Fallout 4 mod uses voice AI to add responsive reactions, more RPG-like choices
Fallout 4 mod uses voice AI to add responsive reactions, more RPG-like choices
Enlarge / Just because you're still alive in a retro-futuristic-post-apocalyptic Commonwealth doesn't mean you're necessarily witty.
Bethesda / Prof Majowski
Modders can change a lot of things in their favorite games, but professionally voiced character dialogue wasn't one of them, at least until recently. AI voice generation could open new modding avenues for some games, as it has already done with a Fallout 4 mod package.
Roleplayer's Expanded Dialogue (RED) is listed in the NexusMods catalog as a "massive vanilla dialogue expansion", adding over 300 entirely new lines of dialogue to the game. >Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas: role-playing. If you play as a ruthless jerk, a brilliant nuclear scientist, or a strong but dumb jerk, you'll see more dialogue options that reflect that. Mechanically, dice roll speech "checks", which are based solely on your default in-game Charisma level, can now be unlocked using related traits or skills.
Enlarge / If you let a player be a cannibal, let them talk about it too.
Bethesda / ProjMajowski
It's not just new labels on existing dialogs either. RED, created by NexusMods user ProfMajowski (and first seen by us at PCGamesN), says it used voice AI from ElevenLabs to generate its character lines. The results can sometimes "seem a little 'emotionless,'" the creator writes, but "otherwise they basically look like the real thing." Nothing your character can say now will change the mechanics or reactions of the game, but it should sound a bit more in character.
It remains to be seen whether modifying existing voice files with AI to create new lines of sound will withstand legal scrutiny and copyright or whether the new material can claim its own copyright.
Modders who wanted to remake Fallout 3 inside the Fallout 4 engine were forced to shut down in 2018 after Bethesda informed them that the voice files that the mod allegedly transferred and transformed were not even fully owned by Bethesda itself, exposing the unpaid team to legal liabilities. From then on, modders tended to seek out their own voice talent, usually working for free, including Fallout: London, Fallout: New Vegas: The Frontier, and others. At the moment, you're sure to get better, more lived-in results from voice actors, but the AI results could soon be good enough for modders looking to move faster on big projects. , if they can legally do so, of course.
I haven't had a chance to kick the tires on the RED mod too much, due to both the dependency pitfalls of trying to field a new mod in the Vortex Manager, and the fact that you have to play a lot of Fallout 4 in a new mods-ena...
Enlarge / Just because you're still alive in a retro-futuristic-post-apocalyptic Commonwealth doesn't mean you're necessarily witty.
Bethesda / Prof Majowski
Modders can change a lot of things in their favorite games, but professionally voiced character dialogue wasn't one of them, at least until recently. AI voice generation could open new modding avenues for some games, as it has already done with a Fallout 4 mod package.
Roleplayer's Expanded Dialogue (RED) is listed in the NexusMods catalog as a "massive vanilla dialogue expansion", adding over 300 entirely new lines of dialogue to the game. >Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas: role-playing. If you play as a ruthless jerk, a brilliant nuclear scientist, or a strong but dumb jerk, you'll see more dialogue options that reflect that. Mechanically, dice roll speech "checks", which are based solely on your default in-game Charisma level, can now be unlocked using related traits or skills.
Enlarge / If you let a player be a cannibal, let them talk about it too.
Bethesda / ProjMajowski
It's not just new labels on existing dialogs either. RED, created by NexusMods user ProfMajowski (and first seen by us at PCGamesN), says it used voice AI from ElevenLabs to generate its character lines. The results can sometimes "seem a little 'emotionless,'" the creator writes, but "otherwise they basically look like the real thing." Nothing your character can say now will change the mechanics or reactions of the game, but it should sound a bit more in character.
It remains to be seen whether modifying existing voice files with AI to create new lines of sound will withstand legal scrutiny and copyright or whether the new material can claim its own copyright.
Modders who wanted to remake Fallout 3 inside the Fallout 4 engine were forced to shut down in 2018 after Bethesda informed them that the voice files that the mod allegedly transferred and transformed were not even fully owned by Bethesda itself, exposing the unpaid team to legal liabilities. From then on, modders tended to seek out their own voice talent, usually working for free, including Fallout: London, Fallout: New Vegas: The Frontier, and others. At the moment, you're sure to get better, more lived-in results from voice actors, but the AI results could soon be good enough for modders looking to move faster on big projects. , if they can legally do so, of course.
I haven't had a chance to kick the tires on the RED mod too much, due to both the dependency pitfalls of trying to field a new mod in the Vortex Manager, and the fact that you have to play a lot of Fallout 4 in a new mods-ena...
Enlarge / Just because you're still alive in a retro-futuristic-post-apocalyptic Commonwealth doesn't mean you're necessarily witty.
Bethesda / Prof Majowski
Enlarge / If you let a player be a cannibal, let them talk about it too.
Bethesda / ProjMajowski
