Author Topic: Thoughts about reviving the project  (Read 54679 times)

ficedula

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #25 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...?
« Last Edit: 2014-07-03 21:28:44 by ficedula »

Kaldarasha

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #26 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.

Shard

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #27 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.
« Last Edit: 2014-07-04 01:47:38 by Shard »

Kaldarasha

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #28 on: 2014-07-04 02:39:53 »
I want a solution without doing to much edits to the flevel (I already have done this). 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).

ficedula

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #29 on: 2014-07-04 06:31:22 »
I want a solution without doing to much edits to the flevel (I already have done this). 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.

Kaldarasha

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #30 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

ficedula

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #31 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?
« Last Edit: 2014-07-04 19:24:58 by ficedula »

obesebear

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #32 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.

ficedula

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #33 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?

Covarr

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #34 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.

ficedula

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #35 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.

Shard

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #36 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.

Salk

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #37 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?

ficedula

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #38 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.


FFreak

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #39 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

Shard

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #40 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.

FFreak

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #41 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 :)

Aussieroth

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #42 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!

Kaldarasha

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #43 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.

Salk

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #44 on: 2014-07-29 07:27:31 »
Love to hear the news, Aussieroth!

I wish you guys all the best luck in the world!

ficedula

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #45 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.

Aussieroth

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #46 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.

Shard

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #47 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.

Aussieroth

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #48 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.

Shard

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Re: Thoughts about reviving the project
« Reply #49 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. 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.