Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Joe's Monologues - 12/19/23
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
SG X BBTAG Update #7
Monday, December 11, 2023
Joe's Monologues - 12/11/23
Hello, everyone, KnockDownJoe here. It's time for another episode of Joe's Monologues. Yesterday's was interesting because I went over the story in SMITE Pro League Season X so far as the Styx Ferrymen, Atlantis Leviathans, Oni Warriors and Jade Dragons make their way to Worlds, which is around the corner. Now, today's gonna be interesting as well, so let's get started.
Crash Team Rumble:
I was playing and streaming some some Crash Team Rumble yesterday and so far, still little to no lag or network skips. This is all thanks to my new router. Shoutouts to my new router for letting me play and stream Crash Team Rumble smoothly and well, as well as other online only games. None to my crappy old router, so to heck with that.
But that's not all because Season 3 dropped and Spyro, the titular purple dragon has joined the rumble with his fire breath. But he is not alone because Elora the Faun from Spyro 2 is also joining the rumble. Ripto is the first Spyro character to make his way onto Crash Team Rumble back in Season 2. And in Season 3, Spyro and Elora, the "Sonic and Sally" of Spyro the Dragon make their debut to the game along with two new maps, Artisans Arena and Summer Forest to release later in the season.
Spyro is available during his Early Access release, so to unlock him, you must collect three dragon eggs first seen in Spyro: Year of the Dragon scatted across maps in Party Mode or Competitive Mode during the period. I am amazed at Toys for Bob adding three Spyro characters to the mix. But three is not nearly enough, so I want more Spyro characters to be added. I was able to unlock him, by collecting the first three dragon eggs on Party Mode. I get to keep him permanently too for that, along with more characters I've unlocked. It's a miracle for Spyro to make his way into the rumble, hoping this paves the way for the future of Spyro.
Now, I am waiting for Elora to drop so that I can unlock her and keep her forever. And she will soon kick butt and heal her allies in Crash Team Rumble in the beginning of January, which is when Elora drops during her Early Access. But to get Ripto, I must earn 50 KO and Relic Assist badges and they are easier said than done since they are Epic and Legendary badges.
So far, I have seven characters in my collection after unlocking four more, but still have one Booster type, so I need to unlock more of them. To unlock more Boosters, I need to earn Booster badges. And to earn Booster badges, I must capture Gems on Competitive Mode if it means unlocking more Boosters. I am five Booster badges away from unlocking Dr. Neo Cortex. I got four powers on my inventory and I will unlock more of them. I am uploading my first Crash Team Rumble VOD that will show how I earned enough badges to unlock characters and powers on my separate gaming channel on YouTube and you're gonna love it.
And by the way, since I am getting a gaming laptop with 144hz and better specs soon, I plan to buy Crash Team Rumble on Steam if it's ever confirmed and there is cross-progression across all platforms. Not only that because since Spyro and Elora are joining the party, it's time we get to see Hunter and Bianca make their debut next so that we can have a double date between Spyro and Elora, and Hunter and Bianca on our team. No third wheel will be involved.
This reminds me. You know how Spyro and Elora are the "Sonic and Sally" of Spyro the Dragon? Well, one of the Archie comics indicates that Bunnie Rabbot and Cat have a same type of friendship Sonic and Sally have, so I am considering Hunter and Bianca, the "Cat and Bunnie" of Spyro the Dragon. And I guess SEGA wouldn't allow that.
Vyond Removed Oddcast TTS Voices:
Okay, so I went to watch some videos on YouTube and there is a situation I came across that made people very angry. It's about the part when Vyond removed Oddcast voices. It is the worst thing Vyond has done to make people ticked to the max. That happened on mid-October when they had to do this. They did more than just remove the Oddcast TTS voices. They replaced them with AI voices, which requires a most expensive plan that they need to pay. That really made the community mad. I didn't know that they would remove Oddcast TTS voices and replace them with AI voices that they need to pay.
Fortunately, there is a YouTube video that explains how do you get the Oddcast TTS voices back on Vyond, by using LazyPy.ro, which has an ultimate selection of TTS voices across the TTS family. But I am using Wrapper: Offline and the Oddcast voices are on there. I need them for my YOLO Funtimes series for Sarah and Rachel to be voiced by Julie and Allison in commemoration of the show's impending new season, Rainbow Trinity. And since my first YOLO Funtimes video has less assets, I can upload it on this computer I am using.
Skullgirls Update Regarding Marie:
Yesterday, I received a tweet saying that 6.1 is gonna come out today. And now, here we are. The 6.1 update is coming out today and it makes Marie completely available. This means Marie will be available in all Standard Relics and Move Relics, will have her Prize Fight and balance tweaks. This is the real deal as 6.1 brings Marie to complete availability. Servers are going down for maintenance at noon during Standard Time. Once that happens, I'm gonna do a fun session when I play the BBTAG characters' theme and looking at their BBTAG palettes. The first phase is using the random order. Then I use the wheel to help me decide which theme to play and which BBTAG palette to display.
But that is not all. I received word from Liam at the Skullheart forums that all of Marie's animations are fully complete and she is nearing her Early Access phase, already. Time sure flies. As a matter of fact, releasing characters on Mobile first benefitted that. And in other news, the Early Access patch is gonna have the next set of Marie's new palettes. If I don't see her Orie palette, it will stay on my Palette Pack.
Now, since we're approaching the holidays when devs take a break until the New Year, I have a feeling that the Early Access patch is gonna drop later this week and they are preparing for ultimate submission, as in submitting to all three console companies to ultimately release Marie and the general balance changes on all four platforms in the New Year. Then it's off to the independent update where it gives the new characters' Story Modes their full VO and hoping for a Season 2 Pass that might potentially contain Feng, Minette, Venus and Christmas. We don't know for sure if they are the confirmed characters just because they are added to the palette editor, but they are eligible for their BBTAG palettes. I am still expecting a 20th character eligible for their BBTAG palette.
Days of PlayStation Past:
After streaming Crash Team Rumble, my stream quality is good I am officially doing Days of PlayStation Past. It is where I can stream classic PlayStation games released back in the day on the PS1, PS2 and PSP. I have bought couple of PS1 games so far, but not the PS2 games in my library yet. I am getting there.
There, this wraps up today's Joe's Monologues. And with the holidays fast approaching, stay warm and cozy.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
My Wrapper: Offline Career
Back in 2014, I was on YouTube perusing videos to watch. I saw a couple of videos where one character watches South Park and got grounded. The animation looked like Family Guy. At the end, the outro showed that it was made by an animation drag and drop platform called GoAnimate, so I went on to the website to check it out. I heard it's gonna help me do something productive, so I purchased the cheapest plan, the GoPlus plan.
I was happy at the way I was making videos. The quality was amazing and videos were all over the place, including my own copyright screen and dream logos, until my GoPlus plan has been expired and it is no longer available due to whatever reasons. After my subscription expired, I went to Google to search for alternatives; the ones that are similar to GoAnimate and free. Little did I know that the alternatives I searched for are nowhere near similar to GoAnimate at all. None of them are not meeting up to my expectations. But in this point of time, I found the perfect alternative that is like GoAnimate and is free. But I'll consider this one.
In October 19, 2015, GoAnimate has shifted from Flash to HTML5, which allows mobile device compatibility, but sadly, non-business themes like Comedy World, which is based on Family Guy were sunset because they weren't compatible with HTML5. The school-safe version called GoAnimate4Schools retained Flash and the non-business themes until back in July 26, 2016 when the non-business themes on the school platform were retired, and two years later, GoAnimate has been renamed to Vyond.
The funny thing about this is that we were blaming Alvin Hung, the former CEO of Vyond because he removed the Oddcast voices and Comedy World and other non-business themes. But I realized that it wasn't Alvin that did this. It was the admins. To blame Alvin for this was just off-base and removing Comedy World is not because they wouldn't get sued by Fox. It's due to the non-business themes not being compatible with HTML5.
After hearing the Oddcast TTS voices and the non-business themes are on the school-safe platform, I was able to sign up there. I was amazed at making videos on it despite the fact that it had no weapons because you know, bringing a weapon to school could get you in trouble. I even started my Eric the GoAnimate Agent series there. I was inspired by Dorkly's Mark the Video Game Agent series to do that. I was also making some Trails of Cold Steel videos on there under both Anime and Comedy World. These types of videos are up to my expectations. But after GoAnimate4Schools migrated from Flash to HTML5 back in July 26, 2016, the series has been discontinued. Not to mention that the VoiceForge and Cepstral voices have been removed and that really ticked us off.
Before that happened, YouTube has a lot of tutorials on how do I still use the non-business themes despite them being sunset. Several videos show that I use Requestly to bring them back. It turned out well and I was able to continue my GoAnimate career because of it. But after the shift to the Vyond-era, Requestly no longer works. I know that there are some people who are making videos on the business themes, but for some others, including myself, that is a wrap for us after how expensive the price is to get a plan on Vyond and a handful of changes the video making website has undergone in the past years, including the shift to HTML5 to sunset the non-business themes.
What things I like about the video making site is that it has gung-ho scenes like victims getting sent to the audience, Suspense playing on videos where troublemakers kill their teacher and get slapped for it. These are the ones that I'm gonna miss experiencing forever since my subscription has been expired. So I made my own copyright and safety message screen as a quiet moment from gung-ho things I mentioned, but it's scrapped for a new one. That applies to that point in time when I was watching the copyright screens and logos on video games.
After I couldn't find an alternative that is similar to GoAnimate and free on that time my plan has expired, I let it go and I went on scrambling for TTS websites (IVONA, Vocalware and Voiceforge) as a memento and experimenting crying voices. They are fun to hear. It was benefitted by missing my video making career. It is really a fun thing to do. The websites are fun to work with when it comes to experimenting. You kind of hear "on" at the end of the same a English American IVONA voices and what not.
Fast forward to today. I have came across a project, Wrapper: Offline. It is an emulation of the GoAnimate server that has all of the non-business themes that aren't compatible with HTML5 and everything GoAnimate has. And it can't be shut down by Vyond because it is used locally and an internet connection is not required, hence Wrapper: Offline. Practically speaking, a paid subscription is required to make and save videos and with Wrapper: Offline, I can be able to make and save videos 24/7, including the ones that will be reuploads. YouTube has a lot of videos on how do I get it, so what's stopping me?
From what I see, it has all of the TTS voices GoAnimate has and the new ones. I also noticed that the IVONA TTS voices came in two versions, the PO and RL versions, so I set them to hear the difference between them. The main difference is that the RL versions of the English American TTS voices can read same vowels in a single word while the PO versions of them don't. I know RL stands for ReadLoud, but I don't know what PO stands for. The TTS websites were restructured. The IVONA voices came in two versions. Some TTS voices are no longer available in Vocalware. VoiceForge got restructured. There are never before seen voices, like the Acapela and Nuance TTS voices. These voices is gonna give ma the edge I need.
But due to circumstances, since I can't download videos or export videos I made to YouTube on Wrapper: Offline, I am using Bandicam to record videos and I am posting certain videos that have less assets on this laptop I am using while the ones that have more assets will be on my high-end laptop. This is because if I record videos that have more assets on this laptop, there will be any lag on them and my high-end laptop will remedy all of that. So I did and the first video is a reupload of the introduction of a GoAnimate Agent named Eric. I am starting my Eric the GoAnimate Agent series fresh and this time, he will have his own office instead of a principal's office. Until I get a new laptop with better specs, including an insane amount of hertz to make my Steam games run smoothly, I can't go full blast on my career.
But there's something called FlashThemes, which is a throwback to the original GoAnimate that doesn't have any business themes and it's free. I signed up for FlashThemes, but for some reason, my login credentials didn't exist, so I'm gonna stick with Wrapper: Offline.
And while Wrapper: Offline gives me the opportunity to make videos 24/7, I can temporarily suspend my career and still experiment with TTS voices on the websites that were restructured
My career is buttoned up and ready to be put into action and I made a handful of characters from works I like and dislike and never do, so here is a link to my YouTube channel only for Wrapper: Offline videos, KDJ the GoAnimator.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmlG3waG8HAacC1tAEdZcSw
I have three subscribers so far, so I need a lot more subscribers so that I can reach 100,000 subscribers to get a silver play button.