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I started working on this, it's on my spare time (which was very nonexistent this week) so I cannot state exactly when it'll be ready, but hopefully not too long since this is not complex.
TheMagician: if your game source loads with AGS 3.2.1 it would be great if you let me know whether the current version works for you. There aren't that many open source games out there for me to test it on my own.

void iSay(this Character*, String what);

function SayBox(this Character*, String text, (optional)int color);
function ThinkBox(this Character*, String text);

Thanks, in that case I'll pay extra attention to extender functions

A function to generate voice acting scripts and number lines for custom say commands would also be invaluable.

Regarding voice acting script, the easiest way for me to do this is to add an export function, but there are 2 things to consider:
1. There may be some extra information needed (Snarky mentioned that there should be a comments field for that purpose)
2. Snarky also a mentioned a tool that already handles voice acting scripts. I prefer not to recreate features already done by others, especially if the tool is built for that purpose. However, the author of that tool hasn't responded to this subject so I have no idea whether the tool is defunct, the author doesn't read this, or simply ignores it all.

As for renumbering, it was a conscious decision to refrain from script manipulation features for first release to make sure the plugin does its job without the chance of introducing bugs into the game itself. That's the reason I'm looking for feedback on what is already provided, to verify it works before opening a new type of feature.

But, if I don't hear anything about whether the plugin works with Say or Display, I'll have to assume it does and start earlier with manipulation features. It's best if people could verify this with standard functions, if possible, so I'll know I'm not dealing with basic functionality bugs. Makes debugging later releases MUCH easier.

It's not such a major stretch.
The easiest way to do it is to give the user a choice of the function name and which function parameter is the text (this is in fact the way I search for the function).

Now, my main question is, how do you usually define your custom functions today? Some options I could think of:
* Send character ID as parameter
* Extender functions
* A function that always displays a predefined character (e.g., NarratorTalk, cEgoTalk, etc.)

I'll try to support all, but I would like to know if there is a common way people define them. Also, I would like to verify if I missed something you usually do.
If you could send me your custom functions (here or by email) I can make sure I test it with them.

Do most people display text with custom functions, or did you manage to also check the use of the standard functions?

Yes, the link broke.
Try this for now,

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=a031d4a2c1add700&resid=A031D4A2C1ADD700!111&parid=A031D4A2C1ADD700!110&authkey=!AJ9otK4Z8fEy_9I


I'll check about uploading it to another host later today.

Hey all,

Have you had the chance to try this? Please let me know if this was helpful. I'm very curious to know how game developers here see this plugin.

Thanks.

Following my experience developing an editor plugin, I would like to ask the following features:
* If a game uses a component (plugin) that is not currently installed, keep the previous component xml as-is when saving the .agf file. Currently it deletes this xml node completely
* Interface to get the current game player id (IGame doesn't provide this information)
* It's only possible to load one room at a time and it affects the GUI if there is an existing room edit in progress. There should be a way to load a room in-memory without affecting the GUI
* If a script or room was changed, but not saved, there should be a way to detect that there are pending changes.
* When a plugin component FromXml method is called, the CurrentGame DirectoryPath is null, it should have the right value when this method is called.
* Ability to register plugin's own unhandled exception handler, maybe by giving an option to load a plugin to its own AppDomain or an internal mechanism
* Provide plugin access to the properties window
* Provide plugin access to the error pane
* Allow a plugin to add an additional window in the right pane (next to the tree and properties window)

Additionally, I believe the following editor feature should be useful to the user:
Add back and forwards buttons to go through the different open documents. An enhancement could be to give a component an ability to add its internal locations to these events, but it's a nice-to-have addition.

[Download]

Latest version: 2.2.0

Download

Hello all,

Version 2.2.0 now also exports the data to CSV

About Speech Center
The Speech Center plugin enables management of the game text and speech within the AGS Editor. It provides a view of your game text and play the speech files, fully integrated within the editor.

It has the ability to scan the scripts (dialogs, global scripts and room scripts), and display all the speech line it finds in those scripts (such as the text used in the character Say function). You can sort, filter and search through the lines using the interface, edit the text and also jump to the script itself to make more complex changes.

Additionally you can export the text as voice acting scripts. The result HTML files, one for each character, can be sent to your voice actors to record their lines.

When a line is selected you can immediately view it in the script itself. Inline editing is available allowing you to review and change text in multiple scripts from a single screen. double-clicking on a line will open the AGS script editor and focus on that line, this is convenient if you would like to view and edit the script using the standard AGS script editor.

Another nice feature is the ability to view and edit game translation. When you choose a translation you get the same view and set of features. This means not just find, filter and sort, but also export a VA script in your translated language. You can also easily view the original text in the script since it is shown when you select a text line in the grid.

If the lines are numbered then it offers additional functionality:
The Speech directory is scanned for each line and provides info on the file status. You can playback the speech from the editor itself. You can also mark whether those lines are correct (there are 2 checkboxes for each line, one for the voice file and the other text).

To make sure the plugin is as non-intrusive as possible, it only loads the data if you click on the refresh button, thus it should not affect something you do, unless you are actually doing something at the plugin screen. Special attention was given to performance and the plugin should have the capacity to handle thousands of lines. This should cover even the extremely text-intensive games.

Here are a couple of screenshots to show you how the plugin looks like in action:




Sample output for VA scripts:


You can email me regarding any bugs or problems you find, I'll try to be as responsive as possible.

I hope this will assist you to continuing create awesome games!

Looks quite interesting. I've been thinking about how AGS could be adapted to better handle translations, and my idea was to extract all strings into a resource file that you could view - and edit... but one thing at a time - like this, and have multiple ones for different languages. While this apparently only covers dialogue, it's a great start!

Yes, my focus was at first on the speech-text correlation part. It should be very easy to add a comment field, maybe there would just be a question of UI here, the text field is designed to take up most of the width, a comment might be long too, so it would need to be convenient. Yes, a VA or translator would need the information separately, it's not likely many of them want or should have access to the game itself. The plugin information is stored in xml and I planned to have an export/import at some point (for a different reason), but we would need to better define the requirement for it to be helpful and effective for that use case. Perhaps it's best in a few days after I submit this.

I feel like there is something like this already, though? Didn't someone post a plug-in or standalone app to handle voice files?

hmmm... yes, I saw something after I have done most of the work. From what I've seen it's external and I think the two tools cover different aspects and needs. I'll gladly discuss this with the author of that tool to coordinate and cooperate.

This looks amazing! I was missing an in-ags way of handling speech. I like that it tells you whether a file is there or not, and what to name it. Can you edit the lines from this menu, or do you need to go into the script itself to do that?

If you double click a row in the table, it opens the script and focuses on the corresponding script line, and then you can edit it. I preferred not to have build-in edit features at first just a a precaution, since it requires extensive testing on my part making sure the plugin doesn't break anything, but it's technically feasible. I have a list additional features which I prefer to implement based on user requirements rather than my own invented priorities, so it's important feedback for me.

In all, this looks very snazzy. I'd certainly find use for it!

Great! In that case I'll make sure to post it soon.

Here are a couple of images to show what I had in mind.
If someone wants to try it, let me know soon and I'll post the plugin in a few days.
BTW, the intent is to have it free of course

Thanks

An example of how speech can be managed. There are intentional errors to present that this is simple to detect and manage. Check-boxes assist in marking lines in case they cannot be corrected immediately.



Demo Quest: it doesn't have speech, but you can still easily traverse through the text, filter based on various fields, sort and navigate to the actual script. It's build to scale, so performance should be good even when thousands of speech lines are involved.

Greetings,

I recently started an editor plugin that manages the text and speech aspect for AGS editor. It allows scanning the code, viewing in a single screen the various text message, checking whether the text line has a corresponding speech file and playback of course within AGS itself and there's more.

Apart from a few touch-ups and maybe some follow-up features it's not too far from being ready for first release, but is that of any interest to this community?

I'm asking mainly to see if this is not a waste of your time as well as mine, I would like to know whether it's something of value.

Please let me know, I promise not to be offended if you flame this idea. Your opinion is appreciated.

Many thanks.