v1.6.2

To help command prompt beginners and to clarify usage, this release splits the help in 2. One main "Options" section (options with short arguments) and one "Extra Options" section.

As a consequence, nospeechxml got nerfed and lost it's -X option. I apologize if you were already using that flag, but it is too much of an edge case to be considered a main option.

The radio effects have also been upgraded with filters, which make them sound much better :)

Full release notes :

New Features

• Split help in 2 for clarity.
• If the Cortana voice is installed and detected, wsay will now display it as a choice. It is listed as "Microsoft Eva".
• Added various filters to --fxradio, making the effects sound more realistic.
• Added --fxradio_nonoise to disable whitenoise when using the --fxradio presets (thx IvanScheers).
• Added --paragraph_pause, which allows you to change how long or how short the voice pauses between paragraphs. Provide a number of milliseconds, 1000 = 1 second (thx bodiegarde).

Fixes

• Removed -X short option for --nospeechxml.
• Fix a potential crash when using the --interactive option.
• Added more error checking during fx processing and sound processing. This could flag new errors that weren't caught before, please report them if you see any.

v1.6.1

• Added --pitch option to speak with a lower or higher voice (thx IvanScheers).

v1.6

It has come to my attention that wsay is used in a few flight simulator plugins. This release mostly focuses on that use case, adding radio effects to improve immersion (yes, your immersion is important). To achieve this, I had refactor a large portion of the app. It was due for a spring cleaning anyways.

New Features

• Added radio effects, which degrades sound to simulate radio communications.
• Added --nospeechxml, to disable speech xml detection (useful if reading code).

Bug Fixes

• Fix not choosing the correct output device if you have multiple sound devices and weren't using the first one.
  • Please report wrong default output if this doesn't work for you.
• Fix speech xml not working if the first character wasn't a '<' (thx bodiegarde).

Reworks

• Completely reworked audio engine and voice settings.
• Reworked input pipe reading.

v1.5.0

• Added clipboard playback. This reads the currently copied text, if applicable.
• Added support for command-line pipes.

v1.4.3

• Added a 'speed' option to speak faster or slower (thx 60-hz).

v1.4.2

• Added a 'volume' option to lower the voice volume (thx mandray).

v1.4.1

• Added an 'all' flag to playback devices, which selects every device for output (thx jgstew).

v1.4

This release focuses on support for all languages and characters.

• The command input and interactive inputs support utf8 (unicode).
  • However, the legacy windows command prompt has limited support itself (it doesn't support multi-code point characters).
  • If you ever have an issue with a character not working using the command interface, you can use the file input as it is much more reliable.
  • Or better yet, switch to the new Windows Terminal, which sends the correct code points.
• File input has been improved and is more robust when opening utf files without BOM.
• The option parser had to be completely rewritten.
  • Please let me know if you find any issues in command option parsing.

An unforeseen side effect, wsay now supports text-to-speech smilies when reading from a file 😊

v1.3.1

• Unicode (utf8) support when reading text files, for real this time.
• Text input also tries to read bom and supports utf16, utf32 both big and little endian.
• The command line sentence supports more characters, but isn't full utf8 yet. By default on Windows, it is CP1252.
• Interactive mode wants none of it and only supports ASCII, because reasons.

Work on full utf8 support across the app is in the works, it will take a while though.

v1.3

Shared Features & Bug fixes

• Better unicode support when using text files.

GUI

I created a rough draft of what a UI might look like.

Unfortunately, the text box is sub-par in the UI framework, so I will have to rewrite it eventually. But, if you aren't comfortable with the command line and want something visual, this should be "good enough" in the short term.

It has feature parity with command line tool.

Known Issues

• The text box will not scroll when it contains large text.

Please report any bugs or issues you find!