I am writing this blind as I cannot see the box due to the keyboard filling up my tablet screen so excuse me if if it’s a mess !
I’ve wondering about how the voiceovers work so put a couple of the OC voice overs on an elf and talked to him.
His lips moved with the sound rather than what the conversation node said so do they work on sound peaks from the wav file ? In which case how do quiet sounds like whispers ever makelips move ?
Also how comethe wav files for the OC are so tiny, wavs normally come out really big and if they’re compressed then how does the game open them ? Does it have the ability to open certain types of compressed files ?
Final question… How would you go about putting sounds in the game that you can access from the toolset as my computer wont let me put wavs in the program files VO folder and when I made myown one in the documents nwn2 data files they don’t show up ?
You can put sounds in the override folder and they will show up in the toolset, I believe.
For lips to move to sounds in general you need fxe files: https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn2/other/tool/fxe-generator-tool
I had problems with this when making my last module and had to use an old computer with Windows XP to make it work. I don’t know if it might work with Windows 10 though as I only tried it with Windows 7.
Thank you both for the replies but it’s still a mystery…
The files in prog files 86,nwn2,data,vo say that they are wav files but they are tiny and even an mp3 would be bigger than they are. Something’s strange as I can’t swap my files into the vo folder either.
The vo folder says it’s 748mb but there’s no way all the 50,60,70 kb files add up to that, so how do they do it ? I can make wav files of sounds but I’m not to keen on going into the gigabyte realm !
Thanks andgalf I put a file in the override and it came up in the toolset but wont play in the game so it’s half way there. But using an override for heaps of files isn’t really a good option and it’ll get messy vey fast.
For some reason you can’t make your own vo one either and stick it in the data files of documents nwn2 and have it working.
Basically I want my cake, to eat it and then wash it down with beer… Small files in a proper folder that automatically make the lips move with the words is what what I’m after but I can’t work out how they did it for the OC.
Maybe you could try and put the wave file in a hak pak instead. I think that should work too.
If the sound file won’t run when using it in a dialogue it can very well be because it’s a stereo file and not a mono one. I believe I’ve had trouble with that myself.
MP3, mono, 44.1kHz, 96kb/s, constant bitrate ← so this is likely what nwn2 expects for a voice file
my data/Vo.zip is also ~750mb. There’s roughly ~10,000 files @ ~100kb each = 1gb
750mb seems reasonable
custom soundfiles could work from your module folder, campaign folder (if you’re using Campaign), or a .hak like andgalf says
and I’m guessing they don’t need to have a .wav extension … i’d try leaving your custom sounds with .mp3 or perhaps ‘convert’ them to .bmu … mp3 and bmu are basically the same iirc [and perhaps the only difference is that “mp3” is changed to “bmu” in the file’s internal header section, or similar like that] → not sure about any of that !
id try
MP3, mono, 44.1kHz, 96kb/s, constant bitrate
in the module dir
I’ve never tried using an actual mp3 file in the game though (even though it seems, as kevL_s pointed out, that the wave files are actual mp3 files) but one could try, I guess.
Exactly, according to TarotRedhand’s post here:
> TarotRedhand Posts: 876
[November 2017](https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/924388/#Comment_924388) edited November 2017
Try this. Create your mp3. Open it in notepad++. You'll see what looks like garbage. Don't panic. Put your cursor at the very start of the file. Type (or cut from here and paste into your mp3) "BMU V1.0" without the quotes. Change the extension from mp3 to bmu. I am suggesting this because a good while ago I noticed that mp3 files were just 8 bytes shorter than the bmu file that they converted to. So I used winmerge to compare them. Those 8 characters I am telling you to add and wher to add them were the only difference.
Things to remember. Your mp3 must be saved with constant bit rate. I can't remember the sampling rate or whether it needs to be mono or stereo but I think it is mono.
Thank you all for the info and it’s a bit clearer now about what’s going on. I’ve had a look at a wav file from the OC and there’s nothing unusual about it other than it’s compressed. So the file doesn’t do the lips and neither does the character.
So seeing as when it’s put on an npc via a conversation node and the npc speaks that line their lips move it must mean that nwn2 has some sort of set up that does this automatically.
Meaning that if I can get my files into somewhere that does this it should happen. Problem is where ? As I don’t think putting it in a hak or campaign folder will have the same effect as it’s coming from a diffrent direction.
I’m going to make an mp3 and see what happens when I stick it in different folders…
Ok I tried it with an mp3 and it doesn’t recognise it in the conversation node sound part so I couldn’t select it.
But it does recognise a wav file ! It just wont play it in the game !!
This was from the override as I was unable to get it in the program files data folder because it wouldn’t let me which was a bit mean of it. I also don’t have a hak for my test mod or a campaign and I’ve never used directory mode so wouldn’t know where to start with that.
I made a VO folder in the data documents files and the wav wasn’t recognised there so that’s a non starter.
So all in all I can get files to show up and play in the toolset but only wav files and none work in the game.
I’m starting to think this is a total waste of time and I’ll never get what I was after as it’s because the files come from the prog files data folder that their lips move and they go through some sort of process whilst playing.
I seem to remember that Fallout had a really awkward conversation editor but if you stuck sounds on it the lips moved with it, orsomething like that. Maybe the lips went with what was written.
Nevermind and thanks anyway, but any wild and remotely possible suggestions are welcome.
No, not automatically. As I said in a previous post, you need to use the FXE Generator Tool to create fxe files. You put your wav files into that program, and that then creates fxe files for you. These files are necessary to make the lips move to the sounds (or words) correctly.
Are your wav files in mono? That is essential for it to work. I helped another guy with this on the Discord forum, and it worked for him after that. So, if you send me, or post here, the sound files that you need to work in a dialogue, I can help making them mono for you if you want.
Thanks andgalf for some reason I thought haks were for campaigns !
I never used one for a module before I just used the override and unloaded it later into a hak. I’m seriously rusty at this but that’s goood news and I think I’ll make a tester hak with the packer.
Try this quick experiment… Make a new mod with one tiny area and bake it. Put any npc that isn’t hostile in an area and give them a conversation of a few lines saying blah blah blah or anything at all it doesn’t matter. Then go to each of their conversation lines and go to node and select any of the talking sounds from the OC. Then run the module and send in a character to talk to them, you’ll see that their lips will move as it plays the sound.
That’s what I want to happen and as it works for any npc it proves it’s not a script on them. Somewhere in nwn2 is a programme that converts sound to lip movement and it’s nothing to do with what’s written either, because that doesn’t matter.
So there is no need for another programme to do it, nwn2 can do it ! But it seems it only works for files in the program files data section… It’s not fair !
why don’t you listen to what andgalf already said, twice? to get lipsync you have to create corresponding fxe files for your wavs. obsidian also did this with an inhouse tool. check it out, it’s all in the data folder. the wavs are in the vo.zip and the fxes are in the actors.zip. the files are identically named so you don’t have to link them in the toolset. you select the .wav and the engine chooses the fxe from the folders. to make the magic work there has to be an .fxe.
How can you be so sure about that? I don’t get it… I think there are fxe files for every sound file there is, actually, but I can’t prove it since I haven’t looked.
Edit: Ok, I just saw Semper’s post and he proves my point. Thanks @Semper!
No, they work with modules that are not campaigns also, as you have already discovered.
I would strongly suggest actually that you work in directory mode when making modules. It makes it a whole lot easier for you. If you already have a module as a mod file, just save it as a directory instead. It’s not difficult at all. Then when you are finished with your module you just save it as a mod instead. That’s the way I’ve done it. Why would you do that, you may ask. Well, for one, you can add, delete and change files in the directory. I’ve had instances where I’ve needed to change an area, since it’s gone corrupt, and I have been able to go back to a backup of the module (directory) and just copy the necessary files into the newest one.
Strange to be back semper and I’m now trying to remember what I’ve forgotten ! Which is a lot !
I will indeed listen to the wisdom of andgalf more carefully but still cant see why if an elf has the ability to move his lips already because of the actors fx file then why can’t my characters without a new fx file ? Dont they already have one set up in the actors file as a human or an elf etc ? Could you just swap them in and rename them ? Eg. Grab Sand’s actors file and stick it on an elf wizard ?
I haven’t used the toolset for ages and the last toolset I used was for an animation programme which read the wavs and could move mouths from them. Granted it wasn’t very accurate and I finished up doing it manually most of the time but I suppose I was expecting something similar to make it work as you only have one sound option on the conversation node and can’t add lips and sounds.
But now I see it’s all about making even more files and I’m getting less entbusiastic…
I think I’ll stick to doing areas for now and be quiet…
Ps. Sorry andgalf, I don’t want to drive you mad !
