Better RAF Voices

[Feathered_IV]

Recently I started playing CloD again. I realised one of the reasons I've been unable to get much enjoyment from the game as an offliner is due to the exceptionally poor voice acting for the AI.

I always remembered the work of Compans, who did some truly outstanding voice acting for the original Il-2 series, and I began to see if it was possible to adapt the samples to clod.

Below is a link to the latest version for others to try out. Installation instructions are inside. Hope you like it!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/1ue6v64jl324673/CloD%20Better%20Voices%20V1.1.rar

For those who are incapable of opening a Readme file: Locate your own Actor1 folder inside Steam/steamapps/common/Il-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover/parts/bob/speech/GB
Take your original Actor1 folder and physically move it somewhere safe (don't you dare just copy and paste it!).
Once you've moved it, replace it with this Actor1 folder and you're good to go.

Tip: When downloading from Mediafire, Right-click on the download button and select "save target as" to avoid being mucked around by ads.

Cheers,
F_IV

[larry69]

Recently I started playing CloD again. I realised one of the reasons I've been unable to get much enjoyment from the game as an offliner is due to the exceptionally poor voice acting for the AI.

I always remembered the work of Compans, who did some exceptional voice acting for the original Il-2 series, and I began to see if it was possible to adapt the samples to clod.

Below is a link to the latest version for others to try out. Installation instructions are inside. Hope you like it!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/1ue6v64jl324673/CloD%20Better%20Voices%20V1.1.rar

Tip: When downloading from Mediafire, Right-click on the download button and select "save target as" to avoid being mucked around by ads.

Cheers,
F_IV

Hi Feathered!

Thank`s, for me a great improvement! well done!

Larry69

[archermav]

Excellent, thanks very much.

[planespotter]

I remember also Compans his very good work.

Thanks for this! I look forward to try.

[MB_Avro_UK]

:)

[LcSummers]

Thanx,

downloading and trying

S!

[jamesdietz]

Good Cheese!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d116/jamesdietz/Gen.jpg (http://s34.photobucket.com/user/jamesdietz/media/Gen.jpg.html)

[Low Flyer]

Thanks, old chum! :grin:

[Feathered_IV]

Your welcome! Still adding to it and making changes here and there. There is only one voice file for the entire RAF and the thirteen-plus nations that belonged to it. The trick is to make it sound diverse but not repetitive. I'll link any updates here as I go.

[MB_Avro_UK]

As I'm at the low end of the technical awareness spectrum;), it may be worth mentioning that the folder for the sound files has to be named gb for the voices to be heard.

And what a relief not to hear those meaningless voices in the old version.

[rslot]

Excellent post Feathered_IV, just what i was looking for to keep things fresh whilst i wait for TF4.01.
I had been fiddling about renaming certain sound files such as 'landing denied' etc but yours are much better.
I particularly like getting the WAF contol tower. Much more realistic.
Many thanks

PS let us know if you make any changes.

[Chivas]

Have you been able to talk to anyone at the ATAG or Team Fusion, to see if you guys could work together.

[Feathered_IV]

I haven't been over to atag. The speech files are not part of the encrypted game and are probably of as much interest to TF as a user made skin would be. I'd be curious to see if the new converted files would work for an MP game though.

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Excellent work Feathered,much more immersive :grin: ,one point,if I may be so bold,I have upped the volume on the voicevolume to 12 in my Conf.ini,but the female voice is still very hard to hear,is it possible to raise her voice a tad more old friend?

[jspec01]

Thank you so much for doing this!!!!

I'm an offliner too, and the AI voices (or voice, I guess, as it seemed like there was only one guy flying for the entire RAF!) in Cliffs made me so crazy I can't even tell you.

Just tried this out and it's so refreshing, can't thank you enough for taking the time (thanks are due of course to the original guys who made the mod as well).

[Feathered_IV]

I'm really glad it helps. The default voice was driving me out of my mind too.
The Luftwaffe is just as bad, if not worse. That constant mantra from the ground controller with his startled Actooong! and a stream of unwanted garbage after it... Ugh, can't even speak of it without getting stressed.

Meaker, I'm not sure I can get any greater volume out of the female voice, but I'll try. Currently I've got it boosted to the point where it is beginning to distort. Perhaps I can squeeze another decibel out of it though. It's pretty low for me too. Turning Sound Volume down 50% in the game's Audio Options section and turning up your computer's volume to compensate seems to help however.

[Plt Off JRB Meaker]

Ok Feathered,I'll have another try at enhancing it with my sound system,I can hear the guys voices no problem,it's just the female voice that sounds distant.

Btw,I hope you don't think I'm being ungrateful old chap,it's so good I just want to get the best out of it :grin: what you have done is a game changer IMO,so thanks very much,it's very much appreciated old boy.

[jspec01]

It really helps a lot, thanks again. Was it time consuming? I looked through the folder and there's a pretty intimidating amount of files in there! Do you find sound samples that relate to existing ones, then switch them out? Then try and equalize the volume?

I wonder if there are any other sources the could be used - European Air War? Obviously it's pretty old, but it had a BOB campaign... though not sure exactly on the legality of borrowing those (or even if it would be possible).

Anyway just curious as to the process and future possibilities, thanks again for doing this.

[Feathered_IV]

Btw,I hope you don't think I'm being ungrateful old chap

Not at all! A bit of feedback (no pun intended) is a very welcome thing. Most people just download without a word one way or the other.

Hi jspec, the Actor1 folder was pretty scary looking at first. Initially I only went in there to try and get rid of the repetitive words of the ground controller. Things took a turn when I found an online audio converter that lets you change Il-2 wav files to clod ogg ones in one batch. Then I realised it would be possible to not just silence bits, but to replace them altogether.

Some samples are the same as their Il-2 counterparts, right down to the file name. Others are edited or spliced together to better fit the quirks of the clod system.

I've got a copy of EAW. I was never able to get it to install, although every year or so I still try. I did once check out the German voices though and noticed they sounded rather good. Better than what we've got anyway. Over the weekend I was able to extract all of cfs2's speech files. Some great US voices in there. Using the same method I was able to get some very good third party German voices that might prove useful.

Doing this stuff isn't difficult as such. You just need to keep pecking away at it I guess. The good thing about it is you can listen to it as you progress and it keeps getting better as you go.

[Feathered_IV]

If there are others of the community who would like to make a difference for this game. You can follow the link to find some excellent freeware speech files from EAW. The Italian and German ones look particularly useful. If you don't speak the language, download the English versions and use that as a translation guide:

http://www.sandbagger.uk.com/EAWSSS/speech.html

Get the free converter to change EAW's .SND files to CloD's .OGG format:

http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html?gclid=CMzfpazSjLwCFckdpQody10ASA

8bit unsigned, 8000 sample rate, mono seems to work nicely




Or if converting Il-2 files, try this hassle-free alternative:

http://media.io/

Choose ogg as the file type and Normal 128 kbit/s for output.

[Low Flyer]

There's a few Il2FB RAF campaigns with new voices by a chap whose name escapes me. All a bit on the 'chatty' side if my memory serves - I'll delve about.

Edit: Here you go - Compans put a lot of work into four campaigns - including new voice packs for each one.

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=3090

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=2883

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=3191

http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=3340

Caution! Colourful language.

[Kastel]

Not working for me.

All i get are 258 snd-files of totalling 10MB and 2 .str files.
The result after conversion into wav or ogg files are 258 files each with 10 miliseconds crap.

[jspec01]

Low Flyer, I believe Compans speech is what Feathered used for this pack (that is surprising he did new voice packs for each one!)

Feathered, thanks for the explanation. I just installed eaw on my system, I'm going to mess around today and try to extract the speech files to see how they sound.

Funny I was just at that eaw site yesterday trying to find an old campaign/add-on that I remembered had some pretty good RAF voices. It's called "great shot" I think, maybe I'll try and install that too and see what I can find.

[Sokol1]

The result after conversion into wav or ogg files are 258 files each with 10 miliseconds crap.

I did the same conversion and have audible voices for RAF, e.g. "Bug out, behind you".
Same for German voices, audible - but intelligible, as expected. :) e.g "In postione, *****!"

The only drawnback is the free converter allow convert only 5 files per time.

Sokol1

[MB_Avro_UK]

In my view, this voice pack has actually upgraded the sim for me.

The old stock voices were driving me bonkers.

[jspec01]

Well I managed to extract the speech files from my installed EAW, but can't get them to play for the life of me (let alone convert them to another kind of file).

They're ".SND" files, and I tried a few different converters over the last few hours with no luck (including dBpoweramp).

There are about 800-900 files each for the US, UK, and Germany.

I also found and installed that 'great shot' campaign, which has over 500 additional UK files. Unfortunately, they're .SND files also, which is a particular bummer as I remember that addon really having some great immersive radio chatter.

The files are small, so if anyone would like to take a crack I could always email them.

[Sokol1]

Jspec01

You try with the program (Switch Sound File Converter) linked Feathered_IV few posts bellow?

I was able to convert the .SFS files - donwloaded EAWSSS - to .OGG per F'_IV instructions.

Sokol1

[Low Flyer]

Low Flyer, I believe Compans speech is what Feathered used for this pack (that is surprising he did new voice packs for each one!)


Note to self: Don't post after long night shift. :oops: :)

Just a thought...any voice pack is going to get repetative, would there be a way to have random playback options for the same incident in certain circumstances? Or am I thinking too far ahead of current technology?

[jspec01]

Jspec01

You try with the program (Switch Sound File Converter) linked Feathered_IV few posts bellow?

I was able to convert the .SFS files - donwloaded EAWSSS - to .OGG per F'_IV instructions.

Sokol1

thanks! I can't believe I missed that post. Just tried converting one using his instructions and it worked.

Well I listened to a bunch of the UK files from that EAW campaign and they're really great.

Converting them 5 at a time would be quite a chore (there are 576 of them) but what's more daunting is that they're named 'UK3_011, UK3_12, etc' so I'm guessing you'd have to listen to all of them, then rename each file with the text of the speech from Cliffs that it's replacing? Seems like there are wingman voices so that's another aspect as well....

[Feathered_IV]

Note to self: Don't post after long night shift. :oops: :)

Just a thought... would there be a way to have random playback options for the same incident in certain circumstances?

Ha! I didn't want to be the one to tell ya. ;)

I reckon a randomiser may well be possible. I always thought Il-2 could use one. For CloD, the need is rather dire.

Il-2 had a file that governed the particular speech file that got player for a given event. For example:

Aircraft destroyed > I'm_bailing_out.wav

I remember some parts of the game had a built-in randomiser when the ";" semicolon was used. Campaigns, both Dgen and static used this.

Mission1.mis; Mission2.mis; Mission3;mis etc. If one of the missions listed wasn't there it just skipped it and went to the next one.

Some similar modification to the way sound files play would be great. Each event having a string of possible sound files: I'm_bailing_out.wav; I'm_bailing_out2.wav etc. the programming would be a TF thing of course. A silent placeholder sample for each one would let mugs like us come along after and add new samples. Well... One can dream!

[Feathered_IV]

thanks! I can't believe I missed that post. Just tried converting one using his instructions and it worked.

Well I listened to a bunch of the UK files from that EAW campaign and they're really great.

Converting them 5 at a time would be quite a chore (there are 576 of them) but what's more daunting is that they're named 'UK3_011, UK3_12, etc' so I'm guessing you'd have to listen to all of them, then rename each file with the text of the speech from Cliffs that it's replacing? Seems like there are wingman voices so that's another aspect as well....

Glad you got them extracted. The first hundred or so are all spoken coordinates and such. The sort of things that have driven us batty in clod, so there's not much call to use them. The end of each list of samples has most of the good stuff.

I find it's handy to change the name of each file as you listen to it to reflect its contents. "UK3_80 break right" for example. That way you can easily find what you're looking for later in any language.

[jspec01]

Cool, thanks Feathered.

[Compans]

Hello Feathered and everyone. It really pleases me to see these old voice files still being used. I've been away from simming for years and just got a PC update that's enabled me to play CLOD. I must say theses sound files work really well. My only discrepancy is that some of them are No 609 Sqn specific but it still lends atmosphere.

Cheers!

Comp

[Feathered_IV]

Hi Compans, welcome back! :grin:

I think your work was one of the very best contributions to the Il-2 series. Your voice acting skills are outstanding. Very Robert Shaw in a "Give em a bloody shovel" sort of way.

I hope you don't mind me messing about with your files. Several of them were edited to remove specific squadron references. Althought a couple still managed to sneak in it seems. Its still a bit of a work in progress. With only one voice slot for the entire RAF, its a challenge to get the right balance.

Here's one I did recently for laughs. Using your own velvet-covered gravel and a little help from the BoB movie.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/kcyurxbexd159jh/REPEAT+PLEASE+.ogg

:P

[Compans]

Cheers Feathered. Yeah the skipper was very much based on Robert Shaw's great (always slightly rankled) persona in the movie. For the record I used a super cheap headset mic which I covered in a little plastic bag and rustled it while speaking to add some crackles. When I used other actors it was difficult to stop some of them using expensive studio mikes. To my mind the cheaper the better. Some of the electronic pops and beeps were done by humming, then cutting and pasting small pieces of this track into speech tracks. All very homemade.

To answer your question...yourself or anyone else are welcome to use my sound files or anything else I produced, mess around with them or whatever.

Most sims produce fairly stale voice files. If you've ever read the book or seen the excellent documentary 'Finest Hour', there's one of the WAAFS accounts in there who says they were wary of using females as operations map workers as the broadcast pilot language could be bad. But she said that these men were fighting for their lives. I'm sure they stuck to the codes when they could but if someone's on your tail trying to kill you I would imagine it'd be very different.

[Compans]

Talking of Battle of Britain the movie, that erk sergeant always springs to mind on my landings:

"Bumps a daisy...makes you want to weep. And welcome home sir".

[Danalberto231]

Excellent post Feathered_IV, just what i was looking for to keep things fresh whilst i wait for TF4.01.
Hubspot partner agency (https://growtomation.in/)