Modding in additional vocal sets: possible?

[SpaceDrake]

So I was wondering: new portraits is easy enough, but is it possible to add additional voice sets to the game?

 

I will be fairly naked in my ambitions: what I want to do is add "female_fighter_3" from Icewind Dale to the game. That is more or less my favorite "protagonist voice" ever in a game like this (and more to the point, the game is strangely lacking in higher-register lady voices for protagonists/custom-mades in general). Seeing as how I own IWD, I could "construct" the sound-set myself if need be... if it's possible. Which is why I ask: is there any capacity for new voice sets in Pillars? Unlike the portraits, I didn't see any obvious place in PillarsOfEternity_Data to drop a new voice set.

 

If it isn't currently possible, has the idea been discussed? I'd love to expand protag/custom-made character voice options a bit.

Edited March 27, 2015 by SpaceDrake

[Dark_Ansem]

It should be. I digged around with Bester's tool during the beta, and at least the structure of the voiceset is straightforward enough.

Adding it to the GUI (and separating voices accordingly to sex....) that might be more problematic.

[SpaceDrake]

Wanted to give this a little bump for the afternoon crowd - do we know if voice pack addition is possible?

(Of course I also need to figure out a way to get the ancient IWD voice clips to play nice with modern software and render so that they can be converted to .ogg, but that's a whole separate travail )

Edited March 28, 2015 by SpaceDrake

[velocd]

I experimented for an hour trying to add custom vocals to the game.

 

I have been able to replace a dialog vocal file (OGG) with my own. What I have not been able to do is add a vocal file to dialog that has no vocals. Ultimately I just want to add vocals to conversations where there are none, I don't want to replace the existing ones. One could easily write a program to extract all conversation texts from the XML files and pass them through a quality Text2Speech program to make suitable audio to voice most the game that isn't voiced.

 

The two dialogs I have been working with are the first two upon starting the game:

 

Not voiced (Dialog #ID 1):

 

Caravan Master Odema: The caravan master finishes addressing the group, his bushy red mustache and sagging jowls quivering as if for emphasis.

 

PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\localized\en\text\conversations\07_gilded_vale\07_cv_odema.stringtable

<Entry>
  <ID>1</ID>
  <DefaultText>The caravan master finishes addressing the group, his bushy red mustache and sagging jowls quivering as if for emphasis.</DefaultText>
  <FemaleText />
</Entry>

-

Voiced (Dialog ID #48):

 

Caravan Master Odema: "Everybody stays close to the wagons, got it? Stay outta the woods, and Beasts take you if you were planning a stroll through those ruins up there." He nods toward a looming black mass on the hillside.

 

PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\localized\en\text\conversations\07_gilded_vale\07_cv_odema.stringtable

<Entry>
  <ID>48</ID>
  <DefaultText>"Everybody stays close to the wagons, got it? Stay outta the woods, and Beasts take you if you were planning a stroll through those ruins up there." He nods toward a looming black mass on the hillside.</DefaultText>
  <FemaleText />
</Entry>

-

The corresponding XML files for each dialog are posted above. Their corresponding audio files are located here, respectively:

 

PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\vocalization\vo wav files\caravan master odema\07_cv_odema_0001.ogg

 

PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\vocalization\vo wav files\caravan master odema\07_cv_odema_0048.ogg

 

By replacing 07_cv_odema_0048.ogg with a custom ogg, I was easily able to replace the dialog spoken during conversation #48 ("Everybody stays close..").

 

However, I was not able to get 07_cv_odema_0001.ogg to be spoken ("The caravan master finishes addressing.."). Is this because it's narration? Is it hardcoded not to be spoken even if the OGG audio file exists?

 

I made sure the OGG files were encoded like the others (32000Hz, 120Kbps, Stereo).

 

I also tried editing 07_cv_odema.stringtable and put the dialog in quotes to see if that would get it spoken, but that didn't work. (It did, as expected, put quotes around that text in-game)

 

Next I opened up the XML file PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\conversations\07_gilded_vale\07_cv_odema.conversation

 

This file holds the conversations map for Caravan Master Odema and associated metadata.

 

I'm not going to post it as the file is quite large, but I identified the XML nodes for unspoken dialog ID #1 ("The caravan master finishes addressing..") and spoken dialog ID #48 ("Everybody stays close.."), and the only real difference between the two were dialog ID #1 has <Persistence>OnceEver</Persistence> and dialog ID #48 has <Persistence>None</Persistence>. I adjusted this value but it didn't make a difference to get dialog ID #1 voiced. There are also some Voice Over properties like <VoiceType />,  <VOFilename />, and others.. but I'm not seeing those properties used as they seem to be blank overall.

 

----------

 

So yea, that's the extent to my experimentation. I've kind of hit a wall trying to get non-voiced dialog voiced. Anyone have their own findings or have a solution to the above? 

[velocd]

Single bump! (Posted this last night, may have not been seen much)

[POLE7645]

Going to add my two cents here (and bump the thread).

 

I really want to have custom sound sets (I played with those in Icewind Dale). I checked in the gamefile and adding them to the audio files seems simple enough (they need to be in ogg vorbis format, though. And I still haven't figured out their naming system).

 

But I suspect that there's another step before they become selectable. Again, I wonder if there's a dev that could answer that question.

[Cantousent]

I merged velocd's thread into this one.  It seems that you're both looking into the same thing and his post goes somewhat to helping answer the question... I hope.  Good luck, guys!

[velocd]

Going to add my two cents here (and bump the thread).

 

I really want to have custom sound sets (I played with those in Icewind Dale). I checked in the gamefile and adding them to the audio files seems simple enough (they need to be in ogg vorbis format, though. And I still haven't figured out their naming system).

 

But I suspect that there's another step before they become selectable. Again, I wonder if there's a dev that could answer that question.

 

I don't know how to add additional voice sets and I suspect it would require C# modding. (https://bitbucket.org/Bester/poe-modding-framework)

 

However, you could probably easily replace a current voice set with the one you want. Make a copy of a current voice set for back up and move them somewhere, then paste in your Icewind Dale voice set and rename the files to match the original voice set files you replaced -- matching voices based on effect of course (e.g. replace a PoE taunt with a Icewind Dale taunt).

 

Btw the naming system, as I understand it, is usually the character followed by the conversation ID in 4 digits. e.g. In my above post the first line spoken by Odema as you start the game is represented by ID 48 in the XML file 07_cv_odema.stringtable, and the OGG file is 07_cv_odema_0048.ogg.

 

---

 

In regards to modding the non-vocal conversations I posted about above (was its own thread but merged here), I believe it's also not possible without C# modding. =( Though I could spend the time to do it, it's way more involved a mod than I would like to distribute and not worth the effort. I was hoping for some simple OGG drop-ins or XML editing. Not C# modding.

Edited March 29, 2015 by velocd

[Silverstar]

In my quest to remove a voice set from one of my party members I've finally tracked down the location of the player voice files. They're in the \Pillars of Eternity\PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\vocalization\vo wav files\player folder. By listening to the files and noting which says what it should be possible to put together a naming convention list for custom sound sets.

 

There is also what appears to be sound set folders at \Pillars of Eternity\PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\vocalization\vo assets\ but those are all empty... maybe they're akin to the IE games' override folder?

[mrquincy]

Hi,

 

Okay -I've figured it out. Below are the steps that I used.

1. Go to the directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity\PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\vocalization\vo wav files\player  (Windows 8 or 7).

 

2. Copy the voice set that you plan to replace. In my instance, I copied all 72 instances of male stoic.

 

3. Create 2 folders on your desktop - POE Voice Set Original (backup purposes) and POE Custom Voice Set.

 

4. Paste the 72 instances of Males stoic into both POE folders.

 

5. You can then play all 72 sounds using Mozilla Firefox. Create yourself a notepad of the lines to use. For example:   player_voice_set_m_stoic_0001 says "Yes."  0004 says "Sure." 

 

6. Now you simply replace those voices as you see fit. I used Windows Sound Recorder to record myself acting out the lines and used this site : http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-ogg to convert my files into the ogg format that Pillars requires.

 

It's really easy to do. I tested them in game and it works fine.

Any questions?

[Rokem]

I've been working on a VO mod of my own, and I've been trying to figure out which files correspond to what actions. I've listened to all the sets and all the files seem to follow a similar pattern. I think what I have currently is pretty accurate, but there's a few sections with question marks that I'm not 100% sure what they correspond to.

 

Sorry for the page stretch. This is my first post and I'm not sure how to post this in an easier to read format. Hopefully you guys can find this information useful.

#Player selected
_0001
_0002
_0003

#Move order
_0004
_0005
_0006

#Battlecry
_0007
_0008
_0009

#Wounded
_0010
_0011
_0012

#Taking hits/damage?
_0013
_0014
_0015

#Dying?
_0016
_0017
_0018

#Fatigued
_0019
_0020
_0021

#Ally dies/falls in battle
_0022
_0023
_0024
_0025
_0026
_0027
_0028
_0029

#Attack hit?
_0030

#Attack missed?
_0031

#Encumbered?
_0032

#Stealth mode active
_0033
_0034
_0035

#Taking damage from allies
_0036
_0037
_0038

#Trap spotted
_0039
_0040

#Picking locks
_0041

#Leave party?
_0042

#Enemy spotted while undetected
_0043

#Retreat
_0044

#Attacking? Physical straining?
_0045
_0046
_0047
_0048
_0049
_0050

#Sick/poisoned
_0051

#Skill-check failed
_0052

#Confirm action
_0053

#Cannot complete action
_0054

#Action completed
_0055

#Immobilized
_0056

#Group leader
_0057

#Short spells
_0058
_0059
_0060
_0061
_0062

#Battlecry on steroids?
_0063
_0064
_0065

#Medium spells
_0066
_0067
_0068
_0069
_0070
_0071

#Long spell
_0072

[.Leif.]

So has anyone had any luck with this so far? I am curious as to what results people have been able to get.

[Silverstar]

So has anyone had any luck with this so far? I am curious as to what results people have been able to get.

 

I haven't tried to replace or add any voice sets yet since I'm too lazy to figure out which filename corresponds to what line of dialogue (seems Rokem did, good job!), but I removed the female Sinister voice set and it hasn't caused any problems.

[Dark_Ansem]

I'll try to expand this concerning enemy-only and companion-only voicesets...

[Azureblaze]

I experimented for an hour trying to add custom vocals to the game.

 

I have been able to replace a dialog vocal file (OGG) with my own. What I have not been able to do is add a vocal file to dialog that has no vocals. Ultimately I just want to add vocals to conversations where there are none, I don't want to replace the existing ones. One could easily write a program to extract all conversation texts from the XML files and pass them through a quality Text2Speech program to make suitable audio to voice most the game that isn't voiced.

 

The two dialogs I have been working with are the first two upon starting the game:

 

Not voiced (Dialog #ID 1):

 

Caravan Master Odema: The caravan master finishes addressing the group, his bushy red mustache and sagging jowls quivering as if for emphasis.

 

PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\localized\en\text\conversations\07_gilded_vale\07_cv_odema.stringtable

<Entry>
  <ID>1</ID>
  <DefaultText>The caravan master finishes addressing the group, his bushy red mustache and sagging jowls quivering as if for emphasis.</DefaultText>
  <FemaleText />
</Entry>

-

Voiced (Dialog ID #48):

 

Caravan Master Odema: "Everybody stays close to the wagons, got it? Stay outta the woods, and Beasts take you if you were planning a stroll through those ruins up there." He nods toward a looming black mass on the hillside.

 

PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\localized\en\text\conversations\07_gilded_vale\07_cv_odema.stringtable

<Entry>
  <ID>48</ID>
  <DefaultText>"Everybody stays close to the wagons, got it? Stay outta the woods, and Beasts take you if you were planning a stroll through those ruins up there." He nods toward a looming black mass on the hillside.</DefaultText>
  <FemaleText />
</Entry>

-

The corresponding XML files for each dialog are posted above. Their corresponding audio files are located here, respectively:

 

PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\vocalization\vo wav files\caravan master odema\07_cv_odema_0001.ogg

 

PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\vocalization\vo wav files\caravan master odema\07_cv_odema_0048.ogg

 

By replacing 07_cv_odema_0048.ogg with a custom ogg, I was easily able to replace the dialog spoken during conversation #48 ("Everybody stays close..").

 

However, I was not able to get 07_cv_odema_0001.ogg to be spoken ("The caravan master finishes addressing.."). Is this because it's narration? Is it hardcoded not to be spoken even if the OGG audio file exists?

 

I made sure the OGG files were encoded like the others (32000Hz, 120Kbps, Stereo).

 

I also tried editing 07_cv_odema.stringtable and put the dialog in quotes to see if that would get it spoken, but that didn't work. (It did, as expected, put quotes around that text in-game)

 

Next I opened up the XML file PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\conversations\07_gilded_vale\07_cv_odema.conversation

 

This file holds the conversations map for Caravan Master Odema and associated metadata.

 

I'm not going to post it as the file is quite large, but I identified the XML nodes for unspoken dialog ID #1 ("The caravan master finishes addressing..") and spoken dialog ID #48 ("Everybody stays close.."), and the only real difference between the two were dialog ID #1 has <Persistence>OnceEver</Persistence> and dialog ID #48 has <Persistence>None</Persistence>. I adjusted this value but it didn't make a difference to get dialog ID #1 voiced. There are also some Voice Over properties like <VoiceType />,  <VOFilename />, and others.. but I'm not seeing those properties used as they seem to be blank overall.

 

----------

 

So yea, that's the extent to my experimentation. I've kind of hit a wall trying to get non-voiced dialog voiced. Anyone have their own findings or have a solution to the above? 

Would be an awesome community effort to figure this out and then voice the entire dialog of the game, via auditions etc.

Talk about a gargantuan project though!!

[Schizotek]

So has anyone had any luck with this so far? I am curious as to what results people have been able to get.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B207KFZXGRK2cW95UHh1Q0xDSW8/view

Replaces the Sinister male with a Dota2 Doom voice. Using it for a fire godlike Adventurer. Valve allows these types of things for private use. So long as none of you guys put it up for sale it's kosher.

[obsidianuser]

I've been trying to change the main menu music, but replacing the file with another one doesn't seem to work like player voice over method mrquincy posted. I've tried putting it (with the same name/file type as the music I want to replace) in the override folder but that didn't work either. Any ideas?

 

Replacing the file CAN work for music - I did it with Caed Nua's theme. However the main menu theme (which is what I was trying first) doesn't seem to change.

Edited April 1, 2015 by obsidianuser

[Emptiness]

I would definitely like to have more voice sets available.  Being able to drop in voice sets from previous IE games would be an "easy" way to expand the list of available voices, but from reading this thread I get the impression that the voice sets in PoE have 2-4 times as many responses as the voice sets in the IE games.  That will mean a lot of repetition or significantly less talking if you use an old voice set.

 

Personally, I'd prefer to see a customization expansion that adds a significant number of new voice sets (+3x what is available now, or more), alternate appearances for items in the game (there is some variety now, but more would be great), the option to have a tailor/blacksmith/whatever change the appearance of your item to an alternate appearance for copper, and an option to have the game generate a portrait automatically based on your actual character.  I'd pay good money for such an expansion.

[Azureblaze]

I've been trying to change the main menu music, but replacing the file with another one doesn't seem to work like player voice over method mrquincy posted. I've tried putting it (with the same name/file type as the music I want to replace) in the override folder but that didn't work either. Any ideas?

 

Replacing the file CAN work for music - I did it with Caed Nua's theme. However the main menu theme (which is what I was trying first) doesn't seem to change.

I suggest to send a message to Justin Bell and ask him if it's possible. He responded to someone wanting to replace the combat music in this thread.

 

I suspect the main theme may be locked in but who knows!

[Justin Bell]

 

I've been trying to change the main menu music, but replacing the file with another one doesn't seem to work like player voice over method mrquincy posted. I've tried putting it (with the same name/file type as the music I want to replace) in the override folder but that didn't work either. Any ideas?

 

Replacing the file CAN work for music - I did it with Caed Nua's theme. However the main menu theme (which is what I was trying first) doesn't seem to change.

I suggest to send a message to Justin Bell and ask him if it's possible. He responded to someone wanting to replace the combat music in this thread.

 

I suspect the main theme may be locked in but who knows!

 

 

You should be able to change mus_global_title_theme and that should do it.  

[SpaceDrake]

Hi,

 

Okay -I've figured it out. Below are the steps that I used.

1. Go to the directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity\PillarsOfEternity_Data\data\audio\vocalization\vo wav files\player  (Windows 8 or 7).

 

2. Copy the voice set that you plan to replace. In my instance, I copied all 72 instances of male stoic.

 

3. Create 2 folders on your desktop - POE Voice Set Original (backup purposes) and POE Custom Voice Set.

 

4. Paste the 72 instances of Males stoic into both POE folders.

 

5. You can then play all 72 sounds using Mozilla Firefox. Create yourself a notepad of the lines to use. For example:   player_voice_set_m_stoic_0001 says "Yes."  0004 says "Sure." 

 

6. Now you simply replace those voices as you see fit. I used Windows Sound Recorder to record myself acting out the lines and used this site : http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-ogg to convert my files into the ogg format that Pillars requires.

 

It's really easy to do. I tested them in game and it works fine.

Any questions?

 

 

 

I've been working on a VO mod of my own, and I've been trying to figure out which files correspond to what actions. I've listened to all the sets and all the files seem to follow a similar pattern. I think what I have currently is pretty accurate, but there's a few sections with question marks that I'm not 100% sure what they correspond to.

 

Sorry for the page stretch. This is my first post and I'm not sure how to post this in an easier to read format. Hopefully you guys can find this information useful.

 

These are both great and helpful, thank you very much! If nothing else I can just plop the IWD voice set into female noble and be off to the races. It'd still be nice to put entire new vocal sets into the game, though; Velocd, exactly how much C# work are we talking about, here? Are the files even available for open editing in the current client?

 

It would be nice if we could get one of the Obsidian sound guys to stop by and detail how a new player vocal set could be added to the game (or if this is even really possible).

 

Also this thread really took off when I wasn't looking! Thanks for the merge and making it more visible, Cantousent.

 

 

I would definitely like to have more voice sets available.  Being able to drop in voice sets from previous IE games would be an "easy" way to expand the list of available voices, but from reading this thread I get the impression that the voice sets in PoE have 2-4 times as many responses as the voice sets in the IE games.  That will mean a lot of repetition or significantly less talking if you use an old voice set.

 

Actually, the bolded depends on the game in question. The Baldur's voice sets are far, far too small (clocking in at a measly 23 sounds at most), but the Icewind Dale vocal sets clocked in at 40 (or more, in a few cases). The only real gaps seem to be "ally falls in battle" and the spell barks - most everything else maps 1:1 to Icewind Dale's voice structure (which I suspect is, for various reasons, not just coincidence). There would be a little repetition and a few gaps (I can't remember off the top of my head if they have a few of these conditions in IWD, like "found trap"), but the IWD voice sets should be workable enough. Baldur's Gate voices will definitely be a struggle, however.

[SpaceDrake]

Actually, since there isn't a good place for it otherwise, let me ask here: is anyone familiar with the sound format of the Baldur's and Icewind voice files? While they work in the games themselves still (and I even got the IWD ones working in BGTutu and BG2), I can't seem to open them with any modern playback software or converter - which is a problem, as they need to be converted from their apparent .wav format to .ogg if I'm going to fiddle with any replacement in Pillars! From their quality in the game, I'm guessing they're 16 or even 8-bit samples? Is that's what is causing the playback issues?

 

I'm afraid I'm not sure how to convert the files otherwise; if anyone has insight on playing and converting the files to .ogg, I'd appreciate it.

[Dark_Ansem]

AFAIK they are simple WAVs! Near Infinity should be more than capable of playing and converting them!

[SpaceDrake]

That's actually why I was asking and a little confused - they're obviously WAVs, but for some reason they don't want to render/play in my usual playback software, so I was wondering if there was anything particularly funny/ancient about their formatting.

 

I'll see if Near Infinity helps, though, thank you!

[obsidianuser]

 

 

I've been trying to change the main menu music, but replacing the file with another one doesn't seem to work like player voice over method mrquincy posted. I've tried putting it (with the same name/file type as the music I want to replace) in the override folder but that didn't work either. Any ideas?

 

Replacing the file CAN work for music - I did it with Caed Nua's theme. However the main menu theme (which is what I was trying first) doesn't seem to change.

I suggest to send a message to Justin Bell and ask him if it's possible. He responded to someone wanting to replace the combat music in this thread.

 

I suspect the main theme may be locked in but who knows!

 

 

You should be able to change mus_global_title_theme and that should do it.  

 

Ah, I tried that, but I still hear the same menu music.