hpl3:game:voicehandler
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hpl3:game:voicehandler [2012/06/21 14:47] thomas [Overview] |
hpl3:game:voicehandler [2013/12/09 21:19] thomas [Use with AI] |
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| ===== Scene ===== | ===== Scene ===== | ||
| - | This does not have to mean the level that the voice are played in, but what subtext that they are used in. Usually a scene is always linked to specific level but that does not have to be the case. It is mostly used as a nice way of grouping voices. | + | This does not have to mean the level that the voice are played in, but what subtext that they are used in. A scene is NOT the same as the level the voices belong to, but a level can (and should have) have many scenes. It is a way to group subjects and also to setup what voices should be in focus (by using FocusPrio). |
| **ID**\\ | **ID**\\ | ||
| Line 39: | Line 39: | ||
| Name of the scene | Name of the scene | ||
| + | **FocusPrio**\\ | ||
| + | This is the priority for a voice to into focus, meaning that is subtittles are shown and any other voice playing gets its volume lowered. To beat a currently playing voice, FocusPrio must be higher.\\ | ||
| + | When a subject starts playing it is checked if another sound is playing and FocusPrio determines if the new subject gets into focus. Also when a subject stops playing a certain amount of time is waited (default 2 seconds) and then there is a check to see if there is any playing voice that should come into focus. If there are many playing, FocusPrio determines which one. The reason for waiting a litte while is in case there is a conversiation in one scene containing many subjects, and if so it would not sound good if the focus was constantly switched (ie unrelated subtitles popping up for a second). | ||
| ===== Effect ===== | ===== Effect ===== | ||
| This defines certain effect that should be played on the voice, be that echo, noise or whatnot. \\ | This defines certain effect that should be played on the voice, be that echo, noise or whatnot. \\ | ||
| Line 60: | Line 63: | ||
| ===== Subject ===== | ===== Subject ===== | ||
| A subject is what you call when you want to voice to be played. A subject is the basic data structure of the voice data and it contains sound files, subtitle texts and various options.\\ | A subject is what you call when you want to voice to be played. A subject is the basic data structure of the voice data and it contains sound files, subtitle texts and various options.\\ | ||
| - | A subject contain one or more **Lines** (more on these below). Depending on current state and settings, one (or none) of these lines will be played when a certain subject is called. | + | A subject contain one or more **Lines** (more on these below). Normally all of these lines will be played in order, but if UseSingleRandomLine is true, only one will. |
| **ID**\\ | **ID**\\ | ||
| Line 68: | Line 71: | ||
| Name of the subject | Name of the subject | ||
| - | **RandomizeOrder**\\ | + | **UseSingleRandomLine**\\ |
| - | If the Lines should be chosen randomly. If false, the line declared first plays first. | + | If only a single random line should be used. If more than 2 lines, it is made sure that the a line is never picked two times in a row. |
| - | + | ||
| - | **CharacterId**\\ | + | |
| - | Id of character connected to the subject. | + | |
| + | |||
| **SceneId**\\ | **SceneId**\\ | ||
| Id of scene connected to the subject. | Id of scene connected to the subject. | ||
| Line 79: | Line 80: | ||
| **EffectId**\\ | **EffectId**\\ | ||
| Id of the effect used for the subject. | Id of the effect used for the subject. | ||
| - | |||
| ===== Line ===== | ===== Line ===== | ||
| When a voice is called to be played the entirety of a line is always played. | When a voice is called to be played the entirety of a line is always played. | ||
| Line 87: | Line 87: | ||
| Internal Id | Internal Id | ||
| - | **The name of the line**\\ | + | **CharacterId**\\ |
| - | Name of the line | + | Id of character connected to the line. |
| - | **Prio**\\ | + | ===== Sound ===== |
| - | The priority of the line. This will depend if a line will be blocked when another is already playing or not. If prio is higher than the one currently played, the current is stopped and the new one plays. | + | |
| - | **BlockedAction**\\ | + | This is the lowest level data structure for a subject. It contains properties for the voice, (opitonal) effect sound, and subtitle. |
| - | This is what happens in case a line is already playing and the new line has same or lower Prio has the current. Possible values are:\\ | + | |
| - | Enqueue: The line is queued and played as soon as the currently played (and any other already queued lines) has finished playing.\\ | + | |
| - | Skip: The line is not played. If this happens it counts as a playback and thus affects MaxPlaybacks (see below).\\ | + | |
| - | StandBy. The line is not played, but neither does it count as a playback. It is as if a Voice Subject was never called to be played.\\ | + | |
| - | **MaxPlaybacks**\\ | + | The file name for the voice sound is generated based on the names of the higher level structures. The syntax is:\\ |
| - | Max number of times this line can be played. If 0, then the number of times is unlimited. | + | ''[map]''/''[scene]''_''[subject]''_''[line index in 3 digits]''_''[character]''_''[sound index in 3 digits]'' |
| - | ===== Sound ===== | ||
| - | This is the lowest level data structure for a subject. It contains properties for the voice, (opitonal) effect sound, and subtitle.\\ | ||
| - | The file name for the voice sound is generated based on the names of the higher level strucutres. The syntax is:\\ | + | Here is an example:\\ |
| - | //[character]//_//[scene]//_//[subject]//_//[line]//_//[sound index in 3 digits]//\\ | + | //01_01_castle/SwordFight_ShowMercy_002_Arthur_001//\\ |
| - | Example, the firs sound of a subject can be:\\ | + | This would be a voice sound being said in the map //"01_01_castle"// (no file extension!), in the Scene //"SwordFight"//. The subject is //"ShowMercy"//, it is the second line, it is being said by //"Arthur"// and it is his first sound for that line. |
| - | Arthur_Camelot_AngryAtMerlin_Insults_001\\ | + | |
| + | |||
| + | The lang file entry for the text is also generated, with this syntax:\\ | ||
| + | Category: Voices_''[map]''\\ | ||
| + | Entry: ''[scene]''_''[subject]''_''[line index in 3 digits]''_''[character]''_''[sound index in 3 digits]'' (apart from no folder name, it is exactly the same as for the voice file!) | ||
| - | The lang file entry for the text is also generated, with this syntax:\\ | ||
| - | Category: "Voices"\\ | ||
| - | Entry: //[character]//_//[scene]//_//[subject]//_//[line]//_//[sound index in 3 digits]// (exactly the same as for the voice file!) | ||
| Finally, if "AutogenerateLangFiles" in "Main" is set to true in the user settings, then the lang file entries will be autogenerated with the text specified in the sound's properties. | Finally, if "AutogenerateLangFiles" in "Main" is set to true in the user settings, then the lang file entries will be autogenerated with the text specified in the sound's properties. | ||
| - | **Text**\\ | + | |
| + | **Text** \\ | ||
| The text for the voices, not really saved by added to a lang file (if AutogenerateLangFiles is true i settings, see above) | The text for the voices, not really saved by added to a lang file (if AutogenerateLangFiles is true i settings, see above) | ||
| - | **HasVoice**\\ | + | |
| + | **HasVoice** \\ | ||
| If the sound has a voice at all. This is only meaningful false if there is an Effect filed specificed. | If the sound has a voice at all. This is only meaningful false if there is an Effect filed specificed. | ||
| - | **Volume**\\ | + | |
| + | **Volume** \\ | ||
| Volume of the sound and effect file. | Volume of the sound and effect file. | ||
| - | **VoiceOffset**\\ | + | |
| + | **VoiceOffset** \\ | ||
| Number of seconds before voice starts to play. | Number of seconds before voice starts to play. | ||
| - | **TextOffset**\\ | + | |
| + | **TextOffset** \\ | ||
| Number of seconds before the subtitles show up. | Number of seconds before the subtitles show up. | ||
| - | **EffectOffset**\\ | + | |
| + | **ExtraSoundOffset** \\ | ||
| Number of seconds before the effect file starts to play. | Number of seconds before the effect file starts to play. | ||
| - | **EffectFile**\\ | ||
| - | File path to an effect file that is played along with the voice. | ||
| - | **EndsAfterEffects**\\ | + | **ExtraSoundFile** \\ |
| - | If the sound should end when the effect file is done playing. | + | File path to an extra sound file that is played along with the voice. |
| - | **EndPadding**\\ | + | |
| + | **EndsAfterExtraSound** \\ | ||
| + | If the sound should end when the extra sound file is done playing (and not the voice). | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | **EndPadding** \\ | ||
| Number of seconds of padding in the length of voice file. If this is over 0, then that means the next sound will start that many seconds earlier (while the current sound is still playing). | Number of seconds of padding in the length of voice file. If this is over 0, then that means the next sound will start that many seconds earlier (while the current sound is still playing). | ||
| + | |||
| + | ====== Use with AI ====== | ||
| + | |||
| + | When using voice with AI it is best always through the [[http://wiki.frictionalgames.com/hpl3/game/scripting/entity_components#barkmachine|BarkMachine component]] using ''BarkMachine_PlayVoice(...)''. That way it is sure to be played in the right place even if there are multiple agents that use voices from the same character. When using the BarkMachine, the source set up directly before the line is played. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The voices for all agents should also have "AgentBark" as scene, this way it makes it possible to see to that there is only one dialog line from an Agent at a time. Should there be some special line that does not apply to this, then by all means do not do this. | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you want to have longer specific dialog on agents, then the best way to set that up is to have the piece of a dialog as a single subject with two unique Characters attached to the lines. Then set up these characters as voice sources specifically in the script and start the dialog using ''Voice_Play''. The scene must be AgentBark as described above and the prio must be less than what the default barks use. What then happens is that the dialog will continue until some AI event triggers default sounds to be played and the specific dialog will automatically be stopped. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ====== Best Practices ====== | ||
| + | |||
| + | Here are a few practices that should be used when adding voices in the game: | ||
| + | |||
| + | **Pure sound effects is a separate line**\\ | ||
| + | When implementing a subject that contains parts where there is only (non character related) sound effects playing you shall add this as Line on its own. The character containing it shall be called "_SoundEffect". If the sound effects need to come from special position in the world, then do add a "_" followed by a prefix to the name, for instance "_SoundEffect_Trees" (this should be pretty rare though and these sort of effects are better added through callback functions, but there might be some rare instance that require it). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Important note is that this only meant for sound effects that are not specific to a character voice. Examples:\\ | ||
| + | Do **NOT** use it for: *cough*, *clears throat*, *spits*, etc.\\ | ||
| + | **DO** use it for: *steps are hard coming down the stairs*, *large metal door opens*, *Anne carefully steps on the creaking floor*, etc.\\ | ||
| + | |||
| + | **Use proper prefix for subjects**\\ | ||
| + | Have prefixes on the subjects that give some hint where they belong and make it easier to sort. For instance a blackbox subject should start with "Blackbox_", eg "Blackbox_FriedRobot". Another examples would be a situation that many subjects belong. Say Simon meets a farmer and there is a lot of subjects related to this, then use the prefix "SimonMeetsFarmer_", eg "SimonMeetsFarmer_Intro". | ||
| + | |||
| + | This is also true for special characters, for instance when a certain character speak in a recording. So for instnace a character that appears in a SOMA blackbox message (that does not come from a world position), should have "Blackbox_" as prefix, eg "Blackbox_Amy". | ||
| + | |||
| + | **Write temp dialog in square brackets**\\ | ||
| + | If you add some writing that is only temporary then add this between square brackets. Also briefly summarize what is supposed to be going on, or what the is supposed to be expressed. Examples:\\ | ||
| + | [Player gets his finger caught in bear trap]\\ | ||
| + | [Hint that the screw needs to be bigger]\\ | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you need to have further info that feels wrong to show in-game then you can add extra info under the line direction, but make sure to start the line with INFO:, so it is not confused with proper line direction. Examples:\\ | ||
| + | INFO: The player tries to hold the pain inside.\\ | ||
| + | INFO: The solution is to use the file on the screw, can have slight hint for that.\\ | ||
| ====== File Format ====== | ====== File Format ====== | ||
hpl3/game/voicehandler.txt · Last modified: 2015/09/17 10:53 by ian.thomas
