Voice over/conversation conventions

[Squiggs]

I'm just wondering what the best way to do conversations in the editor is? For example if I have a conversation like the following:

Pilot: hello

GCI: hello

Pilot: Goodbye

GCI: Goodbye

Would I make this one single file that is played by a trigger/whatever when I want the conversation to happen or would I have them each as separate audio files and play them in order?

 

Also if they are separate files say conv1, conv2, conv3, conv4 and I queue them up on a trigger, will it wait for the first one to finish before playing the second one etc or will they all play over each other and I need to add in a delay myself?

[Jenson]

step 1: add a radio item for a group or coalition, bind it with Flag X, set Flag value 1 

step 2: once Flag X is true, play conv1, conv2 (with A sec delay), conv3 (with B sec delay), conv4 (with C sec delay) 

[TEMPEST.114]

Remember flags are just variables; get into the habit of using WORDS for flags - they help you keep your logic and state machine organised and clear and help when you return to the mission weeks later and can't remember what the numbers are without having to look at the triggers and work it all out again. 

Using only numbers is quite silly since they changed them to allow alphanumerics years ago. 

 

@Squiggs Read the Mission Editor manual - this kind of stuff is easily covered in it. It's very useful. Almost every question you'll ever have (except scripting) is already answered in the manual: 

 

 

[Squiggs]

@TEMPEST.114I found that post after I made this one. It was very useful.

 

The suggestion above was to make each audio it's own separate file and then queue them up to play on after the other in the editor. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to this over having one single audio file that combines all of them and therefore only playing one file? I'm leaning toward the one file approach as there are less moving parts and less opportunities for something to go wrong, but I am wondering if I am overlooking something.

[TEMPEST.114]

23 minutes ago, Squiggs said:

@TEMPEST.114I found that post after I made this one. It was very useful.

 

The suggestion above was to make each audio it's own separate file and then queue them up to play on after the other in the editor. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to this over having one single audio file that combines all of them and therefore only playing one file? I'm leaning toward the one file approach as there are less moving parts and less opportunities for something to go wrong, but I am wondering if I am overlooking something.

Great question.

It all comes down to flexibility.

If you want to spend the time and effort in Audacity making a playlist into one file, then great; it's certainly the easiest from a M.E. & Scripting DCS point of view because that's all it can handle.

The problem obviously comes when you want to add a new sound or change some. It may mean that you start to create a library of single files that are a mashup of different audio files.  That is totally fine and doesn't need anything else than vanilla DCS M.E. and scripting to work. 

You are also then locked into that sequence; what if you decide two missions from now you want to have a branching conversation? Then that sound file doesn't work anymore. 

 

However, if you want/need these to change on the fly, or react to a mission/story branch or some other 'cool' thing, then you're going to have to go down the same road I did, which is write your own audio file handler in lua and then the extremely annoying/boring/frustrating bull-crap of loading each sound into the .miz via the M.E. SOUND TO COALITION NEUTRAL at MISSION START so that you can just refer to them in code.

I'm now at almost 200 audio files for my 'SuperScript'. This means that I have had to make a default empty .miz for every map that has 200 lines in the ACTION box for loading audio files into the .miz. I had to do that by hand. It's pathetic and stupid and dumb, but that's the only mechanism that ED have given us unless you want to de-sanitise DCS. 

 

tl;dr

If you're just having short conversations, I'd have separate audio files - it gives you much more flexibility.

If you're starting to get into spending a lot of time in Audacity mashing them up and then making new ones for different branching storylines, then start to think about scripting and making template mission files you copy and then rename the copy to use as a base for each mission you make. 


Personally, for my missions, having a much greater degree of interactivity and pilot led choices is most important. To that end, all my 'pilot' conversations are done via the awful and unweildy F10 menu, and then the AI NPC 'talks' back with audio (I also have optional subtitles too that can be toggled on/off). This way, you're not forcing your players to have a specific voice, and because you can have a selection of items in an F10 menu, you're giving your pilots the opportunity to choose their own preferred response. 

I've found that it makes pilots feel more immersed. 

Edited May 29, 2024 by TEMPEST.114

[Squiggs]

Thanks for that comprehensive answer. I think I will opt for a combination, a single large back and forth conversation for "static" events and smaller snippets for things that are more dynamic.

 

You mentioned Audacity and this is going to go slightly off topic, but do you have any pointers/presets/mixer settings for making audio lines sound like they are coming over the radio. I know a little about mixer and compression but I'm not well versed in audio editing.

[TEMPEST.114]

38 minutes ago, Squiggs said:

Thanks for that comprehensive answer. I think I will opt for a combination, a single large back and forth conversation for "static" events and smaller snippets for things that are more dynamic.

 

You mentioned Audacity and this is going to go slightly off topic, but do you have any pointers/presets/mixer settings for making audio lines sound like they are coming over the radio. I know a little about mixer and compression but I'm not well versed in audio editing.

I do indeed.

Here's my macro that turns a clean .wav or .mp3 of speech into a .ogg of Radio Comms:

 

Edited May 29, 2024 by TEMPEST.114