Half-Life - Sentences.txt Findings

[@MarphitimusBlackimus]

Very nice examination of the sentences system! Looking through the spreadsheet and the TCRF page, I did notice a few oversights. The spreadsheet indicates the Scientist sentences SC_PLFEAR and SC_FEAR are used. However, while these sentences are called in scientist.cpp, an error in the logic check performed before these lines can play means it always return as false, hence these lines will never actually play in-game. Thus, they're effectively rendered unused, and this was ultimately something I had to fix myself to demonstrate them in my Scientist Fear video. This is also why Barney's BA_ATTACK sentence doesn't play either, thus also unused. Also related to the Scientist, his sound folder contains over 30 numbered "scream" wave files. These are not defined in the sentences.txt file (notably not under the "SC_SCREAM" sentence), but as far what to include in the TCRF article, this is its own little investigation seeing which ones were called directly by map scripts and which go unused.

[@mrsubject1]

Damn no doubt I was gonna find you here lol! Love your content

[@patbytes]

Thank you for watching, and for your comprehensive reply! Just did a quick playtest with two scientists, and indeed, the fear lines do not play. I have modified the spreadsheet with your findings, and re: the TCRF page, I would enjoy getting to document the fear functions in greater detail to see what makes them (not) tick.

[@lymphoid]

@@patbytes did we ever find out who ate all the donuts?

[@whoisanarnb]

An educational Half-Life video with a comment from MarphitimusBlackimus praising it is like getting a compliment about your cooking from Gordon Ramsey.

[@RandommBoyo]

MarphitimusBlackimus has awaken yet again once he has felt the energy of a new content being posted about obscure Half Life trivia

[@indigodotradio]

I like it when the funny low-poly scientists say the silly bitcrushed sentences

[@unoriginalperson72]

Do you sleep?

[@TheQuaadFather]

What if a man run in and he funne scream

[@brightblackhole2442]

3:14 this code snippet may be one of the most hilarious i've ever seen

[@daemon_umbra]

Reminds me of certain packet handlers in Minecraft

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

if scream: scream()

[@Pensi0nar]

5:16 wow, that scientist is angry, I can feel in his voice!

[@Raycloud]

I wish mods added some of the cut Vox lines. I get why it isn't present in every chapter, but if you listen to all those cut lines you get an expansion to the narrative. I think the VOX should have been present in at least part of Blast Pit (that hub area with all the bridges) as well as the lab complex in "Questionable Ethics".

[@GoldSrcFreeman]

So that what it was about! This "lost" Eli's sentence is a great finding ! Gonna check the list.

[@plazmasyt]

Oh heeeell yeah, more Patbytes. Love your Half Life content, it's nice to see you're willing to go through *every single voice clip* just to really get to grips with it and showcase what was never used. I'd love to see an in-depth explanation of the system and all its variables!

[@patbytes]

This is a touching comment, thank you very much for your support!

[@Wheagg]

Huge congrats for writing an entire wiki page lmao

[@GeekMan237]

Great music and video! i love AFX

[@AyCe]

Hooray for archival work!

[@matthewanderson7824]

Whenever I saw your old intros I always thought it was a reference to mossbag because it had the same black background with white text same font and then some sound effect

[@patbytes]

Admittedly I didn't know about this channel until a few commenters pointed it out on a previous video, hah! I'd call it a happy coincidence.

[@yeetmeyskeet5511]

hello to the guy who was also on the spread sheet at 5:07 pm (gmt ofc)

[@splashmob]

this is really cool! your videos continue to be some of my favourites out there.

[@mittens5789]

Do You know who ate all the Donuts?

[@IsmailofeRegime]

It's been decades and fans still have no answer.

[@patbytes]

"Who can say?"

[@sharpfalcon6196]

"Don't ask me."

[@ThyPandora]

"Shut up!"

[@mittens5789]

@@ThyPandora *HAEUGH*

[@llSuperSnivyll]

It's an interesting system, though I think it's more interesting how the HECU and VOX systems work, and how a game released in 1999 can play spliced sounds in a way that does NOT sound spliced (or, in the case of VOX, that sounds believably spliced).

This unlocked a bunch of memories of child me playing arround with the sentences file to make the vox say silly stuff.. fun times..

[@BudBonkerson]

This is a staggering amount of effort, so I'm going to subscribe

[@mappyl7207]

It’s always nice to see a new patbytes video, I always think I know practically everything about the game, but once I get an upload from him I just learn something new. It’s always interesting and amazingly made. It’s amazing how a content creator will go to such difficulty of downloading all the sentences, and have no regrets whatsoever, that is amazing.

[@patbytes]

Thank you very much for your support, it means a lot!

[@mappyl7207]

@@patbytes You're welcome, and I love the editing on your videos.

[@Pacman009]

@@patbytesyou should make a mod that restores all of the broken ones or important unused ones (important as in unused announcement system and character dialogue)

[@Dandus_TF]

Thank you for your service.

[@abraxaseyes7]

Thought I was gonna hear grinches ultimatum at first. Thank you for all the hard work to make us this fascinating video!

[@SuperFrizzio]

That's fantastic! Good job on documenting every single sentence of the game. Will you do the same with character animations? As far as I remember the TCRF page regarding animation needs some tidying as well

[@usa_bruce4295]

This earned you a sub, good job

[@mauromerconchini]

absolute madman

[@kebab_hill]

2:30 these typos are something that i wish to be officially fixed

[@dirkkrohn1907]

In the blue shift add on of the game you'll find a guard munching doughnuts in the shooting range if you duck in there after getting you side arm. BTW I recommend doing so for some extra ammo. Remembered that when I heard the one scientist at 5:12.

[@NKP723]

I miss this channel

[@SalmonJonesTheMagnificent]

Does that mean the cut/unused lines could be added back in with a mod?

[@patbytes]

For voices already in the sentences file, you can easily create a custom map that references these voice lines. Otherwise, you can modify sentences.txt to add a custom voice line, and reference it like you would any other. For some other features, like the HEV's unused lines, that would require some more crafty steps like modifying the source code and recompiling the game.

[@bluefeena5142]

It would depend on the map and the version of Half-Life being used. Patbytes already pointed out that many sounds would require recompiling the game's code. Even if you did that, the original Half-Life engine had a hard limit of 512 unique sound files being loaded at any given moment, otherwise the engine can crash with OUT_OF_SFX_T or some such error; I can't remember the exact spelling of the error message. Maps early on in the game would likely work fine, later maps with human grunts and more types of aliens would run a high risk of running over the sound limit. I think the Steam version of Half-Life raises the limit to 1,024 unique sounds.

[@CreatorofSecks]

Now all thats left is to find who ate all those donuts!

[@grandtheftaero1]

i hear aphex..... awooga

[@franzk.himmler1196]

I wish it were possible to change the maximum number of sentences. Apparently there are only 1023 allowed.

[@Josh-le6lu]

Who is responsible for this mess? Absolutely not!

[@raretapes8057]

Damn that was a lot of work in recording the sentences. It’s sad that they couldn’t just be batch converted from whatever format they come in.

[@monsterurby]

It's that guy, from Discord.

[@Wanaskiwin]

Your video end beeping synced with my computer doing some itself. I guess you greeted it and it says hello i think?

[@Wiggers4life]

very nice

[@cake5221]

least dedicated half-life fanbase member

[@MakarovFox]

lovely

[@bearb1asting]

Who ate all the doughnuts? Shut... Up...

[@Butlinsgvn6]

Bravo!

[@wastl8778]

I see you listed lots of german hazard course lines, I can actually remember many of those lines though, maybe they are just variations I dunno its been like 15 years since I played the german retail version

[@AM-yb1ez]

Does anyone know are the sounds of the intercoms etc, are they pre recordered or is the game engine using a voice to text synthesiser? If it is, is it possible to use that to generate your own lines of audio by inputting your own text?

[@duncanproductions2k6]

the intercom noises are from a speech synth named vox

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

the intercom voice is achieved by having a huge set of pre-recorded voice clips made to sound like a synthesized voice for single words, which are then put together by sentences.txt to make full sentences

[@adirblazkowics7717]

@@LonelySpaceDetective The HECU soldiers do pretty much the same thing as that, as well as some of the aliens. The shock troopers in opposing force have made-up noises they use as words.

[@ვ3ვ3ვ]

💚HL1💚🖤

[@Mgis90]

Great idea! Although in general I would be against recording all those phrases, since they were already cut, and surely take up much less space in this form. So I'm guessing a some kind of interpreter would be much more fitting for this. But you would have to be able to accomplish putting those sentences together on a website. (Have I made myself clear?)

[@mrjpuff]

agent coomer

[@user-xc4lq1zq2x]

somebody needs to soyjak this dude

[@KrystalTheFox]

sentenc c

[@rrxbt]

Do you know what do the parentheses (and the numbers) inside the file mean?

[@patbytes]

Good question! These are related to various ways the game can post-process the audio. "p" changes the pitch, "v" changes the volume, "t" changes the tempo, and "s" and "e" change the starting and ending positions respectively. The TWHL wiki page in the description explains this format in even better detail.

[@rrxbt]

@@patbytes Wow thanks ! Man this game was really way ahead of its time, from cockroach AI to barnacles, a lot of passion has been put in older games...

[@stationalphastudios]

nased

[@scottl.1568]

Whut