| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Question: Does this run on any other platform than Windows? | Short answer: No. This project was made as a windows alternative to a Linux and OSX Text To Speech script: Sophie's Linux Text To Speech. Fun fact: This project was inspired by Sophie :) Long answer: This project targets .NET framework instead of .NET Core in order to access the VoiceSynthesizer package. Got an alternative which works with .NET Core? Feel free to contact me/make an issue/pull request! |
| Question: Is this bannable by VAC? | No. The only interaction between this program and Team Fortress 2 is the reading of a .log file. |
| Question: How does this work? | This TTS works by grabbing a log file of TF2's console and checking for any in-game messages. These in-game messages will be automatically put through the TTS. Any commands will also be picked up. |
- Windows 7 or higher,
- VB-Virtual Audio Cable (Free)
- (These programs are optional, see "how to install") VoiceMeeter (Free/donationware, basic. This version is featured in the install tutorial) OR VoiceMeeter Banana (Free/donationware, for advanced users)
- Team Fortress 2.
This tutorial is split into two versions. Decide on your own which one is best for you:
| Basic Installation | Advanced Installation |
|---|---|
| + Quick and easy | - Takes longer to install |
| + Only needs VB-Virtual Audio Cable | - Needs VB-Virtual Audio Cable AND VoiceMeeter |
| - Cannot use microphone in-game whilst using TF2Chat To Speech (Discord, Skype, etc. still possible) |
+ Can use microphone in-game whilst using TF2Chat To Speech |
| + Does not interfere with normal audio use | - Overrides default audio devices. In order to listen to any kind of sound on your computer, you need to open VoiceMeeter! |
Download tf_files.zip from the most recent release from the releases page.
Unpack the contents from tf_files.zip into your steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf folder.
Go to your steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\cfg folder. If an autoexec.cfg doesn't exist, create one.
Open your autoexec.cfg file with your text editor of choice. I recommend Notepad++.
Add the following to the bottom of your autoexec.cfg file:
// Press "V" to toggle open-mic
exec toggleopenvoice
exec tf2chattospeech
The tf2autotalk overwrites the v TF2 key binding. You can change which key you'd like to use in the tf2autotalk.cfg file.
Continue to step 2a if you'd like to do a basic installation. Continue to step 2b if you'd like to do an advanced installation.
Download VB-Virtual Audio Cable (Free) and install it
Open steam and click on "friends and chat". Open your friends list settings (The clog). Navigate to Voice settings and change "Voice Input Device" to CABLE Output
Continue to step 3.
Download and install VB-Virtual Audio Cable and VoiceMeeter (This step assumes you've installed the default, non-banana version).
Press the windows key and search for "Sound Settings". After opening this window, click on "Sound Control Panel". (Alternatively, right click on the speaker icon in your task bar, click on "Open Sound Settings", and open "Sound control panel").
Under the "Playback" tab, scroll down until you see your default playback device. You can see whether a device is default by looking for a green checkmark
Remember this device, you're going to need it when configuring VoiceMeeter.
Scroll down until you see two "VoiceMeeter" input devices. Select VoiceMeeter Input and set it to default by clicking "Set Default". Select VoiceMeeter Aux Input, click on the arrow next to 'Set default' and click on the "Default communications device" option. If you do not have VoiceMeeter Aux Input, don't change your default communications device.
Under the "Input" tab, repeat the previous step but with VoiceMeeter Output and VoiceMeeter Aux Output instead of the input devices.
Click on "apply" and close the window.
Open VoiceMeeter. It should look something like this:
Note that the text beneath "Virtual Input" might differ from the image. This is okay.
From left to right:
- Underneath "1 Hardware input", click on "select input device" and select
WDM: CABLE Output. If you can't see this device, be sure you have VB-Virtual Audio Cable installed. - If you have a microphone and wish to use it, underneath "2 Hardware input", click on "select input device" and select your microphone device. Mine is
WDM: Microfoon (Blue Snowball). If given a choice betweenWDMandMME, selectWDM. - Click on "Hardware Out" and select your previous default output device (This is the device I told you to remember earlier).
Under "hardware input" 1 and 2, click on the "A" button in order to disable them (they should not light up green). This disables you from hearing the output of the program directly (and your microphone, if you use one).
Under ''virtual input", click on the "B" button to disable it (It should not light up green). This prevents you from playing all incoming sounds through your microphone (For example, if you're listening to a song, or the in-game sound from Team Fortress 2).
Your VoiceMeeter should now look something like this:
Continue to step 3.
Download TF2ChatToSpeech.zip from the most recent release from the releases page.
Unzip it somewhere, for example on your desktop.
Open the extracted folder.
To start TF2Chat To Speech, open TF2ChatToSpeech.exe. This file is located in the folder you just extracted.
The program will ask you if you want to load any previous settings. Press n.
The program will now ask you to input the output device number of your CABLE Input.
In order to determine the right number for you, press the windows key and search for "Sound Settings". After opening this window, click on "Sound Control Panel". (Alternatively, right click on the speaker icon in your task bar, click on "Sound Settings", and open "Sound control panel").
Under the "Playback" tab, scroll down until you see the CABLE Input device. In order to determine it's number, count up from 0, starting at the bottom of your devices list. Like so:
The devices listed under playback tab might be different from yours. For example, if you did the basic installation (Step 2a) you would not have the VoiceMeeter devices installed.
In my case, I'd select input "2" as my device number. After inserting your device number, press enter.
Afterwards, the program will ask you to specify a path to your Team Fortress 2\tf folder. This folder is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf by default, but this might not be the case if you've installed Steam or Team Fortress 2 in a different location. Press enter once you've put in the correct file path.
The program will now ask you for the name of the file which your tf2 console outputs to. By default, this is tf2consoleoutput.log. To change this, edit tf2chattospeech.cfg in your Team Fortress 2\cfg folder.
If no error appears, it means you've successfully set up TF2Chat To Speech. Next time you open the program, you can press "y" to load the settings you've just entered.
Congratulations, you're done! Hop into a match of TF2, press v (or the key you've specified in toggleopenvoice.cfg) and play!
Don't forget, if you've done Step 2b Advanced installation, you need to open VoiceMeeter in order for TF2Chat To Speech to work!
Feel free to make a pull request if you want to contribute anything to the project.
If you're experiencing issues, bugs, or want to suggest something, feel free to make an issue on GitHub.
- Add a wiki
- Add a wiki page on how to use already implemented in-game chat commands ($V0, $R5, etc)
- Add a wiki page on how to install other voices/languages
- Immigrate installation tutorial to wiki
- Add more bugs to fix later