Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

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Axeface
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Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Axeface » Fri, 24. May 19, 19:19

Modern text to speech engines are quite good, as far as ive seen. Can they be licensed by companies for things like games?
Theres a lot of cool things that could be done if egosoft were to do this. For example, player named sectors could be spoken by betty, even ships. We could have our empire name spoken when we select a ship "TLi Discoverer Vanguard" (Totally Legitimate Inc, my 'corporation' 8) ). And anything egosoft adds wouldnt need to be voiced, which as we all know is expensive. Encyclopeadia entries, wares and ship entries, anything would be easy to make audio files for.

They could even start to name ships, rather than just calling out the model. Like Argon One in X3, but as many as they want. They could even have the system give names to actual ships that do something in the game.... a specific Teladi destroyer survived a battle and killed 2 K's, the Teladi could give it a name and betty could actaully say it. "Nopileos' Vengeance" or something.

They could probably even find one that sounds like the current betty. Thoughts?

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Kadatherion » Fri, 24. May 19, 20:18

Heh, in theory, yes, I think they could, although I guess initially the cost could be even higher than hiring "Betty" (it's not like Egosoft has ever relied on very "professional" and as such quite costly VA studios, licensing a good text to speech might cost more than that), although in the long term the investment could pay off.

However, text to speech softwares imo are still fairly awkward. Granted, given Betty is supposed to be the ship onboard computer that wouldn't feel much out of place, but players can be VERY dismissive when it's clear the content offered in their games is outsourced/third party whatever. I've got the feeling it could hurt more than it would help, at least at the beginning, as for quite a few people it would add to the feeling of "unpolishness" of the overall product.

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by radcapricorn » Fri, 24. May 19, 20:24

For Betty of old, I'd say nay. For the new Betty that only speaks sectors and ships, I'd say yay. If they ever bring back voiced encyclopedia, it'd be ear-rending disaster though.

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by samoja » Fri, 24. May 19, 21:32

Axeface wrote:
Fri, 24. May 19, 19:19
Modern text to speech engines are quite good, as far as ive seen. Can they be licensed by companies for things like games?
Theres a lot of cool things that could be done if egosoft were to do this. For example, player named sectors could be spoken by betty, even ships. We could have our empire name spoken when we select a ship "TLi Discoverer Vanguard" (Totally Legitimate Inc, my 'corporation' 8) ). And anything egosoft adds wouldnt need to be voiced, which as we all know is expensive. Encyclopeadia entries, wares and ship entries, anything would be easy to make audio files for.

They could even start to name ships, rather than just calling out the model. Like Argon One in X3, but as many as they want. They could even have the system give names to actual ships that do something in the game.... a specific Teladi destroyer survived a battle and killed 2 K's, the Teladi could give it a name and betty could actaully say it. "Nopileos' Vengeance" or something.

They could probably even find one that sounds like the current betty. Thoughts?
But Betty is a series staple, she is like HAL but with less personality "cargo bay now contains, asteroid".

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Artean » Fri, 24. May 19, 21:35

Replace Betty?? Heretic.
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SPiDER
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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by SPiDER » Fri, 24. May 19, 22:03

Betty being one of the plus points in this game I would also disagree....she does still however need to realise that Turret dosent have an N in it.

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Tomonor » Fri, 24. May 19, 22:05

Artean wrote:
Fri, 24. May 19, 21:35
Replace Betty?? Heretic.
But what if we don't replace Betty, but »upgrade« Betty? :D


Anyway, if they can pull-off such voice synthatiser with that certain accent and proper intonation, I'm fully up for the change. Hey, Siri.
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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Artean » Fri, 24. May 19, 22:55

repatomonor wrote:
Fri, 24. May 19, 22:05
Artean wrote:
Fri, 24. May 19, 21:35
Replace Betty?? Heretic.
But what if we don't replace Betty, but »upgrade« Betty? :D


Anyway, if they can pull-off such voice synthatiser with that certain accent and proper intonation, I'm fully up for the change. Hey, Siri.
Yes, an upgrade would be fine but nothing else. ;)
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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Axeface » Sat, 25. May 19, 00:19

My one criteria for this to even be considered is that its better quality than current Betty. As far as I know current Betty is basically a database of voiced files, that are stitched together to for sentences? This is why Betty more often than not does not pronounce things quite right, or her sentences sound off.

I was just looking at the current text to speech options, and honestly I thought they were better than they are. Im sure i saw something a while ago using AI that was amazingly believable. But all I can find now is Amazon Polly, which can sound good at times, but overall the quality would not be that much better than current Betty.

Obviously, AI is a big thing right now, I reckon within a year or two we are going to see mcuh more believable text-to-speech with AI.

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Tomonor » Sat, 25. May 19, 01:01

Axeface wrote:
Sat, 25. May 19, 00:19
My one criteria for this to even be considered is that its better quality than current Betty. As far as I know current Betty is basically a database of voiced files, that are stitched together to for sentences? This is why Betty more often than not does not pronounce things quite right, or her sentences sound off.

I was just looking at the current text to speech options, and honestly I thought they were better than they are. Im sure i saw something a while ago using AI that was amazingly believable. But all I can find now is Amazon Polly, which can sound good at times, but overall the quality would not be that much better than current Betty.

Obviously, AI is a big thing right now, I reckon within a year or two we are going to see mcuh more believable text-to-speech with AI.
Betty's X-X3 voicelines were compiled into a single big voicefile and various scripts took care of which part of the file to play if a character/Betty had spoken.

XR-X4's Betty voicelines are indivdually stored in separate folder categories, and even those are split into 4 categories depending on the distance you are away from the sound source (muffled, speaker-like Betty voice). Yes, the sentences with variables are split up into different parts where they insert the variable's voice line by a script (for instance, numbers, marks, alphabetical letters, greek letters, etc).
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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Axeface » Sat, 25. May 19, 01:09

repatomonor wrote:
Sat, 25. May 19, 01:01
Axeface wrote:
Sat, 25. May 19, 00:19
My one criteria for this to even be considered is that its better quality than current Betty. As far as I know current Betty is basically a database of voiced files, that are stitched together to for sentences? This is why Betty more often than not does not pronounce things quite right, or her sentences sound off.

I was just looking at the current text to speech options, and honestly I thought they were better than they are. Im sure i saw something a while ago using AI that was amazingly believable. But all I can find now is Amazon Polly, which can sound good at times, but overall the quality would not be that much better than current Betty.

Obviously, AI is a big thing right now, I reckon within a year or two we are going to see mcuh more believable text-to-speech with AI.
Betty's X-X3 voicelines were compiled into a single big voicefile and various scripts took care of which part of the file to play if a character/Betty had spoken.

XR-X4's Betty voicelines are indivdually stored in separate folder categories, and even those are split into 4 categories depending on the distance you are away from the sound source (muffled, speaker-like Betty voice). Yes, the sentences with variables are split up into different parts where they insert the variable's voice line by a script (for instance, numbers, marks, alphabetical letters, greek letters, etc).
Yeh I extracted the games files shortly after release and found many spoilers ;p Like betty saying
Spoiler
Show
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Nort The Fragrent
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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Nort The Fragrent » Sat, 25. May 19, 09:49

Betty is betty, leave her be.

To speak bad of Betty is treason, be careful.

:roll:

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Socratatus » Sat, 25. May 19, 13:27

Axeface wrote:
Fri, 24. May 19, 19:19
Modern text to speech engines are quite good, as far as ive seen. Can they be licensed by companies for things like games?
Theres a lot of cool things that could be done if egosoft were to do this. For example, player named sectors could be spoken by betty, even ships. We could have our empire name spoken when we select a ship "TLi Discoverer Vanguard" (Totally Legitimate Inc, my 'corporation' 8) ). And anything egosoft adds wouldnt need to be voiced, which as we all know is expensive. Encyclopeadia entries, wares and ship entries, anything would be easy to make audio files for.

They could even start to name ships, rather than just calling out the model. Like Argon One in X3, but as many as they want. They could even have the system give names to actual ships that do something in the game.... a specific Teladi destroyer survived a battle and killed 2 K's, the Teladi could give it a name and betty could actaully say it. "Nopileos' Vengeance" or something.

They could probably even find one that sounds like the current betty. Thoughts?
I think in time this will happen. These artificial voices are easily becoming as good as the real thing. Why use someone you gotta pay and who needs to rest or maybe funny about saying something when you can get this AI voice to sound sweet all the time while making it say whatever you want. I mean look at Astra of the voice commands of HCS. She`s one of the most popular voices because, unlike the actual actor`s, she`s available all the time and will say anything- and she don`t charge extra.

Just like they use AI speech now when you phone many companies it`s only a matter of time before they`ll use a speech engine for an entire game... Maybe not for X4, but it will happen.
"If you`re looking for that one person who can change your life, take a look in the mirror."
"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."
"Don`t raise your voice. improve your argument."
"Some men are morally opposed to violence. They are protected by men who are not."

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Tamina » Sat, 25. May 19, 14:57

Phone scams still use pre recorded messages. We had this topic A LOT OF TIMES here and I have yet to see a good TTS engine.

Also it would need to be available for multiple languages.

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by MakerLinux » Sat, 25. May 19, 23:28

Tamina wrote:
Sat, 25. May 19, 14:57
Phone scams still use pre recorded messages. We had this topic A LOT OF TIMES here and I have yet to see a good TTS engine.

Also it would need to be available for multiple languages.
As a non-native english speaker I do not mind that much if a game has TTS only in their popular or native language, like German or English. Egosoft could do that to see whether it works with users, then expand to new languages in new releases or other games.
...I just hope they never use that to censor stuff... As with the names of my stations and ships, I always use curse words everywhere, because it cracks me up and makes me remember the names and locations of all my assets.
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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by radcapricorn » Sat, 25. May 19, 23:37

MakerLinux wrote:
Sat, 25. May 19, 23:28
As with the names of my stations and ships, I always use curse words everywhere, because it cracks me up and makes me remember the names and locations of all my assets.
Your ship "*****ng ***** **************" was destroyed by "SCA Kestrel".
****************!!!!!!!!

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Nort The Fragrent » Sun, 26. May 19, 07:04

You do realise that handing speech over to a computer to do is yet an other lost job for a real person !

Yes it is cheeper in the long run, so the accountants can rub their hands together and rejoice in the profit margin. But it’s another human that has become redundant. ( now think about the job you do ! ) Will there be a job for your children ?

Any one like those phone droids ? I certainly don't ! ( cheep yes, but sad )

I say keep betty, keep the imperfections, Keep people involved, or we will end up as xenon.

:roll:

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Socratatus » Sun, 26. May 19, 11:28

Nort The Fragrent wrote:
Sun, 26. May 19, 07:04
You do realise that handing speech over to a computer to do is yet an other lost job for a real person !

Not this falacy. That`s what they said when the Industrial revolution happened. that`s what they said when printers turned over to doing everything by computer in the `70s, etc, etc.

New jobs will be created. Stop fretting.
"If you`re looking for that one person who can change your life, take a look in the mirror."
"No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."
"Don`t raise your voice. improve your argument."
"Some men are morally opposed to violence. They are protected by men who are not."

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by samoja » Sun, 26. May 19, 12:36

Socratatus wrote:
Sun, 26. May 19, 11:28
Nort The Fragrent wrote:
Sun, 26. May 19, 07:04
You do realise that handing speech over to a computer to do is yet an other lost job for a real person !

Not this falacy. That`s what they said when the Industrial revolution happened. that`s what they said when printers turned over to doing everything by computer in the `70s, etc, etc.

New jobs will be created. Stop fretting.
This is neither the time nor place for this conversation but i will humor you two, while what you said was always true in the past that does not mean it will still be true in the future, even today hundreds of thousands of jobs went away and new ones did not appear to replace them, and it will only get worse from here on out, we are facing a serious crisis in the future and dismissing it as fallacious just because the issue always resolved itself in the past is very short sighted. The truth is that menial jobs are going away, slowly but surely. Not everyone is smart enough to be nuclear physicist, and those people will have nowhere to go, but it's worse then that, we are all interlinked, if there is even a small shortage of jobs it creates a game of musical chairs that hurts everyone, as employers can get away with offering lower wages for the same work, this in turn reduces the spending power of individuals leading to shrinking economy. The western economic model relies on consumer spending, if consumer does not have money to spend the whole system starts collapsing as businesses seek to offset their losses by laying people off and working the remaining employers extra hard to make up for it, thereby even further reducing the spending power of the consumer and so it goes on and on.

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Re: Time to replace betty with modern text to speech?

Post by Nort The Fragrent » Sun, 26. May 19, 13:35

Yes, new jobs will be created, They will be ether top of the line Ai research, Or temporary low grade jobs. Betty needs to be given a chance, not the scrap heap.
Accountants greed and consumerism are the problem, we as humans need to see what we as humans need. Not what we want!
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