For the final project of the Sound and Music for Interactive Games course I shall be developing a contextually driven darts commentary system for a darts game I have previously made in Max/MSP.
What is meant by contextually driven speech?
Contextually driven speech uses a list of contexts (assigned with boolean variables) to calculate the most effective lines of dialogue to output. For instance, if in the dying minutes of a football game a player who has previously missed 10 shots scores a goal, the commentator might choose to say 'and finally he gets the goal he's been chasing all game!'.
The list of contexts leading to the selection of this line might include:
Goal has been scored = TRUE
Player has scored previously = FALSE
Player has >=10 misses = TRUE
Match time >85 minutes = TRUE
These 4 contexts hold the information needed for the example line of commentary to be selected.
As demonstrated by Durity and Piltz at the 41st International AES Conference in 2011, commentary systems that are triggered on a play-by-play basis are diminishing in popularity in favour of contextually driven speech. In Durity's demonstration, it was shown how the commentary in EA Canada's FIFA10 makes decisions not only on in-game contexts but also events from the real world. For example, an impressive victory by Manchester United last weekend might be acknowledged by the commentary team during a game in 'career mode'.
Why a darts game?
As noted in a previous post, the audio systems in PDC World Championship Darts 2009 ultimately output unbelievable commentary, focusing on play-by-play (per dart) hits and misses from the player and rarely (if at all) commenting on the wider context of the developing match. In the more recent PDC World Championship Darts Pro Tour, while the issue has been partly tackled with both the introduction of a second commentator and recording of more 'colour' commentary (i.e. not solely play-by-play), analysis reveals that there is still a large difference between the phrase content output of the video game commentary and that of real life commentary.
As a darts fan and game audio enthusiast, I feel that with today's technology it would be perfectly possible to create a more authentic commentary system for darts using contextually driven speech. Further, a general conceptual design of a sports commentary system would benefit other games that suffer from similar issues. Ultimately, these two products are the main goals of my project.
References
Durity, G. & Piltz, D. (2011) Production and Implementation Methodologies of Contextually Driven Speech. Electronic Arts Canada. Proceedings of the AES 41st International Conference, London, UK, 2011 February 2-4
Rebellion Developments (developers) PDC World Championship Darts 2009, Oxygen (2009)
Rebellion Developments (developers) PDC World Championship Darts Pro Tour, O-Games (2010)
As a darts fan and game audio enthusiast, I feel that with today's technology it would be perfectly possible to create a more authentic commentary system for darts using contextually driven speech. Further, a general conceptual design of a sports commentary system would benefit other games that suffer from similar issues. Ultimately, these two products are the main goals of my project.
References
Durity, G. & Piltz, D. (2011) Production and Implementation Methodologies of Contextually Driven Speech. Electronic Arts Canada. Proceedings of the AES 41st International Conference, London, UK, 2011 February 2-4
Rebellion Developments (developers) PDC World Championship Darts 2009, Oxygen (2009)
Rebellion Developments (developers) PDC World Championship Darts Pro Tour, O-Games (2010)
