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Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Magic Words v1.01

A project forged from the frustration and immersion-breaking...

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Magic Words v1.01

A project forged from the frustration and immersion-breaking experience of pausing to select a new spell, this mod allows players to exploit the biggest strength a mage has - variety. By quickly switching between spells by way of voice recognition, you'll find yourself trying different spell combinations that, while possible without this mod, wasn't nearly as fun!

Magic Words

Current Version: v1.01

This mod uses voice recognition to change the player's active spell.

Download:

The Elder Scrolls Source

README follows

Mod Description

Brief

This mod employs voice recognition technology to change a player’s active spell.

Detailed

A project forged from the frustration and immersion-breaking experience of pausing to select a new spell, this mod allows players to exploit the biggest strength a mage has – variety. By quickly switching between spells by way of voice recognition, you’ll find yourself trying different spell combinations that, while possible without this mod, wasn’t nearly as fun!

How it works

Brief

A third party program recognizes the player’s voice command and sends keystrokes to Oblivion to change the player’s active spell.

Detailed

Shoot, based on the Microsoft Speech SDK, is a versatile program that primarily recognizes speech input and sends keystrokes to any program as based on pre-defined profiles. All I did was export the spell list from the Construction Set and created a profile for Shoot. The profile recognizes the spell name (based on the names from the Construction Set) and sends keystrokes to execute the console command:

SetPlayerSpell [SPELLID]

Required Hardware

- Full duplex soundcard (ie: one with the ability to receive input and play sounds simultaneously)

- Microphone (plugged into soundcard)

- RECOMMENDED: Headphones *to prevent feedback from speakers*

Required Programs/Files

- Microsoft .NET v1.1

o NOTE: .NET v2.0 can work if you follow these instructions

- Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1

Files Included in this Package

- Shoot 1.6.4

o Shoot program folder

- Oblivion-MagicWords.xml

o Shoot 1.6.4 profile for mapping voice commands to keystrokes

o Contains ONLY standard spells and player abilities

o ***Does not contain quest spells in this release***

- Magic Words.xls

o Excel file used to create Oblivion-MagicWords.xml

o Read below for details on how to use this file if you want to create your own keymappings

Installation

1. Install Microsoft .NET v1.1 (OPTIONAL: then follow these instructions to install .NET 2.0)

2. Install Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1

3. Copy Shoot 1.6.4 program folder to a location such as:

C:\Program Files\Shoot\

4. Create a shortcut to Shoot.exe and place it on your desktop.

5. Right-click on the shortcut and click properties.

6. In the text box labelled target (should be highlighted), scroll to the end and add:

[SPACE] profiles\Oblivion-MagicWords.xml

- Where [Space] represents a space

For example, mine looks like:

"C:\Program Files\Shoot 1.6.4\shoot.exe" profiles\Oblivion-MagicWords.xml

Instructions for Use

Brief

Run the shortcut you placed on the desktop before running Oblivion. Say the spell name as it appears in your spellbook to have it activate.

Detailed

Run the shortcut you placed on the desktop (herein referred to as ‘running Shoot’). If there are no problems, you should see all of the Construction Set’s EditorIDs in a text box on the left. If you do have problems, you will know about it by a text box telling you so. Please post in this thread for help. If everything is working ok, simply say a spell name (like ‘Dragon Skin’ or ‘Blizzard’) and it should highlight in the left text box and show details in the right.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: If you have never used the Microsoft Speech SDK I highly recommend taking some time for training. No, the training is not for you, it is for the recognition engine (IMG:style_emoticons/2/wink.gif). To do this, run Shoot and from the Speech menu, select Recognizer>Training. Follow the prompts to select a passage you wish to read and read every word on the screen. I recommend doing this at least three times – the more you do it, the better the engine will recognize your voice.

When you are finished training, close all training windows until you are back at the main form. Minimize it and then start Oblivion. Load a saved game (or start a new one) and test out your new ability to cast spells by saying the spell name as it appears in your in-game spellbook.

Exceptions

In the Construction Set, some of the spell names were either duplicated or otherwise did not lend themselves to speech recognition. Here is a list of the ones I identified and the steps I took to rectify them:

Spell/Ability Problem Solution

ability: Spriggan's Heal Duplicated twice None yet, I am not sure how it works

ability: Summon Skeleton Shared name with standard spell Renamed to 'Summon Ancestor'

Absorb/Draim/Damage Attribute/Skill Specifying attribute or skill in the name was redundant Removed attribute/skill identifier from spell name

Summon Bear Excel treated spellID differently since it had six digits Changed the formula

Bound Cuirass If said wrong, won't work Pronounce as "Kwerass"

Summon Xivilai I have no idea how to say this None yet

Note: These could also be changed in the menu by editing the spell list .xml, however I did not release this as it would conflict with other mods.

Conflicts

The only ‘conflict’ I foresee is with any mod that changes the spell list .xml (the file that controls how the spellbook is displayed). If this is changed, then the voice commands will no longer match up. One mod that does this is: Moho’s Spell Ranks

Known Bugs

“I can see the console!”

Yep, you probably did. Unfortunately there is no way to programmatically change the player’s spell at present. So this is the next best alternative. It’s annoying, I know, but it’s a damn-sight better than the interruption from pausing the game.

Interference

In my testing, I noticed that if you are pressing a key while the keystrokes are being inserted, there is about a 60% chance that it will interfere with the command. For this reason, I recommend momentarily releasing any keys until the command has been completed. It sounds like a pain, but I’ve gotten used to it.

“I have all the spells”

Yep, with this mod, you have access to all of the spells in the game. This is because the method I employed does not check your spellbook for known spells (I do not know of any way to do that). Is this a bug? In some ways it is. In another way, you may have access to all spells, but that doesn’t mean you have the ability to cast them. Further, you really only have quick access to the spells you know about (ie: those you have either purchased, looked up in Shoot, or otherwise seen). Granted, it is possible for players to visit a vendor, read their spell list (perhaps even write them down) and have access to all spells. But seriously, exercise some self-control! It’s a single-player game and you’re only cheating yourself.

“X spell doesn’t work!”

If the spell is not purchasable in a shop or is not a player ability, then chances are it won’t work. So basically, all spells obtained during a quest will not work. This is because of the Oblivion levelling system where the rewards of quests are levelled to your character. This means that many quest spells share the same name but have different spellIDs and are therefore problematic. I toyed with simply changing the word used to call the spell, but I would then need to edit the spellbook .xml so the player would know what to say. As noted above, this would create conflicts with other mods. For this reason, I left them out of this release. Depending on the reception of the current version, I may implement it in future.

If, however the spell is from a shop and you’re fairly sure it should work, post it on this thread and I’ll be able to look into it.

Troubleshooting

For problems related to installing/running Shoot 1.6.4, please refer to the Shoot Website and Shoot Forum.

For problems related to the profile I created for Oblivion (key maps, spell names, etc.) please let me know in this thread.

Credit

I assume no credit for the brilliant work done by Martin Traverso, the creator of Shoot (and am, in fact, indebted to him since his program saved me hours of coding!).

Also, all third-party programs referred to in this document belong to their associated authors and may be protected under copyright.

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