AI Voice Acting

[gibonez]

How far along is AI produced voice acting ? Is it good enough now to help avoid the wall of text that we often see in OwlCat game and raise the presentation in Owlcat games. Ai voice acting would have been fantastic for miscellaneous often unimportant characters.

[=M$= Oroberus]

Originally posted by gibonez:

How far along is AI produced voice acting ? Is it good enough now to help avoid the wall of text that we often see in OwlCat game and raise the presentation in Owlcat games. Ai voice acting would have been fantastic for miscellaneous often unimportant characters.

"I don't want to read dialogue in a cRPG"

Really?

Troll harder, no Jester for you

[gibonez]

Originally posted by =M$= Oroberus:

Originally posted by gibonez:

How far along is AI produced voice acting ? Is it good enough now to help avoid the wall of text that we often see in OwlCat game and raise the presentation in Owlcat games. Ai voice acting would have been fantastic for miscellaneous often unimportant characters.

"I don't want to read dialogue in a cRPG"

Really?

Troll harder, no Jester for you

Trust me I am not trolling and I don't mind reading. I was simply stating maybe its a cheap easy way for OwlCat to raise the presentation of their games.

[wpc70]

Originally posted by gibonez:

How far along is AI produced voice acting ? Is it good enough now to help avoid the wall of text that we often see in OwlCat game and raise the presentation in Owlcat games. Ai voice acting would have been fantastic for miscellaneous often unimportant characters.

I agree 100%. I feel more voice acting would greatly enhance the game. Owlcat didn't have the budget to do more. I do hope someone makes a voice acting mod at some point.

[Schlumpsha]

Could always try the WH40K SpeechMod[www.nexusmods.com] and see how it works for you.

[Aurum]

As a voice actor, there is no shortage of talent.

There is also no shortage of talent willing to work at very competitive rates. Budget is almost irrelevant, so long as you're not looking for the utmost in quality.

I would be deeply disappointed in any studio opting for AI voices instead of allowing VAs to participate within their budget, even if it's sub-quality volunteer/exposure work.

[Nick]

Originally posted by =M$= Oroberus:

Originally posted by gibonez:

How far along is AI produced voice acting ? Is it good enough now to help avoid the wall of text that we often see in OwlCat game and raise the presentation in Owlcat games. Ai voice acting would have been fantastic for miscellaneous often unimportant characters.

"I don't want to read dialogue in a cRPG"

Really?

Troll harder, no Jester for you

The reading gets a bit dull after the first play-through and some characters are just not fun to read, but you still have to because they're important to some quest or something. My second play-through I vaguely remembered most dialogue, but not enough to just fly through it, which made reading the text feel like a chore.

Tons of people think "I don't want to read text in a book, but I still want to enjoy the book." Audible made over a billion in revenue in 2022 selling audio books satisfying that demographic. Is it really trollish to think people would also want to not read in a cRPG? Just look at the amount of people coming here after playing BG3 and being disapointed it has minimal voice acting. Are those trolls or are they people wanting to enjoy RT and 40k without having to read walls of text?

[Babbles]

Originally posted by Aurum:

As a voice actor, there is no shortage of talent.

There is also no shortage of talent willing to work at very competitive rates. Budget is almost irrelevant, so long as you're not looking for the utmost in quality.

I would be deeply disappointed in any studio opting for AI voices instead of allowing VAs to participate within their budget, even if it's sub-quality volunteer/exposure work.

This - I don't get why some poor talent that finally gets a decent role suddenly starts getting their agent to run off about 'per line costs' - just get in the booth and have fun. Got to be better than the 5 year Hollywood wait whilst you Valet cars ....

[Nick]

Originally posted by Aurum:

As a voice actor, there is no shortage of talent.

There is also no shortage of talent willing to work at very competitive rates. Budget is almost irrelevant, so long as you're not looking for the utmost in quality.

I would be deeply disappointed in any studio opting for AI voices instead of allowing VAs to participate within their budget, even if it's sub-quality volunteer/exposure work.

The problem with that is OwlCat will get reamed by reviews of people whining about poor voice acting. Look at the weebs and how they feel about voice acting for an example of that. If you pay an insane amount to get awesome VAs, next to no one outside of other VAs will notice. If you pay low and get sub-par, people are going to cry about how the game was ruined because one line of dialogue they felt was delivered poorly. If they do AI voices, it'd guarantee sub-par quality.

I feel like this has to be solved through mod work or not at all. My guess is good voice acting work is going to cost OwlCat way too much money for a game priced with minimal voice acting in mind.

[Dragon Master]

No matter how people feel about AI, it's here to stay.

We are in the transition period where new technology is making old jobs utterly irrelevant. Much like scribes in Scriptoriums were eventually replaced with the advent of the printing press where their skills, calligraphy and artwork was no longer needed, like when hand crafting became niche with the advent of power-tools, things like voice acting and other jobs that can ultimately be replaced by AI will be niche skills in the very near future.

AI may not be perfect now but it can only improve, and like it or not a lot of people will be affected negatively. It's going to happen regardless.

I feel bad for the people who will be replaced, but that's just the nature of the beast with rising and new technologies that can do the same job a lot faster for cheaper.

[REhorror]

Since Steam just allows it (right?), soon, I guess?

For me, it's the Men of Iron.

[Babbles]

Originally posted by Dragon Master:

No matter how people feel about AI, it's here to stay.

We are in the transition period where new technology is making old jobs utterly irrelevant. Much like scribes in Scriptoriums were eventually replaced with the advent of the printing press where their skills, calligraphy and artwork was no longer needed, like when hand crafting became niche with the advent of power-tools, things like voice acting and other jobs that can ultimately be replaced by AI will be niche skills in the very near future.

AI may not be perfect now but it can only improve, and like it or not a lot of people will be affected negatively. It's going to happen regardless.

I feel bad for the people who will be replaced, but that's just the nature of the beast with rising and new technologies that can do the same job a lot faster for cheaper.

You really think an AI that hasn't given birth can sound like Argenta? That would be some pretty fing amazing AI dude ...

[ffrasisti [ARG]]

I would love to see AI Gen Portraits and Voice por smaller npcs. I dont know if its there for the voices yet, sadly. I dont want it to be immersion breaking. For portraits, its already there. I already use AI to make portraits for all my crpg characters

[gurugeorge]

Why would I need voice acted everything when I can read about three times faster than an actor can go through the lines?

As to the question, no it's not quite ready for prime time, although it's close. Some of the voice packs for Cyberpunk2077 (e.g. the Scarlett Johanssen one) showed what's possible, but they still sound glitchy if you're listening closely on headphones or loud on speakers (they're only just passable on small crappy speakers on low volume). Voice generation still doesn't really sound human, and the closer it gets the more uncanny valley you notice (just as with graphics). It's the same with portraits - you might get one or two here and there that look alright, but most of them just look like AI dross, suitable only for meme-making.

[Aranador]

IMHO, AI 'voice acting' is still sub par to a decent human VA. Uncanny valley nightmare horror stuff. Mind you, it is still better than people who think "I'll just grab the intern and have them read some lines in one take with no context." A good speaker adds value to your product, so pay for a good speaker, or don't bother.