Anyone experienced with voiceover files for conversations/dialog? I’m on the final stretches for Surviving Horror 1 REMAKE, but I can only get wave files to work in-game, and their file size gets way too large.
I wanna try making Mp3s instead. The wiki mentions there’s a difference between “format” and “extension”: Confluence Mobile - nwn.wiki I don’t understand what this means and how I can make an mp3 that the game still recognize as a wave (technical stuff makes my head spin sometimes )
Any help appreciated!
P.S. maybe even @Jasperre can help?
I use voice over all the time in my NWN2 modules. I still use wav and the files are not that large at all. I think one soundset for one of the characters is only 8 MB in total. Make sure you save the files in mono. You can also reduce the sample rate to 22 kHz if you want to reduce the size even more.
Yep. I know. I think I’ve played some of your modules in the past.
That must be pretty long chunks of dialogue then? Sounds way too big. Can’t you try reduce the sample rate? I don’t think either NWN1 or NWN2 uses/can use mp3 for dialogue. For music (with both games) bmu is used (which is sort of mp3 but with a minor difference) but all the dialogue and other sounds I think need to be wav.
If you want to, I could take a look at some of the files and see if I could reduce the size of them without making them mp3. I use both Cubase (a music DAW) and and a free editor called Ocenaudio when I deal with this stuff. Cubase is better at handling the reducising of sample rate, but sometime Ocenaudio is needed too if there are trouble with the game not being able to read the files for some reason.
EDIT: By the way, I just downloaded Audacity which I haven’t used at all since about 15 years ago (I didn’t like it back then) and in that program when you export audio, I see now that you can export as mono and reduce the sample rate, just like in Cubase, so it should be doable to reduce the size of the files in that program.
Thanks for all the info andgalf, and glad to hear you’re a “legacy player” of my work!
I got some help from the Neverwinter Vault Discord Server (in the #building-scripting channel) before I read your comment, and I managed to get it to work now.
The wiki was a bit too complicated for me (tech stuff sometimes makes my head spin), so I made the following instructions, and maybe they can help someone in the future that is like me when it comes to tech. I also think your comment above,@andgalf, can helps others in the future as well.
How to convert mp3s to wavs that has small file size, that works in NWN1 for conversations/dialog, using Adobe Premier Pro (or similar) & Notepad++:
The mp3 files needs to be converted to “Mono” (Channels) and “192kbps” at most (Audio bitrate).
I used Adobe Premier Pro for this, but you can probably use Audacity instead, or similar.
Manually change file extension from .mp3 to .wav – you now have your wav-file with small size (converted mp3).
Yeah, ok, you can of course convert mp3 to wav too. Didn’t think about that. I just thought about if you had them as wav from the beginning and you wanted to reduce the size. Of course, the first thing to do is to check that it’s mono and then to reduce the sample rate. If the files are still too big, I guess you could do it the way you seem to do it and first save them as mp3, then import them to the program again and save/export as wav instead.
Eh, I think this converts the mp3 to bmu and not wav, but maybe I’m mistaken. That’s what I meant earlier with mp3 and bmu being approximately the same. For me, I always use the program BMUtoMP3 for that task, even if it’s just as easy to open up a text editor and add that text.
According to this link, apparently you can do the editing in the text editor and NWN thinks it’s a wav file? Sounds really odd to me, but if it works, it works.
EDIT: Sorry, read too fast. You just said that one needs to first manually rename the mp3 to wav.
EDIT2: From what I’ve seen, it seems that NWN2 and NWN1 (or NWNEE) all works the same way when it comes to sound files, so that can be good to know for people reading all this.
Yeah, even though I’m not usually fan of horror and such, I remember your modules being pretty good way back then in 2004-2005 when I played some of them.
Okay cool! Maybe you played my Dark Fantasy modules Calm before the Storm or A New Journey Begins? If you liked them, I’m sure you’d like the stories I write today, they’re pretty similar. I don’t focus on 100% horror, but rather, fantasy with a bit of horror in the mix (a.k.a. Dark Fantasy).
If you’re interested, you can google Birger Tales, and you’ll find both my Patreon where I publish my stories, and my Dark Fantasy Book related YouTube channel, that you’re welcome to subscribe to
Is it Sweden? If yes, then yeah, we’re from the same country!
Yep, I’m from Sweden. The southern part, kind of…well, not Skane, but Smaland.
I think I played A New Journey Begins. I recognize that. Maybe I played Calm before the Storm too. Don’t quite remember. I don’t play NWN anymore. I still have the old NWN installed on one of my harddrives though. I usually like story heavy, linear modules focused on characters and romance. That’s the kind of modules I make myself (I’ve made 5 so far for NWN2). So I’m not a real “gamer”. I don’t like when a game gets too “gamey” if that makes sense. That’s why (I think) I love KOTOR so much. That’s one of the best games ever made, IMHO.
EDIT: You don’t do new modules anymore then? Just books and stories?
That’s one my favorite kind of games too I love Bioware’s games and I also love the Dark Pictures Anthologies (Man of Medan, Little Hope etc.). There’s a sprinkle of romance in them too, even (depending on how you play, of course)
Yep. Bioware was the best back in the day. I played Baldur’s Gate 1 (that’s the first one I bought) but never finished it and tried Baldur’s Gate 2 years later, but found that too hard for me. But I love NWN (and especially the expansions), KOTOR, Jade Empire, the Mass Effect games, Dragon Age origins, Dragon Age 2 (my favourite, which noone else seems to like) etc. I haven’t played Dark Pictures Anthologies. Better check them out then, I suppose.
Not right now, I’ve had some dreams of doing some more NWN mods – and I have notes for an underwater module that I’d like to make at some point – but the technical side of mod development is a big minus for me (which has become even more apparent now while developing the remake for Surviving Horror).
What I love the most, however, like you; is the story plus the atmosphere, which is why I’ve geared more towards being an author and towards making stuff with video.
Yeah, I can relate. I find that a bit frustrated too. Even though after 5 years I’ve finally grasped the basics (only the basics) of scripting. I only use prefab areas when I do my modules. Thankfully there’s a lot of that around. I love writing dialogue and creating characters and put a lot of effort in choosing music and try to get the mood to be right. I want my modules (and my characters especially) to be good looking if possible. I first tried a bit with modding for NWN1 but got nowhere, and I realized that I love the cinematic conversations in NWN2 so much which made me gravitate towards creating for that game instead. And after seeing all the improvements when it came to faces, face animations and outfits for that game that one could download from the vault and use, it was what really got me hooked. I’m no writer at all, but when I found myself increasingly bored with the new games coming out, I decided that I had to write/do my own story and then I became addicted to making modules.
At first I thought: “But I’m no writer! I can’t do this. I have no idea how.” but then I went “screw it” and did it anyway. I’ve gotten critique over the years (valid critique at that) that sometimes my dialogue feels stiff and unnatural, and I can only agree. However, I do believe I’ve gotten somewhat better at it. In the end, this is just a fun hobby of mine.
These forums is such a great place! Without the help of so many around here none of my modules would have ever seen the light of day.
Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been knee deep in module development. I plan to release Surviving Horror REMAKE before the end of the year, since it has its 20th Anniversary this year!
I’m so happy to read that! We have very similar taste That’s what I love the most, also!
That’s the right attitude! Just do it anyway, and learn by doing! I mean, one can’t be good at something without trying it out first. Even Mozart and Einstein must’ve started learning somewhere.
It makes me really happy to hear that you recognize it! A dream of mine is to gather as many as possible that played my modules back in the day, so we can create our very own community. And my Patreon and YouTube channel is a start in that direction.
It’s almost a completely new module by now, actually! Here’s a sneak peek of a bit of the module description that I’m going to publish along with the game:
** REMAKE FEATURES **:
A completely NEW SOUNDTRACK with over 34 different tracks, fitting for a Dark Fantasy!
Newly recorded Voice Narration, by the Dark Fantasy author Birger!
Over 300 changes & improvements (both cosmetic and technical), including completely REDESIGNED areas and systems!
Improved, Expanded and Partially Rewritten DIALOGS!
Even if you’ve played the Original, you’ll get a completely NEW EXPERIENCE!
Well, I think it’s the fact the everything takes such a long time. Getting scripting to work properly the way I like it, and well-- bugs can be really annoying too. And when I wrote last time, I struggled with getting voice over clips to work, which involved A LOT of steps, believe it or not. And I’ve always had kind of a hard time understanding technical stuff, so it takes a lot of energy for me to do so.
Writing, now that’s my passion, and something I’m going to focus more on in the future. But I also love creating atmosphere with a blend of music and sound, just like you. I kinda miss that when I only write. I’d love to find a way to skip all the technical stuff, and just cut-and-paste music and sounds into an experience that I’ve written myself! That would’ve been AWESOME!
By the way, @andgalf – I looked at the images from your A Strange World modules, and I dig what I see! I like how the characters look and the story sounds interesting. The first one feels Isekai-like, in case you’re familiar with the term.
I have not been that inspired to work on my 6th module this last month or so, finding it hard to motivate me at times. I will finish it though. More than 50 % of it is already done. But it takes such a long time doing modules and I’m always running out of ideas. When I make my stories I only have some vague ideas about where it’s going to go, so I don’t plan ahead at all. For some reason this approach has worked for me so far, though, so I keep doing it. And that way it’s also exciting for myself to see where the characters and the story takes me. When I get stuck I often try to write dialogue for a character, and then it’s almost like “Oh, you said that? So you have a sister. I didn’t know that before. You want the party to go and save her?”. It’s like the characters take on a life of their own, telling me where the story is gonna go. It’s quite odd really.
The most annoying thing with module making for me is the endless testing. Like, when I test a scene for the 35th time (because a script or some other stuff won’t work properly) it gets rather tiring.
(technical stuff makes my head spin sometimes 
)
COOL!
That’s what I love the most, also! 
And my Patreon and YouTube channel is a start in that direction. 
I kinda miss that when I only write. I’d love to find a way to skip all the technical stuff, and just cut-and-paste music and sounds into an experience that I’ve written myself! 