Multiple VOX files

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I've been thinking. Does AGS (the runtime, not the editor) "read" VOX files as soon as it is launched, or as the game plays along?

Why do I ask this? Because of the possibility of having more than ONE voice pack, in more than one language. This is mostly theoretical, but bear with me.

There's a plugin which allows us to rename/delete files from the user's drive (a powerful and dangerous plugin, to be sure). WHAT IF I used that plugin to rename the speech.vox file IN GAME? Like, rename speech.vox to English.vox and rename French.vox to speech.vox? If those files are only read at the beggining, it won't make a difference, but if they're constantly being accessed by the game...

Can anyone answer this question? Remember, it's theoretical... for now. I intend to make practical use of it. Not just yet, though. <rubs hands and cackles malevolently>

[Pumaman]

AGS opens the file when it starts up, so you won't be able to rename it mid-game.

However, it may be possible to add an extra option to translation files with some sort of "SpeechFilename" setting so that you could have voice packs in different languages. Would this solve your problem?

[Doctor Oakroot]

How about just adding a program that copies the right file to speech.vox and then calls the game program?

[Pod]

For the moment you could tell the people to do so in your readme.

However, CJ, why not make it so that when you choose the language in the pre-run options menu, it does the relevant copying? However this way it may be a bit inefficient, as you'd have, say, five language files PLUS the speech.vox, wasting precious HDD and download space

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

CJ: Weeeeeeeeeelll... I'm working on something for someone else, and it's kinda necessary to be able to change the audio at runtime... that's why I thought of this workaround. But if it's called in the beggining, then it's probably impossible to do what I have in mind, yes? Pity. Well, I'll do it with variables, then, and have one big vox file... it won't be practical, but it'll get the job done.

[Anym]

Well, I don't know what your requirements are, I just want to say that few people would want to download speechfiles (probably several tens of megabytes in size) they don't need...

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

This is a non-standard production. Call it a test, if you will. AMong other things, we'll test the receptiveness of the "public" for these things.

[Gilbert]

I don't know, but I think changing this in runtime is seldomly needed for games anyway, even for commercial games. However, if it's possible to change this via setup, it can be cool anyway.

[jrl2222]

I would have to say most games ask when installing the game which language you prefer but I have seen some that ask at runtime. Why not create a small  program that could have some lang options then it could do the copying and start the game. If you need to change inthe middle of the game (and I am not an expert in this part but I have seen a thread on it before) save your game data break out of the game to the other program for switching files then jump back into the game. You could fairly easily set up the file program to look like a gui from the game I should think.

Seems a lot of work though. If the person playing uses this option and switches to another lang mid game then chances are they coudl understand the lang they just switched from? If your playing in english why would you need to switch to another lang mid game unless you were going to replay the same areas in the game and wanted them in another lang. Otherwise wouldn't you just keep the same file and just have the next level or part of the game be in the other lang?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Trust me. It's needed. I'll do it with variables, it'll work wonders.