Bug: The LIP file generator is broken. With a correct WAV file (right header and bitrate) in the correct path with the correct name, the "Generate LIP File" button will activate, but clicking it does absolutely nothing.

Workaround: Use the old 1.0.303 CS to generate LIP files. In order to not have to uninstall and reinstall every time, install the 1.0.303 CS (this will uninstall 1.2.404) then copy TESConstructionSet.exe to another name (ie TESConstructionSet1.exe) and then reinstall the new one. You can still launch the old one without even renaming the EXE, replacing the INI, or anything else. You can also skip uninstall/reinstall by using Universal Extractor. Extract the old Oblivion Construction Set installer to a temp. folder, then extract Data1.cab that was produced in a Disk1 folder in your temp folder, and it will produce a valid 1.0.303 TESConstructionSet.exe in a data1 folder. Rename this and move it to your Oblivion folder.

To generate LIP without having to load your 1.2.404 plugin, just edit any line of dialog, copy the filename field, rename your WAV file to it and put in the approprate folder and generate the LIP file, then rename the LIP file to what you need and put it in the right path for your plug-in (close and reopen the panel with the button on it after moving the file so that it will find it.)

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Bug: If you open the Reference editor dialog for a ref. in an unloaded cell, doing anything (including just copying the float data) will crash the CS to desktop. You can recreate this by launching the CS and selecting just Oblivion.esm in Data Files. When loaded, single-click the first Interior cell, right-click the first object and click Edit. Highlight one of the float fields (X/Y/Z position/rotation or scale) and press Ctrl-C to copy. When you Alt-Tab or otherwise switch apps. to paste the data, the CS will crash. It will also crash if you change any of the values through typing new ones or using the arrow buttons. (This is what stopped me from using the new CS until recently as I thought it was just my system, but it turns out this will happen for anyone.)

Workaround: Make sure a cell is loaded in the Render window before editing or even copying any values for any refs. in the cell.

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Bug: After editing a few exterior cells, the trees and shrubs (both being Speedtree objects) start displaying as LOD billboards (flat low-res cels that always face the viewer) even when very close up. This bug was also present in 1.0.303 but it happens far more quickly in the new one; going through as few as three cells can cause it to appear for me.

Workaround: With the Render window having focus (blue title bar) press "L" (toggle Light Radius) or "M" (toggle Markers) twice. This will refresh the view and trees/shrubs will then display as 3D objects. Pressing twice will restore your original setting for Light Radius or Markers as well. If you turn leaves on or off after this, the view will not change so press "L" or "M" twice again to refresh the new view. This can be done as many times as required as the billboards may come back again after a few viewport moves.

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I hope that this proves helpful. I'm planning on submitting these to Bethesda (if no one from Bethesda indicates they have seen this thread) so any further details on these bugs are appreciated, and if you know of any universal, recreatable bugs in the new CS, please add them in here.

Thankyou! That's really useful, these should be added to the CS wiki or they'll be lost in a week.

Very nice list! I agree that they should be added to the CS wiki.

I've also been noticing a lot of crashing when I try to save a script. Very annoying when you've just written several dozen lines of code and have to do it all over again. This could just be my imagination though. Anyone else notice this?

I haven't, but I haven't scripted much these last few weeks.

Haven't had any scripting crashes...

We have another confirmed (by a few) bug. The slowness in exiting TESCS may be explained by the fact that it has silently crashed on exit. Thread here. If it's doing this, do Ctrl-Alt-Delete -> Task Manager -> Processes and see if there's a "dumprep.exe" there while TESCS exits. If so it's crashed. Dark Warrior found in the dump report:



Workaround: To quickly exit TESCS, Ctrl-Alt-Delete -> Task Manager -> Processes, click TESConstructionSet.exe and End Process. Er... make sure you save first.

Giving this thread a bump as there are some developers reading the forum due to the Wiki problem...

I am trying to use this method, and when I try to install the newer cs it asks if I want to uninstall the old one. Is that suposed to happen?
Edit: I decided to go ahead and try it, and it works. Thanks for finding these work-arounds.

Bumping this thread... still the word isn't completely out there that the new CS won't make LIP files.

Good workaround, tkx

No probs.

Here are some simple (I hope) directions for newer modders to generate LIP files with the old CS EXE used in conjunction with the new CS (as this thread is getting linked to):

1) You should have the new CS open already with your line of dialog open that you need to generate LIP for.
2) Launch the old TESConstructionSet1.exe or whatever you named it to. Note that Help->About will still show the installed version as 1.2.404 because this version number is coming from elsewhere. You can have more than one Construction Set open at once by editing My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\ConstructionSet.ini and setting bAllowMultipleEditors=1
3) Go under File->Data and select Oblivion.esm and load it.
4) Go into Dialog and find any line of dialog and open it by double-clicking.
5) Note the Voice Filename. Although it's greyed-out, it can be copied. Highlight, copy with Ctrl-C.
6) Find your WAV file (should be 44.1kHz/16kbps/Mono) and rename it (click it, press F2, select existing name except for .WAV and paste the copied name overtop, press Enter... make sure it still keeps the .WAV extension.)
7) Below the Voice Filename is a list of all races/genders that have this line of dialog. Note the Path in the first one.
8) Move the WAV file into this path. You may have to create folders if you haven't done this before. Default dialog is in Oblivion\Data\Sound\Voice\Oblivion.esm\ and then the subfolders for the races and genders. So for example, if you have no Sound folder in Data and you want to use a male Nord existing dialog, you will have to create the following folders inside each other starting at your Data folder: Sound->Voice->Oblivion.esm->Nord->M and then place your WAV file in the M folder.
9) Edit the Response Text to be what the dialog in the WAV file actually is (it needs this to be the same to lipsynch it properly.)
10) Click OK to save the change.
11) Double-click the same line of dialog again to reopen it.
12) Now click the "From WAV" radio button near the bottom and the "Generate Lip File" button should activate.
13) Click this button and ensure a LIP file appears in the path that your WAV file was moved to.
14) Switch over to the new CS and copy the Voice Filename as above, and rename the generated LIP file to this keeping the .LIP extension.
15) Move the .LIP file to the folder indicated by the Path in your new line of dialog.
16) The lipsynch should now work. The .LIP file is stand-alone so you don't have to save any changes in your old CS session; just End Process it (or use b3w4r3's tip of creating a new script and saving it blank to get an error and then click "No" to terminate the CS instantly.)

{Bonk!} as someone else asked...

THANK YOU Kivan, I am deep in learning curve on scripting with all of this, and ran head into a wall with the LIF generation, thanks to you so much for this info as I have been lurnking and learning on my own, and this will help a LOT. thanks again.

Note that the CS1.0 can now be downloaded from elderscrolls.com, right beneath v1.2.

Bump&Bookmark!

If you try to remove some npcs from a mod by ignoring them in the CS details view, then loading and saving, the ignore seems to not be handled correctly by the CS. It seems to merge an ignored and non-ignored record, resulting in corruption on load. I got around this by a manual tweak using my own code, but probably one of the other tools will allow direct deletion of the records.

And I also found the game crashing when I try to autogenerate path grid, anybody else as ever seen that?

Great stuff here, Kivan.

Do you think we should add some of this to the CS Wiki Troubleshooting guide?

It would be a good idea I think. Possibly add the part about the lip synch directly onto the lip synch wiki page because this thread will eventually be gotten rid of.

Thanks for putting this together. I just now found it.

Do you mind if I copy this into a text file and upload it to the place where I archive all versions of the Construction Set? I plan to extract the 1.0.303 EXE file and place a readme along with it including these instructions to make things a little easier as well as ensuring this info doesn't get "purged" from the forum. Oh, I would of course give you full credit.

Thanks,
LHammonds

Hi.

I'm using the last version of CS (1.2.0.404), and when I try to import a .txt file (File->Import->Names), i get the error:

"Name import for form 00000C0C WeapIronLongsword has an index but the form does not have an EffectItemList".

It gives this error for every entry in the .txt file.

Ex.: (WEAP.txt)


The first version of CS didn't had this problem.
Any suggestion?

I tried the lip tutorial (I've made tons of them with the old cs), but I can't even get Oblivion.esm to load in the old cs now. How am I to make a lip file if I can't load anything in the cs? Your tutorial says to load up obivion.esm in the old cs to make lip files, but I get an error saying the version is too new.

I know it's been known issue, but in my opinion it is considered a bug:
When you select a worldspace(e.g. Tamriel), double click on cell view on any objects will display the selected object in render window. But whenever you hit space button when focused on render window and then clicking anywhere else out of render window will freeze CS for several seconds, and it may change the cell when you moved further from selected object. The more objects are in that cell/area, the more seconds take CS to "recover". Just avoiding hitting space in render window solves this. It's a really big annoyance.

Edit: The freeze doesn't occur when you push a button that zooms/rotates render window itself after space button. These buttons are shift and V (there may be more, but I don't wanna try every single key right now ).
Or just click somewhere in the window, not on title bar, but this is not recommended as it can accidentally move things.
Seems that this works fine, without freezing, so space can be safely used with this workaround.

Kivan, I confirm what Madmole said above... The old CS won't load the patched Oblivion. Is there any other workaround, or we are doomed to have tight-lipped NPCs until we get a new CS version?

Thanks,
Pain.

It would require re-installing, but you can use Wrye Bash's Oblivion.esm switcher to switch between the 1.1 version (compatible with the old CS) and the new 1.2 version. All that you'd be missing are a handful of functions (that is, comment those lines out before loading the mod in the old CS).

Bethesda has already confirmed that there will be no new CS as there were compatibility problems getting the voice middleware to work in it, so LIP generation is not going to get fixed. As noted above you can reinstall Oblivion and copy/rename the ESM to something else, then install SI.. check Wrye Bash documentation for what it likes for switching. I just manually rename to switch back and forth. What I did before installing SI was to copy the ESM to a new file then install so I ended up with both ESM's.

What would solve this would be an old-CS dummy Oblivion.esm that just contained one line of dialog for all races. Load it up, edit the line, generate LIP, quit. Then not wasting 200+ MB of HD space and forcing reinstall.

I'll see if I can generate one and post it.

That'd be super-cool!

However, do you think it'd work/worth installing Oblivion/CS1.0 on a second drive? No registry conflicts and such?

EDIT: just tried to install on a different drive, no use - the installer tries first to uninstall the existing game... And I won't risk it's hard earned stability for a reinstall... That said, I'd be most grateful if you can make that dummy Oblivion.esm...

Something like that would be really helpful. I'll await inpatiently.

How could I refuse? Here it is. Has a complete ReadMe. I'd like to post this at TESNexus/PES as well, so please try it out and verify that it's generating good LIP files (it certainly does generate them) and let me know if there are any problems. Thanks. I'd do more verification, but it's really late and I need sleep.

I'm using the 1.2.404 CS and I can generate lip files. In the dialog box, after typing in the line, closing the box, reopening the box, click record, then click save, it generates both a wave file and a lip file. (I don't click the 'Generate Lip File' button.) I had read this thread first, and generated my first lip files using the old CS. A Temp.lip file and a Temp.wav file are now in the Voice folder, created, I think, when I used the work-around method. If I remove the Temp.lip file from the Voice folder, it won't generate lip files. So, maybe just adding the Temp.lip file to the Voice folder solves the problem?

janb

Almost got my hopes up there! Tried that with 1.2.404. It's just copying the Temp.lip file from Voice to the destination folder and renaming it without making any changes to it. I would conclude that every LIP file you've generated this way is actually an exact copy of Voice\Temp.lip. It doesn't even have to be a valid file; I made a 7 byte text file that contained only "Testing" renamed it Temp.lip, put it in Voice, generated as per above method, and a correctly named LIP file that was 7 bytes long and contained "Testing" appeared in the destination folder.

So much for sleep.

Thank you, Kivan! All was working as described.

So, I guess that the only way to be able to generate LIP files is to keep old Oblivion.esm 1.1 and to use it after installing SI(after changing it's name and placing in Oblivion/Data folder)?

EDIT: Ooops, I've misread Kivan's last post. I'll try your method right after installing SI.

Kivan, thanks for this file. Do you mind if I attach this file to the TES Construction Set download page?

Thanks,
LHammonds

Excellent... thanks.



Please do.

You are helping this game as well as you did with Baldur's Gate and MW, master Kivan... Too bad you do not support NWN2, I would have bought it until now...

What we really need is that someone makes a program that makes the lipfiles now when Bethesda decided to not update CS.
What is LTF? I tried to find info about it on the net but I failed.

Just use the V1.0 CS. If you grab Universal Extractor you can pull the 1.0 EXE out of the download without installing it. Rename it something else and just run it and use the LIP template I made, no need to load any ESM at all. It's not perfect but for as much as LIP needs to be made it's workable.

I posted the LIP template at TEXNexus as well.



Heh.. thanks. I was going to buy NWN a long time ago, but got distracted by this thing you mentioned called "Morrowind" and never looked back.

The .ltf format is somewhat similar to the .lip files that are used in OB. Generally speaking it's just a text file which contains a list of phonemes and corresponding timing values.
Impersonator Studio is able to export to .ltf; it imports .wav files and tries to auto-assign phonemes, though it rarely gets it right straight away. You can then, of course, tweak the placement of those phonemes and their timing ranges.
I believe that application is bundled with some Unreal Tournament 2004 SDK/Editor stuff, like this.

X.

Great stuff, although I'm having a little trouble following the development from the first post to the last few.

[quote name='Kivan' date='Jun 21 2007, 01:49 PM' post='10329214']
No probs.

Here are some simple (I hope) directions for newer modders to generate LIP files with the old CS EXE used in conjunction with the new CS (as this thread is getting linked to):

2) Launch the old TESConstructionSet1.exe or whatever you named it to. Note that Help->About will still show the installed version as 1.2.404 because this version number is coming from elsewhere. You can have more than one Construction Set open at once by editing My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\ConstructionSet.ini and setting bAllowMultipleEditors=1


Hello Modders,
I'm having a problem getting both versions of the CS to download. I'm sure someone has had the same issue. I'm not sure where this files name has to be changed on the old CS. I dowload the old CS and I go under C:/Program, then into the Oblivion folder, is this where I'm supposed to change the name? I changed the name here as Kivan explains, but when I try to download the new version of the CS it just overwrites the old version anyway. Is there a different place I should change the name? I'm a total newbie to modding so any help here is appreciated!

Also, I tried just using the Old Version of the CS but it doesn't recognize the Oblivion.esm or my mod.esp, says it's a version that is too high. I'm running the Game of the Year edition. Any idea how I can work with this to get LIP sync files for my NPCs?

Thanks
Darkrder

EDIT- I was able to create LIP files using Kivans Lip.esp, but I'm still having trouble dowloading both versions of the CS. To make lip file I have to dowload the old version, save the lip files in a temp folder and then download the new verion of the CS. I don't want to keep overwriting the program, so if anyone can help me figure out how to get both version downloaded at the same time I'd appreciate it!
Thanks Again,
Darkrder

This just gave me an idea.

I have been toying with the idea to give more expression on NPC face when they die or are dead on the ground.

I know there is a way to do this with idles, but...

Could I make a REAL LONG dialogue file and use the command "SAY" on the dead NPC to get the expression?

Kivan this stuff is great! This thread should be pinned in the forum or added to the Wiki.
I just thought I would add something for folks making sound files for Oblivion. In the Wiki, the dialogue tutorial reccommends the sound program Audacity to record voice files. The program is great, easy to use and exports the .wav files you need to make a .lip files for your NPCs. However, Audacity also offers an option to export the sound files as mp3s (which you will need to convert your .wav files to so Oblivion can recognize them). If you choose this option, even if the settings are right, Oblivion seems to be unable to recognize the mp3 files made by Audacity. I have spoken to a few others who have encountered the same problem. You will have to use a different program to convert your files to mp3s.

Cheers!
Darkrder

Audacity adds music data tags to the mp3 header (such as genre, artists, track, albums etc). Oblivion is not compatible with this header information. Perhaps there's a ini file in audacity to stop it from adding it.

Anyone have an idea what does it mean when making a LIP file fails with a "The Impersonator audio analysis failed" message? I used the great LIP template and the older CS, everything was going fine until I hit the make lip button.

Hello,

I'm running into the same type of issue that dbailey had above, only mine reads "The impersonator library data files were not found". This is my first attempt at generating .LIPs so its quite possible I'm making an elementary mistake. I've read through the directions for the .LIP Template several times and followed them to the letter, but I'm still encountering the error. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

FritZ

Edit: Got it sorted out. Apparently the "LSData" folder somehow got deleted from my archived installation of Oblivion; where I put the CS v1.0. Added that back from the latest install and it seems to be generating the LIP files.

FF

So there is still no new version of the CS that fixes the lip file generator?

Correct. Bethesda has officially stated that they will not be releasing one. In fact, they have stated that they will not be releasing anything regarding Oblivion ever again. There will not be any more mods, patches, or updates to the CS.

So the empire is just going to abandon us out here, in Oblivion? Is est tristis novus.

I don't understand any of this jargen. Why can't Bethsoft just fix the newer version of the CS so everything works, including the lip synch and everything else????

From what I understand, the LipSync part is licensed software and they had a particular version when 1.0 was released (when it was working) and then upgraded or changed the LipSync software and the re-compile of version 1.2 broke the LipSync and they didn't have a way to resolve the situation (whatever that was...most likely didn't want to invest the time necessary)

LHammonds