Italian Radio Chatter

Onto official announcements. We have been working on a problem that occurs when CFS2 calls up two radio calls back to back. An example of when the sim does this is when your flight encounters another flight you are supposed to escort to a target. In English, you will hear something like this:

"I see friendlies, bearing one eight zero degrees"

These are actually two separate radio calls:

"I see friendlies" and "Bearing one eight zero degrees"

They are separate files because the sim somehow knows the relationship of the flight you are meeting with and your fight. If you change your fight pattern, the sim will change the radio call. Instead of:

"I see friendlies, bearing one eight zero degrees"

You might get:

"I see friendlies, bearing two two five degrees"

I could never get the Italian radio calls to work correctly whenever this situation came up. The part that says "bearing two two five degrees" sounds fine, but it was always preceded by what sounded like a recording that had been sped up by a large factor. I originally thought this was because the Italian recordings were too lengthy. So, I kept making them shorter and shorter. The results were always the same. Finally, I had to make a blank wav file and insert it into the gvr file in place of all of the "bearing . . . degrees" recordings. This seems to have fixed the problem but you will not hear the directional call. So, whenever you see the text:

"I see firendlies, bearing one eight zero degrees"

You will only hear:

"I see friendlies" in Italian

Despite this omission, I still maintain that this radio pack is at least as complete as the ones available for Germany and England if not more so (sorry fvb).

Dandolo has sent me a few new recordings and has pointed out a few mistakes that need to be corrected in order for the translations to be as exact as possible. I will insert these next weekend and that should complete the pack. If the testers agree that the pack can be easily installed and is otherwise working well it should be uploaded in a couple of weeks. (I know, I've said that before).
 
Don't get me wrong, Dandolo is being very meticulous when it comes to what goes into this project. However, I think we really need another Italian speaking person to test these files out before they are released.

PLEASE, ANYONE WHO SPEAKS ITALIAN AND ENGLISH- Send me a personal message so that I can send you an evaluation copy of "CFS2 Italian Radio Chatter." If you do not know how to send a personal message start by clicking my name above. The rest is even easier.
 
Erufle,

1) What about Kelticheart? I'd bet he'd be more than happy to help!

2) I installed the files per your instructions and will test them. If I don't get to them tonight, I will do so tomorrow.
 
Well, I finally got the first half of the files to Kelti, I think. I will send him the second half in a moment. Tomorrow I will make the corrections Dandolo513 has indicated. That should complete the pack. Hopefully, I will upload in a week or so. Just need to give Kelti some time to give it his official O.K.

I haven't heard from Rami - did you get it installed and working?
 
Well son of a biscuit eater! Did anybody else know these existed? Yes, if we had known these existed we could have downloaded them and put them into a gvr file. Oh well, too late. That being said, I think the quality of what we are doing is better. Also, I am not sure that what is being said in these files matches what is being said in CFS2. I found plenty of Italian language files, but we decided it would be best to record our own files so they match the text CFS2 brings up. I suppose if anyone has an issue with our recordings they can use these files as a replacement. Good find!
 
Yes, I have got it installed. I'm testing it with Desert Air Force (Italy)
 
I downloaded them a few years ago but never used them as the sound quality isn't that good. Perhaps a sound engineer could clean them up or put some radio static on them. I think they correspond pretty well with all the CFS 1 radio commands.
 
I still need to add several recordings to correct gvr file ita03 before the project is ready for release. I could have over-dubbed a file that was already finished but this would mean some of the new files would be of lower quality. No one would ever know but me, however, I would have to upload a correction later. I think it is better to wait another week.

I also want to explain that the quality of the recordings used is determined by the amount of space on the gvr file and the length of the recording I am trying to put into it. What I mean is this; Dandolo has been very precise in the way he translated the original CFS2 recordings. We did this because along with the Italian voice you will see the English transcript. We decided the two should match as much as possible. That means some of the Italian recordings are shorter than the originals and some are longer. If the recording is longer the quality must be reduced to make it fit into the original gvr file. What I mean is this. The rate in Hz of the files I used varies from 20000 Hz to 5000 Hz. The original files appear to be of a quality equal to 9000 to 8000 Hz. The average rate of the recordings I used is the same as the original. What you will notice is that some of the recordings are of a higher quality than others. This cannot be helped if we want the translation to be exact. We thought this would be acceptable because it adds a little authenticity to the recordings. If you are talking to the pilot in the plane right next to you quality would be high. If you were trying to communicate with someone several miles away the quality of the signal would be diminished.

I tried other tricks to improve the quality of the recordings. On a few files I lowered the pitch of Dandolo's voice so I could speed up the recording giving it a smaller file size. Audacity gives you many effects that can be manipulated.

That being said, once the project is uploaded I invite anyone who wants to improve it my full permission. This is my first attempt at creating an add-on for CFS2 and it is being done for the good of the community. Any attempt to improve it is most welcome.:icon29:
 
I though I had the project finished last weekend, but when I reviewed the files I found that split gvr had somehow shifted about one-third of the entries on the third file. Splitgvr is a blessing but it is sometimes frustrating. It could have something to do with the fact that I am trying to run it on a Vista format. No big deal. It is easy enough to fix. I just have no time anymore.

I have been working with kids in trouble with the law at a facility west of Wichita. This is a full-time teaching job and it pays pretty well. I must tell you that the kids I work with are better behaved than the ones in the small central Kansas community I was teaching in earlier. It is amazing what a little law enforcement will do. These kids know that in order to gain release they have to please me. Imagine that! Drug, violence, and sex offenders acting well-behaved. I don't want to get off topic here, but I wanted to let you all know how well a little accountability can work. :icon29:
 
Which begs another off-topic question. Is it really so wrong to tie a kid's graduation in to his/her behavior? They would not let us do that in Stafford. I think that is a BIG mistake after having this experience.
 
Well, I have put together what I believe to be the final copy. I just need a little more time to test her. Probably by the time the out-house is ready for uploads again I will be too.

I found out that SplitGVR sometimes cannot read every gvr file perfectly and is giving some of my testers fits. It gives you the mistaken impression that some of the recordings have been shifted out of place when in fact they work perfectly well in CFS2. The only way to be sure of the quality of the files is to test them in the sim. This is difficult to swallow because some of the recordings are rarely played leaving you to wonder if they ever work at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top