Last Friday, a new Skyrim mod called Say My Name appeared on Nexus Mods, created by Dan Ruta. Its purpose is as simple as you would guess from the name - it seeks to replace the Dragonborn moniker in dialogues with any name of your choosing.
The Say My Name Skyrim mod works thanks to xVASynth v2, a free AI-based app also created by Dan Ruta that creates new voice lines using neural speech synthesis. Here's what you need to do to make it work.
Step 1. Download and install xVASynth. You will need the following voices installed, as these are the ones with "Dragonborn" lines:
sk_femaledarkelf
sk_femaleeventoned
sk_femalenord
sk_femalesultry
sk_femaleyoungeager
sk_femalecondescending
sk_frea
sk_femaleorc
sk_malebrute
sk_maleorc
sk_maleyoungeager
sk_malenord
sk_maleargonian
sk_maledarkelfcynical
sk_maleeventoned
sk_malekhajiit
sk_maledarkelf
sk_maledrunk
sk_maleeventonedaccented
sk_malecommander
sk_maleguard
sk_delphine
sk_maleoldgrumpy
sk_galmar
sk_ulfric
sk_kodlakwhitemane
sk_arngeir
sk_esbern
sk_tuliusStep 2. (Optional) If you want to distribute files to others, install the .lip/.fuz plugin for xVASynth, which will also generate the .lip and .fuz files for you. Make sure the .lip format is set to Skyrim, in the app settings, once you enable it
Step 3. Download the batch file from this page, and open it in a text editor such as Sublime Text, or Notepad (not Excel). Do a Find+Replace of "___" with whatever name you want the NPCs to speak out.
Step 4. (Optional) If your name has strange or unusual pronunciation, you can tell xVASynth exactly how you want it to pronounce it in the generated lines, by adding the pronunciation in the ARPAbet menu. I'd recommend you do this anyway, just to make sure it's always pronounced the same (correct) way. REMEMBER: You need v2.0 models for this, so make sure you've got the latest voices. Note, you need v2.1.1+ of xVASynth to use ARPAbet for names with _ underscores.
Step 5. With Hz set to 44100 in the xVASynth audio settings, drag+drop the batch file into the batch menu in xVASynth, and start.
Step 6. Once the files have finished generating (located in <xVASynth.exe>/resources/app/batch/say_my_name), copy the Data folder into your game folder (or install via Vortex)
There are some limitations to this Skyrim mod, such as subtitles remaining untouched and voice lines only covering the vanilla game. Still, you can check it out in the example footage below where NPCs seamlessly pronounce the name of Todd Howard himself.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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