Comments on: The skies will return… http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return I amplify your awesome. Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:00:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Torley http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35273 Torley Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:00:48 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35273 Whoa comments here! Posts seem to really take on different lives in the comments, this one has rendered itself conducive to a lot of thoughtful feature suggestions and other ideas. :) I'd better learn to build a viewer so I'm not left behind in the dust. @Simondo: Thanks for sharing, Maximilian Milosz does such nice builds; I like the glass textures he chooses. Haha, nice to see the Metal Slug reference too. :) @Daedalus: OTTOMH, I remember asking for "Hierarchy in primsets" and "Texture offset in pixels" too. It's been deja vu lately, I see a lot of Issue Tracker requests I once wished for once upon a time. Here's to hoping more come true. @Grizzy: When I tried MorphVOX, I didn't know there was a Voice Doctor (or that it even existed). Thanks for your experiences, that's great to hear that it gives you more flexibility with voice in SL; I'll remain cautious-yet-openminded until the next time I try it again. @Ananda: I don't mind! I don't know if it's ever been tried. Andrew & Co. are neck-deep in Havok 4 work right now, but when they resurface, that'd be a curious thing to ask. In the meantime, if you have more technical questions, I'd recommend seeing if you can make it to our devs' <a href="https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Office_Hours" rel="nofollow">Office Hours</a>. Ana also makes a good point about "mannerisms", which comes into play when doing voice acting — I was watching a lot of impersonations on YouTube the other day, and beyond changing pitch and formant, there are a lot of things which can't be electronically emulated, so you have to provide a good basis for "translation". However, I do know that higher-end audio processing units like the TC Helicon ones can approach things like raspiness (e.g., smoked too many ciggys). @Gwyggory: Thanks for coming here and giving your opinion firsthand! Really cool to hear you're already in Second Life and are also "planning on creating custom voice packs"; from what I've heard, there's clearly an interest in doing this. I'd be curious to learn what our Luskwood furs wanted too. Hmm... I wonder if there's a way to automatically change MorphVOX settings when changing avs too. That and, any plans for a Mac version of MorphVOX? @Allatu: Good to know, and about the latency, too! @Vint: Awwwwe, yeah, I was concerned that the WindLight screen for Voice: First Look would be confusing. I didn't put any Torley-specific stuff up at SL4B, but Iridium got my WindLight materials to setup. (I haven't had a chance to really explore the site yet.) @Mariel: Yeah, that's a known glitch, where ripple water doesn't change color with the sky setting. I think that's already been fixed internally. WindLight will definitely look different than "the old way" and "better" is agreeably subjective, but I hope it looks generally better for most Residents. We're continuing to tweak the presets, thanks for dropping by! @Gwyneth: Wow, you went through all that trouble. Good learning experience at the very least, I think! And like I mentioned before, I want to learn how to compile a viewer too. Whoa comments here! Posts seem to really take on different lives in the comments, this one has rendered itself conducive to a lot of thoughtful feature suggestions and other ideas. :)

I'd better learn to build a viewer so I'm not left behind in the dust.

@Simondo: Thanks for sharing, Maximilian Milosz does such nice builds; I like the glass textures he chooses. Haha, nice to see the Metal Slug reference too. :)

@Daedalus: OTTOMH, I remember asking for "Hierarchy in primsets" and "Texture offset in pixels" too. It's been deja vu lately, I see a lot of Issue Tracker requests I once wished for once upon a time. Here's to hoping more come true.

@Grizzy: When I tried MorphVOX, I didn't know there was a Voice Doctor (or that it even existed). Thanks for your experiences, that's great to hear that it gives you more flexibility with voice in SL; I'll remain cautious-yet-openminded until the next time I try it again.

@Ananda: I don't mind! I don't know if it's ever been tried. Andrew & Co. are neck-deep in Havok 4 work right now, but when they resurface, that'd be a curious thing to ask. In the meantime, if you have more technical questions, I'd recommend seeing if you can make it to our devs' Office Hours.

Ana also makes a good point about "mannerisms", which comes into play when doing voice acting — I was watching a lot of impersonations on YouTube the other day, and beyond changing pitch and formant, there are a lot of things which can't be electronically emulated, so you have to provide a good basis for "translation". However, I do know that higher-end audio processing units like the TC Helicon ones can approach things like raspiness (e.g., smoked too many ciggys).

@Gwyggory: Thanks for coming here and giving your opinion firsthand! Really cool to hear you're already in Second Life and are also "planning on creating custom voice packs"; from what I've heard, there's clearly an interest in doing this. I'd be curious to learn what our Luskwood furs wanted too. Hmm… I wonder if there's a way to automatically change MorphVOX settings when changing avs too.

That and, any plans for a Mac version of MorphVOX?

@Allatu: Good to know, and about the latency, too!

@Vint: Awwwwe, yeah, I was concerned that the WindLight screen for Voice: First Look would be confusing. I didn't put any Torley-specific stuff up at SL4B, but Iridium got my WindLight materials to setup. (I haven't had a chance to really explore the site yet.)

@Mariel: Yeah, that's a known glitch, where ripple water doesn't change color with the sky setting. I think that's already been fixed internally. WindLight will definitely look different than "the old way" and "better" is agreeably subjective, but I hope it looks generally better for most Residents. We're continuing to tweak the presets, thanks for dropping by!

@Gwyneth: Wow, you went through all that trouble. Good learning experience at the very least, I think! And like I mentioned before, I want to learn how to compile a viewer too.

]]> By: Daedalus Young http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35217 Daedalus Young Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:34:18 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35217 Heh, well I consider 20 hours still fast. For over 7 years, I am stil trying to figure out how to compile "Hello World". I sort of gave up though, it's faster just typing "Hello World" in OpenOffice :P Heh, well I consider 20 hours still fast. For over 7 years, I am stil trying to figure out how to compile "Hello World". I sort of gave up though, it's faster just typing "Hello World" in OpenOffice :P

]]> By: Gwyneth Llewelyn http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35212 Gwyneth Llewelyn Fri, 22 Jun 2007 20:02:15 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35212 Well, like starcomber said, if you're having serious WindLight withdrawals, after much pain and sweat, I managed to get a working compiled version of SL for the Intel Macs: <a href="http://gwynethllewelyn.net/article166visual1layout1.html" rel="nofollow">WindLight First Look Viewer for 1.17.0.12 (Mac OS X Intel only)</a> However, it's <i>painfully slow</i>, ie. about a fifth of the performance of the regular viewer. Avatars also don't get their eyes rendered, who knows why, lol — and the "fullbright" setting makes things "overglow". Still, it works, and is as stable as the regular SL viewer hehe (noooo I didn't fix any bugs, but very likely added a few ones by mistake when trying SL to compile :) ). It's good enough to take a quick picture of a scene in all WindLight glory but not much else. Also, you'll have to be quick, since very likely, with the <i>two</i> upgrades promised for the week starting on the 25th, this version will very likely not work any more, and I'll have to see if I can compile everything again... hopefully with more luck this time and hitting the right setting to have it run <i>faster</i> :) One truly appreciates the developers at LL that can so-very-quickly launch a new version if something goes wrong, sometimes even in the middle of a grid shutdown (this has been quite rare recently, but it used to happen) — I took almost 20 hours to figure out <i>how</i> to compile it :) *waves to Gwygory* Good luck on fine-tuning MorphVOX for use in SL, I'm really glad that Screaming Bee allows you to "be around" in SL and give so many helpful tips to the overall community and also take feedback on what they'd like to have as new voice packs. Oh, well, I guess you're also "addicted" by now — LOL :) And let me know when you've got a Mac version available that turns my hoarse, smoker's voice with a Kyrgystan accent (or so they tell me!) into something recognisable as English :) haha Well, like starcomber said, if you're having serious WindLight withdrawals, after much pain and sweat, I managed to get a working compiled version of SL for the Intel Macs:

WindLight First Look Viewer for 1.17.0.12 (Mac OS X Intel only)

However, it's painfully slow, ie. about a fifth of the performance of the regular viewer. Avatars also don't get their eyes rendered, who knows why, lol — and the "fullbright" setting makes things "overglow". Still, it works, and is as stable as the regular SL viewer hehe (noooo I didn't fix any bugs, but very likely added a few ones by mistake when trying SL to compile :) ).

It's good enough to take a quick picture of a scene in all WindLight glory but not much else. Also, you'll have to be quick, since very likely, with the two upgrades promised for the week starting on the 25th, this version will very likely not work any more, and I'll have to see if I can compile everything again… hopefully with more luck this time and hitting the right setting to have it run faster :)

One truly appreciates the developers at LL that can so-very-quickly launch a new version if something goes wrong, sometimes even in the middle of a grid shutdown (this has been quite rare recently, but it used to happen) — I took almost 20 hours to figure out how to compile it :)

*waves to Gwygory* Good luck on fine-tuning MorphVOX for use in SL, I'm really glad that Screaming Bee allows you to "be around" in SL and give so many helpful tips to the overall community and also take feedback on what they'd like to have as new voice packs. Oh, well, I guess you're also "addicted" by now — LOL :) And let me know when you've got a Mac version available that turns my hoarse, smoker's voice with a Kyrgystan accent (or so they tell me!) into something recognisable as English :) haha

]]> By: Mariel Voyunicef http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35190 Mariel Voyunicef Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:31:08 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35190 I had forgot to drop in this page. o.O It's eye candy. OK, getting back on topic - I didn't download the Voice FLV (not sure if I want people to laugh at my accent o.o) and I'm using WL FLV, like, right now. o.O Actually, I just moved the Sky Settings. O.o I'm lost now, I think. I tried it in Foobar Salad (TG), Katharine Berry's sim, and I saw a funny glitch when I used one of the 12AM. Wanted to send a copy of this to Snapzilla to finally begin using my account, but it crashed before I could take the second one. Anyway, it is on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/faeriedevilish/585162882/ I'm not sure if that glitch is specific of WL or if it was anything else. After I crashed, I logged back in and the water was icy blue again. ^^ Personally, I *love* WL not only foor the lovely skies, but also for the mad effects. Walking around in mad colours is amazing, I think. Also, even if no one else did ._., I loved being able to use overexposition for snapshots in-world. I think that WL will be fine for most people if there is a sort of 'tutorial' on the settings. Many complained about the effects that lightning has on skins and builds, and I personally found it very challenging to find balance outside the defaults, so perhaps a few lessons for those of us with less developed visual skills would help. I'm off to take more snaps and try Snapzilla. Keep up the amazing work, Torley ^^ I had forgot to drop in this page. o.O It's eye candy.

OK, getting back on topic - I didn't download the Voice FLV (not sure if I want people to laugh at my accent o.o) and I'm using WL FLV, like, right now. o.O

Actually, I just moved the Sky Settings. O.o I'm lost now, I think.

I tried it in Foobar Salad (TG), Katharine Berry's sim, and I saw a funny glitch when I used one of the 12AM. Wanted to send a copy of this to Snapzilla to finally begin using my account, but it crashed before I could take the second one. Anyway, it is on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/faeriedevilish/585162882/

I'm not sure if that glitch is specific of WL or if it was anything else. After I crashed, I logged back in and the water was icy blue again. ^^

Personally, I *love* WL not only foor the lovely skies, but also for the mad effects. Walking around in mad colours is amazing, I think. Also, even if no one else did ._., I loved being able to use overexposition for snapshots in-world.

I think that WL will be fine for most people if there is a sort of 'tutorial' on the settings. Many complained about the effects that lightning has on skins and builds, and I personally found it very challenging to find balance outside the defaults, so perhaps a few lessons for those of us with less developed visual skills would help.

I'm off to take more snaps and try Snapzilla. Keep up the amazing work, Torley ^^

]]> By: Daedalus Young http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35184 Daedalus Young Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:11:13 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35184 On the subject of mega-sims, I'd love to see a long highway-type sim, say, 8 meters wide and 8192 meters long, that would create a strip of 32 regular sims long, and the total size is the same as a normal sim (because it's so narrow). You coulld use that to transport from one side of the grid to another with a higher speed vehicle, without worrying about sim crossings or no entry lines. Have two of those strips next to eachother (so you'd need the equivalent of 2 sims) to make separate lanes, each having only one travel direction. Though of course vehicles aren't so widely used now, but that is also due to said problems you now encounter. On the subject of mega-sims, I'd love to see a long highway-type sim, say, 8 meters wide and 8192 meters long, that would create a strip of 32 regular sims long, and the total size is the same as a normal sim (because it's so narrow). You coulld use that to transport from one side of the grid to another with a higher speed vehicle, without worrying about sim crossings or no entry lines. Have two of those strips next to eachother (so you'd need the equivalent of 2 sims) to make separate lanes, each having only one travel direction.
Though of course vehicles aren't so widely used now, but that is also due to said problems you now encounter.

]]> By: Ananda http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35181 Ananda Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:44:34 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35181 Oops, when I went to the MorphVOX page again I realized I misidentified it with the <i>other<i> major product that comes up again on searches. Sorry about the slam. And Torley, Ask Andrew what kind of SL simulators he might be able to host on one of these babies: NVidia Tesla GPU http://www.techshout.com/hardware/2007/21/nvidia-tesla-gpu-computing-processors-unveiled-ushering-in-a-new-era-of-supercomputing/ I've seen price points already as low as $1,500 for the single-chip configuration and $27,000 for the 8-teraflops design. How many simulator spaces could one of these handle? :) Oops,

when I went to the MorphVOX page again I realized I misidentified it with the other major product that comes up again on searches. Sorry about the slam.

And Torley,

Ask Andrew what kind of SL simulators he might be able to host on one of these babies:

NVidia Tesla GPU
http://www.techshout.com/hardware/2007/21/nvidia-tesla-gpu-computing-processors-unveiled-ushering-in-a-new-era-of-supercomputing/

I've seen price points already as low as $1,500 for the single-chip configuration and $27,000 for the 8-teraflops design. How many simulator spaces could one of these handle? :)

]]> By: Vint Falken http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35173 Vint Falken Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:31:59 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35173 Lindens are sadists, right? Why else would we still see the WindLight startup screen on the Voice FirstLook? *sobs* PS. Where can we admire some Torley stuff at SL4B? Lindens are sadists, right? Why else would we still see the WindLight startup screen on the Voice FirstLook? *sobs*

PS. Where can we admire some Torley stuff at SL4B?

]]> By: Allatu Augustus http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35167 Allatu Augustus Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:31:39 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35167 I have tried just about every voice changing program I could find and of all of them I think MorphVOX is the best. I even use MorphVOX when roleplaying as a guy on world of warcraft and everyone really thinks I’m a guy and they all trip out when I get on my gnome and change the voice on MorphVOX to the gnome. You have to remember that everyone had a diff voice so depending on your type of voice and the clarity of your voice recording during voice Dr at the start of the program you will need to tweak your voice a bit with the pitch and timbre to get it just right. Also if MorphVOX is acting funny or whatever you may need to update your system get every up to date update for everything on your computer will help it run better there for MorphVOX will work better and faster the only problem I ever had with morphvox was about a 3 second delay as I chat. I have tried just about every voice changing program I could find and of all of them I think MorphVOX is the best. I even use MorphVOX when roleplaying as a guy on world of warcraft and everyone really thinks I’m a guy and they all trip out when I get on my gnome and change the voice on MorphVOX to the gnome. You have to remember that everyone had a diff voice so depending on your type of voice and the clarity of your voice recording during voice Dr at the start of the program you will need to tweak your voice a bit with the pitch and timbre to get it just right. Also if MorphVOX is acting funny or whatever you may need to update your system get every up to date update for everything on your computer will help it run better there for MorphVOX will work better and faster the only problem I ever had with morphvox was about a 3 second delay as I chat.

]]> By: Gwygory Voom http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35164 Gwygory Voom Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:56:24 +0000 http://torley.com/the-skies-will-return#comment-35164 Ananda, I appreciate your comments. I'm one of the developers who works on MorphVOX and plays in Second Life. I'm a male in real life and I made the male-to-female samples for MorphVOX. The source voice is my own and the target voice is direct conversion of the source file without any touch-ups or makeovers. So the samples shouldn't be misleading I agree that much of the quality you can get out of voice changing software depends on the speaker -- source resonance, diction, accent, etc. So it isn't completely cut and dry to get someone to sound the opposite gender naturally. You need to work at it. The software only provides a mechanism for reducing the work it takes to change your pitch and timbre. And it does add some additional effects like Grizzy has mentioned. We do quite a bit of customized voices adjustments for anyone who would like a unique voice for their character. Anyone who is interested in that can just contact voiceclinic[@]screamingbee.com for voice optimization. We're also planning on creating custom voice packs specific for Second Life and I would invite any suggestions on what people might be interested in. So far we've talked to the Luskwood folks to get their help in designing voices to match the avatars they create. Regards, Gwygory Ananda,

I appreciate your comments. I'm one of the developers who works on MorphVOX and plays in Second Life. I'm a male in real life and I made the male-to-female samples for MorphVOX. The source voice is my own and the target voice is direct conversion of the source file without any touch-ups or makeovers. So the samples shouldn't be misleading

I agree that much of the quality you can get out of voice changing software depends on the speaker — source resonance, diction, accent, etc. So it isn't completely cut and dry to get someone to sound the opposite gender naturally. You need to work at it. The software only provides a mechanism for reducing the work it takes to change your pitch and timbre. And it does add some additional effects like Grizzy has mentioned.

We do quite a bit of customized voices adjustments for anyone who would like a unique voice for their character. Anyone who is interested in that can just contact voiceclinic[@]screamingbee.com for voice optimization.

We're also planning on creating custom voice packs specific for Second Life and I would invite any suggestions on what people might be interested in. So far we've talked to the Luskwood folks to get their help in designing voices to match the avatars they create.

Regards,

Gwygory

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