Hello peeps! I am excited to talk to you about what I've been up to, but I am aware not everyone is an avid reader, (that's why we play games, right? lol) so if you're not interested in the process or background info, just check out the video towards the end of this article, it will provide a more direct, to the point perspective for you!
How It Started
Ever since Boonetastic Boonefoonery was released to the world wide web last summer, I consistently got the same feedback over and over - "Look into voice work! Silent dialogue ain't it, chief!"
I am exaggerating here, luckily everyone I've talked to has been super nice and understanding of the fact that voice work for modding is nearly impossible. Splicing dialogue from existing voicelines is time consuming, limits your scope to what the character has already said, and very difficult to make sound believable.
Hypothetical Interviewer: How did you plan tackling the issue of voice lines for this mod?
Me:
The only feasible solution would be AI voice generation, and for the longest time, I believed that the technology wasn't at a point where it would be worth the effort. Its fine and dandy for silly memes on youtube, but to use as a serious, immersive voice-over? From my perspective, it would be better to just keep the silent dialogue because if the voice lines were too obviously robotic, that would detract from the experience even more than silence.
But I was wrong.
How Its Going
Shout out to fellow user and Boone appreciator, BoonesGirl! They messaged me at the end of last year pointing me in the direction of PlayHT, a website for AI voice generation, and made a couple of voice files to pique my interest. They succeeded, and history soon repeated itself.
For a technology that was a mere pipe dream only 5 or so years ago, it is already so advanced! From just a couple hours of tweaking, I could get very human like inflections and pauses out of it. Seriously, check out the video below, I am honestly in awe of how believable it sounds!
Just like when I first started the mod, the moment I realized that I could make what I envisioned with what I had in front of me, a fire begun raging in my chest. I could do it and I would do it!
Unlike the mods infantile days, however, I had far less free time than I did then. I've slowly been working at it and now I've made voice files for 2 of the mods conversations. I plan on adding more in chronological order, meaning the order that the quests happen in the game. However, that doesn't mean everything is smooth sailing...
Obstacles
For starters, AI is AI and its far from perfect. Sometimes the voice AI doesn't have a clue how to render a line properly, and the emotions function in PlayHT is very hit and miss.
For example, the other day I got this utter gem that still makes me laugh -
Don't ask me how that happened, I still don't know myself.
Also, there's the typical issues with Bethesda games and modding in general. Even when you do everything right, sometimes it still doesn't work. More on this in the showcase video below - a few lines refuse to play, even though I quadruple checked they were labelled correctly and replaced the files more than once, for some reason its still silent. Currently trying to figure out what kinda sacrifice the Bethesda gods want me to make before they'll let these lines work.
The other problem is, PlayHT isn't free. You get a certain amount of characters as a demo and anything after that, you need to sign up for a membership. Ah, the joys of capitalism...
I've already used most of my free characters making what I've made so far. I will most likely pay for a membership to continue, as I am very excited to see what else I can do, but at the current moment, I have no spare income. NONE. Zilch. Nada. It will be a few weeks before I can scrounge up enough to justify putting towards a hobby.
Anyway, that's all I have to blather on about! Here's what you've been waiting for - the WIP showcase! Please share your thoughts below, any feedback will be really helpful!
