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Project forums => FF7Voice => Topic started by: FFreak on 2014-06-03 19:15:51

Title: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-06-03 19:15:51
OK hallo dear readers at first,
This project is realy realy old one and it is just a shame that it got frozzen for unknown time after all the hard word , evryone had here.
I nearly read all the post about this and that it is a hard work especially for the main chars. It would talkke like forever to voice evry line and put the rihght emotion into it.
After thinking about that all I just had an idea , and therefore I ama writting this just to know if the community would like to see a revival of it.
I am a student from austria and I am working there at a hmm kind of helping service for other students, working close to all the university in town.

The hardest part would be to voice the main chars, and so I thought about working with students all here in town to voice in a "studio". We get a university just for music, acting, audi engineering, ...
Also got connection to coder ...
This would be just the beginning, but I think if I get a group which would speak for the mains, and the community would just help to voice other roles, it would be possible to revive the project .

Writting this while hearing the music of FF7 palayed on an piano , is just pure awsome :P
Maybe somepeaople will read that all and just give a comment , if I should try that or not .

Las but not leas, thank you for reading that all :)
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-06-03 20:24:13
Maybe some people of the Nexus forum are interested for some voice acting, there is very professional made mod for Skyrim. Interesting NPC: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8429/?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-06-03 20:34:33
As I've stated in other threads (and will continue stating in every FF voice acting thread ever), I am highly interested in providing the voice for Reno.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-06-03 20:38:27
Good idea about that :) I think if I would get ebought "motivation" to organisate all that I rly would to it.
Then I rly can get some acters and so on . But the thing is I wouldn't let my buddy code evrything from sketch.
I hope someoen who has got the original code will share it (again).
So I have somehting I can show the people that it is possible, most people will not believe that something lik,e that is possible
(Ok that sentence is kinda bad written but I hope u understand ^^)
--------------------------
Yeah would be great I will just try to find voices for the mains / chars with most text , just to be shure I get those. I dont want to loose a "cloud" or anyone which cant be rearanged.
If I get all lines spoken by the mains, I can let anyone speak for the rest :) ^^
--------------------------
Ok so I saw that dziugo wasnt online for year(s) , hmm , I just hope someone can share his work.
I think no one ever tryed to get a local group to act the mains ^^
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-06-03 20:40:58
I bet Covarr already has all of Reno's dialogue voiced into sound files.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-06-03 20:43:00
I bet Covarr already has all of Reno's dialogue voiced into sound files.
Not yet, but that's a good idea.

One weekend I did practice all his lines though. Even as important as he is to the story, he's not actually present for most of it; it's easy enough to get through all his dialogue in an hour or so, even with multiple takes.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: genesis063 on 2014-06-04 10:55:11
Really all you need to do is voice the main storyline like most other games do and it won't take to long and be easier to finish.  I'm interested in maybe trying for Sephiroth or Vincent maybe even Red XIII.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2014-06-04 12:49:46
I think your voices matches Sephiroth quite well.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: sithlord48 on 2014-06-04 15:57:34
i would do some lines . idk for whom but i would be alright with recording some.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-06-04 19:00:22
At least it is nice to see that some people are looking at that thread .
I am not just talking shit here, .... I realy have the will to do that :)
But without a proper support from the real creator , it will not be posiible at all
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-06-04 20:04:41
But without a proper support from the real creator , it will not be posiible at all
There is some truth to that. The original founders of this project have a tool for injecting voice clips over the dialogue, and without that (or a new tool by someone else to achieve the same result) no amount of recordings can revive this project.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: genesis063 on 2014-06-04 20:23:56
Anyone have any idea if Shard's program would work with FF7?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-06-04 21:27:59
@Covarr true that. But I think it could be kinda hard to conntact one of them, if it is eaven possible.
I think they dont want to hear anything about that project anymore. And writting a new one wouldnt be the same, I know how long it took to write that one, and coding a new one from nothing would take so long and then the recording hmm

But ok , lets just see maybe anyone on the forum knows how to conntact the dev.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Mayo Master on 2014-06-07 21:55:56
If you manage to get the project off the ground, count me in, I would be happy to volunteer for "random unimportant NPC" such as shop clerks and the like. My girlfriend also studied voice acting - it's a shame she's not a native English speaker, and she has too strong an accent for being in the main cast - but I bet she'd be interested in voicing some NPCs, as well.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-06-07 23:02:43
Anyone have any idea if Shard's program would work with FF7?
Kaldarasha has already requested that, and I've started rewriting the code that loads/saves the files (it turns out FF7 and FF8 use slightly different formats for the FMT files, which is why it wasn't working for 7). Unfortunately, my FF8 Voiceover Project is a month away from casting, and I'm busy dealing with callbacks so I don't have a lot of time to work on the program.

Additionally, FF7 apparently only supports up to 750 sound effects (nobody has explained to me why, I'm assuming it's hard-coded into the engine), so unless someone edits the exe to support more sounds, a VO project for FF7 isn't really viable with my program anyway. You'd need a third party program to monitor the game and play sounds accordingly from a different file or folder.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-06-17 20:34:39
Y  after reading this, that project would need a coder who can write such a thirs party programm.
But that will be a realy hard work to do so . Hmmm any ideas ^^ ?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2014-06-17 21:18:22
I'm in on two conditions.

I will only do DLPB's re-translation (I simply cannot go back! haha)
And if someone remakes or can reattain the tool used to allow this.

I'd love to do a main role but i'm afraid i wouldn't have time for that while running my business..

But i have no issues voicing various other NPC's. i can do an array of voices and accents :D
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-02 08:18:22
There is some truth to that. The original founders of this project have a tool for injecting voice clips over the dialogue, and without that (or a new tool by someone else to achieve the same result) no amount of recordings can revive this project.

Morning all.

I knocked up a proof of concept tool for the original FF7Voice project, although I don't think it was my tool they went on to use for their work; it shouldn't be difficult to get something working again, if people are interested.

I only have the 2012 version to hand (I still have the original 1998 CDs - but none of my PCs have optical drives!) so I'd have to get it working on that version first, but I'm fairly sure the differences between the two aren't gigantic, right?

Cheers.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Hellbringer616 on 2014-07-02 14:49:18
Morning all.

I knocked up a proof of concept tool for the original FF7Voice project, although I don't think it was my tool they went on to use for their work; it shouldn't be difficult to get something working again, if people are interested.

I only have the 2012 version to hand (I still have the original 1998 CDs - but none of my PCs have optical drives!) so I'd have to get it working on that version first, but I'm fairly sure the differences between the two aren't gigantic, right?

Cheers.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14047.0

If you run this on your game i believe it will effectively become the 1998 version.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-02 17:29:06
Yeah, it became obvious fairly quickly that the 2012 version was causing me grief, so I've reverted to the 1998 version.

I have a basic tool running that captures the dialogue display fine; next will be adding a way to trigger sound output.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-07-02 18:30:23
It would be great if we had a tool, which can replace the sound. The sound system itself is kinda buggy and it can play only four sounds at once (for some reasons there are channels which kill all other active channels  :|).

Someone has started to give Cloud's attack a voice over (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15227.0) but it can start to be annoying when Cloud makes the same 'Hua!' all the time.
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15266.msg213630#msg213630

I guess I leave the official welcome back to LeonhartGR. He will give it ... well the right flavor.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-07-02 18:53:05
The ideal perfect solution would be a combination of scripting and expanding the game to allow more sound effects, without the need for an external tool. Unfortunately, as easy as this would be for developing a new game, I'm not even sure it's possible to make the game itself allow infinite sounds without more modding than its worth.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-07-02 19:36:34
On a related note, I tried modding the FF8 exe to expand the built-in sound effect limit (which is either 12149 or 19999 depending on who's counting), and I could not find the part of the exe that references these numbers. I even changed ALL of them (and all numbers +1 of them) and it didn't do anything (surprisingly, the game didn't crash). The hard-coded cap must be stored as some other number, and we have no way of knowing what that number is. I'm not good enough with cheat engine to read the disassembly while playing to find it that way, either.

Chances are it will be just as difficult to increase FF7's sound effect cap. I'll keep looking into FF8 and see if I have a brilliant idea.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-02 20:02:10
The ideal perfect solution would be a combination of scripting and expanding the game to allow more sound effects, without the need for an external tool. Unfortunately, as easy as this would be for developing a new game, I'm not even sure it's possible to make the game itself allow infinite sounds without more modding than its worth.

Doing it from an external tool probably wouldn't be massively difficult, to be honest. Not to say it's trivial, but I'm fairly sure it could be done. Not really related to the voices project at all, though, except that digging around in the assembly to implement the voice hooks will give me a bit of a headstart making any other changes.

Anyway, I've got the hooks into the dialogue working more or less properly now;

http://www.ficedula.co.uk/voices/test.jpg

...so I'll begin working on a nice way of configuring which sound files to play.

Is anybody interested in actually managing this project? I'm happy to do the technical work of coding up the tool(s) involved, but someone will need to do the work of compiling all the audio files, naming them appropriately, and so on.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-07-02 20:08:26
I'm totally down for the mind numbing almost-bureaucratic side of things if a proper project manager doesn't show up to do it instead, renaming files and all that boring stuff, but I have zero interest whatsoever in voice direction, or any involvement in any recording sessions at all except as an actor.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-03 18:41:21
Initial test version;

http://www.ficedula.co.uk/voices/Voices_0_10.zip

Download, unzip, edit the .config file and set the three paths appropriately (path to FF7.exe, path to the VoiceHook.dll included, path to the Voices folder included). Then run the program and click 'Go'. If you don't have the latest version of .NET installed, you may need to grab that from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=397703

I've included a few test files for mrkt2 (Wall Market) - the boy by the cat statue & the hawker at the inn. Hopefully they'll play...? The format of the files in the Voices folder should make it fairly obvious how things are set up.


EDIT: I've hacked around a bit with the sound playback code and I think I should be able to override the game's sound playback to allow for playing any number of sound effects [and in higher quality too - aren't the standard ones 4-bit ADPCM?]. The question is - what extra sound effects were people wanting to load in, and how were they expecting them to be triggered...?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-07-04 00:35:27
For me there are two main objectives: Random sound replacement and a play sound if condition XY is fulfilled. As an example if I reach the engine room in the highwind then it should play an engine sound (like the one when you are on lower deck on the boat). Background sound would give the game a much deeper experience as it currently is, and I guess we have one I could bother to create new sounds: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15266.0  :evil:
I think that Field ID, PPV (or game progress) and a play sound if variable has value: XY should be enough to trigger a sound. Similar as 7th Heaven allow us to replace files http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14490.0
Sadly this project is dead. The tool is very useful, but Iros isn't active here anymore and we don't have the source code for it. It actually has needed some fine adjustments to be able to replace everything of FF7.

The last great thing I could imagine would be sound for footsteps. Maybe it is possible to bind sound to the characters of the current scene and if they move and play animation 1 (walk) or 2 (run) the sound will be played. Of course there are a lot of circumstances to let the footstep sound correctly (distance to the camera, ground you are stepping at, etc), but that's something we should bother later.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-07-04 01:46:01
You can add random sound placement and background sounds through Makou Reactor (up to the 750 limit of course). The main reason you need a watchdog process for a FF7 voiceover project is because of that cap (you can't voiceover everything with only 300 sound effects).

I've been trying to increase FF8's sound effect cap (even though I don't need to because it's already really high) by looking at its disassembly, but it's been a huge pain because all the sounds are played through the scripting engine (so there's a lot more code to trace through). If I ever find out how it sets its limit, I could probably find how FF7 sets its limit too and increase it.

I will eventually finish converting my FF8Audio program to FF7, but auditions closed this week for my VO project and I've been trying to finalize the cast list so I haven't really done anything else.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-07-04 02:39:53
I want a solution without doing to much edits to the flevel (I already have done this (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14598.msg205276#msg205276)). The problem with it is that we don't have a tool to patch the flevel.lgp and every huge overhaul tends to use its own flevel. A program which works in the background looks for me as the best solution for it. I also think it is easier to set up as the partial broken sound system. As I have mentioned there are channels which kill other active channels (the alarm after you set the bomb disappear after the battle swirl sound). It looks like that they have accidental swapped the channel set (the first set of the channels kills all other active channels and the second set plays all channels fine along side. If this makes an sense to you).
The random sound is more interesting for the battle module, because there it is the only possibility to edit the battle script, for which we have neither a good tool nor do we understand it entirely (also NFITC1 is presumably the only one who could do it).
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-04 06:31:22
I want a solution without doing to much edits to the flevel (I already have done this (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14598.msg205276#msg205276)). The problem with it is that we don't have a tool to patch the flevel.lgp and every huge overhaul tends to use its own flevel. A program which works in the background looks for me as the best solution for it. I also think it is easier to set up as the partial broken sound system. As I have mentioned there are channels which kill other active channels (the alarm after you set the bomb disappear after the battle swirl sound). It looks like that they have accidental swapped the channel set (the first set of the channels kills all other active channels and the second set plays all channels fine along side. If this makes an sense to you).
The random sound is more interesting for the battle module, because there it is the only possibility to edit the battle script, for which we have neither a good tool nor do we understand it entirely (also NFITC1 is presumably the only one who could do it).

OK, that makes sense ... and yes, I definitely intend to implement it as a background process - it makes it easier to program, and if it also saves having to modify flevel (along with every other mod that wants to modify it...) that's a bonus.

So;

1) Allow replacing standard game sounds with an external version (possibly higher quality), and allow more than one replacement sound so the tool will select between them randomly.

2) Monitor certain variables (FieldID, PPV) and when particular variables are matched, start/stop playing a background sound effect.

Should be possible. I'll probably split it out from the Voices program though - it's not really related.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-07-04 10:10:56
OK I have tested the tool in many ways but I don't get any voice. One thing is that the dll can be placed in DLPB's folder DLL_in (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=13574.0) without the need of locating it. The program reads the text correctly but there is no voice played when I talk with the boy or man. I tried it with the correct path as you suggest it but there I had no luck either. The tool reads the text box but no sound.

EDIT:
I got an idea why. I think you let the program checking for the text in the box and if it is the same as in the xml then the sound will be played. But the text in my flevel has been updated through the retranslation project from the Reunion mod. So the text isn't equal. Isn't it possible to check the text ID of the field instead of the text? At last in Makou Reactor it looks like the text must have some kind of ID. Maybe DLPB knows more, because his Box FF7 can edit text while the game is playing and writes a text file for Toughscript.
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14436.0
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-04 10:26:46
Yeah, it's currently going by the text, but I've included the dialog IDs in the XML so I can switch over to using them once I've got that part working ... should be possible.

EDIT: And I've only just realised that - unlike some of the other project forums ; the FF7Voice forum is private, so it's not visible globally. Is it worth throwing an open topic onto one of the other forums to gather support / interest?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: obesebear on 2014-07-07 03:10:32
EDIT: And I've only just realised that - unlike some of the other project forums ; the FF7Voice forum is private, so it's not visible globally. Is it worth throwing an open topic onto one of the other forums to gather support / interest?
Not sure why it was set like that, but that problem has been fixed.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-07 15:41:17
Not sure why it was set like that, but that problem has been fixed.

Cool, thanks.

Isn't it possible to check the text ID of the field instead of the text?

I've got this working at my end, so pending testing that's ready. The only obvious thing left to do on the tool would be to implement choices properly - but I'm thinking there's no point doing that until there's some indication the project has sufficient interest/support to actually happen. I may post a topic in Audio Mods to judge interest?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-07-07 16:00:52
Seems to me choices shouldn't play a voice clip at all; generally, the line of dialogue immediately afterwards will just be Cloud saying whatever you just chose anyway, or something similar.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-07 17:37:54
Unless I'm particularly unlucky, none of the examples I've checked has followed that pattern - you usually see one line of dialogue 'introducing' the question - which could be either Cloud or an NPC asking a question - then as part of the same dialogue screen, you've got the options. Whichever option you pick, it goes straight to the NPCs response as the next dialogue line - you don't see Cloud actually 'say' the chosen option in a new window of dialogue.

That's not impossible to deal with, but you probably do want to deal with it somehow.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-07-11 18:48:42
I ran into that in FF8. It seems to be done both ways in equal amounts. I just changed the scripts so the choice is always spoken as a separate box. We could have someone do that for FF7.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Salk on 2014-07-13 08:20:57
The best solution is undoubtedly to NOT voice the dialogue choices and have the character speak only the selected one.

I don't remember how FF VII works in this regard but I trust it would not be impossible to standardize the game as to follow the above mentioned behavior?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-13 09:04:37
Not impossible, but certainly more work - since you're having to edit any affected field files to add more dialogue entries and tweak the script to display them at the right times.

Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-07-27 07:56:54
SRy that i wasent here or a kinda long time, damn university ^^

Ok after reading all the stuff here, is seams hat there are some people who would like such a project to get alive. Ok first of all I will try to convince square to allow such a project . Law is a bad thing after all and in the past square closed many project, I also was involved too.
And realy I dont want to see again that we get a lletter from square ^^

And the tool ficedula is working on, hmm I can just say great work :)
After working evrything out we can start looking for actors but that will be the last part
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-07-27 14:33:49
Square won't come after anyone for this. They'd barely have a case to begin with. We're not modifying the game, and most of the dialogue we're voicing over isn't even theirs.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-07-27 14:37:18
hmm from this side beginning taht could be true. Making a thrid party toll which just reads the game and thjen playing the voice . hmm :)
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-07-28 11:32:35
Hi there.

I have posted in the "F7 Voices - assessing interest" thread but I feel like I should post it here too. I am not only interested in being the voice and casting director if you want to give this game voice acting, but I've already come up with nearly the entire cast, not just the main and supporting cast but even the extra NPC's.

I'm a trained actor, voice actor and director so I will give nothing but top quality. Plus Final Fantasy VII is my all time favourite game (followed closely by the Batman Arkham Games, Final Fantasy VI, VIII & IX, the Wing Commander series and Metal Gear Solid 1 and 3.) Granted it will take quite a bit of time since this is all voluntary work which people will have to find time for and I'm expecting this to be a few hundred page script but I will make sure the acting is top tier!

As for the cast I've assembled over a long period other FFVII related projects of mine, a lot of them sound similar to the professional English cast while a few others have takes similar or completely original but still fitting. Not to mention they are great voice actors themselves, a few even professional voice actors (from"Dust an Elysian Tail" and "Malevolence: The Sword of Ahkranox") So... yeah I do take it seriously.

I really do hope to be a part of this, FF7 really deserves it. I do hope to get the privilege of heading the voice acting charge, because again, I take Voice Acting seriously and I'm a huge fan of Final Fantasy VII.

Thank you for reading this!
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-07-28 12:52:44
 ;D Well I'm looking forward to it.
The programmer of the tool wasn't active here since a few days so he hasn't seen your post. I haven't tested the tool by myself expensively, means I didn't played around with the scripts and how to set them up properly. In theory it should work and like the way it operates it is very independent from the flevel.lgp. I guess you should make a preview scene with the tool I think the big scene when the player enters the 7th Heaven bar the first time is a good scene for a preview and to test the tool.
It also would help to find early a working structure so we can set up the mod manger 7th Heaven for it properly.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Salk on 2014-07-29 07:27:31
Love to hear the news, Aussieroth!

I wish you guys all the best luck in the world!
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-07-29 07:49:00
;D Well I'm looking forward to it.
The programmer of the tool wasn't active here since a few days so he hasn't seen your post. I haven't tested the tool by myself expensively, means I didn't played around with the scripts and how to set them up properly. In theory it should work and like the way it operates it is very independent from the flevel.lgp. I guess you should make a preview scene with the tool I think the big scene when the player enters the 7th Heaven bar the first time is a good scene for a preview and to test the tool.
It also would help to find early a working structure so we can set up the mod manger 7th Heaven for it properly.

Eh, I'm around, intermittently.

A test scene is I suppose a reasonable idea; you have to start somewhere anyway ... so as per my post in the other topic, if you think you can handle things, just go for it and we'll see what happens. Once you have started actually working on recordings you may well find changes that should be made to the tool, which I can definitely make - but we won't know that until someone does start using it properly...

Cheers.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-07-31 13:25:26
Test recordings... hmm. That's given me an idea. I'll update when it's not midnight where I am and tired as blazes.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-07-31 22:30:33
Hey Aussieroth!

I was planning on starting the casting for this project, but the past several weeks have been hectic for my FF8 voice project, so I wasn't able to begin it. Now that the main cast is figured out and settling in, I'll have time to write up the audition threads for this one.

I was going to ask if other directors/VO managers would be willing to help, but since you're already here I guess I'll ask you. I probably won't have the time to do everything required to get the FF7 project finished in a reasonable amount of time, but if I teamed up with someone like you, I think it would go much more smoothly. If you're interested, shoot me a PM and we'll talk about it in more detail. Meanwhile, I'll be writing up the audition threads.

I was also going to ask ficedula if he could release whatever script he uses to generate those XML files. I'm going to eventually modify DLPB's translation a little (to standardize how multiple-choice dialogues behave) and we're going to use that for the lines.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-07-31 23:09:28
Hey Aussieroth!

I was planning on starting the casting for this project, but the past several weeks have been hectic for my FF8 voice project, so I wasn't able to begin it. Now that the main cast is figured out and settling in, I'll have time to write up the audition threads for this one.

I was going to ask if other directors/VO managers would be willing to help, but since you're already here I guess I'll ask you. I probably won't have the time to do everything required to get the FF7 project finished in a reasonable amount of time, but if I teamed up with someone like you, I think it would go much more smoothly. If you're interested, shoot me a PM and we'll talk about it in more detail. Meanwhile, I'll be writing up the audition threads.

I was also going to ask ficedula if he could release whatever script he uses to generate those XML files. I'm going to eventually modify DLPB's translation a little (to standardize how multiple-choice dialogues behave) and we're going to use that for the lines.

Well Shard, I'd be happy to talk with ya. However, I can't send PM's yet because I don't think the admins made me an "official member" yet. But oh yeah am I keen to talk about this one.

Reasonable amount of time indeed, this project is truly ambitious, though it is possible, doable even. It'll a couple of hundred pages though, this script... I suppose that means more fun than anything else ;)

FF8 voices? That one I'm just plain curious about. I love FF8 as well (it was my first FF) so I'd love to know what's happening there too.

I would love to be of service Shard! but the pm's won't be possible until they say "I'm in." Otherwise Skype is a good option.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-07-31 23:56:17
I think you might need 10 posts before you can PM people.

The FF8 project is just a few threads down (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15057.0). As you can see, the main cast is done.

We can probably do the FF7 project a little differently. I am purposefully avoiding voicing some of FF8's dialogue because the game has a built in limit to how many sound effects it can play, and it's all being done out of the game engine. This won't be the case for FF7 since we're using an external tool. I think we should make periodic sets of dialogue files. One for the main plot, and other packages for miscellaneous lines of dialogue (side quest stuff). People can download whatever optional dialogue sets they want to have.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-08-01 04:52:48
I think you might need 10 posts before you can PM people.

The FF8 project is just a few threads down (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15057.0). As you can see, the main cast is done.

We can probably do the FF7 project a little differently. I am purposefully avoiding voicing some of FF8's dialogue because the game has a built in limit to how many sound effects it can play, and it's all being done out of the game engine. This won't be the case for FF7 since we're using an external tool. I think we should make periodic sets of dialogue files. One for the main plot, and other packages for miscellaneous lines of dialogue (side quest stuff). People can download whatever optional dialogue sets they want to have.

YOU GOT CHRISTIAN SEKHANAN AS SQUALL!!!!? MATE! Perfect choice! Not saying because he and I are good friends, the guy is one of the two definitive Squalls on YouTube (The other being Rupert Scarr in Shudo Ranmaru's FF8 fandub.) Hell that is a great cast... and I will gladly audition for NORG when the time comes XD.

To business though, yeah. I was wondering it would all work out in terms of the coding. Seems like you have got it down pat. Again I wanna talk in more detail too, so I'll put up a few more posts then.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-08-01 05:15:34
One thing I would be keen to see is the new re-translated script
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-08-01 05:16:38
As well as hear some of the new re-orchestrated music
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-08-01 05:50:21
but I've already come up with nearly the entire cast, not just the main and supporting cast but even the extra NPC's.
As in you've held auditions already, or have people who've played these roles in another project, or simply know who you WOULD cast, given the opportunity? If it's the FF7 fandub I've seen that you were involved in... well, the acting in that is a mixed bag. Some of it is great, some of it is less so.

I do think that ideally it would be best to keep this project completely separate, and with its own auditions. Definitely let the cast of that know about this project and encourage them all to audition, but at the same time, this would give the opportunity to potentially discover someone who may not have been around in 2009 back when that project began. You never know when a  hidden gem could blow your minds.

And yes, my reasons are at least in part selfish; I want to audition for Reno, and win or lose the role based purely on talent and because someone else got it for a totally different project :P Still, I think my points are valid.

edit:
I can't send PM's yet because I don't think the admins made me an "official member" yet.
There's a five post minimum before PMs are enabled, as a spam combat measure. You should be past that point now.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-08-01 06:08:22
One thing I would be keen to see is the new re-translated script
You can download DLPB's translation now and check it out. It's buried in one of these forums somewhere. I'm going to have to get it as well sometime soon.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2014-08-01 09:27:19
(The other being Rupert Scarr in Shudo Ranmaru's FF8 fandub.)
Yep ;) Toldya folks!
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-08-01 09:54:58
As in you've held auditions already, or have people who've played these roles in another project, or simply know who you WOULD cast, given the opportunity? If it's the FF7 fandub I've seen that you were involved in... well, the acting in that is a mixed bag. Some of it is great, some of it is less so.

I do think that ideally it would be best to keep this project completely separate, and with its own auditions. Definitely let the cast of that know about this project and encourage them all to audition, but at the same time, this would give the opportunity to potentially discover someone who may not have been around in 2009 back when that project began. You never know when a  hidden gem could blow your minds.

And yes, my reasons are at least in part selfish; I want to audition for Reno, and win or lose the role based purely on talent and because someone else got it for a totally different project :P Still, I think my points are valid.

edit:There's a five post minimum before PMs are enabled, as a spam combat measure. You should be past that point now.

No, I know the you're on about but that's not the one I mean. I have a cast for a full fandub of pretty much the whole FF7 compilation, starting soon with Before Crisis.

Anyway, That's a fair call and I had a feeling it would come to that anyway. Plus I do need a new Reno so go all out ;)

Also yeah I can PM now. No spamming rule. Makes sense. Also again, according to Kaldarasha, I'm both Sephiroth and Hojo XD Though I know there's a better guy for Hojo out there.

So I take it I'm one of the guys, along with you and Shar, to be heading this then?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-08-01 09:55:47
You can download DLPB's translation now and check it out. It's buried in one of these forums somewhere. I'm going to have to get it as well sometime soon.

I'll find it then. DLPB has been on that for a while so yeah, I'm quite excited to see what it looks like now.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-08-01 11:56:56
Anyway, That's a fair call and I had a feeling it would come to that anyway. Plus I do need a new Reno so go all out ;)

Also yeah I can PM now. No spamming rule. Makes sense. Also again, according to Kaldarasha, I'm both Sephiroth and Hojo XD Though I know there's a better guy for Hojo out there.

So I take it I'm one of the guys, along with you and Shar, to be heading this then?

That sounds fine to me - my opinion has always been that if somebody wants to step up and do the work, then rather than argue about should-we shouldn't-we, just let them try and see if it works.

I was also going to ask ficedula if he could release whatever script he uses to generate those XML files. I'm going to eventually modify DLPB's translation a little (to standardize how multiple-choice dialogues behave) and we're going to use that for the lines.

It's just a part of the Ultrasound code; I haven't turned it on in the public release because it's not very user friendly yet (it has hard coded paths in it, and happily overwrites any files that already exist in the target folder without any warning, which could obviously go badly...)

Although bear in mind, the new release of Ultrasound - http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15342.0 - triggers the dialogue based on dialogue IDs, so the text in the various files is now just there for reference, it's not actually used. That said - I understand it's probably a useful reference ;) so yes - I'll make that dialogue export tool available in a future version.

I imagine there's probably some other tools/options that might be useful - like reporting on any 'missing' files (you've put a path to an mp3 file in, but it doesn't exist), etc.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Aussieroth on 2014-08-01 13:59:34
Very well then! What's the first task?
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-08-01 15:36:24
So I take it I'm one of the guys, along with you and Shar, to be heading this then?
Hey hey, the only non-VA part I volunteered for is pretty much busywork. Hardly what I'd call even vaguely a leadership position. :P
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-08-01 19:06:08
Very well then! What's the first task?
When ficedula enables his xml export feature, we'll need to go through the script and weed out the dialogue that won't be voiced ("Item Received" and things like that). We should put in some placeholder sounds and play through some of the game's areas just to make sure Ultrasound works in every case.

I've written up most of the audition threads. I just need to find some good lines that allow the actors to show off their skills. When the threads are posted, I'll make a new thread here, and you can share the links with your cast and any other people you think might be interested.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-08-04 01:33:42
What shard says:
First the coding part and when that works well the voicing part will need much time, thats for shure but we wouldnot need to cast all at the same time.

Mby some coder here will try to get such a progy :P
Ok writing english is hard when its 3 am ^^
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-08-04 04:15:55
Aussieroth and I have already talked about the project, and we're going to go ahead and do it. We have very similar mindsets about how we want a FF7 voiceover project to turn out. We're currently coming up with a list of lines/scenes people can read for auditions. With any luck, auditions will be open sometime this week.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Salk on 2014-08-04 05:52:18
Aussieroth and I have already talked about the project, and we're going to go ahead and do it. We have very similar mindsets about how we want a FF7 voiceover project to turn out. We're currently coming up with a list of lines/scenes people can read for auditions. With any luck, auditions will be open sometime this week.

I am wishing you guys the best of luck!

I am very thrilled about your partnership.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-08-04 13:37:40
When ficedula enables his xml export feature, we'll need to go through the script and weed out the dialogue that won't be voiced ("Item Received" and things like that). We should put in some placeholder sounds and play through some of the game's areas just to make sure Ultrasound works in every case.

Basically done: http://www.ficedula.co.uk/voices/Ultrasound_0_36.zip

You first need to extract all the files from FLEVEL.LGP into a folder, and decompress the LZS-compressed ones. Then the Tools / Extract option in Ultrasound will build/update the voices XML files for you.

Also, it'll put any entries that it doesn't think are dialogue into comments in the file, so it's clearer when you view the file (...if it's something that understands XML, anyway...) which entries actually need to be recorded. It might get it wrong, in which case you just need to move the entries out of the comment block.

The Tools / Analyse option will tell you what percentage of the required voices file are recorded for each location (& overall), skipping any entries that have been commented out of course...

Quote
I've written up most of the audition threads. I just need to find some good lines that allow the actors to show off their skills. When the threads are posted, I'll make a new thread here, and you can share the links with your cast and any other people you think might be interested.

Look forward to seeing it.

Cheers.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: FFreak on 2014-08-04 22:06:59
I would like to organice a homepage just for that, not only working on the forum all the time. It will get very complicated after all.

Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-08-05 11:20:58
Certainly I'd suggest we want decent file hosting at a minimum (which I'm quite happy to provide - I have a dedicated server with reasonable bandwidth and disk space spare); I'm a fan of Bittorrent Sync for distributing and updating files easily, although there are other options.

While a homepage might be wanted at some point, I'm not sure what you'd need it for to start work on the project. The forum works for general coordination, IMO.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-08-05 11:23:55
While a homepage might be wanted at some point, I'm not sure what you'd need it for to start work on the project. The forum works for general coordination, IMO.

Well from time to time the forum isn't reachable. This happens rather often lately.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: ficedula on 2014-08-05 12:25:50
You make a good point. It'd be easy enough for me to set up a private forum on my server for project use, I guess.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-08-05 15:09:16
Eh, it's never down for more than a minute at a time or so; just refresh. Any coordination that needs to be done live would be better suited for IRC or Skype anyway, and if it doesn't need to be live then the site forums are still perfectly fine for that.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2014-08-05 23:19:19
Thanks for the update on your program Ficedula. We're just waiting for DLPB to release the newer version of his translation/reunion.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Salk on 2014-10-07 14:50:53
Now that practically DLPB is completely done with the translation, will work resume on this project?

Thanks!
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2014-10-07 15:12:13
He only finished his part on the project...
The final (and I do mean final) check is done.  My job is done now. In the coming days I will be sending a lot of stuff to Covarr and Luksy and then the project will be 100% complete.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Covarr on 2014-10-07 15:23:11
Even so, auditions are still open until Nov 10. It'll be a while yet before recording begins.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Jamakabo on 2015-01-29 21:33:01
Not sure if anyone is still here or not, or if I can still help, but i'd love to try and do some voices! I've never done anything like this so it would be new, It doesn't matter for who it would be for, but i'd love to see this mod play out into something big, and i'd love to contribute!
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Shard on 2015-01-30 06:19:34
Auditions ended over a month ago. You're late to the party.

Send a demo reel (preferably of FF7 characters since you said you're new) showing off your voice range and acting talent to [email protected]. If we notice it, and it's really good, you MIGHT be able to voice some minor characters in the future.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Jamakabo on 2015-01-30 19:04:24
Well i'm glad that this is still happening! Great news to hear and yeah i'll try it out and get them there pretty soon!
I'll do some of the main characters just for an example, I don't expect to be picked since they ended already, but just for an easy idea of what to do!
Thanks Shard, I'll get on it when I can.
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Salk on 2015-01-31 06:16:06
I am also so very glad for your message, Shard!

I wish you the best of luck with this amazing project! ;)
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Ultroman on 2015-04-24 14:37:32
Looking very much forward to this!!!
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: The Berserker on 2015-06-08 18:41:59
i would really love to help with this cuz i realllllly want this to happen
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: NeuroticNinja on 2015-10-02 21:47:08
I wonder if Siri could help make this project a reality lol
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2015-10-02 23:30:17
 
I wonder if Siri could help make this project a reality lol

Then go and ask Siri...  :P
Title: Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
Post by: NeuroticNinja on 2015-10-02 23:53:05
Haha she said and I quote "Why don't you ask someone like Cortana"