I heard your name was supposed to be Jaden lakdjijekjdlkjdlj (forget name), but what if people don't want that name? Is their information out there that states that you can create your own name?

'Cause it'd be pretty sad if you can customize your character a lot, but not change your name...

It is done for Cutscene purposes.

You can hardly have Kyle :"Hey" Joesph Stalin "There are a squadron of fighters on your back"

Nah, you can't change names.

Originally posted by The Count
It is done for Cutscene purposes. Exactly. At first I was a bit dismayed as Shotokan is, but when I stopped, used the force and thought ;) I realized that it only made sense. It is all about voice acting.

There are four choices I see:

- Refer to you as Padawan or Jedi all of the time ... wouldn't work, too impersonal coming from Luke or Kyle or your Padawan friends.

- Voice synthesize the part that calls your name, and mix it with the voice acting lines. Can't you just hear it - it would be worse than voice-overs on obscenities for network TV " are you *flipping* kidding me?' :D

- Give you a choice of names. Maybe more satisfying for some, but geometrically more complex and expensive.

- Fix the name.

I'm actually quite happy now. I can see Jaden as male or female (it intones somewhere between Jacen and Jaina ... ).


Mike

Its mostly due to pre-rendered cutscenes, although, by recording a new name maybe with the help of someone who could manipulate everyone's voice who says the character's name, you could really have any name... Which is what I will probably do, because the name Jaden Korr, as what I;ve heard it to be, just doesnt appeal to me all that much.

I'm still a bit disappointed about not being able to select my own name, but as Mike pointed out, with a more impersonal approach (like Padawan), there's a possibility you might not feel as much a part of the story if no one calls you by your name.

As far as speech synthesis goes...I still think that this should be the way forward in future games. The intonation, pitch, timbre and al that other voice synth stuff obviously needs to improve radically, but with audio cards getting better all of the time, I see no reason why this kind of thing cannot be hardware driven to become more realistic. Then it would be a simple matter to write some code, and write 'speech' files in the right format so they play back correctly. Then it would be a simple matter to 'convert' any text (including names) written by the player.

I certainly hope this is something that at least some game developers try to take on board in the future.

As it is now, I guess it makes more sense to work with a set of constants, than introduce variables over which you have no control.

Well, when they improve the text to speech engine and get to cracking on real voice voices, then it will only be a matter of time before we can just write up scripts and have the games say it before any kind of real tweaking of the voice synthesizer.

Originally posted by Andy867
Well, when they improve the text to speech engine and get to cracking on real voice voices, then it will only be a matter of time before we can just write up scripts and have the games say it before any kind of real tweaking of the voice synthesizer. And the obvious path from that is truly dynamic plotlines, where what people say is dependant on your actions to a much greater extent than is possible with recorded voice acting ...

Mike

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a significant difference between pre-rendered cutscenes and those which are still done before the game ships but are in-game? One that could make it easier to display your real custom name on the fly?

If not, would it be that determental to the cutscene experience if they no one mentions your name directly?

I also have suspicions that LEC's hands are being tied in regards to allowing users to produce media (screenshots, movies, other) containing their personal addition to the EU while refering to it as gospel. The existence of customizable character appearance might contradict this theory, if it where not for the fact that these individual bodily choices are all preapproved, even if the final combinations are not. Thus they are still exercising some form of control on any possible additions to the SWU by you and me.

1. The ingame cutscenes are scripted but not prerendered.

2. They probably assume the default skin for the player as the real thing.

Originally posted by Sargasso
I also have suspicions that LEC's hands are being tied in regards to allowing users to produce media (screenshots, movies, other) containing their personal addition to the EU while refering to it as gospel. The existence of customizable character appearance might contradict this theory, if it where not for the fact that these individual bodily choices are all preapproved, even if the final combinations are not. Thus they are still exercising some form of control on any possible additions to the SWU by you and me. I actually doubt that. Why? KOTOR. Perhaps they are more concerned about overpopulating a better documented era with new names, but I think it is a matter that they wanted to have your name spoken - sure they don't need to but it is there in all of the other DF/JK games, whereas KOTOR doesn't speak your name at all.

Mike

Well, I didn't mean pre-rendered, since thats more along the lines of JK, but I meant that the scenes are pre-set/controlled by ICARUS.

But just wait till someone comes along who can do wonders with sound editing and can have a voice recorded professionally as a side thing from their work or whatever which will allow us to use our own designated names whether is Storm Hammer or Emon or even Andy867 if desired, that would be more of a game that is customizable in nearly every aspect, except being able to determine which hand guns are preset to... Which the default and standard is the right hand, although someone or someones I am sure will come along and change THAT too.

oh yeah that would be great, all of the characters would be like "hey the cheat" "do this the cheat" "find that droid the cheat" it would just be so awesome if that could be done

I think the biggest problem I have with the name Jaden Korr is although it sounds fine for humans, it's not really suited for any alien character you could choose. Is it me, or does a rodian or a Twi'Lek called Jaden sound wrong? A Rodian called Jaden just doesn't work. It's supposed to be Greedo or Sneedo or Meelo or something hahaha Jaden doesn't hold water.

I must say that I agree. Jaden has more of a humanoid ring to it than a Rodian or a Twi'lek does, even despite the gender. If perhaps maybe for an expansion, they allow maybe a choice of names.

Although, according to this website, my Star Wars name would be Davmc Caoma, so who knows.

I had an old program...alowed you to type words and it read them back aloud...you could fix pronunciation errors...I don't see why this is infeasible for the JK series. The voice was pretty mechanical, but it was 7 years ago or so. A lot has changed.

are you referring to the old MS Character Agent program with like Merlin the Wizard and the Genie and such... Yea, thats the True Text-to-Speech program that microsoft has implemented into XP from my understanding, but I have yet to uncover it.

Hmmm... excellent points all around.

MUahahaha! I'm am JADEN KORR, offspring of QUEEN JADIS, the WHITE WITCH OF NARNIA! BOW BEFORE ME!

*maniacal laughter continues into the winter night*

I'm personally not too bothered about the name, for the simple reason; it wont affect the gameplay in the slightest.

Yea, but the thing is... Jaden Korr doesn't exactly tickle my fancy...

Yea, Jaden Korr sounds like a character that I should be taking out of their misery, not actually playing as. But like I said, I'll just change the sound clip files to my liking:)

The first name is fine, the last name needs revision. It doesn't really matter though.

So Jaden Korr is your name. But its a funny name for an alien. lol.:p

Yeah, the term "in game cutscene" is a little confusing (since technically, aren't all cutscenes "in game"?).

From the last trailer, it's apparent that JA (like JK2) uses both pre-rendered and game-engine scripted cutscenes (I'm assuming the shuttle sequence was pre-rendered for example).

Come to think of it, all the games in the series (starting with JK) used both types of cutscenes. Mysteries of the Sith was a little confusing though, because it's pre-rendered cutscenes were pre-rendered RECORDINGS (and slightly low quality I might add) of in-game scripted events.

Originally posted by Kurgan
Yeah, the term "in game cutscene" is a little confusing (since technically, aren't all cutscenes "in game"?).

From the last trailer, it's apparent that JA (like JK2) uses both pre-rendered and game-engine scripted cutscenes (I'm assuming the shuttle sequence was pre-rendered for example).

Come to think of it, all the games in the series (starting with JK) used both types of cutscenes. Mysteries of the Sith was a little confusing though, because it's pre-rendered cutscenes were pre-rendered RECORDINGS (and slightly low quality I might add) of in-game scripted events.

Yes, 'in game' is confusing as it is a misnomer, but really just means that it is generated using the game engine, rather than playing a pre-rendered clip. I rather like the mix - that way you keep some consistency of appearance while also getting some parts of better visual quality.

The worst thing about MotS was those horrid cutscenes ... not the cuts themselves, just the quality. Especially now that I've played the game at 1600 x 1200 res ... the cutscenes definitely DO NOT scale :(

Mike