Toby Accessibility Mod - DOOM for the blind [V7.0 RELEASED!]

[Alando1]

Hey guys, I'm proud to announce the release of a new map pack for the Toby Accessibility Mod, Operation: MDK!

Included are 15 blind-player-friendly levels all inspired by old-school 90s/2000s wads. Download link is on the first page!

Enjoy!


Release Video:



-Alando1

[stormdragon2976]

@Alando1 I have a project that helps with setting up accessible games on Linux systems called linux-game-manager. It can be found at https://git.2mb.codes/~stormdragon2976/ ... me-manager

Recently, I have been working on multiplayer support, mwtab and I have tested co-op, which is working, and there is a place holder for the death match maps so that I can quickly add them when it is ready. Part of the system I created gathers some of the items printed to the console and sends them through speech, things like when it automatically saves, the name of the map, etc.

One problem I am having currently is with the radio. If someone changes their name in settings, the regexp match I use to get that information no longer matches. Would it be possible to add the word "Radio:" before the name of the person speaking to the console output? If that can be done, making it speak the messages sent over radio would be easy.

Also, I have done a walk through of Operation MDK on my Peertube. A playlist for all 15 levels is available: https://tube.wolfe.casa/w/p/ohm4bMA9HpTKKt5mKYcFMx

I would love to know what you think about it. I am planning on doing all 40 maps of the Mega Deluxe Pack too after the release of 7.0, so excited for that by the way.

Thanks to you and your team for all the work that goes into this. I'm usually pretty decent with words, but I am at a loss to describe just how awesome this is. Oh, and I hope this isn't too off topic, but would you perhaps consider releasing audio versions of your novels with you as the narrator?

[Proydoha]

Also, I have done a walk through of Operation MDK on my Peertube. A playlist for all 15 levels is available: https://tube.wolfe.casa/w/p/ohm4bMA9HpTKKt5mKYcFMx
I would love to know what you think about it.

Very cool! You seem to know levels really well to play them without saving, not even before bosses!

I've noticed that during your playthrough multiple times you've said something along the lines:"Sometimes when you get closer to an item the sound disappears, that's why I'm backing up trying again".
Here's is what is going on: most sound beacons emit sounds when there are no obstacles between them and the player. Every time sound "disappears" it indicates that there is probably now a wall between player and an item. Happens a lot when item is sitting in some sort of an alcove.

If you have videos of unpracticed playthoughs they could be interesting too because they could reveal if any of the systems put in place are failing.

[stormdragon2976]

@Proydoha I'm not exaggerating when I say I have played through all of the accessible maps 20 times in the last month, and many more times before then lol. I am a huge fan, and I will probably play another 20 times this month. So I do know most of the levels pretty well at this point. Unfortunately that makes playing unpracticed something I wouldn't really be able to do. I do have some friends who are just getting into it, so I will see if they can do some videos.

This weekend, I'm going to try and get it running on the Raspberry Pi 4, and if it goes well I will probably upload something from that. I'll post here if it works. I was hoping to stream a speed run of Operation MDK, but unfortunately, live streaming with peertube isn't working for me currently. Speed running would be an interesting challenge because I'm normally a very methodical player, taking time to make sure I get most of the items and secrets and find all the rooms.

Thanks for the explanation of the vanishing sounds. I wasn't sure what was going on, and figured it was just something weird with my setup. I watched one of Illegally Sighted's videos on Operation MDK, and he described some of the rooms, it was very cool to find out what the rooms I'm running through look like, and I do see how there could be obstacles between me and the items. I am glad you enjoyed the walk through.

[Alando1]

@stormdragon2976 - That's pretty neat you've created somewhat of a text-to-speech system that reads the messages that appear on the top left corner of the screen. In regards to the radio, did you want me to do a voiceover or narrated indicator or does this pertain to a question concerning compatibility between the work Proydoha has worked on and the system you've set up? I'll take a look at your video footage when able. I like seeing people showcase their playthroughs.

My team and I are very grateful for the positive reception and feedback from people like you. It greatly helps us in improving the quality and performance of the mod.

I really would like to do audio books of my novels. It's been something I wanted to do for a while and I still would like to do it. Probably when I have more time (and if my friends, too, are available) I will definitely work on audio book versions of the novels


-Alando1

[stormdragon2976]

@Alando1 for the radio, it would be hard to narrate those messages because anything can be typed into the input, so it would require TTS to cover all the possibilities. The hard part is anchoring regular expressions to read a message from a player, and not random things that zdoom prints to the console about the hardware, etc. So, for example, now it would do something like:

Storm Dragon: Hello world!

What I was hoping for is something like this:

Radio: Storm Dragon: Hello world!

If you do all the development in Windows, you probably don't get to see the information printed to the terminal, and most of it probably doesn't display on screen. Here's a small example of what it looks like:

Code: Select all

S_InitData: Load sound definitions.
G_ParseMapInfo: Load map definitions.
Texman.Init: Init texture manager.
ParseTeamInfo: Load team definitions.
LoadActors: Load actor definitions.
script parsing took 106.95 ms
R_Init: Init Doom refresh subsystem.
DecalLibrary: Load decals.
Adding dehacked patch freedoom2.wad:DEHACKED
Patch installed
M_Init: Init menus.
P_Init: Init Playloop state.
ParseSBarInfo: Loading custom status bar definition.
===========================================================================
This is Freedoom, the free content first person shooter.
                                                                                                                                                                          
Freedoom is freely redistributable under the terms of the modified BSD
license. Check out the Freedoom website for more information:
                                                                                                                                                                          
    https://freedoom.github.io/
============================================================================
D_CheckNetGame: Checking network game status.
player 1 of 1 (1 nodes)
Using video driver x11
GL_VENDOR: NVIDIA Corporation
GL_RENDERER: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060/PCIe/SSE2
GL_VERSION: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 545.29.06 (Core profile)
GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION: 4.60 NVIDIA
                                                                                                                                                                          
Max. texture size: 32768
Max. texture units: 32
Max. varying: 124
Max. combined shader storage blocks: 96
Max. vertex shader storage blocks: 16
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
                                                                                                                                                                          
----------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                                                          
MAP01 - Hangar
                                                                                                                                                                          
Player: Hello world!
----------------------------------------
Facing north-west
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Facing west
----------------------------------------

There is a whole lot more than that, but as you can see, there's a ton of stuff I have to filter out, and other stuff that gets announced in game that doesn't need to be spoken with TTS. I haven't yet set my name on this installation, so it actually does read "Player:" stuff, but as soon as I cchange my name it would no longer do so.


I can't wait for the audio books, even more stuff to be excited about. I'll be one of the first in virtual line to get them when they are available.

[Alando1]

@stormdragon2976 - I was thinking about perhaps creating a separate "talk" system. In Unreal Tournament, the player has the ability to select predefined things to say. Whether it be an order, status, or taunt, perhaps something like this in Doom would be an idea. I'm not sure if my team and I will be able to implement an advanced talking system anytime soon but we could look into it in the future. What are your thoughts?

-Alando1

[Rachael]

Speech synth is something that's always interested me in games, in general. Half-Life included a very rudimentary version of this by simply chaining together .wav files which were labeled by the word they were supposed to speak. You can perhaps consider something similar?

If not, it might be viable to see if GZDoom has a way to communicate with the OS's TTS engine, however, with Linux (as with a lot of things in Linux) there might not be a viable standard that can be counted upon to exist in all relevant distros. (There do exist such standards for Windows and Mac however)

[stormdragon2976]

@Alando1 that would be awesome! The only problem would be saying the player name because players can set their name to anything, but one way around that might be to do voice packs, so players could choose what they sound like. My friends and I would be more than happy to help with voice pack recordings if you decide to go that route.


@Rachael Linux has a standard called speech-dispatcher. Any distro worth installing has it packaged in their repositories. If there happens to be one that doesn't have it, it's always possible to build it from source. It has both C and Python bindings, or if all else fails, a command line method, spd-say, which is what I am currently using because linux-game-manager is written in bash.

It would totally rock for gzdoom to have official TTS support. I have a whole group of friends who would be as willing as me to help test and give feedback on such a system. One thing I haven't managed to get access to yet is the information pops up at the end of the level. Funnily enough, I didn't even realize there was anything there except lots of sound until my daughter watched me play and started reading it to me. I took out 100% of the monsters, found all the secrets, and completed it in something like 4:35.

[Alando1]

@Rachel - We currently have something of the sort. For example, in the Save/Load game interface, the player can hear the information pertaining to the save game slot such as the map number, time spent, and date of the save game. Also, we have updated the stat checker system where it will give exact numbers for the player's health, armor, and ammo. Even with a new system that we are introducing in version 7.0, the Area Scanner System, it, too, chains narrated sound files together. I agree it would be really great if there was a way to have a Text-To-Speech system where GZDoom utilizes the OS's TTS system as you've mentioned

@stormdragon2976 - What we could consider is maybe have it like: "Player 1 Radio" or "Radio Player 1." Perhaps something like that. Also, maybe we could add something like this to the stat checker system (or have as a separate hotkey) which tells the players what player number they are. The voice pack idea I'm on board for I think that, too, is a good idea.

-Alando1

[stormdragon2976]

@Alando1 awesome, just let me know when you want voice packs and I will spread the word. I have also been meaning to ask what you think of having an official website for the accessible packs and mod. I have server space, and I would be more than happy to host the site and keep the download links up to date. If you like the idea, I can get started on it right away.

[Alando1]

@stormdragon2976 - Do you have voice packs on hand? In regards to a webpage that has add-ons for the accessibility mod, that does sound like a cool idea. If it is alright, I would like to talk it over with my team first and see what they think of it. I'll get back to you during this week. Thank you

-Alando1

[stormdragon2976]

@Alando1 no voice packs yet. I was thinking we would get a list of phrases needed, then we can record them. For example, one of the phrase types could be "I need help over here", or "I have low health". Of course this might have different equivalents based on the person recording the pack, and their interpretation of the character. Each voice pack, once completed, would be submitted to you for approval.

For the website, I'm still trying to decide if I want to do hand written html or just set up Wordpress. I guess it depends on how involved the development team wants to be. If it's just me maintaining it, I'll probably do hand written, but if you and your team want to be able to upload and write to it, I'll go with Wordpress, assuming that is, everyone gives the green light.

Totally awesome 30 year anniversary special by the way. Those shell casings sounded like they were the size of beer cans lol.

[kodi]

Heya - I'm currently working on an in-game text-to-speech system for my mod and thought it could be useful for this. It uses per-word sound files that it plays in sequence though, so while obviously more robotic than whole recorded clips it can generate sentences on the fly. If you're interested I can upload it once I'm finished adding pauses and reworking the word timing.

I used Balabolka for generating the clips by the way. Not the best available, but it's free at least.

[t_doom-shroom-5440]

Heya there all:
I found this mod and introduced it to Stormdragon2976 and the rest of our group. I can't remember when exactly now, but I've been following it and playing the hell out of it since then. Like Stormdragon, I started playing it on Arch, but wanted to get it to work with Slint, an internationalized version of Slackware Linux which itself has a lot of accessibility focus.
Well, to make a long story short, Stormdragon's linux-game-manager, which I do a lot of testing for for Slint, has been a rockin' fine way to get the whole shebang, GZDoom, Freedoom, Zmusic, and of course the Toby Accessibility stuff all installed in one go.
Thank you thank you thank you for all the hard work you and your team have done so far.
Looking forward to version 7 when it comes out... I'm bouncin' off the walls and my wife's having to tell me to calm the hell down. Heehee!

Take care...
Cheereo!