to plan this, feel free to speak up.


Just a note, when/if you're planning to record any actual spoken words, those words will have to be written by the story team. We don't want anyone to just record random bits, as they may not fit with the military theme and terminology of the game. For example, it would break believability a bit to hear supposedly hyper-professional soldiers going "Yeehaw!" when firing at aliens. Especially when there's nothing stopping us from going for more appropriate samples, like a short, sharp cry of "Target!"

Also, I wonder if it would be possible to have several sets of samples -- one for normal troops, one for panicked troops, one for berserk troops, etc.

Regards,
Winter
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Alex on April 26, 2007, 03:07:18 pm
Theres also the issue of continuity, just to make things more complicated.

Nothing would sound worse than hearing one soldier say "Target Aquired" in bill's voice, and then "Target Neutralized" in joe's voice.

Somehow the code will have to assign one voice set to a soldier.  For the duration of the game it never changes for that soldier - so they always sound the same.

Along with the soldiers bio and other stats you could add a hidden variable for the voiceset, eg:

soldier->voiceset = "joe_bloggs_3.set"

Or something to that effect.

Just a thought, but I think its worth considering.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Destructavator on April 26, 2007, 05:56:31 pm
Actually, for some time there has already been over two dozen soldier voice files created that I have sitting on my hard drive (the ones in the patch tracker are an old set of just a few of them).

In light of what was just suggested, I agree it makes sense to just wait for the story team to write up a list of voices that should be created.

Just to clarify, what exactly is the game plan here?  Is it:

1) Have the story writers come up with a list of phrases (with help of translators for other languages)
2) Post the list somewhere
3) Have everyone interested in recording voice files start making recordings
4) Have the files processed with Radio FX (and maybe static sounds added) (Whether by myself or someone else)
5) Have the completed files posted where they can be judged if they are good enough to be used
6) Have the approved files added by the coders

?

If I misunderstand, please correct me on this.

Of course I'll go with whatever the project leaders want, but it would be nice to start getting some of this going as soon as possible rather than constant talking about it with little action - I'm itching to go and I think I'm not alone, although on the other hand it does need to be organized and planned beforehand IMO.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Winter on April 26, 2007, 07:03:05 pm
Quote from: "Destructavator"
Actually, for some time there has already been over two dozen soldier voice files created that I have sitting on my hard drive (the ones in the patch tracker are an old set of just a few of them).


So why haven't you posted them anywhere here on the forums? I've never heard any of them. If I haven't heard them, I can't tell you if they're appropriate.

Regards,
Winter
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Alex on April 26, 2007, 07:05:04 pm
Do you think we need radio static fx?  Future communications would be static-free wouldn't they?
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Winter on April 26, 2007, 08:05:53 pm
Quote from: "Alex"
Do you think we need radio static fx?  Future communications would be static-free wouldn't they?


Either way works, as the aliens are putting out a lot of electronic warfare activity on most battlefields. Some won't even feature aliens, however. Static-free messages would probably be better.

Regards,
Winter
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Alex on April 26, 2007, 08:33:53 pm
I guess it becomes a question of immersion...  Crackling radio comms are kind of the norm in games these days, it might not be accurate to have the crackle but it may make the game sounds fit into the general expectations of the game player.  Or maybe we should just try it and see what works best :)
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: blondandy on April 26, 2007, 11:01:18 pm
Even if the comms equipment that phalanx troops use doesn't put static noise on the line, it could do loads of other things. presumably the signal would be compressed and encrypted. perhaps squeezed into the tiniest band possible to make interception more difficult. loads of room for introducing various artefacts.

there's an excuse to...
Quote
...just try it and see what works best.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Destructavator on April 26, 2007, 11:48:24 pm
Quote from: "Winter"
Quote from: "Destructavator"
Actually, for some time there has already been over two dozen soldier voice files created that I have sitting on my hard drive (the ones in the patch tracker are an old set of just a few of them).


So why haven't you posted them anywhere here on the forums? I've never heard any of them. If I haven't heard them, I can't tell you if they're appropriate.

Regards,
Winter


Sorry about that, I sent an email with how to download them to Mattn and forgot to ask him to share them with all the project leaders.  My fault!

I'll send you a pm shortly on where you can download them...

-D
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: XaverXN on April 27, 2007, 12:15:13 am
OK, I think most people agree on most things. To get started faster, i will set up some polls to evaluate the more controverse points - first one up already.

For my personal 2c:

I'd strongly recommend not to have sounds on selecting a soldier. Because people that cycle through soldiers a lot (like myself) then would always here a lot of 'Yes, sir'-s one after the other and that would be annoying.

Destructavator and others have proposed quite senseful steps on the roadmaps.
Proposal: We should decide on the senteces we'd need now. Why don't we agree on 'categories' like Destructavator said and collect a lot of possible phrases with the same content/meaning. A voice actor could then take one or two of them. That way we'd have no voices saying the exactly same phrases and some individuality.

Example:
Category: Alien discovered
1) Alien spotted.
2) There's one!
3) Enemy contact.
4) Alien identificated.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Winter on April 27, 2007, 08:40:54 am
Quote from: "XaverXN"
I'd strongly recommend not to have sounds on selecting a soldier. Because people that cycle through soldiers a lot (like myself) then would always here a lot of 'Yes, sir'-s one after the other and that would be annoying.


Ideally, we would have a system transparent enough (with a full text log as well) that you could mute individual soldiers if their voice annoyed you and not have your overview of the game suffer. A system similar to the Jagged Alliance games might be handy -- in the original JA, right-clicking on the soldier's portrait opened up a range of individual options for that soldier. In JA2, all these options were readily accessible on the general control panel.


Quote
Proposal: We should decide on the senteces we'd need now. Why don't we agree on 'categories' like Destructavator said and collect a lot of possible phrases with the same content/meaning. A voice actor could then take one or two of them. That way we'd have no voices saying the exactly same phrases and some individuality.

Example:
Category: Alien discovered
1) Alien spotted.
2) There's one!
3) Enemy contact.
4) Alien identificated.


Anything being said will be determined by the story team, and we'll divide our list into categories as needed. Suggestions aren't going to help.

In fact, it would be preferable to have several different voices calling out the same things with little variation, because these people are soldiers and they're trained to say specific things for specific situations. Random outcries just create confusion.

Regards,
Winter
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: blondandy on April 27, 2007, 10:29:18 am
on annoying frequency.

the actors should not chirp up every time they are selected, simply once in a while. perhaps once a round on average. there should be a lot of variety in the samples, so they do not get repetive.
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: XaverXN on April 27, 2007, 03:58:59 pm
blondandy just got what i meant to say.

Winter, I don't think if a soldier says Alien spotted or Enemy contact would be confusing, if thats what you mean by random outcries. I think, just like blondandy, that variety would add individuality to the game.

Other opinions?

And I think suggestions are always going to help, winter. Even though it definitely will be the story team to decide.

BTW, who is part of the story team we are talking about here? We should start getting them to be part of the process i we don't want to be beating around the bush forever. Is there a team leader or contact person?
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Zenerka on April 27, 2007, 04:55:56 pm
Quote from: "XaverXN"
BTW, who is part of the story team we are talking about here? We should start getting them to be part of the process i we don't want to be beating around the bush forever. Is there a team leader or contact person?

In short: Mattn is the chief of everything.
In long: the Storyline Departament is under control of Winter and BTAxis - both are using this forum and both are writing posts here. Basicaly, if they are claiming something is not going to fit the storyline, this means that something is not going to fit the storyline. So if you want them to be part of the process I would ask what stops you for starting the process (whatever the process should be - I didn't read this topic very carefuly)? They are here. :)
Now, if you want to know more, mattn and Hoehrer are two main coders here, mattn also is the chief of mapping section and Hoehrer works with models and textures. And I am just a little fish reading your posts and doing some small fixes in the code.
Note, that any work with new sound effects needs additional work from the coders side. It is not just that someone will made cool sounds for voice acting, we will add the files to repository, and that's it, everything works. No. More time and more work is needed to see (well, actually: hear here) the effects. But I think I already made a post about this one day... yes, it is here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1287
Title: Voice acting?
Post by: Wanderer on April 27, 2007, 05:06:48 pm
Quote from: "Zenerka"
In short: Mattn is the chief of everything.
In long: the Storyline Departament is under control of Winter and BTAxis - both are using this forum and both are writing posts here. Basicaly, if they are claiming something is not going to fit the storyline, this means that something is not going to fit the storyline. So if you want them to be part of the process I would ask what stops you for starting the process (whatever the process should be - I didn't read this topic very carefuly)? They are here.  
Now, if you want to know more, mattn and Hoehrer are two main coders here, mattn also is the chief of mapping section and Hoehrer works with models and textures. And I am just a little fish reading your posts and doing some small fixes in the code.


That helps in a number of ways, actually.  Thanks.

To the topic:  I've done some stage training and wouldn't mind getting involved in this as another voice if you need one.  I'll have to pick up some semi-decent equipment as my current piece of trash... is just that. :)  But it wouldn't be to bad, I don't think.

Specifically to Winter and BTAxis:  What could we do, if anything, to help speed this process along and get some ideas of what you'd *like* in your samples?

[EDIT]: Always right after I finish posting something... the answer to my question is here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1358&highlight=