32 Bit TTS Voices

[Balmung]

Hi,

yeah, it's nice that VoiceAttack use 64bit and normally I absoluty for it... bye bye 32bit... but exactly here is a Problem: as far as I know a 64bit Program can only use 64bit TTS Voices and all Voices that I know and the one I want to use are 32bit TTS Voices and I can't find 64bit Versions of it and no 32bit Version of VoiceAttack... I can now only select the two Standard MS 64bit Voices. :(

As far as I know there is no Workaround for this.

Greetings
Balmung

[Gary]

Hi, Balmung.

Yeah... VoiceAttack is compiled in, 'any cpu' mode, which means that there needs to only be one executable to deliver whether you are using a 32 bit or 64 bit machine (if you are running on a 64 bit machine, VoiceAttack is running as a 64 bit executable).  There is no plan to change this at the moment, since this would require maintaining two builds of VoiceAttack.  Does the provider of your TTS voices offer a 64 bit version that you can download as a free upgrade?

Gary

[Balmung]

No, there is no 64 Bit Version of the Voice.

Hm, when VoiceAttack runs on 32 and 64 bit, is it than not possible that it is only need to compile it as 32bit App? Normally there should be no need to change anything on the Source Code?

But I "fixed" it now at my own Way: Windows SDK "CorFlags.exe" made the Job. ;)

[Gary]

Great idea on the CorFlags!

It would not require any code change for a 32 bit build, however, I only want to have one distribution so I opted for the, 'anyCPU' option.  It hasn't been a problem til now... but, it looks like you've got it where you need it :)

Gary

[Balmung]

Didn't know about CorFlags before... Google helped and that I had already the SDK on my PC. ;)

Is is not possible to add a "Force 32bit Mode" at the Options? I mean I have seen something before on a other App.

[Gary]

I can look into that, but that's not something you regularly see on most software.

Gary

[Balmung]

Right, but the most Software that I have seen/used are only 32bit or 64bit or have a 32bit or 64bit Version, so no need for such a Option.

[Gary]

I did explore having two builds at one time (within the last year), looking to see if there was a performance increase if there was a 64 bit only build of VoiceAttack.  I found right away that there was no gain, so the idea was shelved. 

I'm sure if you ask any vendor that has to build, host and distribute (at least) two versions of their software, they will tell you it is because they have to (they either do not have the option or they have to meet a specific requirement for a majority of their users).

[Balmung]

Yeah, but you know the Problem. You can use 32bit Voices but only with 32bit Apps and the same with 64bit Voices. Don't know why you need a 32bit and a 64bit Version of a Voice, but I know that many Voices that I have found are only in 32bit. But sure, the main Feature is not TTS but the opposite.

So it is a bit complicated for Users to download a SDK only for a little Tool.

[Miskatonic]

Same issue here... need 32 bit voices. Wish I had checked the forum earlier before purchasing.

Unfortunately, looking at alternatives.

[Miskatonic]

On Monday, June 2, 2014 8:35:43 PM UTC-4, Balmung wrote:

No, there is no 64 Bit Version of the Voice.

Hm, when VoiceAttack runs on 32 and 64 bit, is it than not possible that it is only need to compile it as 32bit App? Normally there should be no need to change anything on the Source Code?

But I "fixed" it now at my own Way: Windows SDK "CorFlags.exe" made the Job. ;)

Hi,

Can you describe how you did this? I've tried:

C:\Program Files (x86)\VW\VT\Bridget\M16-SAPI5\lib>CorFlags.exe /force 32BIT+ TTSApp.exe

Microsoft (R) .NET Framework CorFlags Conversion Tool.  Version  2.0.50727.42

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

corflags : error CF008 : The specified file does not have a valid managed header

C:\Program Files (x86)\VW\VT\Bridget\M16-SAPI5\lib>CorFlags.exe /force 32BIT+ ttsapp_unicode.exe

Microsoft (R) .NET Framework CorFlags Conversion Tool.  Version  2.0.50727.42

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

corflags : error CF008 : The specified file does not have a valid managed header

[Gary]

What are these 32 bit voices you guys are talking about? Where did you get them?

Gary

[Miskatonic]

NeoSpeech on my end.

.

To make it the default in Windows I had to enable it via the 32 bit  %windir%\syswow64\speech\speechux\sapi.cpl

You cannot see the installed 32 bit voices from the 64bit cpl.

I located the Windows solution here:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/c7409091-087e-48f2-8178-bcd918799054/add-tts-voice-to-windows-7-and-set-as-default?forum=w7itproinstall

Best regards

[Jose Gaspar]

Miskatonic, did you find a solution to this? I also use NeoSpeech and have the TTS voice set up as my default Windows voice but cannot get it to work with the trial of VoiceAttack. Luckily I did the trial before I bought it since this will be a show stopper on my end. I'm not sure what possible benefit could be gained from not making this natively 32bit rather than based on cpu but I'm sure that the dev has his reasons.

If you were able to get it working could you please post the solution here?

Thank you,

José

[Miskatonic]

Negative. I'll do without rather than listen to MS Anna.  Too bad, VoiceAttack has great potential.

[Trevor Woodcook]

If you have the funds for it, go to www.ivona.com and check out their catalogue of TTS voices. 35 bucks for teh cheapest one though so it's a bit pricier. Anna was too annoying for me so I downloaded one of those Ivona voices. best 45 I spent (I went for the british accent). :P

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[Trevor Woodcook]

I should mention, they do a 30-day trial of the TTS voices if you just want to try it out.

[Trevor Woodcook]

Did you set it as your default windows TTS? if so, you should use the option "default " under the voice portion of the "other stuff" menu. 

On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 6:47 PM, Erik Swain <eriks...@gmail.com> wrote:

Did anyone figure this out? I paid stupidly paid good money for a 32bit voice, Audrey from AT&T labs, and now found it will not work with voice attack.  I have it working on everything else just not voice attack!  This is a huge feature that needs to be implemented as Microsoft Anna is horrid.

[Erik Swain]

Did anyone figure this out? I paid for Audrey from AT&T labs but she is 32bit.  I have it working on everything but voice attack.  This is a huge feature that needs implemented because gamers have 64 bit computers and Microsoft Anna is really horrible.

[Gary Magenheimer]

I may have to reconsider, now that this has reached epidemic levels :)

Gary

On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 5:50 PM, Erik Swain <eriks...@gmail.com> wrote:

Did anyone figure this out? I paid for Audrey from AT&T labs but she is 32bit.  I have it working on everything but voice attack.  This is a huge feature that needs implemented because gamers have 64 bit computers and Microsoft Anna is really horrible.

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[Erik Swain]

Yes I did.  I have everything using Audrey except Voice Attack still uses Anna.  I have switched that to default and it is still Anna.

[Trevor Woodcook]

Try clicking the wrench on the main VA screen, and then selecting the speech engine to your system default. 

[JonnyRedHed]

There are the other Microsoft voices that can be downloaded.  And with a little reg hack can be seen on the x64 control panel and used in any x64 software.


Adding the new Speech Platform v11 voices to the win 7 TTS options.

Pre-requisite: Download and Install Speech Platform Runtime Languages from:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224

and the

Speech Platform v11 from:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27225.


There are many voices to choose from, although en-US ZiraPro and en-GB Hazel are both good English options. Actually these two are the best of all the MS voices on offer.



Its not my guide,  but I posted the rest on the SC forums with the simple instructions.  Works for me.

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/2769385/#Comment_2769385

[Miskatonic]

Does not good... Like ERik said, everything else in the OS uses the 32 Bit since it is the default. Everything with the exception of VA. 

[Miskatonic]

That would be very nice and quite appreciated.

[Jose Gaspar]

+1! Still cannot get this to work with 32 bit voices.

On Monday, June 9, 2014 6:51:13 PM UTC-4, Gary wrote:

[Trevor Woodcook]

Nice, I'm going to check this out when I get home tonight.

 

[JonnyRedHed]

See my post link below for more x64 TTS voices help when deciding where and which to purchase.

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/2783408/#Comment_2783408

[Miskatonic]

I'm just not going to purchase more voices when the ones I have work in every other application and in Windows native environment.

[Gary]

Have you guys tried asking the  TTS voice vendor to make a 64 bit build?  They may do that for you if you ask them.

Gary

[Miskatonic]

Their response was that there is absolutely zero reason to make something 64 bit that does not require that kind of address space. 

[Gary Magenheimer]

So, they won't consider a 64 bit only host application as a reason to provide that?   

Sent from my iPhone

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[JonnyRedHed]

I've just gone a head and bought a few voices, one from IVONA the Indian English Raveena, and two from Cereproc who are pretty cheap at £25.99.  I bought one English female voice and the Scottish Stuart, and plan to get the Scottish Heather as well.

I had a 10% discount from both companies just by emailing and asking for a discounts.


Some extra info on x64 voices.

just reposting so everyone can see alternatives if you want to spend a little money.  Take it or leave it,  I hope it helps.


If anyone is looking to buy some good x64 voices. Open SAPI5 voices that can work both as windows default x64 voice and any x64 app - inc Voice Attack, Teamspeak x64 etc.

I think the best x64 voices (open sapi5 to work as default windows x64 voice and any other x64 app) are really only the ones from IVONA, and AT&T (Buy + Demo), and then this other company called Cereproc. I've searched the internet and there are none better in my opinion than IVONA and Cereproc, with a 3rd place by AT&T.

There are two others in the top list Nuance (really good), and Acapela but these two only work with the partnered software from Nextup.com , and are not Open SAPI5 which I mentioned above you need in order for x64 bit voices to work in other windows x64 apps like Voice attack/teamspeak x64 etc. Although I've not tried this to see its wrong, not without buying them.

AT&T are ok, but my favourites are IVONA and Cereproc.

Cereproc
https://www.cereproc.com/en/support/live_demo  (demo at top of page)

IVONA
http://www.ivona.com/en/voices/



Cereproc do very good Scottish and other UK accents. Still not quite as good and clear as IVONA, but for the cheap price they are £25.99 https://www.cereproc.com/en/storesapi are good value I think.

I do like the Scottish Heather voice. And there are many other 'moody' voices like the Scottish Dodo one, and Scottish Stuart is very good. The Irish ones, and Sue English 'black country' accent. You can hear the different accents. Good to have this many to choose from so you get your perfect AI voice, or buy a few and chop and change them.


And if you want a J.A.R.V.I.S. from Ironman, then the cereproc 'Giles' or 'William' are pretty good 'English butler' voices.

In fact for English 'English' and 'Scottish' voices, the cereproc ones do have more life and personality in them. I like them. And for windows reading back to me, I've just bought IVONA Indian English Raveena, and a couple from cereproc. I plan to use VA for some time so feel happy to pay for the voices, lifetime licences and upgrades remember.

[alle...@gmail.com]

i also have this problem.  i have 32 bit voices on 64 bit windows.  voiceattack won't let me use the voices, although they work fine for my other TTS program [which is 32 bit].

to solve everything, can voiceattack simply add an option install the 32 bit version on 64 bit windows?

[Balmung]

All what you need is the Command Line Tool "Corflag.exe" from the free Windows SDK.

CorFlags.exe VoiceAttack.exe /Force /32Bit+

In a Windows Command Line Window and it set that VA should start in 32Bit Mode, now you can use 32Bit Voices.

If you want 64Bit again, use /32Bit-

P.S. it's a bit stupid that you need to download the complete Windows SDK to only get that little small Tool... but that is Microsoft's fault. ;)

[alle...@gmail.com]

thanks for the tip.

but still, it would be lot more convenient if voiceattack can add a 32 bit option.  especially since voiceattack relies on 3rd party voices to work.

[Luca D]

It would be nice, but strictly speaking, VA does not rely on any 3rd party voice to work, because a) the S.O. always come with at least one voice, and b) because it would work even without any voice at all, since the main scope of the application is to issue voice activated commands to other software; the talking back via TTS feature is just one optional sub-function

[alle...@gmail.com]

ok it does not "rely" on 3rd party voices to work.  but many users here use them.  so it would be practical to add a 32 bit install option.

[Scott Brower]

Uh, yeah, an optional sub feature that I would bet the VAST majority of users want to utilize. Don't be obtuse.

Compiling this for Any cpu would do NOTHING but make it more accessible and increase the potential audience. What does VA gain by forcing 64bit? Nothing whatsoever.

I'm miffed that I wasted my money on it since I'm not going to buy new 64bit voice packages and uninstalled VoiceAttack as soon as I tried using the voice packs I already own.

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[Gary Magenheimer]

VA is compiled for Any CPU.  The framework looks at the OS and then forces 64 or 32 bit.  The vast majority of VoiceAttack users do not fall into your category, as Luca had pointed out.  

So, why the holdout? I am a one guy shop that has very limited time and resources, providing software that is as cheap as I can make it.  Maintaining two separate builds (of both VA and supporting dlls, not to mention messing up countless plugin developers out there) for VoiceAttack would be a pain just to support for an extreme minority of users that purchased tts voices five years ago.  It's quite easy to peck on the small shops with the open forums rather than go after the guys that you laid out 'big' money for their products... Only to find they don't want to maintain separate builds either.

However, that being said, the next beta of VA is going to be forced to 32 bit, single build as a test.  You won't know, since you've uninstalled.  Not that I'm sad to see you go, as you've shredded down the one guy here that takes a lot of personal time to help everybody, even the ones that are not very nice.  

Sorry about this guy, Luca.  You got it right.

Gary

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[alle...@gmail.com]

I think having a single 32 bit VoiceAttack would be the best alternate solution.  A vast majority of people have 32 bit voices.  The reasoning behind this is that a lot of the popular TTS reader programs out there are also 32 bit and require 32 bit voices.  So a 32 bit VoiceAttack would allow for the most universal compatibility with voices.

[Damen Smith]

I really think there is no reason for Voice Attack to be 32bit. There are plenty of solutions out there for people who are able to follow the instructions and get it working. The developer shouldn't be forced to cater to people who are unable to do some simple problem solving and figure it out. That's what we have the internet for. It's for solving problems not creating them. 

[Balmung]

Sorry to bring this again, but I need to write something about that...

1. Voice Attack is already 32bit, but only under a 32bit OS.

2. Plenty of Solutions? The only Solution that I know is to use Corflags (198KB) for that I must download hundreds of Megabytes (the complete .NET Framework), because you can only get it this way legally. And that only to switch VA from 64 to 32bit on a 64bit machine.

3. The only 64bit Voice that I know for my Language is that one that came with Windows as that is a very bad Voice compared to the Voices that you can get. But I know near 10 32bit Voices, male and female. Windows comes only with a crappy female one.

4. Are there any limits of VA in 32Bit / on 32Bit OS? RAM can't be the Problem, if VA would need so much RAM I didn't want to use it. ;) I use VA thanks to Corflags in 32Bit and I didn't saw any limits or only a downside. Did it runs better, faster in 64Bit? Would VA use something that need 64Bit it had no 32Bit Mode.

I see more Reasons why VA should be 32bit than 64bit.

And I still have no Answer if it is possible to Start VA with a simple Command Line Argument like "VoiceAttack.exe /32bit", if a Coder build it in. Than Everyone would be helped and this Discussion really have an End with that anyone could life in happiness.

[Gary]

Latest betas of VA are 32 bit, period.  We can stop beating this horse now.

Gary