DUB CONTENT PACKS

Dub Pack Overview

Dub packs, introduced in version 0.5.0, are an advanced version of the standard voice packs. They function the same as voice packs in normal gameplay: it's a collection of audio samples that play, and then the player mimics to earn points. However, dub packs are also usable in the new "Dub Mode" game variant. In Dub Mode, you are allowed as many retakes of your performances as you wish (but you're not allowed to hear your recordings until the game ends). Once all samples have been performed, they will play dubbed over the dub pack's included video.

In order to have a functional dub pack, you will need at least two things:

• Metadata for each audio sample, which tells the game where to sync the recordings against the video.
• The video that should be dubbed over, in an OGV file format.

Why OGV? Where's MP4, AVI, etc?

The game engine that The Choicer Voicer was written in, Godot Engine, only supports OGV, an open-source video format, at this time. As such, this game made with Godot has the same limitation.

Creating a dub pack:

• Get your video. Procure the video you want to make a dub out of.
• Extract the audio. Get the audio separately from the video. It will be needed to create your audio samples.
• Separate the vocals from any excess noise (optional). If your audio has excessive music or background noise, you should isolate the vocals. Programs and websites exist that can assist.

Creating a dub pack:

• First, procure the video you want to make a dub out of.
• Extract the audio separately. It will be needed to create your audio samples.
• If your audio file has excessive background noise or music, you should remove it. There exists programs and websites that can split vocals from background noise and music.
• If you end up splitting the vocals from the excess noise, save the excess noise too. Include it in your pack and name it _backing_track. It plays alongside players' dubs, which will make it feel more authentic to the original video!
• Choose a program or software that can open and splice audio files. For this example, I will be using Audacity.
• In your program of choice, open the audio containing the vocals from your video. Do NOT trim it. It needs to be the same length as the video in order for the timing to be correct.
• Highlight each section of the audio one by one, saving the sections as their own audio samples for your dub pack.
• Audio samples will be presented in alphabetical order by default. I suggest adding an index number to the start of each sample's file name.
• Do NOT use naming scheme like:
  NiceOfThePrincess, LotsaSpaghetti,LuigiLook.
• DO use a naming scheme like:
  01_NiceOfThePrincess, 02_LotsaSpaghetti, 03_LuigiLook.
• For normal voice packs, additional metadata is optional for the audio samples. In Dub Mode, "dub_timestamps" data is required for every sample.
• To add "dub_timestamps" metadata, launch The Choicer Voicer and go to the "Extras" page, then "Edit Voice Packs & Clip Metadata".
• If the video isn't already in the OGV file format, convert the video to OGV. The quality of the video doesn't have to be high. Crunchiness is often funny, and decreases folder size.