Messages

I'm offering an ear for music, and tips @ mixing/mastering/composing, 20+ years experience. My best take (music) on an intense RT'S classic theme (It's heavy metal, youtube link, but don't want to post it all over the thread). So it's in a spoiler 

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USoSb9V_zlg

[close]

Also offering an eye for pixelart, some of my work you can find here, Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/andreasblack1/:
I will soon change to that username, created one here before, but forgot the password, haha!!

Characters, BG's, help with Character Design, not animating, suggestions how to make things look better, or such. If you happen to like what i do. Give me a follow, i'm very happy whenever i get a new follower.  Otherwise tell me to gtfo  Takes too much time, to help with animations, so can't do that. Caught up in my own shit, Sorry.

Those other services just explained are all free of charge tho!

[NOT]

I have two suggestions:

1. Don't have significant silences in your speech files. Divide the lines whenever there is a long pause, and trim the audio files to contain near-constant dialog. Forget about lipsync and just use regular AGS talk animations.
2. As you have tried to do, edit the sync-files to only distinguish silent periods (frame X in Rhubarb terms) from speaking periods, and then fill the speaking periods with a standard sequence of frames. Since this is tedious work, it would be best to automate it unless the number of lines to sync is very small.

If you are getting errors with the edited sync files, you have made some error in the editing. Without seeing the files or the error message there is no way to tell what that might be, but one possibility is that your text-editing app uses the wrong format for the line endings (one way to test this would be to take a sync file that is confirmed to work, and delete and reinsert a line ending and see if it breaks).

Notepad ++ is the editor of choice, btw. Sounds like some great advice there! Thanks as always, i will try some more!.
The instagram link works on my Laptop (Secondary Computer) that is NOT logged into Facebook or Instagram. However if going thru https://www.instagram.com/andreasblack1/ you can't hit the play button it seems and need to login. I don't have the mp4 left on my system since it crashed some month ago, and i'm back with a new HDD. But anyway, it doesn't matter.

It's funny you'd say that tho. Cause that's exactly what i've tried earlier today. But you get this feeling that you still want to manually be able to control the overall speech animation delay sometimes in sections, i guess in a way it could still be done, just like you say with AGS "own" lipsync support. If i type "SpeechAnimationDelay" out just before "a fast" line" or a word is said, in code. However that means i could only have "that word" in that line, or else all the others words get affected which may not be fast in nature, which could in theory i believe be better done with the Total Lipsync in the actual syncfile manually . I should take a look at your chart and line them up in the syncfile and experiment more, and try add rows of 01.10, 01.20, 01.30 etc etc.

I'm after the ability to change speed of the animation on different words (so in a way i guess that could be called "Animation syncing", but different then lipsyncs original feature, *frame syncinc* (?)). Cause at the moment it get's stuck a lot of times on "one frame", which looks aweful. I hate to swear in Church, but Thimbleweed Park alltho a great game, had the same fate. Sometimes the mouth shapes are stuck for too long, and it looks down right aweful.  Just because this worked in Sony Vegas tho, doesn't mean it would in an AGS editor. . But what i've just explained was exactly what i did in Sony Vegas. The ability to sometimes speed up the 10 frame sequence mp4, sometimes slow it down, and then *insert closed mouth* at silent places automatically with Total Lipsync (i had to do that manually in Vegas ofc). Would be a totally killer feature!

Maybe the easiest way to describe it should have been to say this: Bypass one frame function for words, and just have an overall speed animationdelay setting for chosen sections of the text (if text + audiosync will be available). Forexample you could type something like, "break" in the syncfile and it would "recognise" that OK that was that line/or word, and then the next line or word that comes get's a new potential animationspeed, or keeps the same unless the user choose to change it. To the users liking, and when there is no sound under -40-50db *insert noisegate* = closed mouth frame or a animation for closing the mouth, how cool would that be!. I know i'm talking out of my ass here . I'm no coder! I just enjoy AGS so much. Had a lot of fun lately, and even getting the lips to move "somewhat" is an epic win it itself Snarky! Thanks to your hardwork that was possible! But then you start dreaming "wouldn't it be possible to do this", and so on, so forth. What i've done so far with the Total Lipsync is probably good enough for the majority of people. It's just that my perfectionist spirit see's other possibilities, and now i've gotten them out of my system. Feels better now. Thank you!

This doesn't really have anything to do with TotalLipSync. If you use voice speech in AGS, the character is considered to be speaking for as long as the audio clip lasts.

Ahh, ok. My bad, thanks for informing! It's still useful to know for those who try to sync up and get's confused why it might stay on screen for longer then expected.

I don't really understand what you're asking for (you say that Rhubarb gets the silences right, so why do you need a hack for the closed mouth shape?), but in any case it doesn't sound like what this module is for.

The module merely plays animations defined in external sync-files. The result will depend on the quality of those sync files; it is not something the module can control, and it has nothing to do with the text you put in the dialog. If you type one line in the game text, use a different voice clip, and a sync file for another different clip, it will of course play the animation from the sync file (though it will be cut off when the voice clip ends), and it won't match either what is written or what is said: it's only by keeping all three consistent that things stay in sync, but the module has no way to know that.

If you want the animation to be based on the written dialog text, you can use AGS's built-in text-based lipsync.

I've tried that alternative before and yes the animation plays correct, but the timings for when the speech is in a short breath or pauses for a millisecond, are not present, and the animation just keep on playing no matter if there is sound or not in the voiceclip. Unless i failed to see how to change that from happening. But again if that logic is "true" then how come it wasn't with the Lipsync? When you clearly said the Lipsync does not have anything to do with how long the text stays on screen. So no matter if there is silence in the audio file or not, the animation will just keep playing. If my basic logic isn't completely faulthy.  Which is not the intended behaviour for what i'm trying to achieve. I'm trying to have just the timing for the X's  Intact (closed mouth shape). I will try a new example. Thank you very much for your patience so far, Snarky!

Edit: Here's an example when i did this "theory" in Sony Vegas. I exported 10 frame talk (or however many frames it was i dont remember). IN a row, and went in manually and just found the X's (if talking lipsync, but i didn't use lipsync, but you get the idea, hopefully). and at places where there should be closed mouth shape, i inserted that manually, but the lipsync could do that for me! The rest is just constant animation in a row flow with abrupt mouthclosings here and there.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcCD8fpnYi/

Example. OK here is a example of what i mean editing a Syncfile manually. I guess the textfiles would only need to be the right amount of letters, and not "the actual letters". Because then this clearly would not work.

Code: ags

0.00	X
0.67	B            //<--you replace these letters so they all come in the correct "animation row" as exported from Photoshop (Until the X shows up, and not have them "spaced out" acording to their timing numbers (as it is here, 00.67 - 00.93 a "gap"). 
0.93	A           //Perhaps i could edit these manually, and save a template where all letters come in a row (if it's not possible any other way). So that would mean some work, i wouldn't mind. I'm very concerned about it looking "better". If possible.   
                      //these come in a row like in the actual Photoshop talk animation. That's why the X or "the closed mouthshapes" timing of the synctool would be very benificial. 
                     // to create the illusion of sync, even tho like you as in your confused state of mind have noticed. There barely is [u]no syncing[/u], apart from the X's. Are you following my idea now? If not here comes the "fixed" version (in theory that is).

                     
                      //Replacement idea of previous example (I have no idea, if this would work in theory, please let me now). Forexample say i wanted a 5 second Delay Speech animation)
                     //Going in manually and editing in notepad the syncfile TSV this way. Now i want the photoshop animation to come in a ROW.

0.00 X 
0.05 A - Frame 1   //Photoshop frame 1!
0.10 B - Frame 2  //Photoshop frame 2, 
0.15 C - Frame 3  //Photoshop frame 3, etc etc.
0.20 D - Frame 4    //so now let's pretend a silence comes here acording to the sync tool.
0.25 X -                  // Closed Mouth. and Restart the photoshop pattern..Or perhaps pickup where the last frame ended? Wouldn't matter, aslong as there is mouth movement (in my mind!).
0.30 - Frame 5
0.35 - Frame 6
0.40 - Frame 7
0.45 - Frame 8
0.50 - Frame 9
0.55 - Frame 10
                           //And this pattern keeps on going until the next X Shows up with it's correct timing (as you can see all other timings are replaced.

                          //Is it possible to do theese kind of edits manually in notepad and just replace the syncfiles??

This (if working) Would look 10times better for what i'm doing at least. But this is also a question of taste.
Would it look realistic? Probably not. Is pixelart realistic 3d faces that needs perfect sync? No. But it still would be nice to have a illusion of sync (a little sync with the X's, and no sync with the rest and just a constant flow of animation).


Edit 3: Clearly it works to edit it in Notepad which is cool. However i do get an script error when i try to add more rows to accomplish the task of having movement all the time until the next X comes.

[It turns out]

Hey Snarky!


First i want to share an important Accident/Lesson i've got today, and second a question. I think you should add this to the first post, btw (Unless i'm blind and don't see it, already being there). I didn't realise the importance of wave length.
Today i've made a little birthday cutscene "game", with Silly Voices, so ofc i used your Total lipsync. Everything went fine until i ran into a wall completely. I Used Display "test",
and thought "Yeah, the code is running, but why is the text stuck on the screen forever after the speech is done?!" (at least that's how i feelt it). I went out for a bluecup of tea,

and came back to my computer and to my surprise the code had actually taken up on where i wanted it to go instantly. So......That got me thinking. Maybe something is off with the sync files? So i edited them. I saw in the end there were huge gaps. Between B and X, timing wise. Changed that to more "normal values", didn't solve it. It turns out that all voiceclips needs to be cut VERY precise in the endings or else, no matter what your syncfile info says. The biggest impact seems to be the sound source's ending length. So even if you have a little bit of silence in the end. (In my case wasn't that little, 5seconds). 

The Silence get's picked up as "sound", when it ain't supposed to be. So make sure to cut your wave/ogg files, so you don't end up with text on the screen for 5seconds longer then expected!
Always cut your wave/ogg files at the endings,. I use Audacity for that, great freeware. Lesson: Don't leave space left in the sound source, unless you intentionally want the text to stay longer on screen ofc.



Question: I have played around with the lipsync and the results are pretty ok! But i'm still thinking i want to see if it's possible to do it differently i am doing pixelart only. I don't need a "specific mouth shape for S or T or A or B". All i want is movement, and stops. I want to be able to run the actual animation all the way thru that is frame 2 to 8 on all single letters, apart from one letter (that is never used in the game text ofc) That should represent the closed mouth shape. So forexample.  letter A is typed = Edit: Images 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 get's played in a row. If letter is B same thing.
I'm using Rhubarb and the standard settings for it. You might wonder why i want to do this? Well to avoid the stops between words ofc. The silences are almost always spot on. It's the rest that ain't. Rarely at least!

I am guessing i should be able to modify it to be able to not have the animation "stop" at certain points by playing all frames on every letter, and just keep going and then "reset" itself once a new letter is executed (If possible). Or it all becomes a giant glitch fest, you would know!

the letter ü or öäå perhaps would be fiting for the silent mouth shape. Or else it would be a disaster, ofc!

Is it do able? Please let me know!

I have some time off work next week, so perhaps I can take a look then and try to work out what is going on.
Thanks for uploading the scripts and images.

I am the one who should say thanks! This forum has been incredible so far. All the help one gets.
Almost feel bad, i can't give anything back, as of yet!
I wish you the best of luck with it. It would be really nice to be able to set it to my native language, but it's not a must ofc.

If you do manage to fix it, you will get free hintline call 24h if you get stuck (in the future game that is).

It's sad that some of than fan games didn't get completed due to loss of motivation. If I knew how, I would pick up where some left off and finish them myself and post them.

Like "Night of the meteor", will it ever come out? Which funny enough. Was one of my first encounters with AGS

I've never made translation, so I found it a little difficult to follow. Are you adding Swedish to the template or fixing Swedish that was already there?

Here is what i have done. Open a Thumbleed new project, and replace the Verbs gui scripts with this, that's all i've done. The Quit game = Avsluta spel (Swedish), all such things is in the Verbs.Gui, done by me. All Swedish = Done by me.
I think you get the issue, once you see the scripts (hopefully).
See if you can discover why the Swedish Verb Sprites do not stay on screen, while the others do, cause i dont know why.
Everytime i have to call this in either a Gui, or Globalscripts start:

Code: ags

Verbs.VerbGuiOptions[eVerbGuiTemplateLanguage] = eLangSE;
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_Open, 485, 486, 's');
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_Close, 487, 488, 's');
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_GiveTo, 489, 490, 's');
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_Push, 491, 492, 's');
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_Pull, 493, 494, 's');
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_Use, 495, 496, 's');
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_PickUp, 497, 498, 's');
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_LookAt, 499, 500, 's');
Verbs.LocalizeActionButton(eLangSE, eGA_TalkTo, 501, 502, 's');

I'm "missing something", it could ofc be other scripts, i've only added Swedish code, where i saw there were other languages code, "basic logic" there. Or if the code should go elsewhere to "get it to stay inside the template". However big warning now ofc.
The sprites need to be added again into "your" basic template, so the numbers of the sprites that i have written needs to be replaced with new valid sprite numbers.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/9z433isgz3cchvk/Swedish.zip/file

I've fixed the Swedish Verbs and they are just waiting to be added to the template.

Which files need to be modified to fix it?

I wished i knew the answer. I believe it's something with the language needs to be written to a config file while it has been choosen, so the game "remembers" it. It does not remember my custom language Verbs, but all the other languages graphic Verbs are remembered. I have tried to explain this in beginners forum, but it's hard. I hope you get the "issue".

There are at least 3 others, that I know, that post regularly... and some others that post occasionally. And probably a few bunch lurkers as well. 

Good to know, here's a personal greeting to them. 

Va i helvete grabbar, hjälp mig fÃ¥ fart pÃ¥ joysticken och verbsen. Verbsen sitter inte fast i config  varje gÃ¥ng man resetar spelet, sÃ¥ därför vore det ju bra om abstauber kunde dyka upp och fixa det. Verkar vara nÃ¥got lurt. 

DLL's are in compiled folder and the mainfolder.

The only thing u have to do, is make sure u put SDL2.dll inside ur debug and compiled folders, otherwise you'll get error messages.

Actually i forgot to type that in, ofc i've followed his instructions! But thanks for reminding me, i should edit the post! 

If anybody knows how to get abstauber on the forum again, please tell him to come online. I've fixed the Swedish Verbs and they are just waiting to be added to the template.
It's very selfish ofc since i wanna use them, but it's good for other Swede's too if there are any on here.

Edit: Got it working. I was dumb 

I agree with you that it’s silly to wear a mask when there’s literally no one else about. I wait until I’m near the station before putting mine on.

But regarding breathing through your nose around people. That’s not gonna solve anything. You can’t cough through your nose and your nose can’t block a sneeze. You r nose is literally there to let sneezes out. Those 5-8 families a day would ask you to wear a mask around people.

I do believe masks has it's purpose forexample in tight spaces like bus, or train trips for sure. Well if i have to sneeze, i do so in my elbow, and then keep the mouth shut afterwards. It's weird at first, but i'm so used to going in to the supermarket now with only using nose, i open mouth only perhaps if someone says hi or whatever, but to be honest it rarely happens, since i'm very antisocial these days, so i can pretty much do my groceryshopping with nosebreathing entirely.
So far, so good all i can say! 

I hope i don't get shoot right now.
But as you guys know (or may not know). My home origin is the rather different Covid-19 approach country, Sweden. We have no masks here, only in the emergency/hospital areas, military, etc. We did have high death rates in the beginnings, but these days we have sometimes days with no reported deaths, and sometimes 5 to 8 deaths a day. I repeat We have No masks..If it will work in the longrun? I do not know. I was one of the loud voices in the beginnings of the pandemic who shouted "idiots, we need to have masks!", but lately i've changed my thoughts on it.

I think distancing and holding your breath when going by someone is the better option.
Ofc hard if you live in a huge city and go past people all the time, but in a little town it should be do-able, also breath with your nose around people, mouth shut. It should have a better filter system, as i've understood it. So i do that pretty much all the time when i'm around lots of people.

This is SO great, thank you very much Snarky!

Glad it's of use!

I have a question tho. Some of the lipsync might not turn out "so great" (Swedish, probably the reason why..). Is there a possibiity to combine the automatic lipsync with manual adjustments with either Pamela or Papa?

I've tried manual with Papagaoya, and Pamela inside the "lip sync manager", before i've got the rhubarb running, and i think i prefered editing inside the lipsync manager with Pamela.

Is that possible?

I don't really have an overview of the lip sync editors that exist and what formats they can read. It wouldn't be terribly hard to write a tool to convert the files from one format to another so you could edit themâ€"and perhaps a tool like that already existâ€"but this module does not do it.

Funny fact. I get a grey tooth on my 16 Color "babe", i have no idea what is going on. It's not in the sprites, i've checked several times. Even went in and redrawn the colors and hit save, replaced the source. Deleted the sprites inserted them again in the project, etc.
Still on one sprite image i get a gray pixel. Any idea what could be the cause? 

Try to just display that sprite on an object, to see whether it's anything to do with the module or something else. Is the game actually 16-color?

Damn, maybe you are onto something. I don't think i've set it to 16colors. It's just the Ega Palette that's used for the art. I will try some experiments. It's no biggie anyway, game should be "re-done" in unlimited colours, but i thought it was a bit funny.
The reason i wrote ofc is i believe it might actually come from the module, but i have to experiment more. You gave some ideas to try, I should try take away licsync manager aswell, see if that does anything, could just as easily be that.



Edit: False alarm it was nothing. Let's laugh together. I'll show you guys how dumb i really am.

Looks nice on the surface, right? WRONG


https://imgur.com/qCe9bbx


Look again zoomed in:





https://imgur.com/F2ORCuy

This is SO great, thank you very much Snarky!

I have a question tho. Some of the lipsync might not turn out "so great" (Swedish, probably the reason why..). Is there a possibiity to combine the automatic lipsync with manual adjustments with either Pamela or Papa?

I've tried manual with Papagaoya, and Pamela inside the "lip sync manager", before i've got the rhubarb running, and i think i prefered editing inside the lipsync manager with Pamela.

Is that possible?

I've read that some of the programs share the same phonomemes(probably spelled wrong), perhaps they could be used in conjunction for optimal result.

Funny fact. I get a grey tooth on my 16 Color "babe", i have no idea what is going on. It's not in the sprites, i've checked several times. Even went in and redrawn the colors and hit save, replaced the source. Deleted the sprites inserted them again in the project, etc.
Still on one sprite image i get a gray pixel. Any idea what could be the cause? 

Thanks for a great module!

Oh, and just to add to the 80s vibe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0_8J7uxhs

That's my favourite Snarky!
So tragic life story however

What an beautiful soul she seemed to be.

I will probably get laughed at but Swedish music genius Max Martin's Backstreet Boys - Quit Playing Games With My Heart.
Great song, great lyrics.

For future "pick of the month"s, let me dump this small blurb for My father’s secret.

Thanks Tampere. I'll keep it in my back pocket.

That game was really good yes! Inspired me to do my first 16colors EGA Adventure game too!

Nice. That's the last MAGS game of September I haven't played.

Do you mean mine or his? Because i don't think you have played mine after all the major bugs where fixed, maybe i'm wrong tho. My game isn't talked about, cause i'm so afraid it's still faulthy!

[Billy Masters Was Right]

New month, new proposition:

Billy Masters Was Right

Poor Billy's been grounded and his credibility has reached an all-time low.
Not the best time to stick his nose in the neighbor's affairs - or is it?

Let's enjoy this first foray by Postmodern Adventures in the English-speaking world. It's short but perfectly Mastered.

That game was really good yes! Inspired me to do my first 16colors EGA Adventure game too!