Topic by Sukil 2015-07-19 22:59:27 (edited by Sukil 2015-07-19 23:03:54)

  • Sukil
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Hello,
A while ago, in the forum of CAAD (a webpage about Spanish interactive fiction) the issue of the accessibility of Spectrum was raised. In case you don't know, the Spectrum was a very popular microcomputer in the 80s in Europe. Many games (including text adventures) were created for this machine. However, it didn't include a screen reader, and all the emulators print the text graphically onscreen; thus, playing those games was impossible for the blind without using some intermediate tools to convert the game into a Z-machine or Glulx compatible one.
And here comes ZEsarUX: its developper, Cesar Hernandez, has implemented some character detection routines in his emulator to make it compatible with text to speech. Currently, this emulator works in Linux, Mac and Windows, and it is available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/zesarux. The stable version should work in Mac and Linux, but for Windows you will need the snapshot version, which is already compiled. Of course, if you want to use the snapshot version for Mac or Linux you can do so by downloading the code.
I've recorded a review and demo of ZEsarUX running under Windows . In case I missed anything, please read the FAQ and the help in the command line (--help and --experthelp).

Regards,
Sukil
https://www.sukiletxe.eu

Sukil's Website

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Reply by blindncool 2015-07-23 17:14:25 (edited by blindncool 2015-07-23 17:59:45)

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Hi. I can't figure out how to get text-to-speech running on windows. Please help.

“Can we be casual in the work of God — casual when the house is on fire, and people are in danger of being burned?” — Duncan Campbell
“There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God – admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world.” — William Wilberforce

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Reply by Sukil 2015-07-24 01:57:50 (edited by Sukil 2015-07-24 01:59:03)

  • Sukil
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Hello,
So, I missed to explain the most obvious thing. To run it with text to speech, the program has to use the batch files in "speech_filters". Of course, you can create your own ones, if you want, based off from those found in there. If you'd rather want to use the builtin ones, you will need an external program. Balabolka, eSpeak, or Jampal.
After downloading them, you should make sure that if you have a 32-bit machine they are installed in "C:\Program Files", and if you have a 64-bit machine in "C:\Program Files (x86)". Skip this step if you don't use Balabolka.
Then, you need to specify the correct text to speech script with the --textspeechprogram option in the command line, like:
zesarux --textspeechprogram speech_filters\win_espeak.bat
And, for the menu also to be read aloud, specify --textspeechmenu.
Hope this helps!

Regards,
Sukil
https://www.sukiletxe.eu

Sukil's Website

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Reply by blindncool 2015-07-24 02:14:47 (edited by blindncool 2015-07-24 02:52:48)

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Hi. After I run the following command:
"zesarux --textspeechprogram speech_filters\win_espeak.bat --textspeechmenu",
The program launches, however Espeak doesn't work. All I hear is crackling. I tried running the batch file, and nothing happened (however Espeak did speek the letter K).
Espeak works fine on its own. So perhaps this is a zesarux problem and not an espeak problem?

“Can we be casual in the work of God — casual when the house is on fire, and people are in danger of being burned?” — Duncan Campbell
“There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God – admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world.” — William Wilberforce

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Reply by chernandezba 2015-07-24 10:04:56

  • Registered: 2015-07-24
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Hi.
I'm Cesar Hernandez, the author of emulator ZEsarUX.
The command line to run ZEsarUX with speech support seems to be ok:
zesarux --textspeechprogram speech_filters\win_espeak.bat --textspeechmenu

But, have you tried to open the menu with key F5? If everything went well, you will hear the menu entries.

Cheers
Cesar

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Reply by blindncool 2015-07-24 17:58:14

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Hi chernandezba, and Welcome to the forum!
Yes, I tried to open the menu with the F5 key, and tts still would not work.

“Can we be casual in the work of God — casual when the house is on fire, and people are in danger of being burned?” — Duncan Campbell
“There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God – admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world.” — William Wilberforce

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Reply by Sukil 2015-07-25 00:39:18

  • Sukil
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Hello,
Does the path to the speech_filters\win_espeak.bat contain spaces? If so, you may remove the spaces from the folders in that path, or move the script to some other place, where the path has no spaces. Hmmm that looks like a rhyming tongue twister. Anyway, that's it. Move the win_espeak.bat or the entire speech_filters folder to a path with no spaces in it.
If this still fails, run the emulator with the following in the end (wihtout quotes): "--verbose 3 > debug.txt". This will print all the output of the emulator to a file called debug.txt. Read it, and between some messages witch you won't understand, there will be some clue of why it fails. And if you still can't get it working with this, upload the file somewhere and post it in here.

Regards,
Sukil
https://www.sukiletxe.eu

Sukil's Website

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Reply by blindncool 2015-07-25 02:19:38

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It works now! I fixed the problem by moving my Zesarux folder to the root of the C drive. Perhaps, Cesar, you can put something about that into the documentation for zesarux version 3.2?

“Can we be casual in the work of God — casual when the house is on fire, and people are in danger of being burned?” — Duncan Campbell
“There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God – admit it as the Word of God, commit it to our hearts and minds, submit to it, and transmit it to the world.” — William Wilberforce

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Reply by chernandezba 2015-07-25 08:08:01

  • Registered: 2015-07-24
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Great!
Thanks sukil for the help smile
The problem with the spaces will be documented on next stable and snapshot version.
By the way, you don't have to move all ZEsarUX folder to another directory without spaces. You can only move the speech script, the rest of the emulator files can be placed anywhere.

I suppose you only hear menu entries, not the text generated on the Spectrum.
You can try adding the command line parameter --enableprintchartrap
to have speech also on text generated on the Spectrum.
The same setting can be found on menu:
GUI Settings,
Print Char Traps,
Trap Print

Try enabling this setting and pressing keys on the Spectrum, and tell me if you hear something else.

If this works, we can then try to play some text adventures games smile

Cheers
Cesar

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