Text to Speech

Text-to-Speech

Genie 5 can read the game aloud using natural neural voices that run entirely on your computer — offline, free, and private. No game text ever leaves your machine. It's built for blind and low-vision players, and useful for anyone who'd rather listen than watch the screen.

Everything is opt-in: nothing is spoken until you turn it on.

Quick start

#tts install          install the default voice (a one-time ~60 MB download)
#speak hello there     read a line aloud
#tts read on           auto-read whispers, talk, thoughts, and deaths

Installing voices

Voices are downloaded on demand and stored under your data folder's Voices directory (see Application Folders).

Command	What it does
#tts install	Download and select the default voice
#tts install <name>	Download a specific voice (e.g. #tts install lessac)
#tts voices	List available voices and which are installed
#tts use <name>	Switch the active voice
#tts status	Show the voice folder, installed voices, and read-aloud state

Voices work identically on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Speaking text

• #speak <text> (alias #say) — read a line aloud. Works typed, from scripts, and as a trigger action.
• #tts stop — silence the current line and clear anything queued.

Reading streams aloud

Turn on per-stream read-aloud to have Genie announce game text automatically.

Command	What it does
#tts read	Show whether read-aloud is on and which streams are read
#tts read on / #tts read off	Master switch
#tts read <stream>	Add a stream (e.g. #tts read combat) and turn read-aloud on
#tts mute <stream>	Stop reading a stream

Default streams are whispers, talk, thoughts, deaths — the "someone's talking to me / something important happened" set. The chatty streams (combat, atmospherics) and main are left off by default; add them if you want them.

Urgent lines (whispers, deaths) are spoken first and can interrupt ongoing chatter, so you never miss a tell behind a wall of room text.

Settings

These persist with your profile (see Configuration & Rules):

Setting	Meaning
ttsvoicedir	Folder holding installed voices (default Voices)
ttsvoice	Selected voice folder name (set by #tts use)
ttsread	Master read-aloud on/off
ttsreadstreams	Comma-separated streams to read aloud

Coming next

Content-aware grouping (merging "X arrived" + "X left" into one short line), per-trigger and per-highlight speak flags, and a travel mode that announces your journey and stays quiet in between.