Hi all,

I’ve been working on a text-to-speech mod for Pillars of Eternity that reads most of the game’s text out loud in real time.

The original motivation was personal. I built it for my wife, who has dyslexia, but it’s ended up being genuinely useful more broadly, especially given how text-heavy PoE can be.

The goal wasn’t just basic TTS, but something that fits naturally into the game’s flow.

Here is a Link to a Demo Video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn_OwYzoSZ4

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What it does

• Reads unvoiced dialogue automatically

• Let's you hover or click dialogue options to hear them before selecting

• Covers journal entries, quests, cyclopedia, glossary, books, tooltips, and UI text

• Reads barks, scripted interactions, tutorials, and system messages

• Skips lines that already have voice acting

• You can still click voiced lines to hear the TTS version afterwards

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Audiobook-style playback

One of the main features is a multi-speaker system:

• A narrator voice handles descriptive text

• Character voices handle dialogue

It’s not trying to replace voice acting, but it does make the experience feel closer to a fully voiced RPG, especially for the large amount of text that was never recorded.

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Interaction and control

• Hover-to-read and click-to-read across most UI panels

• Play buttons added to longer text blocks

• Adjustable voice, speed, pitch, and volume

• Optional autoplay or fully manual use

• Hotkey to stop speech instantly

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Technical note

It uses Windows’ built-in speech (SAPI), so there’s no external service or AI voice dependency required.

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Download

You can find it here:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/425

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Feedback

If anyone here gives it a try, I’d really appreciate feedback, especially around:

• Text that isn’t being picked up

• Awkward phrasing or pacing

• Areas where it breaks immersion

• Suggestions for improving usability

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I know PoE’s text density is part of its identity, so this isn’t meant to replace reading entirely, just to offer another way to experience it.

Cheers.

Edited April 21Apr 21 by Dr.PaulSmith
Added link to Demo Video on YouTube.

Very nice. 👍🏻

I assume this mod only works for the Windows version, is that correct?

Thanks mate. Yes, you are right, I used Windows SAPI, so it currently only works on Windows.

I just updated the mod to V1.2.0f1 with more accessibility and customisation features, everyone. Enjoy!

Here is a Demo Video of the mod in action for anyone curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn_OwYzoSZ4