Question About BG1 Voices

[Raulke]

Might be a silly question, but I'm new to this business of modifying games. I'm extremely dissatisfied with the range of voices that are selectable for the player's character in the original Baldur's Gate game. Is there a way to add more? I have a microphone, and I'm able to record more. I've also looked at the ones that are there, so I think I know the order that the sound files are supposed to go in.

 

Oh yes. I don't know if this is important, but just to note, I don't have any of the expansions/other games, just Baldur's Gate, and it's not a Tutu installation. Thanks, and I'm sorry if I should have put this elsewhere, it's already been answered, or it was a really dumb question.

 

~*Raulke

[phordicus]

this is a list of the sound file suffixes. just add it to the end of a 3-5 length word and save it as a .wav in your Sounds folder (raul3.wav, raul38.wav, etc). some you won't need (insult).

 

there's also quite a few homemade soundsets around here and SHS.

 

(BG2 equivalents are in parentheses)

BG

1 initial meeting

2 morale break

3 battle cry (8)

4 happy

5 annoyed

6 pissed off

7 hostile

8 made leader (b)

9 tired ©

10 bored (d)

11 hurt (e)

12 forest (n)

13 city (o)

14 dungeon (p)

15 day (q)

16 night ®

17-19 select common (f,g,h)

20-22 select action (i,j,k)

23-26 select rare (s,t,u,v)

27-31 interaction

32 response to insult

33 dialog hostile

34 dialog default

35 insult

36 compliment

37 distrust

38 injured (l)

39 dying (m)

40 reaction to death generic (w)

41 reaction to death specific

[Raulke]

All I have to do is put them in there and they'll be selectable in character generation? I looked in my sound file, and there seems to only be thirteen files per voice set, a-k, and they seem like a pretty predictable pattern.

 

Also...can you point me to some of these soundsets? I don't make female characters because the three default female voice are...particularly unpleasant to listen to. And I only use the default male voice for male characters, because as much as I like the sound of Cam Clarke's voice (I think it's him...sounds like him, anyway), I've heard him do much better. So having more voices would be great. Thanks!

 

~*Raulke

[Kulyok]

Some alternate soundsets are here: http://www.pocketplane.net/audio - Xan's full BG2 soundset for Xan in BG1, for example. You could also take soundsets from Icewind Dale game.

[Raulke]

Some alternate soundsets are here: http://www.pocketplane.net/audio - Xan's full BG2 soundset for Xan in BG1, for example. You could also take soundsets from Icewind Dale game.

 

I don't have any other games, only Baldur's Gate, no expansions. Thanks for the link, though...I will most definitely check that out when I have more time. I'm also looking forward to putting some of my own flair in my games.

 

Also, I'm assuming that I use the sound files I'll download by just dumping them in the sound folder, and they'll show up in character generation when I make a character there, without further poking around on my part?Just want to make sure, since I don't want to find out I've neglected to do a very small, minor thing that prevents it from working.

 

~*Raulke

[Kulyok]

Yes, as long as the files are named correctly, it should be all right - that's what I did when I dumped other soundsets in, anyway.

[grogerson]

IWD1/IWD2 have some nice soundsets, far larger than BG1/BG2. There are major differences in how the soundsets are handled, however.

 

1. In BG1/BG2 all sound files are located in the Sounds folder. In IWD1/IWD2 they are in individual folders within the Sounds folder. In IWD2 there are 42 soundset (and all immediately usable in IWD1). BG1/BG2 will not recognize subfolders, so you will have a very large Sounds folder in BG1/BG2 if you copy them all over.

 

2. phordicus alluded to this. I'll give the specifics. The organization of the sound files differ greatly between the BG and IWD games. From the BG2 readme:

The following is a list of the WAV files for the custom

sound sets. The list has been increased and modified since

Baldur's Gate, so if you already have a custom sound set you

will need to update it to match the current format. Replace

each 'XXXXXXX' in the filenames with the name of the sound

set (MAX 7 CHARACTERS in XXXXXXX, plus one character as noted

below for a total of 8 letters). All the WAV files should be

22 khz, 16 bit mono sounds.

 

Copy the WAV files to the Sounds directory located in the

directory that Baldur's Gate II was installed in, and then

select this sound set either in character creation or in the

"Customize" button off of the Character Record page. For

multiplayer, merely send your custom sounds to all of the

people you are playing with and have them copy them to the

Sounds directory. If you have installed the sounds to your

character in your game, everyone will hear your sounds once

they copy them into the correct directory.

 

XXXXXXXa.wav : Battle Cry

XXXXXXXb.wav : Becoming Leader

XXXXXXXc.wav : Tired

XXXXXXXd.wav : Bored

XXXXXXXe.wav : Badly Wounded

XXXXXXXf.wav : Selected 1

XXXXXXXg.wav : Selected 2

XXXXXXXh.wav : Selected 3

XXXXXXXi.wav : Action Acknowledgement 1

XXXXXXXj.wav : Action Acknowledgement 2

XXXXXXXk.wav : Action Acknowledgement 3

XXXXXXXl.wav : Being Hit

XXXXXXXm.wav : Dying

XXXXXXXn.wav : In Forest

XXXXXXXo.wav : In City

XXXXXXXp.wav : In Dungeon

XXXXXXXq.wav : Daytime

XXXXXXXr.wav : Nighttime

XXXXXXXs.wav : Action Acknowledgement 4

XXXXXXXt.wav : Action Acknowledgement 5

XXXXXXXu.wav : Action Acknowledgement 6

XXXXXXXv.wav : Action Acknowledgement 7

XXXXXXXw.wav : Reaction to Party Member Death

XXXXXXXx.wav : Rare Select 1

XXXXXXXy.wav : Rare Select 2

XXXXXXXz.wav : Critical Hit Given

XXXXXXX1.wav : Critical Miss

XXXXXXX2.wav : Target Immune

XXXXXXX3.wav : Inventory Full

XXXXXXX4.wav : Successfully Picked A Pocket

XXXXXXX5.wav : Successfully Hid In shadows

XXXXXXX6.wav : Spell Disrupted

XXXXXXX7.wav : Set A Trap

XXXXXXX8.wav : Battle Cry 2

XXXXXXX9.wav : Battle Cry 3

XXXXXXX0.wav : Selected 6

XXXXXXX_.wav : Action Acknowledgement 8

BG1 uses through XXXXXXXw.wav only. Anything else will be unused.

 

From the IWD2 sndlist.txt file:

The following is a list of the WAV files required to create custom sound

personality sets. In the 'Sounds' folder located in the directory in which

Icewind Dale II is installed in, you will need to create a subdirectory that is

used to store your new character personality. The new folder can be up to 32

characters in length. This folder will be displayed in the game as one

of the voice set options. Below is a listing of all the required voice sounds

that are needed in that new subdirectory. Replace the xxxxx with a unique name

that would not be used in other subdirectories. For example, mysnd01,

mysnd02, etc. As long as the xxxxx is unique, the voice sounds will show up

and work properly in Icewind Dale II.

 

All of the sound files must be 22 kHz, 16-bit, mono WAV files.

 

xxxxx01.wav : Morale Failure 1

xxxxx02.wav : Morale Failure 2

xxxxx03.wav : Battle Cry 1

xxxxx04.wav : Battle Cry 2

xxxxx05.wav : Battle Cry 3

xxxxx06.wav : Battle Cry 4

xxxxx07.wav : Battle Cry 5

xxxxx08.wav : Becoming Leader 1

xxxxx09.wav : Becoming Leader 2

xxxxx10.wav : Tired 1

xxxxx11.wav : Tired 2

xxxxx12.wav : Bored 1

xxxxx13.wav : Bored 2

xxxxx14.wav : Hurt 1

xxxxx15.wav : Hurt 2

xxxxx16.wav : Selected Common 1

xxxxx17.wav : Selected Common 2

xxxxx18.wav : Selected Common 3

xxxxx19.wav : Selected Common 4

xxxxx20.wav : Selected Common 5

xxxxx21.wav : Selected Common 6

xxxxx22.wav : Selected Common 7

xxxxx23.wav : Selected Action 1

xxxxx24.wav : Selected Action 2

xxxxx25.wav : Selected Action 3

xxxxx26.wav : Selected Action 4

xxxxx27.wav : Selected Action 5

xxxxx28.wav : Selected Action 6

xxxxx29.wav : Selected Action 7

xxxxx30.wav : Selected Rare 1

xxxxx31.wav : Selected Rare 2

xxxxx32.wav : Selected Rare 3

xxxxx33.wav : Selected Rare 4

xxxxx34.wav : Being hit 1

xxxxx35.wav : Being hit 2

xxxxx36.wav : Being hit 3

xxxxx37.wav : Dying 1

xxxxx38.wav : Dying 2

xxxxx39.wav : Reaction to partymember dying 1

xxxxx40.wav : Reaction to partymember dying 2

xxxxx41.wav : Critical hit 1 (Optional)

xxxxx42.wav : Critical hit 2 (Optional)

xxxxx43.wav : Falling Down (Optional)

IWD1 uses through xxxxx40.wav. Anything else will be unused.

 

3. As kulyok stated above, various web sites have soundset already prepared (Sorcerers Place, Spellhold Studios, Pocketplane Group), and not just from IWD1/IWD2. IWD-in-BG2 creates some in the conversion process. I've even created soundsets from IWD2 for use in my BG games. I can tell you it's a lot of work to do the full set so I'd recommend checking out some of the already created soundsets.

[Raulke]

Thanks! Thank you all for the information. Unfortunately, it's actually a lot more confusing than it is helpful. Though I do appreciate everybody who took the time to try and explain it to me.

 

Actually, I have to ask something else. I've looked in the Black Isle/Baldur's Gate/Sounds folder, and I see only the following female voice soundfiles: "Female1a.wav" through "Female1k.wav", "Female2a.wav" through "Female2k.wav", "Female3a.wav" through "Female3k.wav". Same with the male soundsets--three sets of male soundfiles, grouped by "male1", "male2", "male3", each group with soundfiles a - k.

 

And hearing all the assortment of things I'm supposed to need, I'm a little confused -- my main character, the one that the player creates when a new game is started, never talks about being in the city, forest, or dungeon. S/He never talks about the day or night-time. Never says anything about being displeased, or anything like that. My NPCs do. But my main character never does.

 

So...since I've never heard any of these things, I'm a little confused. Do I have a different version of the game, maybe? What I was supposed to have bought was "Baldur's Gate". The first game, no expansions, no Tutus, no mods, no hacks, no added content, no nothing like that. Just the bare game itself, right out of the package.

 

I bought it on Amazon, from a third party, and I'm a little concerned I got a bootlegged copy, since my game seems to lack all these extra voices that have been mentioned....

 

~*Raulke

[Kulyok]

Main character never says any of these things, that's correct. That's the main difference of the protagonist from the NPCs - he cannot complain about reputation, because it's his or her decision to sustain that party reputation.

[grogerson]

Main character never says any of these things, that's correct. That's the main difference of the protagonist from the NPCs - he cannot complain about reputation, because it's his or her decision to sustain that party reputation.

Seems my knowledge just got a small boost. I've been so familiar with the full soundsets I hadn't thought about PC v. NPC. If you create an NPC to go with your PC (some players create their own parties and ignore BioWare's) it will probably be the same - files a-k only. I'll have to look into this... (wanders away scratching head)

[phordicus]

you could always append a small script to dplayer3 with associated WAVs. it'd only fire when the AI is on -- engine limitation with player scripts, sadly.

IF
 AreaType(DUNGEON)
 !GlobalTimerNotExpired("dungeonchat","LOCALS")
 CombatCounter(0)
THEN
 RESPONSE #100
SetGlobalTimer("dungeonchat","LOCALS",2400)
PlaySound("mysnd032")
 RESPONSE #100
SetGlobalTimer("dungeonchat","LOCALS",2400)
PlaySound("mysnd033")
 RESPONSE #100
SetGlobalTimer("dungeonchat","LOCALS",2400)
PlaySound("mysnd034")
END

[Raulke]

you could always append a small script to dplayer3 with associated WAVs. it'd only fire when the AI is on -- engine limitation with player scripts, sadly.

 

I actually don't use the AI, it's more a pain in the butt than anything else. It doesn't do what it advertises -- it attacks when I don't tell it to, and forgets to attack when the main character does. As for the code itself, I'm not experienced enough with modding the game to know what that is. My rule of thumb is, if my eyes cross while I'm trying to read it, I don't need to mess with it.

 

Seriously, though. All I really need to know is, if I make sound files named similarly to the ones that are already there, then take these eleven sound files and drop them into "C:\Program Files\Black Isle\Baldur's Gate\Sounds", will these sound files appear as an available soundset for a voice when I attempt to create a new main character PC, without me having to add any code, script, or options to the game itself, to let the game know that there are more voices?

 

~*Raulke

[cmorgan]

If I understand your follow-on question correctly, then the answer is no.

 

PC does not get the same kind of behind-the-scenes scripting that NPCs do. So the extra sounds have no possible triggering mechanism unless you do something like phordicus suggests, creating a reference that the game understands so that it can trigger them (which is kind of cool, actually - an "involuntary mutter to yourself" script.)

[Raulke]

If I understand your follow-on question correctly, then the answer is no.

 

PC does not get the same kind of behind-the-scenes scripting that NPCs do. So the extra sounds have no possible triggering mechanism unless you do something like phordicus suggests, creating a reference that the game understands so that it can trigger them (which is kind of cool, actually - an "involuntary mutter to yourself" script.)

 

No, no...what I'm asking is this. The first Baldur's Gate game directs you to create a character that is the main character of the game before you can actually start playing the game. During the creation of the main character -- where you choose their gender, class, skills, and appearance -- one of the things you can choose is which voice to use for your character. The voice sets I have are "Default", "MALE1", "MALE2", "MALE3", "FEMALE1", "FEMALE2", "FEMALE3". My problem is, I dislike all three of the female voice sets. There's one that sounds like she has a German accent, one that sounds like she's really mean, and the third sounds like she's in her sixties. Hence I won't make female characters.

 

What I am asking is, if I create a set of sound files matching the format of those in the sounds folder, and put them in the Sounds folder, will I these files that I put in there be usable as a voice during the creation of the main character at the character generation screen? In other words, to use the female voices as an example, if I make a "Female4" set -- that is to say, .wav files named Female4a, Female4b, Female4c, Female4d, and so on, and make them the same format as the other files in the Sounds folder, will this make a "FEMALE4" set selectable for the main character during character generation?

 

What I have is just the original "Baldur's Gate" game. No extensions, no expansions, no Tutu, no WeiDu (sp?), nothing like that. In case it matters. I hope that's clarified it a little. Because I don't know how else to explain it.

 

~*Raulke

[grogerson]

What I am asking is, if I create a set of sound files matching the format of those in the sounds folder, and put them in the Sounds folder, will I these files that I put in there be usable as a voice during the creation of the main character at the character generation screen? In other words, to use the female voices as an example, if I make a "Female4" set -- that is to say, .wav files named Female4a, Female4b, Female4c, Female4d, and so on, and make them the same format as the other files in the Sounds folder, will this make a "FEMALE4" set selectable for the main character during character generation?

 

What I have is just the original "Baldur's Gate" game. No extensions, no expansions, no Tutu, no WeiDu (sp?), nothing like that. In case it matters. I hope that's clarified it a little. Because I don't know how else to explain it.

 

~*Raulke

You can expand the naming sequence or name them something else, as long as the file sequence (xxxxxxxa.wav thru xxxxxxxk.wav) remains. They must also be recorded at 22khz, in 16 bit mono.

 

I agree the standard BG soundsets are, shall we say, lacking. That's what I like about the IWD soundsets. They sound so much better, are more diverse, and I don't play without them. IWD2 even adds male and female sets for barbarians, bards, drow, half orcs and monks. That's why I recommend checking Sorcerer's Place downloads. Then check the soundsets out with any audio file player. If you like one of the soundsets, you can drop the set into your sounds folder. If you don't, you can delete it.