Oolite Bulletins

I'm not sure if this has been brought up or not, didn't see a thread on it in my looking around, but is there any way to change the spoken word mode to a feminine voice?
I have the Halis oxp installed, but it only covers some responses.

BlackWolf wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 9:09 am

I'm not sure if this has been brought up or not, didn't see a thread on it in my looking around, but is there any way to change the spoken word mode to a feminine voice?
I have the Halis oxp installed, but it only covers some responses.

While you have a game running, press F2, select game options and change the gender from male to female

Need better then that cause I don't see or can't find an option for that.
I have spoken messages off, comms only, and on.
I'm on a MacBook so F2 is the same as pushing 2.

If I am not severely mistaken, voice gender selection is available only on the Windows and Linux builds.

Ahhh, okay thanks.

If I remember correctly, the voice on Macs makes use of the "Text to Speech" facility of the operating system (funny thing, Windows also has a similar solution lately -- at least on Windows 7).
You should be able to change the voice in your "System Preferences/Dictation & Speech/Text to Speech" configuration tab. I think there are 3 male and 3 female voices to select from.

I was thinking along those lines. Thanks for the tip, and there are up to 9 female and 6 male voices.

Commander_X wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 11:50 pm

(funny thing, Windows also has a similar solution lately -- at least on Windows 7)

The inclusion of text-to-speech in operating systems has not been voluntary on behalf of OS vendors. It has been driven by lawsuits from disability campaigners, particularly for blind/ impaired vision people. It's also why they've introduced things like high-contrast display modes display magnifiers etc.
I don't know, but I strongly suspect that soe of those lawsuits have produced lists of desired features, and the commercial OS vendors have put those lists to the code slaves for implementation. So it's no great surprise that it looks as if they're singing from the same hymn sheet, because they, ummm, are singing from the same hymn sheet.
This definitely isn't an area I claim any expertise in, but Linux users aren't left out in the cold. Anyone who has used the stupendously useful Knoppix CD/ DVD/ USB rescue system will probably have noticed that Klaus includes a text-to-speech engine called

A.D.R.I.A.N.E. (Audio Desktop Reference Implementation And Networking Environment) is a talking menu system, which is supposed to make work and internet access easier for computer beginners, even if they have no sight contact to the computers monitor. A graphical environment with also talking programs and arbitrary magnification using compiz, is another option.

I can't give any citation of how good this is, but I can assert that the rest of the system is a phenomenal piece of work, and it's a pretty safe bet that Klaus has done a wonderful job here too.

BlackWolf wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:01 pm

I'm on a MacBook so F2 is the same as pushing 2.

Changing the function key defaults was one of Apple's more brain-dead moments, at least for gamers..

Fortunately, it's curable. (I've had to do this for a Mac-gamer friend recently) If you'd like your Mac to behave more like the rest of the computing world, see this article:
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204436

Changing the speech voice to one of the 9 female voices available did the trick. Very content with the spoken word now.