Better RAF Voices

[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 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]

Originally Posted by Plt Off JRB Meaker

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.h...FckdpQody10ASA

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.p...etails&id=3090

http://www.mission4today.com/index.p...etails&id=2883

http://www.mission4today.com/index.p...etails&id=3191

http://www.mission4today.com/index.p...etails&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.

[Low Flyer]

Originally Posted by 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!)

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

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?

[Feathered_IV]

Originally Posted by Low Flyer

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

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!

[Sokol1]

Originally Posted by Kastel

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