Topic: MODULE: TotalLipSync v0.5

[bx83]

Exactly how does the EXE reference it's own install dir? Should I make it '/sync/' or 'C:/moci/Compile/Windows/sync' or...?
It seems the directory where the TSV files are stored is hard-coded in, so it will only work if the game is in '/programme files (x86)/moci/sync', and nothing else -- which makes it hard for testing.

[bx83]

Ah, okay.

[Crimson Wizard]

Exactly how does the EXE reference it's own install dir? Should I make it '/sync/' or 'C:/moci/Compile/Windows/sync' or...?

In script you reference install dir using $INSTALLDIR$ tag like

Code: Adventure Game Studio

1. File.Open("$INSTALLDIR$/sync/data.dat");
2.  

There is also "old style" without such tag:

Code: Adventure Game Studio

1. File.Open("sync/data.dat");
2.  

But that will work only to read files, not write.

Also, AGS does not allow to use absolute paths (like C:/...), it simply won't open anything even if such file exists. This is done for security reasons.

[Snarky]

I notice '$INSTALLDIR$/sync' - is this "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adventure Game Studio 3.4.0\sync" or "my installed game\sync" dir, or "my currently un-installed un-compiled game directory\sync", or...?

Exactly how does the EXE reference it's own install dir?

AFAIK when you run the game from the Editor (with F5), game does not look into Compiled at all, it gets files and subfolders that are located right in the project's root folder.

Well, I just tested it, and if you have a "sync" folder inside "Compiled", it will be read when you run the game from the editor and reference files in "$INSTALLDIR$/sync". (But you are correct that the directory is not automatically copied into "Compiled/Windows/sync"; you have to do that yourself when you're ready to distribute the game.)

[Crimson Wizard]

AFAIK when you run the game from the Editor (with F5), game does not look into Compiled at all, it gets files and subfolders that are located right in the project's root folder.

Well, I just tested it, and if you have a "sync" folder inside "Compiled", it will be read when you run the game from the editor and reference files in "$INSTALLDIR$/sync". (But you are correct that the directory is not automatically copied into "Compiled/Windows/sync"; you have to do that yourself when you're ready to distribute the game.)

Oh right... probably I had a moment of amnesia; it was just couple of months ago what I was working around that, because in 3.4.1 Compiled folder is now Compiled/Data.

So, yes, when debugging from Editor the rules are a bit complicated, the "installdir" is actually "made" of three folders:
- working directory, which is project root folder: for example game takes font files from there
- Compiled folder: I think this was made to take speech.vox from there, and maybe something else, like translation files.
- AudioCache folder: it takes audio files from there.

Basically it looks into project root first, and if it did not find needed files, it also checks either Compiled or AudioCache, depending on what kind of material it is looking for.

Why it was made so: I think to increase compilation speeds when testing, because it does not have to gather/package all those files every time.

[Snarky]

For the record, I think this is a good thing, because it means you can keep all your "to be distributed" files in "Compiled/", and you don't need separate copies for each target platform (with the potential nightmare of keeping all the copies in sync).

(I might split this whole discussion off as a separate thread, since it doesn't really have much to do with this module specifically.)

[Snarky]

I wrote a little script to help people who use Rhubarb to do lip-syncing.

Rhubarb does the lip-sync tracking automatically by analyzing the audio, but you can also supply the actual text of the dialog to help guide it, improving the results. Using something like this batch file, you can then create the lip-sync tracking for the entire game automatically:

Code: Bash

1. for %%F in (clips/*.wav) do (
2.     rhubarb.exe clips/%%~nxF -d guide/%%~nF.txt > sync/%%~nF.tsv
3. )

There hasn't been a convenient way to create these guide files from AGS, however. This script helps to automate the task.

It works with the voice acting HTML scripts generated by the Speech Center plugin. Once you've created the voice acting scripts, place them in a subfolder (e.g. /VoiceScripts) inside your compiled game folder. Place a call to this function in your game, and run it to extract the guide files, like so:

Code: Adventure Game Studio

1.   ExtractVoiceScriptLines("$INSTALLDIR$/VoiceScripts", "$APPDATADIR$/guide");

(The output directory must be in $APPDATADIR$ or an existing subfolder of it. Where %APPDATADIR% is pointing can be set in winsetup.exe under Advanced.)

Here's the script (yeah, I know it's ugly, but it seems to work OK):

Code: Adventure Game Studio

1. #define SCRIPT_TOKEN_LINE_NUMBER "<span class=\"lineNumber\">"
2. #define SCRIPT_TOKEN_TEXT_START ":</b> "
3. #define SCRIPT_TOKEN_TEXT_END "</span>"
4.  
5. static String ExtractVoiceScriptLines(String sourceDirectory, String targetDirectory)
6. {
7.   int i=0;
8.   String tokenLineNumber = String.Format("%s", SCRIPT_TOKEN_LINE_NUMBER);
9.   String tokenTextStart = SCRIPT_TOKEN_TEXT_START;
10.   String tokenTextEnd = SCRIPT_TOKEN_TEXT_END;
11.   while(i < Game.CharacterCount)
12.   {
13.     String prefix = character[i].GetSpeechPrefix();
14.     String scriptPath = String.Format("%s/char%s.html", sourceDirectory, prefix);
15.     if(File.Exists(scriptPath))
16.     {
17.       File* scriptFile = File.Open(scriptPath, eFileRead);
18.       String lineNumberPrefix = prefix;
19.       while(!scriptFile.EOF)
20.       {
21.         String scriptLine = scriptFile.ReadRawLineBack();
22.         int startLineNumberTag = scriptLine.IndexOf(tokenLineNumber);
23.         if(startLineNumberTag != -1)
24.         {
25.           int startLineNumber = scriptLine.IndexOf(lineNumberPrefix);
26.           int endLineNumber = scriptLine.IndexOf("]");
27.           if(startLineNumber > 0 && endLineNumber > 0 && endLineNumber > startLineNumber + lineNumberPrefix.Length)
28.           {
29.             String strLineNumber = scriptLine.Substring(startLineNumber+lineNumberPrefix.Length, endLineNumber - startLineNumber - lineNumberPrefix.Length);
30.             int lineNumber = strLineNumber.AsInt;
31.             //Display("Writing %s%d", prefix, lineNumber);
32.             if(lineNumber>0)
33.             {
34.               String message = "";
35.               String dialogLine = scriptFile.ReadRawLineBack();
36.               int startTextTag = dialogLine.IndexOf(tokenTextStart);
37.               int endTextTag = dialogLine.IndexOf(tokenTextEnd);
38.               if(startTextTag > 0)
39.               {
40.                 while(endTextTag == -1 && !scriptFile.EOF)
41.                 {
42.                   dialogLine = dialogLine.AppendChar(' ');
43.                  dialogLine = dialogLine.Append(scriptFile.ReadRawLineBack());
44.                   endTextTag = dialogLine.IndexOf(tokenTextEnd);
45.                 }
46.                 int textLength = endTextTag - startTextTag - tokenTextStart.Length;
47.                 if(startTextTag > 0 && endTextTag > 0 && textLength >= 0)
48.                   message = dialogLine.Substring(startTextTag+tokenTextStart.Length, textLength);
49.                
50.                 String linePath = String.Format("%s/%s%d.txt", targetDirectory, prefix, lineNumber);
51.                 //Display("Writing line \"%s\" to file %s", message, linePath);
52.                 File* lineFile = File.Open(linePath, eFileWrite);
53.                 if(lineFile != null)
54.                 {
55.                   //Display("Writing line \"%s\" to file %s", message, linePath);
56.                   lineFile.WriteRawLine(message);
57.                   lineFile.Close();
58.                 }
59.                 else
60.                   Display("Couldn't write line \"%s\" to file %s", message, linePath);
61.               }
62.             }
63.           }
64.         }
65.       } // while(!scriptFile.EOF)
66.       scriptFile.Close();
67.     }
68.     i++;
69.   }
70. }

[bx83]

Hi Snarky,

The speech animation delay seems to be too slow for TotalLipSync - no matter what I set a characters to (1, 5, -25, 30), it doesn't make a difference.
What Speech Animation Delay does TLS use?
ATM I'm using 120fps ('GameSpeed'), so I can use a AnimationDelay=1, and not -7 as it was before (on 40fps). I was told using negatives for AnimationSpeed, WalkSpeed, etc. was bad and 'unknowns'.

Code: [Select]

cJulius.ChangeView(1); //julius
cJulius.SpeechView=2; //julius speech
cJulius.AnimationSpeed=1; //normal animation speed
cJulius.SetWalkSpeed(7, 6); //normal walk speed
...though I still use some negatives - for an old man:

Code: [Select]

cJulius.AnimationSpeed=0; //old animation speed
cJulius.SetWalkSpeed(1, 1); //old walk speed
No negatives have caused problems, but still.
I have 30frames walking for all characters.

So aaaaaanyway, how does TLS do it's timing?
How does Rhubarb do it's timing, considering it's file is in tenths of a second:

Code: [Select]

0.00 A
0.50 F
0.83 C
0.90 G
0.97 A
1.05 B
1.53 A
1.61 C
1.80 B
1.87 X
2.38 X

[Snarky]

Hi Snarky,

The speech animation delay seems to be too slow for TotalLipSync - no matter what I set a characrs to (1, 5, -25, 30), it doesn't make a difference.
What Speech Animation Delay does TLS use?

TotalLipSync doesn't use animation delay: it reads the timing data from the sync files and displays the corresponding frame.

Problems could potentially occur if the computer can't run the game at the game speed you've set. The animation might then fall behind the speech. So...

ATM I'm using 120fps ('GameSpeed')

Don't.
Film runs at 24 fps. A lot of cheaper animation runs at 12 fps, literally one tenth of the framerate you have set: you're showing ten frames for each one of theirs! AGS by default runs at 40 fps, which is plenty for a point-and-click game, and twitch-based games like FPSs aim for 60 fps, which is also how fast most monitors refresh. Which is all to say that 120 fps is an insane framerate for an adventure game.

More significantly: with a high-res game like yours, many (most) computers won't be able to keep up, and this could affect lip sync (and other sync situations).

so I can use a AnimationDelay=1, and not -7 as it was before (on 40fps). I was told using negatives for AnimationSpeed, WalkSpeed, etc. was bad and 'unknowns'.

No negatives have caused problems, but still.
I have 30frames walking for all characters.

Well, the "cure" is worse than the disease in this case. A better question might be, do you really need 30-frame walkcycles? If you cut it to 15 (every second frame) or even 10 (every third), do you lose noticeable quality?

How does Rhubarb do it's timing,[/b] considering it's file is in tenths of a second:

Code: [Select]

0.00 A
0.50 F
0.83 C
0.90 G
0.97 A
1.05 B
1.53 A
1.61 C
1.80 B
1.87 X
2.38 X

Those are hundredths.

[Snarky]

Two more things...

ATM I'm using 120fps ('GameSpeed'), so I can use a AnimationDelay=1, and not -7 as it was before (on 40fps). I was told using negatives for AnimationSpeed, WalkSpeed, etc. was bad and 'unknowns'.

Code: [Select]

cJulius.ChangeView(1); //julius
cJulius.SpeechView=2; //julius speech
cJulius.AnimationSpeed=1; //normal animation speed
cJulius.SetWalkSpeed(7, 6); //normal walk speed
...though I still use some negatives - for an old man:

Code: [Select]

cJulius.AnimationSpeed=0; //old animation speed
cJulius.SetWalkSpeed(1, 1); //old walk speed

A. 0 is not a negative number.
B. At 120 fps, a 30-frame walkcycle will run 4 times a second. Since a cycle includes two footsteps, that's 8 footsteps/second. That seems faster than necessary. (Edit: By comparison, the world's fastest runners sprint at a max pace of about 4.4 – 4.8 steps/second.)

[bx83]

My Inventory window icons dissappear when the character is talking, even if it's just .Say
Is this an AGS thing or a TotalLipSync thing?

[abstauber]

Just a quick guess, but have a look at 'General Settings' in the AGS Editor. In the category 'Visual', check the setting "When player interface is disabled, GUIs should" and make sure it's set to 'Display normally'.
That could be at least one cause of the icons disappearing.

[bx83]

That's the one, thankyou