Cunobelin gets an "M" and We get to See How his Sound Mod Works
I am mostly done with tweaking my crew voices. I have a good mix of nostalgic voice captures that kept and improved upon the spirit of the first ingame voice mod I used (through Aslain's XVM modpack) while getting rid of the overly obscene or silly captures I did not like. At some point, I may do the hard work to unwrap my current GUI.fsb file. This would allow me to access the first contact and enemy spotting events. I have some good captures for those, but don't think the effort required is worth it. I would have to redo many GUI sounds that I am happy with, just to get the spotting pieces changed.
If you haven't, go ahead and give the embedded video a look. I used CamStudio to do the screen capture of a WoT replay. While doing the capture, I kept Pandora playing, which is how I play the game. I was trying for an authentic experience; however, both the sound and video quality are notably worse than I get while playing in HD. The Pandora capture is especially poor, probably because the volume is low. The crew voice mods, which is what I am really looking to highlight, come through much better.
It turns out the answer to question 6 is that I do have to update for most WoT mods. Recently WoT created a game modification that caused me to have to reinstall XVM. It took Aslain a couple of days to update his mod pack to adjust for the game change. I had to update with his new mod pack and then replace the ingame voice files with my previously created versions, before everything was back to normal. It is quite possible that a future game mod will invalidate NoblePlatoon's template. At that point I will have to find someone else who has made an up-to-date template, or reverse engineer the game's fsb files to create my own.
I found sufficient scaffolding for everything I envisioned. I believe there is enough to successfully reverse engineer other sound effects (there are threads with modders working on custom engine and gun sounds), though I have little interest in these areas. I also imagine, but have not looked into it, that there is scaffolding for doing new screen mods (e.g. the damage given and received tables I mention in the game video narration). All of it was fun to create. I think I had the most fun finding sound capture files and then matching them up to relevant events (e.g. "they killed Kenny" or "Bring out your dead" for dead/injured crew members). While writing this post, I asked one of my sons if he likes my mod, and got an affirmative response. After letting him know he could have it by just replacing two files, he didn't ask for them though. I suppose time will tell if anyone else ever tries it. The last question is especially good. I have considered ways in which I could integrate World of Warplanes into a theoretical airplane design class; however, math class is a harder fit. Once I know the location and subject(s) I will teach in the Fall, I plan to think more on it. I expect that students will find the modifications, funny and interesting. If I can find a genuine connection to content, it should strengthen my connections with them and improve many students' learning outcomes.
For example, I have several quotes from the movie Aliens that I have long repeated. Most of them are from Bill Paxton's character, Private Hudson. One in particular, "Whydntcha put her in charge?," is a wonderful, snarky remark that Hudson makes to Ripley, after she castigates the Marines' for complaining by stating that a 10 year old girl has been able to survive. The version of this quote I was able to find on the web included several seconds of blank space that makes it useless for my purposes in game. I needed an audio editor, bad :P After a short search through audio editor reviews, I decided to go with Audacity. It turned out to be easy to use and plenty capable for my purposes. In fact, besides improving a few movie quotes. I also spent some time fooling around making clips from my own voice. Although fun, I have found my personal work to be less satisfying. Perhaps I need to put more work into my voice acting preparation? My final step was to adjust which quotes I put where. As part of this, I also decided I needed more raw files. Not all of my files worked for every event, and some events were pretty thin. My corected "Whydntcha put her in charge?" fit nicely for a killed tank commander, but I wanted more. The main source I went to was other games. Although I added a couple more from Duke Nukem, it was StarCraft where I really hit the jackpot.
As the authors point out repeatedly in their book, connections are a critical part of what allows us to create value. People who know about Iraq have a huge advantage in connecting it to other ideas, over those who merely have access to knowledge about Iraq. I wonder about the tipping point; when do we have sufficient knowledge to make connections that will drive us to leverage the deeper knowledge that is more easily available today?
However, I did not connect with Geeking out. How do you get deeper than incorporating the media to become an exension of yourself? Reading another interpretation of the typology I came away with a picture that I could wrap my head around. In this case the Hanging Out is a social function with a byproduct of learning (think connecting with others on social media). Messing About is when you internalize the media and make it into an important facet of expressing yourself. Geeking Out is then the experience of building deep content associated with the intersection of the media and your interests.
My own experiences are more modest. Games can be played solo, but success is greater with cooperation. In Warplanes, for example, I can get good at operating my Corsair solo or combined with flights (one or two other players that play in the same battles who may or may not be supplementing their coordination with voice – chat is default). Individual skill is absolutely necessary for success, but it can be enhanced by learning to cooperate successfully with others in flights. Players also benefit by teaching each other techniques to increase their individual skill. Finally, a major factor is judgement. Learning to choose who to engage, when to break off, and when to be patient is another crucial factor that is built both solo and through interactions with others. This raises an interesting question that I have also pondered in my teaching practice: what is the proper balance between individual learning and group learning? It seems to me that many factors affect this issue. For some students, group learning may be more effective, though I know this is not true for many. For others, group learning is an important method to teach collaboration skills, which will be crucial (but not sufficient) for their future. Group learning also offers those with superior skills / knowledge to further improve through teaching / mentoring. Finally, group dynamics have the potential to create emergent cultures where learning takes on a life of its own. This last point is where the book is focused. I wonder what are the sufficient conditions to create that within our classrooms? Is World of Warplanes more of an Individual Game than most MMOs? How do we balance individual and group learning to provide our students the most benefit?
In chapter 5, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown examine the connection between an individual and the group – what they call the personal and the collective. They continue their trend of explaining through example. My favorite is how amateur astronomers work with professional astronomers to create a collective: "The result is a system of reciprocity, where both sets of astronomers are invested and take an active role in learning from each other." My father broke out his telescope on occasion, so I have memories observing Saturn's ring and Jupiter's four big moons. He had no GPS to measure where he was observing from, and no computer to calculate and store observational data. Technology enabled the amateurs to take useful data and connected them together so that it is no longer a Herculean task to gather all that disperse data. How should teachers seek to leverage these concepts to enable learning in their classrooms?
I like how Doug's experience shows how learning is not something we teachers have direct control over. Paying close attention to my students in clinical practice, I have come to the same conclusion. What they choose to pay attention to drives everything. We are stumbling and racing into a brave new world, where students' means to learn without teachers, are increasing exponentially. An interesting question raised by this is how can we, as teachers, leverage this for our students benefit?
Chapter 3 concludes with a search for the right combination of freedom and structure to enable our emergent learning culture. Where are they going with this idea? How will they tie these concepts explicitly to education needs? Watch this space to find out more, as I guide you through my own exploration of their ideas.
There are many sounds in the game, and I am only in the position to modify a small portion of them. Specifically, I can replace the tank crew voices with any sound file I stumble upon or create myself. Music, which I turn off during games in favor of Pandora, mechanical / GUI sounds (e.g. clicks, etc.), tanks sounds (e.g. engine, gun, treads), and environment sounds (e.g. water, birds, wind) are all examples of what I don't have access to (yet?). Lucky for me, it is the crew sounds I am interested in. So, what does that mean – crew voices? The way the game works is that it has "events" and the "crew" make comments to help the player understand what just happened. In the unmodified game, crew voices are distinct for each position. So the commander has a voice that is different from the driver, which is distinct from the gunner, etc. The game also has an option to enable voices with accents that match the country of origin for the tank in use (e.g. German accents for a Tiger tank). This option becomes disabled with the use of NoblePlatoon's template. What is his template? It is the in game events that trigger crew voices. Part of the template is visible in the left hand column of the FMOD screenshot above. Examples of events include crew members killed or injured, damaging enemy tanks, your tank taking damage, sighting enemy tanks, and various vehicle systems taking damage.
There is still much clean up to attend to. I need to play with the mod and learn what I do and don't like. I also need to find a way to edit the sound files. Some of them are just a little off. For example, Private Hudson in Aliens exclaims "Well, why dontcha put her in char," with the last part of "charge" cut off. For those that aren't familiar, he is referring to the little girl survivor in one of his many snarky remarks that I love.
But for now, I am satisfied that I can engage my own creative energy to make the game my own :]
Lets start this post off with my own story. Not my only story, but a story about me. It touches on why I decided to become a teacher, and my immediate challenges completing my last Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA 4). Enjoy!
I am not the Dead Poet's Society type of jump on the desk teacher. I do care deeply about student learning, and I am passionate about math and science. I need to think about how to help show this to students and get them to see and connect like I do. Finally, there is variety. One thing I have come to understand in my early teaching experience, is that students are different and getting them to pay attention and care is crucial. Variety seems like the best tool to juggle all of their needs and keep my teaching equitable for all my students. Routine is important for efficiency, but I can't let it trick me into bludgeoning my students numb.
Engagement is so important for student learning. As a math teacher, I don't always think about telling a story through math, but there are teachers who do. I should probably work harder to incorporate stories into my classroom. As my own story above shows, Instagram can be an interesting vehicle to help with that.
Step out of your comfort zone and try something different!
Here are a couple of great ideas to help me (you?) bring stories into the classroom, and simultaneously pump up student interest. Catlynn Tucker blogs about how to create an Instagram scavenger hunt to help focus and engage students on a field trip. I know I could have benefitted from something fun to help me engage on my own field trips as a student. I remember a lot of slow in-between time when I did them as a student. A similar use of Instagram to help students learn English or Spanish is raised by Pilar Munday. Her version is like the scavenger hunt, but done one item a day as a challenge and long term source of connections. I can imagine using this to help students connect with the latest math topic. I remember teaching Algebra II at Carlsbad High, wondering how to connect the endless unit on parabolas to students. Maybe challenging them to take pictures of them could help? I could try to spark a competition and show the pictures off as an anticipatory set.
I started to watch it, but he is not the most dynamic speaker. So, when he brought up that the FMOD tool he uses is linked below in the video description, I went there. That was a gold mine. It listed his forum thread, a link to install FMOD, a link for his music template, and (importantly) a link to his voice tutorial. It turns out that the sounds I was looking to modify are crew voices that sound off to alert players of various events (e.g. ally killed, or enemy sighted).
Clearly the next step was to get some sound files. I was hoping his template would provide access to the files I am using in my current XVM setup, but this is not obviously true (perhaps I will learn it is later?). It turns out that the sound files get integrated into a couple of FMOD output files (*.fsb, *.fev), and that is what the game uses. So, I love many of the nostalgia / testosterone laden Duke Nukem voice clips. Others I hate, because they get too goofy or graphic / obscene. Would I be able to find some? What about Mortal Kombat? After a frenzied splurge into voice over nirvana, I found the answer to be a resounding yes!
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SH2f088Old H-2 pilot; washed up & revamped rocket scientist. Had trouble teaching your kids math & chemistry. Categories
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