For a while, I’ve been wondering if I should try my hand at porting over some of the enemy chatter from FEAR to replace the BM grunt voices. It certainly seems to hit all the right notes. Sadly, I have no idea how to go about doing this, as I have no experience doing anything similar…
EDIT:
Download latest version here
video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO4udqp7xl4&feature=youtu.be
All you do is rename the lines from FEAR into the lines of whatever particular BM HECU line you want to replace, and obviously, replace it. If I had the individual lines from the game instead of the audio from this video, maybe even I’d do it.
I agree actually. This sounds like something I might be interested in working on at some point as I really don’t like the HECU voices in Black Mesa for reasons already stated. The FEAR replica voices were just great in general, they were well acted, and well written. They were believable - it felt like fighting against an elite force.
The only problem with that would be the lack of voice for scripted sequences. In which case I wonder if an amalgam of FEAR replica voices for battle lines and the HL1 HECU voice for scripted sequences would work well? They possess similar levels of distortion.
Also, a brief progress report - I’m due to have a slightly less busy week this week (Friday being my only seriously busy day), so the modding can resume at a fast pace. This will probably be the last semi-quiet week I get this entire 10 week term. I’m hoping (though somewhat ambitiously) to get all the B maps blocked out at a basic level by Friday, and also possibly to get the A maps into a testable, releasable state. There’s a good 1 - 2 days work to do on the A maps before they’re in testable alpha state, but I’m confident I can get it done with a big enough push.
I think the voices could work with some work done to them, maybe bring it down a few pitches so it sounds more like the deep HL1 grunt voices. They’ve already got the crackly radio static so you don’t even have to worry about that.
If this is actually done, I might switch over to that instead 
Until then I’ll just keep my hgrunt_young voice replacements.
(I think it’s okay to post this, right?)[/SIZE]
Aaaah crappy way to start a new page :fffuuu:
Figured I would move the posts out of the OaR Uncut thread for continued discussion here, I want to see this happen!
To avoid legal issues, we should probably just make our own versions of the voices. Assuming I can get access to a proper mic, I’d love to help with a re-record.
I don’t think there’ll be any legal issues considering this is a non-profit community mod.
What would really ideal for me is to get several voice actors, have each voice every line, then randomize it. But I don’t think that is either possible or reasonably feasible.
Yeah I don’t think they’d really care anyway. Regardless, we should try and make just a “fan” HECU pack, where a couple of us record HECU lines, somebody edits them, and as long as they sound better then the BM voices we could package them up and have them as a replacement.
I was going to make a FEAR pack but GOD, WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SOUNDS TO REPLACE?!?
Still, good luck, it’ll probably be great. I’ll be sure to check it out when it comes out.
Just dropping in to say - feel free to use the comp I did the other day if you would ever need it.
If I had access to the sounds I’d do it myself, but I don’t own the game legally (or illegally for that matter), so I don’t have the sounds. Sharing them would probably be illegal as well, or would it (after all, we intend to share them anyway, just renamed)?
I doubt there would be any issue redistributing the sounds for a free modification. You guys can feel free to re-record your own lines if you want, but that’s going to take a lot of time and effort when you already have these pre recorded sounds that fit the grunts perfectly. Most of the lines are combat dialogue which crossover between games anyway.
I can give them to you, I still have them. What’s your e-mail?
I’d record the lines if I had the right equipment, skill, voice, and software 
I’ll pm you with it later, I’m a tad busy at the moment.
Edit: Alright did it, but first I might ask why email? Don’t you have something simpler like a dropbox?
Alright, I got the files and I’m looking through them and sorting them appropriately, I’ll see what I can do with 'em, looks promising so far 
I was experimenting with separated lines for different enemies, I’m sure it’s possible, but I’m not familiar with the “scenes” format, which is how human npc’s sounds are controlled, so I’ll probably just do all the generic stuff first and try to figure that out later.
Good to hear!
Alright, having soldiers react to specific enemies might not be possible after all (Or maybe I’m not doing it right?). I’ve tried to get the grunts to react to headcrabs by using a specific line, I also removed all generic lines for the test, but instead of using the line I’d hoped, he was dead-silent. Either I did something wrong in both attempts, or they’re not programmed to recognise individual enemy types after all (which is a shame, really, they should have been from the start).
Oh well, doesn’t matter, it’s not like there’s any very specific sounds in here anyway, they’re all pretty generic. FEAR is more stealth based, it’s AI and responses are based around that, so quite a few of them can’t be used because they’re either out of place, too situational, or simply the hgrunt programmed to respond in that way. There are a lot of good ones for allies dying, friendly-fire, soldiers speaking to each other, etc, but since BM’s grunts aren’t programmed to behave that way or react to those situations, I’m unable to use them.
Another snag I’ve hit is that I don’t seem to have been given the pain / death sounds, I messaged amazingcomedy about that already, hopefully he has them and just forgot to send them, otherwise I’ll have to try and work around it.
My last worry is that the sounds are a bit quieter than the ones they’re replacing, and I worry they might be too quiet in-game. I’m not sure if there’s any way to fix it if it is, so we’ll have to see about that.
You could try running them through a program like Audacity and see if you can’t boost the sound from there.
There’s a text file in which you can edit volume and decay range for all the sounds. I can’t tell you which one, as I’m on a new comp and am currently still downloading Black Mesa on my slow-arse connection.
With the marine chatter being radio-based, and presumably Gordon’s picking it up through his suit, I really think the decay needs to be minimal.
One more thing - Someguy, any chance of a version of your mod which swaps the main hgrunt sounds into young hgrunt as well as the vice versa you’ve uploaded? I’m planning on using it when the installation’s finished.
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.