Thanks for the Reply.
Let me first say, where I was coming from on the Custom names.
I try to keep on what are where you are on the project.
AS far as I understand it Tom, that Race Way was not licensed by NASCAR.
So, the names in RaceWay was going to have made up names.
This was the reason why I mentioned the editor so those who knew the drivers
and want to replace the made up names with the real life drivers could.
And of corce, with sponerships would mean a whole different can of worms.
And again it was this point thinking that you would have been looking at a
TTS over a recorded wav files.
So, in effect its one or the other.
And I see that, in either way, a Addon, also could be the anser.
Let, me add, this. Strat-o-matic has many type of add on.
The gaming company have different sports sims.
Each sport game comes out every year with a upgrade to the game.
Included in the new game is the last season roster, ssay, baseball.
That season roster can only run on that new game. Older season rosters that
can be purchase will run on that new game version.
This indicate the data structure for rosters are the same.
But its the season roster file that have certain elements that can only be
played by its later version of the game and beyond.
This is done simply I am sure.
So, if Race Way, would have record wav files and later version of the game
with newer seasons rosters. The same record wav file for Ernhart would be
used.
And then instead of a text edior for drivers, a system of selectiong sounds
for saying Ernhart, would be the road heading for if RaceWay was going to
have Addon packages, for adding past season.
The Draw back, being that new racers in a season means new recording with
the person who made the recordings.
APBA Baseball Blast with Ernie Hardwell the great announcer for the game,
was able to do this for a while.
So,, even with Drivers name being recorded falls in kinda the same trap as
the sponsorships. Since new ones come along as well.
Even, able to mix and match sounds like the windows sound schema, a game
that lends to being real and a way to import real names by recordings is a
lot of work for the designer over time.
Whereas, an editor for text gives the game the choice to put in the work to
make it more realistic.
And they, can create new season on thier own or wait for a upgrade that will
have the data, if Race Way goes this way in having new and historical
season.
AS you know my thought in for you to make as much as you can on Race way,
that will provide these type of addons.
And let RaceWay be a game that can grow.
Its the historical season and new season, that Strat makes it money on.
The game itself is the foundation for playing. The upgrades to adding new
items, which may even be half the cost of buying a new game, but, as Charles
, says, the game gets better and better and is willing to get it.
Then with the upgrade the buyer gets the laters season.
And in my email on the splash screen, shows the gamer his purchase season.
So, in effect the game and the seasons rosters are 2 separted items.
The game who choices to make any chnaces to the season roster is makeing
chances to this data file not the core of the game.
And later when some ones wants a season from the past and don't want to find
stats to input, they can check you site to see if the season roster file is
available for purchase.
IN Conclusion, Tom, I am not saying what RaceWay should be, but what it
could be and how it can make money for years to come.
The one thing about NASCAR Thunder, is that you have to purchase the while
thing to able to have the latest season drivers.
Now, I am not sure if the laster version wil allow you to continue your past
season, because it is in coreed in the game.
Smiles, and really, my friend, you have started scratch with the MR and
made it your own.
And the old code from North, can help you make the game you want and what
ever language, Race Way is going to be yours, not some
retread of North's work.
And when its all said and done, know one will remember Mister North and his
ways, but To Tom and his hard work and what he means to the blind community.
I am only happy to help if I can, with thought and ideas on your project.
Like the Play by Play for the game. Which we have taled about before.
Which can be done with with TTS or recordded messages like the Window
Baseball Blast.
And if you want me to discuss this topic again I be happy to do so.
IN short its a matter of using a codeding system when a certain event occurs
triggers a PBP with the inserted info added to it like drivers name.
Crash
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2010 12:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Raceway was The other side
Hi Gary,
Those are some interesting ideas, but it would require some
fundimental reworking of the Raceway engine and source code to even
introduce half that stuff into the game. So if this is even remotely
something we want to do we have to basically revamp the engine while
I'm in the process on converting it from C# .Net to C++.
For example, if you want features like a track editor, season editor,
driver editor, etc that pretty much rules out using prerecorded wav
files for speech which is what Raceway uses now. Instead of human
prerecorded speech output, which is something I had planned on using,
we have to rework the engine to use Sapi support instead. Obviously
the quality of speech output then will be dependant on how good a
speech engine you can afford. Speech quality will range from anything
like Microsoft Sam to AT&T Natural Voices or something.
In other words what I am aiming at is fully customizable games, like
you are suggesting, does require some sacrofices in terms of speech
quality and lots of extra work in upgrading the engine to support
future developments like that. It may require a complete rethinking of
the engine design. There are pros and cons of using Sapi.
For example, if I use Sapi the speech will be more flexable and would
be the best solution if we are coming up with custom driver names,
sponcers, tracks, etc. However, if I use english as the default
language for Sapi then there would be no hope of a French, German,
Spanish, etc language pack for foreign speaking users unless I
modified the engine myself with the translation.
If I use prerecorded speech not only could you customize the language
of the basic voice package if you have the right TTS engine whatever
you could customize driver names, sponcer names, whatever. However, if
we are aiming for custom content then it would be better to use some
TTS voice that a lot of people have so we could make all of the end
user add ons compatible. The last thing I think we want is for one
user to use Eloquence for his add on pack, another to use Scansoft
Tom, and someone else use Scansoft Daniel. Having mixed and matched
voices like that wouldn't be too cool in my opinion. So I think we all
need to discuss this and think on these problems and issues before i
complete converting it to C++, because after I do that I'm not going
to be very happy rewriting a bunch of the core from scratch because
some end user wants feature x months after i wrote it.
Cheers!
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